By the time they were ready to start work on their fourth album, Queen were both experienced and proficient in recording studio craft. Buoyed by the commercial success of Sheer Heart Attack and driven by their unfettered confidence and ambition, they approached the project with a view to pushing the boundaries further than ever before; it was time to produce their magnum opus.
Queen devoted an intensive period, during June and July 1975, to developing and rehearsing new material. The recording itself took place from August to November of the same year, using several different studios including: Lansdowne Recording Studios, London, England, Olympic Sound Studios, London, Rockfield Studios, Monmouth, Wale, Roundhouse Recording Studios, London, SARM Studios, London, and Scorpio Sound Studios, London, England (where legendary British radio DJ Kenny Everett was handed a tape copy of a new unreleased track called Bohemian Rhapsody).
Reputedly, A Night At The Opera was produced at a cost approaching £40,000 - making it one of the most expensive rock albums up to that point (in 2012, using the UK Retail Price Index, it would be equivalent to £284,000). The time and expense were justified as soon as it was released; by the time it hit the UK record shops on 21st November 1975, public awareness of Queen's fourth album was already growing, thanks to their well publicised UK tour, which had commenced a week earlier in Liverpool, and the rapid climb up the charts of the Bohemian Rhapsody single, which had been released on 31st October and would be announced as the new UK No.1 a mere four days later.
This was the album which broke Queen to a wider audience around the world and established them as true rock superstars; in its original chart run it spent forty-four weeks in the UK album charts - four of them at No.1 - and 47 weeks in the USA Billboard album chart, reaching a highest position of No.4; its sales in the USA earned it a gold disc, whilst it went quadruple platinum in the UK.
The deluxe edition of the A Night At The Opera 2011 digital remaster included a Bonus EP which featured pared down remixes of I'm In Love With My Car, You're My Best Friend and the Bohemian Rhapsody operatic section. These were accompanied by live recordings of '39 and Love Of My Life and a new version of Keep Yourself Alive, recorded in June 1975 for a USA single.
In addition to another leap forward in the development of Queen's unique multi-layered big-production sound, this album includes classic songwriting contributions from all four band members: You're My Best Friend is the first true example of John Deacon's considerable abilities as a composer of hit singles; Freddie Mercury's enjoyment of 'music hall' and vaudeville styles is further developed, with two beautifully orchestrated examples in Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon and Seaside Rendezvous; Brian May ventures into similar territory with Good Company, in addition to contributing songs in more familiar styles; and Roger Taylor's I'm In Love With My Car provides a further evolved example of both his songwriting and vocal style, as well as a B-side for the mighty Bohemian Rhapsody. This, of course, was the international hit single which lead many new fans to purchase A Night At The Opera and discover just how much more there was to Queen.
Following the pattern of previous Queen albums, the sleeve credits for A Night At The Opera included the line ''No Synthesizers!''; with the considerable musical talents of all four band members, combined with their and Roy Thomas Baker's 'no limits' approach to production, it was clear they had no need for them.
The album's title was decided during a break in the Bohemian Rhapsody sessions, at Rockfield Studios. The band members were watching the Marx Brothers film 'A Night at the Opera' on an early VCR (video cassette recorder) and decided its title was a perfect fit for the album they were creating, particularly given the operatic nature of the epic track they were working on at the time.
1949, Fats Domino recorded his first tracks for Imperial Records. One of those songs was called The Fat Man, which later became his nickname.
1959, The four male members of The Platters were acquitted of charges of aiding and abetting prostitution, lewdness and assignation after an incident on August 10th in Cincinnati. Despite the outcome of the trial, the scandal would severely damage the group's career.
1961, James Brown The Famous Flames, Sugar Pie DeSanto and The Brownies all appeared at The Evergreen Ballroom, Lacey, Washington.
1961, The Beatles appeared at Hambleton Hall, Huyton in Liverpool after returning to Liverpool from their first live performances in south England and London. The Beatles arrived so late for their appearance in Huyton that they only had time to play for 15 minutes. The promoters, having to pay The Beatles their full £15 were very unhappy.
1965, 18-year-old David Bowie recorded 'Can't Help Thinking About Me' at Pye Studios, London, England, which was later released as a single under the name David Bowie with The Lower Third. It became the first David Bowie record to be released in the US as well as the first time the name "Bowie" appeared under the songwriters credit.
1966, The Beach Boys went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Good Vibrations', the group's third US No.1. As a child, his mother told him that dogs could pick up "vibrations" from people, so that the dog would bark at "bad vibrations" Wilson turned this into the general idea for the song.
