Regal rock icons Queen are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their monumental multi-platinum 1975 album A Night At The Opera and legendary Diamond-certified single Bohemian Rhapsody with opulent vinyl reissues.
Originally released in November 1975 and featuring the classic line-up of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon, A Night At The Opera was Queen’s grandest artistic statement and most successful album to that point, reaching Number 1 in five countries, including the UK.
Marking 50 years since its original release, A Night At The Opera will be reissued on lavish crystal clear vinyl with gold labels on October 18 in the UK (as part of National Album Day) and October 17 in the rest of the world.
Pre-Order Bohemian Rhapsody: https://Queen.lnk.to/BoRhap50th
Pre-Order A Night at the Opera: https://Queen.lnk.to/ANightAtTheOpera
Bohemian Rhapsody, which spent a record-breaking nine weeks at Number 1 in the UK singles chart on its original release, is also being reissued on October 31 as a transparent, blue heavyweight 7” vinyl and transparent, blue heavyweight 12” vinyl. It will also be available as a direct-to-consumer exclusive 12” picture disc and blue cassette single.
1975 was a pivotal year for Queen. A Night At The Opera and Bohemian Rhapsody propelled them to new commercial and artistic heights, sealing their status as one of the most visionary bands Britain has ever produced. Artists as diverse as the Foo Fighters and The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson have saluted their multi-faceted brilliance, with the latter describing Bohemian Rhapsody as “a fulfilment and an answer to a teenage prayer of artistic music”.
The single continues to be voted the best single of all time, most recently topping the popular chart of UK’s leading radio outlet Gold Radio’s Top 300 Hall of Fame listeners vote.
Queen recorded A Night At The Opera with producer Roy Thomas Baker at multiple studios, including the legendary Rockfield Studios in South Wales. It was created against a backdrop of change, with the band having recently extricated themselves from a financially crippling management contract and signed up with Elton John’s manager, John Reid.
As a result, a newfound sense of freedom courses through A Night At The Opera. Building on the ambitious musical foundations laid down by their first three albums (1973’s Queen I, and 1974’s Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack), this is the sound of a band unconfined by expectation or boundaries.
A Night At The Opera contains an entire musical universe within its 12 songs, covering virtually every style imaginable, from the vicious, glam-tinged hard rock of opening track Death On Two Legs to Roger Taylor’s roaring boy-racer hymn I’m In Love With My Car, from Freddie Mercury’s soaring, heartfelt Love Of My Life to the yearning sci-fi-inspired folk of Brian May’s ’39.
If any song defines the ambition that fuelled A Night At The Opera, it’s Bohemian Rhapsody. This dazzling fusion of existential balladry, hard rock power and operatic grandeur, conceived by Mercury and painstakingly pieced together by the band, is more than just Queen’s best-known song, it has become a touchstone song for every subsequent generation that has become wrapped up in its majesty.
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