Product Description

A DAY AT THE RACES appeared almost exactly one year after 1975's hugely successful A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, proving to be a more-than-deserving follow-up and nearly duplicating its predecessor's success. Queen was now a master of the recording studio, utilising every piece of technology to its fullest, which helped push such demanding tracks as "Somebody to Love" over the top. But Queen certainly wasn't just about studio tricks; the band had the strong tunes to back up its richsound.
In addition to aforementioned gospel-tinged hit "Somebody to Love", the album features many other strong tracks--a politically-charged song about the plight of the American Indian ("White Man"), several touching love songs ("Teo Torriate", "You and I", "You Take My Breath Away"), and old-timey tunes ("The Millionaire Waltz"). Freddy Mercury and the boys also include a healthy dose of their trademark Queenly rock on "Tie Your Mother Down" and break out some excellent pop ditties in the form of "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" and "Long Away".

Track Listing

1. Long Away
2. Millionaire Waltz
3. You And I
4. Somebody To Love
5. White Man
6. Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy
7. Drowse
8. Teo Torriate (Let Us Cling Together)
9. Tie Your Mother Down
10. You Take My Breath Away

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1558 in Music
• Released on: 1993-09-27
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
As its title suggests, a companion-piece to A Night At The Opera in almost every sense: "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" recalls the fey, music-hall spirit of the previous album's "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon", just as "White Man" echoes "The Prophet's Song". "Somebody to Love", meanwhile, attempts to outdo even the grandiosity of "Bohemian Rhapsody"--this time substituting the influence of American gospel for Italian opera, and allowing Mercury's diva inclinations to run riot. Over-the-top, undoubtedly--but the band knew it. Even at their most wilfully indulgent, Queen were always redeemed by a knowing sense of irony. Unlike many of their peers, they not only recognised the inherent absurdity of stadium-rock, but actively embraced it: the larger-than-life posturing, the overblown emotions, the operatic need for catharsis--all were worked into their music, and exploited to the hilt. But ultimately, it was the songs that mattered most--and they were, with very few exceptions, superb. --Andrew McGuire

From Amazon.com
Both regal and raunchy, Queen was at the height of its powers in the mid-70s, riding the soaring vocals of Freddie Mercury, the ringing guitar crunch of Brian May and the band's shameless theatrical flourishes. Coming so quickly after the band's A Night At the Opera opus, this 1976 album works hard at repeating the same hit-making elements, down to the matching cover art. If A Day At the Races lacks the same level of pop tunesmanship, there is still energy in these tracks, particularly in the rocking "Tie Your Mother Down" and the emotional "Somebody to Love," which set a blueprint for future ballads by the band. --Steve Appleford

Customer Reviews

too smart by half!
The highly anticipated follow-up to A Night At The Opera arrived on the shelves in late '76, heralded by the hit Somebody to Love. Queen were flying at the time, and they knew it. After their mega-successful year, they decided to play it safe, much like The Works, and basically did a rehash of their best bits!
The production is completely unrestrained - having lost Roy Thomas Baker to bigger things in the USA, the vocal and guitar overdubs are so over the top - the render themselves not only unimpressive, but pointless and swamping otherwise decent songs into a mire of flash and clever-clever studio technique.

Maximum points tho for Tie Your Mother Down and Teo Torriate - well done Dr May!

Great album until the last 2 tracks.....
The first 8 tracks of A Day At The Races are as good as anything on A Night At The Opera or Sheer Heart Attack, but unfortunately, the album is let down by 2 rather poor tracks at the end. Tracks like Tie Your Mother Down (hard rock), You Take My Breath Away (surely Mercury's loveliest track) and the Millionaire's Waltz are very impressive indeed. Add to that the Mercury classics Somebody To Love and Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy and you almost have Queen's most consistent album. Then along comes Drowse (absolutely awful Roger Taylor track - nearly as bad as More Of That Jazz from the Jazz album) and Teo Torriate (very sickly indeed) and the album finishes poorly. Shame, although a lot of Queen's albums had a couple of stinkers! But, they were still a great band and the album is still worth buying. If you were to buy one Queen studio album though, it would have to be Sheer Heart Attack.....

Queen at their zenith
After the all-conquering release of "A Night At The Opera" , by late 1976 we were all clamouring desperately for more of the same from Queen. Although "Bohemian Rhapsody" could never be topped, the band had made a damn good fist of it with the lead-off single from this album, "Somebody To Love". The very fact that this is probably Queen's second best-known track is testament to that. A slow-burning classic of rock power and American gospel influenced vocals and an anthemic quality ensured that "A Day At The Races" was eagerly-anticipated. The "corporate" Queen crest was continued on the cover, inverted as a black background in contrast to its iconic predecessor. Many of the tracks were similar to those found on the previous album too, although, noticeably, there were no minute and a half pieces of fun in between chunkier tracks as on the previous three albums. All the cuts here were at least three minutes plus if not longer in many cases and the "chocolate box" effect of different styles was not quite so apparent.

A pleasing thing about this album is that there was some great rock on it, something that got just a bit overlooked on "Opera". "Tie Your Mother Down"; the Byrds/Searchers influenced and much-underrated "Long Away"; John Deacon's pleasant "You And I"; the afore-mentioned single; the Led-Zep-ish "White Man"; Roger Taylor's best 1970s song "Drowse" and the anthemic singalong "Teo Toriatte" are all Queen in their best 70s rock garb. The latter track, a cynic might say, was guaranteed to break Queen in Japan, with its chorus in Japanese. It did exactly that.

The two pieces of Mercury indulgence, "The Millionaire Waltz", and "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" are both a bit irritating, but infuriatingly singable at the same time. The former containing a brief ending of "Bohemian Rahpsody" style rock. "You Take My Breath Away" is every bit as sumptuous as "Love Of My Life". A simply beautiful ballad.

A lot of reviewers have stated a preference for "A Night At The Opera" and expressed disappointment in this album. I tend to disagree. I don't think it ever got any better than this for Queen in the 1970s. Upon this album's release and consequent reception, they could briefly do no wrong. This is still a great Queen album.