1967, American soul singer, songwriter OtisRedding was killed in a plane crash, aged 26. Redding and his band had made an appearance in Cleveland, Ohio on the local Upbeat television show the previous day. The plane carrying Otis Redding and his band crashed at 3.28.pm into icy waters of Lake Monoma near Madison. Redding was killed in the crash along with members from the The Bar-Kays, Jimmy King, Ron Caldwell, Phalin Jones and Carl Cunningham. Trumpet player Ben Cauley was the only person to survive the crash.
1967,
1971, Playing the first of two nights at London's Rainbow Theatre, in England, Frank Zappa was pushed off stage by Trevor Howell, the jealous boyfriend of an audience member. Zappa fell onto the concrete-floored orchestra pit - the band thought Zappa had been killed. He suffered serious fractures, head trauma and injuries to his back, leg, and neck, as well as a crushed larynx, which ultimately caused his voice to drop a third after healing. This accident resulted in him using a wheelchair for an extended period, forcing him off the road for over half a year.
1973, The CBGB Club (Country, BlueGrass, and Blues), opened in the lower eastside of New York City. Founded by Hilly Kristal, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became a forum for American punk and New Wave bands such as Blondie , Television, Patti Smith and the Ramones .
1983, Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson started a six week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Say Say Say'. It was Jackson's 10th No.1 (solo & The Jackson's) and McCartney's 29th, (solo and The Beatles).
1998, Bruce Springsteen won a £2 million court battle to ban an album of his early songs. The case revolved around a dispute over copyright ownership between Bruce and a former manager.
1998, A recording of a 1963 Beatles concert was sold at auction at Christies in London for £25,300, ($41,500). The tape of The Beatles' 10-song concert was recorded by the chief technician at the Gaumont Theatre in Bournemouth during one of six consecutive nights which The Beatles had played. Also sold for £5,195 ($8,500), was a set of autographs of five Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Best, and Stuart Sutcliffe. The autographs had been obtained by a fan in Liverpool in 1961.
1999, Rick Danko died in his sleep at his home near Woodstock, New York. The Canadian guitarist and singer joined The Hawks in 1963 who went on to work as Bob Dylan's backing band, (with Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson). Renamed The Band who released their 1968 debut Music from Big Pink (featuring the single The Weight). The Band released the 1978 concert film-documentary triple-LP soundtrack The Last Waltz.
1999, A war of words broke out between Cliff Richard and George Michael after George branded Cliff Richards hit 'Millennium Prayer' as 'vile'. Cliff hit back by saying that his single was a Christian celebration.
2000, Eminem went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Stan' featuring British singer Dido. 'Stan' was No.1 in eleven countries. Dido's lyrics are actually a sample of the opening lines from her song
'Thank You'.
2004, One of three RCA microphones used by radio station KWKH for the historic Elvis Presley appearance at the Louisiana Hayride was sold for $37,500. The microphone was one of three used during 50 performances by Elvis Presley when he performed for the radio show in Shreveport from 1954 to 1956.
2005, Queen overtook The Beatles to become the third most successful act of all time. Sales in 2005 showed that Queen had now overtaken The Beatles to make it into third place, spending 1,755 weeks on the British singles and album charts. The Beatles slipped to fourth place, with 1,749 weeks. Elvis had spent 2,574 weeks on the singles and album charts, making him number one in the Top 100 most successful acts of all time. Sir Cliff Richard remained in second place, clinching 1,982 weeks.
2007, Led Zeppelin played their first concert in 19 years, at London's 02 Arena as part of the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert. Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones were joined on stage by Jason Bonham, the son of their late drummer John Bonham. More than one million people had taken part in a ballot for the 20,000 tickets available for the show with all proceeds going to Ahmet's own charity. Zeppelin performed 16 songs including two encores. A number of celebrities attended the gig including Dave Grohl, Jeff Beck, Brian May, David Gilmour, The Edge, Peter Gabriel, Mick Jagger, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Jerry Hall, Priscilla Presley and Paris Hilton.
2008, The Associated Press reported that the US military used loud music to "create fear, disorient and prolong capture shock" for prisoners at military detention centers at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Among the songs blasted 24 hours a day were 'Born In The USA' by Bruce Springsteen, 'Hell's Bells' by AC/DC, 'White America' by Eminem, 'The Theme From Sesame Street' and 'I Love You' from the Barney and Friends children's TV show.
2009, In an interview with Q magazine, Paul McCartney was asked if his marriage to Heather Mills was the worst mistake of his life. He replied "OK, yeah. I suppose that has to be the prime contender." The divorce settlement had cost McCartney £24m ($38.9m), plus annual payments for his daughter, Beatrice.
