Episode 45 covers the fifth Queen studio album, 1976’s “A Day at the Races.” It was the band’s first completely self-produced album, and the first not to feature producer Roy Thomas Baker. The album serves as a companion album to the band’s previous album, A Night at the Opera, both taking their names from Marx Brothers films, as well as sharing similar packaging and eclectic musical themes. Mark, Kevin, Alex, and Chris take you on a historical journey surrounding the album as well as share our favorites and not-so favorites from the record. We go on a deep dive track-by-track listen of this hard rock album as well as share personal stories of discovering Queen’s “A Day at the Races.” Tune in next week for Episode 46 covering the sixth Queen album “News of the World.”
Subscribe, Rate, and Review:
Quick Reviews
Mark It might be time to confiscate the piano from Freddy.
Chris Had a hard time internalizing some of these songs, this is where they started to lose me – probably not going to come back to this record.
Alex Was hoping it’d be better than ANATO (might be slightly?) but doesn’t entirely blow it away. Impressed that they could do this without a producer but maybe one would’ve helped push it over the edge?
Kevin Full of good solid songs, but tapers off a bit at the end. The memorability factor isn’t quite there to push this up further.
Love It or Flush It
| M | C | A | K | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Tie Your Mother Down" | 4:48 | L | L | B | L | |
| 2 | "You Take My Breath Away" | 5:09 | T | F | L | L | |
| 3 | "Long Away" | 3:34 | L | B | L | L | |
| 4 | "The Millionaire Waltz" | 4:54 | F | F | L | L | |
| 5 | "You and I" | 3:25 | L | L | L | B | |
| 6 | "Somebody to Love" | 4:56 | L | L | L | L | |
| 7 | "White Man" | 4:59 | L | T | F | B | |
| 8 | "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" | 2:54 | F | F | L | T | |
| 9 | "Drowse" | 3:45 | B | F | T | F | |
| 10 | "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" | 5:50 | F | L | F | L |
Love It or Flush It Legend
L = Love. As many as you like.
F = Flush. Must flush at least one track per album.
B = Buy. Purchased for the ultimate LTS “Best Of” playlist for each of us. One per album.
T = Terminate. Should have never even existed. One per album.
The Rules
Each of us must Love, Flush, Buy, and Terminate AT LEAST ONE track on an album, no matter how great or terrible the album is. Whoever wins the “7 for the Buy” section gets an extra Buy or Terminate to use on the album. Because Chris hosts this section and thus cannot win, he gets an extra Buy or Terminate every 4 albums.
Album Information
A Day at the Races is the fifth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 10 December 1976 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. It was the band’s first completely self-produced album, and the first not to feature producer Roy Thomas Baker. Recorded at The Manor, Sarm West and Wessex Studios in England, A Day at the Races was engineered by Mike Stone. The album serves as a companion album to the band’s previous album, A Night at the Opera, both taking their names from Marx Brothers films, as well as sharing similar packaging and eclectic musical themes.[6]
The album peaked at number one in the UK, Japan and the Netherlands. It reached number five on the US Billboard 200 and was Queen’s third album to ship gold in the US, and subsequently reached platinum status in the same country. A Day at the Races was voted the 67th greatest album of all time in a national 2006 BBC poll.
