# Deep Tracks - Queen - "A Night at the Opera" - Choose your favourites...



## Guest (Jul 25, 2018)

View attachment 105968


Please *choose up to seven selections *for this particular poll.

On all polls created if you click on the number of votes following the song title the username of all voters and their chosen selections will appear.

The tunes themselves (when available) will be found below the poll itself as links rather than as embedded videos due to bandwidth issues for those who wish to reacquaint themselves with a tune that may have receded a bit too far into the past to be remembered with the clarity that came when they were first released...

Next up is - Queen - "A Night at the Opera" -

""A Night at the Opera" is the fourth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 21 November 1975 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States.

Produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen, it was the most expensive album ever recorded at the time of its release. The album takes its name from the Marx Brothers film of the same name, which the band watched one night at the studio complex when recording. "A Night at the Opera" incorporates a wide range of styles, including ballads, songs in a music hall style, hard rock tracks and progressive rock influences.

The album was a critical and commercial success, topping the UK Albums Chart for four non-consecutive weeks. It peaked at number four on the US Billboard 200 chart and became the band's first Platinum-selling album in the US. The worldwide sales for the album are over six million copies. It also produced the band's most successful single in the UK, "Bohemian Rhapsody", which became their first UK number one and one of the best-selling singles in both the UK and the world. It is often regarded by critics as Queen's greatest album and one of the greatest albums ever made.

Queen had already experienced a number of hits with and through their first three albums, but "A Night at the Opera" was their first major success.

In 1990 guitarist Brian May told BBC Radio Two "For "A Night at the Opera" we sort of returned [to the] Queen II philosophy. We had our confidence because we had a hit. We had a kind of almost desperation about us too because we were totally bankrupt at that point. You know, we had made hit records but we hadn't had any of the money back and if the "A Night at the Opera" hadn't been a huge success I think we would have just disappeared under the ocean someplace. So we were making this album knowing it was live or die ... each of us individually wanted to realize our potential as writers and producers and everything."

In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked "A Night at the Opera" number 231 on the list "The Five Hundred Greatest Albums of All Time"."

Your commentary on any and every aspect of the album and especially any memories reawakened as a result of the poll is welcomed.


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2018)

"Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)" -






"Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" -






"I'm in Love with My Car" -






"You're My Best Friend" -






"'39" -






"Sweet Lady" -






"Seaside Rendezvous" -






"The Prophet's Song" -






"Love of My Life" -






"Good Company" -






"Bohemian Rhapsody" -






"God Save the Queen" -


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Love the album, it was difficult to select only 7. Best for me are You're my best friend, Love of my life, '39. I did not pick up a song that many prog lovers pick as the best of the album (Prophet's song); for some reason it works for me less well.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I really only like the first three albums as they are more hard rock than anything else but there are a handful of tracks on this and the next two or three albums which I could make a CD comp from. _The Game_ was the album when they stopped being a rock band in the conventional sense - well, for me at least.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Interesting that Bohemian Rhapsody isn't top of the poll but I'm glad as I'd be happy never to hear that overblown song ever again. This wasn't the greatest Queen album. But there are a few crackers on here (Death on Two Legs, the song about their old manager is superb). The best thing about this album was Roy Thomas Baker's wonderful production. Personally I liked News of the World, Sheer Heart Attack and the first two albums the best but this was the album that took them to superstardom.

Ps. I always refer to this band as 'Kerweeeeeeeen' due to the way a former colleague (with a strange voice and slight speech impediment) used to pronounce them.


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2018)

elgars ghost said:


> I really only like the first three albums as they are more hard rock than anything else but there are a handful of tracks on this and the next two or three albums which I could make a CD comp from. _The Game_ was the album when they stopped being a rock band in the conventional sense - well, for me at least.





Merl said:


> Interesting that Bohemian Rhapsody isn't top of the poll but I'm glad as I'd be happy never to hear that overblown song ever again. This wasn't the greatest Queen album. But there are a few crackers on here (Death on Two Legs, the song about their old manager is superb). The best thing about this album was Roy Thomas Baker's wonderful production. Personally I liked News of the World, Sheer Heart Attack and the first two albums the best but this was the album that took them to superstardom.
> 
> Ps. I always refer to this band as 'Kerweeeeeeeen' due to the way a former colleague (with a strange voice and slight speech impediment) used to pronounce them.


I can't really disagree... In the "Deep Track" series I would have ideally liked to have started with the first release of each artist and work through them in sequence but when I did that there wasn't much in the way of a response and so I've tried to use albums that I thought more people might be familiar with and would thus respond but even that has been more miss than hit.

At some point there may indeed by an audience for the back catalog of these artists and others like them and thus these titles can be the subject of future polls provided of course that there is any interest in the polls themselves.

Whether to continue or discontinue the polls is a question that will ultimately be answered by the forum itself...

Regards,

- Syd


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