A Day at the Races

Product Information

Purvis, Georg (28 August 2012). Queen: The Complete Works. Titan Books (US, CA). ISBN 978-1-78116-287-3. Ramirez, AJ (8 June 2011). "In the Lap of the Gods: The First Five Queen Albums". PopMatters. Archived from the original on 26 November 2013 . Retrieved 19 April 2016. American album certifications – Queen – A Day at the Races". Recording Industry Association of America.

Matrix / Runout (Side B etched, variant 4): 6E-101-B-1 7̸E̸-̸1̸0̸9̸1̸-̸A̸B1-SP SP X1-1 7E-1091-B-1 STERLING RPM Top 100 Albums of 1977". RPM. 31 December 1977. Archived from the original on 5 April 2014 . Retrieved 24 February 2012. Complete UK Year-End Album Charts". Chartheaven. Archived from the original on 19 May 2012 . Retrieved 3 March 2012.

On The Go

Purvis, George (2007). Queen: Complete Works. London, UK: Titan Group Publishing. p.57. ISBN 978-0-85768-551-3. 'A Day at the Races' would be Queen's final excursion in the grandiose pomp and glam they had perfected from their formation... a b c d Brooks, Greg & Taylor, Gary. "A Day At The Races". Queenonline.com. Archived from the original on 26 September 2016 . Retrieved 11 October 2016.

Cohen, Scott (6 July 1976). "The Queen Interview". Circus . Retrieved 15 February 2022– via BrianMay.com. On 21 July, Crystal Taylor, one of the band's roadies, who would later become Roger's personal assistant, arrived at The Manor to provide assistance with equipment and observe the session. He originally planned to stay a week, but on 28 July, the band asked him to stay another week. [18] Around this date, work began to relax as the band had finished 6 songs. Those songs were "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy", "The Millionaire Waltz", "You Take My Breath Away", "White Man" (then titled "Simple Man"), "Drowse", and a shorter version of "Somebody To Love". As August entered, the band worked on the remaining songs of the album, and finished a longer version of "Somebody To Love". [19] Work was still relaxed though, and the band would sometimes play billiards or card games during productive days. During a game of billiards on 8 August, between Roger and Crystal Taylor, Roger asked Crystal to be his personal roadie, to which Crystal accepted. [18] Larkin, Colin (2011). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5thed.). Omnibus Press. p.2248. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.Purvis, George (October 2018). Queen: Complete Works (Revised & Updateded.). Titan Books. ISBN 978-1-78909-049-9. Whitburn, Joel (2006). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (8thed.). Menomonee Falls, WI: Billboard Books. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrateded.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. Tie Your Mother Down" was written by Brian May in Tenerife in early 1968, two years before the formation of Queen. At the time, he was working on his PhD in Astronomy. [24] He wrote the song on Spanish guitar and thought he'd change the title and chorus later on, but when he brought it to the band for inclusion on this album, Freddie Mercury liked the original and it was kept the way it was written. [24]

You Take My Breath Away" was written by Mercury and based on the harmonic minor scale. He performed it by himself at Hyde Park before recording it, and all of the vocals in the version of the song on the album were performed by him, as was the piano part.

Credits

Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005 (in Japanese). Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9. Queen entered The Manor in Oxfordshire on 12 July to commence work on A Day At The Races. [15] Absent was Roy Thomas Baker, who had helped the band produce their last four albums. [16] This was because of a four-album contract he had signed with the band in 1972. This contract had expired after the release of the band's fourth album, and the band had decided to record the album by themselves, with the assistance of engineers Mike Stone and Gary Langan. Baker would travel to America to produce more material after signing a contract with CBS Records. [17] On 19 July, May's 29th birthday, (according to a letter written for the fan club around this time) while the band were recording in The Manor, the band were mailed items related to penguins. A giant penguin ice maker was also shipped to the band. These items were mailed to the band because of May's interest in penguins. a b Ramirez, AJ (8 June 2011). "In the Lap of the Gods: The First Five Queen Albums". PopMatters . Retrieved 16 October 2015. With the group now firmly in command of the mechanics of pop songcraft (fittingly, the album spun off the most singles from any Queen LP up until then). Offiziellecharts.de – Queen – A Day at the Races" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 22 April 2022. Setsuo, Saitoh (April 1981). "Brian May - "I'm always aiming for something better" ". Queen The Miracle (in Japanese). Music Life.

Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1sted.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p.166. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5. A music video was made for the song, directed by Bruce Gowers and based on a performance clip shot at Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York, in February 1977 during the band's US arena headlining tour. [25] After its release in 1976, the song was played by Queen on every subsequent tour. [26] "You Take My Breath Away" Kot, Greg (19 April 1992). "An 18-record, 80 Million-copy Odyssey". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved 19 April 2016.Japanese Year-End Albums Chart 1977] (in Japanese). Oricon. Archived from the original on 5 December 2012 . Retrieved 3 October 2011.