2010, The original hand-written lyrics to Bob Dylan's 'The Times They Are A-Changin' sold at a New York auction for $422,500 (£267,400). Adam Sender, a hedge fund manager and art collector, outbid five others, placing telephone bids. The song, one of Dylan's most politically charged, was the title track of his 1964 album.
2011, A copy of The Beatles 'Love Me Do' 1962 Demonstration Record sold for $17,339.31 during a 10-day eBay auction. According to the seller, this original demo was the Holy Grail of Beatles items.
2015, Janis Joplin's psychedelic 1965 Porsche sold for $1.76 million at RM Sotheby's car auction in New York City. The car was originally expected to fetch between $400,000 and $600,000.
December 10th: Born on this day
1910, Born on this day, John Hammond, producer, A&R scout. Worked with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, George Benson and Janis Joplin Hammond died on 10th July 1987.
1926, Born on this day Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones, New Orleans blues guitar player from the 1940s and 1950s best known for the million-selling song The Things That I Used to Do, a song that is listed in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
1941, Born on this day, Ralph Tavares, Tavares, (1976 UK No.4 and US No.15 single 'Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel').
1941, Born on this day, Northern Indian-born British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Peter Sarstedt, best known for the single 'Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?', which topped the UK Singles Chart in 1969 (and 14 other countries), and won an Ivor Novello Award. He died on 8 January 2017 at the age of 75.
1946, Born on this day, English bassist, Ace Kefford, The Move, (1969 UK No.1 single 'Blackberry Way'). He was the co-founder of The Move in October 1965 with Trevor Burton, after meeting David Bowie at Birmingham's Cedar Club, following a performance by Bowie's band Davy Jones and the Lower Third. The duo invited Roy Wood, then Carl Wayne and Bev Bevan to join and complete the classic Move line-up.
1948, Born on this day, Jessica Cleaves, The Friends Of Distinction, (1969 US No.3 single 'Grazing In The Grass').
1954, Born on this day, Geoff Deane, Modern Romance, (1982 UK No.4 single 'Best Years Of Our Lives').
1957, Born on this day, Paul Hardcastle, British composer, musician, and multi-instrumentalist who scored the 1985 UK No.1 single 'Nineteen' which became the top-selling single in 13 countries
1965, Born on this day, Joseph Mascis, guitar, vocals, Dinosaur Jr, (1993 UK No.20 single 'Start Choppin').
1972, Born on this day, Brian Molko, guitar, vocals, Placebo, (1997 UK No. 6 single Nancy Boy).
1974, Born on this day, Meg White, American drummer, The White Stripes. Their 2003 UK No.1 album 'Elephant' spent 46 weeks on the UK chart.
1985, Born on this day, British cellist, percussionist and vocalist Grace Chatto from the electronic music group Clean Bandit. The had the 2017 UK No.1 hit 'Symphony' featuring Zara Larsson.
My name is Luc Dieltjens , my name on the radio is Patrick VanLandeghem and worked on a few Belgian Radio Stations, some legal and a few Pirate Stations.
From '79 till 2005 i was daily on a radiostation. Some of the stations are Radio Diana Gent, Radio Superstar Gent, Radio Plus Gent, Radio Dynamo Knokke, Radio Blankenberge, Radio RNJ and Radio Bingo Roeselare.
I was born in 1961 and bought my first 45 single when i was 11years young it was Donna Hightower's " This World Today Is A Mess ", From that moment on i was sold !!! Music became the most inportent thing in my life.
Later when 13 years young i became a very big fan of The Sweet. Listening every evening in my bedroom to Radio Luxemburg "BIG L". My favorite pirate radiostaion is and was Radio Caroline International. In the summer listening to Radio Mi Amigo. A new musical world came in to my life. From that moment i knew ...this is it...this will become my future,...making Radio !
A dream came true !!! I was one of the first paid pirate radio presenters in Belgium.I must say ...BIG thnx to Peter DeGroot (Radio Diana Gent)for believing in me and given me the chance to become a radiomaker. And also a BIG thnx to A.J. Beirens (Radio Northsea International - Radio Caroline International - Dynamo) for teaching me everything i needed to know about making radio.
I am still making radioshows on 4 radiostations and still on the road with "The Temple Of Rock" roadshow. From today you can hear the full radioshows here on this blog, just click the link to listen. I hope you will enjoy The Temple Of Rock ! You can listen here to "The Temple Of Rock" or on MixCloud and on Odnoklassniki !
