Ugly American Werewolf in London: Queen - A Night at the Opera

Queen found themselves in trouble in late 1975. They had a terrible management contract they were desperate to get out of, they'd had to cancel a tour which was only booked to recoup money and they had spent over 40,000 pounds (equal to over $600,000 today) at seven different studios trying to make their 4th album, A Night At The Opera. If it wasn't a success the band might have folded up. But thanks to an unorthodox lead single that was not only bizarre but over six minutes long, the band found themselves on top of the world.

The vocal harmonies that define the enduring sound of Queen are all over the album, even as the boys experimented with different instruments, recording techniques and their voices as well. You can't define the record with one genre as the epic The Prophet's Song is long and proggy while it melts into the sweet Love of My Life. Freddie attacks their ex manager in straight ahead Death on Two Legs and then quickly segues into the old-timey Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon. While John Deacon pens an ode to his wife with You're My Best Friend, Roger Taylor is proclaiming I'm in Love with My Car. In '39, Brian May takes us forward in time with astronauts in a bar sing-a-long style. But Bohemian Rhapsody with it's soulful piano to start followed by bombastic harmonies, so heavy Brian May guitar and head banging play out was the game changer.

Bo Rap would eventually go number 1 and into the top ten around the world 3 times - when first released, around the time of Wayne's World (when your heroes were college roommates, and again after the movie of the same name was a worldwide success. It lifted Queen out of their financial woes and onto the world stage to a level at which they never really left. As this classic turns 50 November 22, we were happy to gain an appreciation for the band as a whole by examining an album only they could make.

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