When A Night At The Opera by Queen was released in November 1975, it was advertised as being the most expensive album ever made at the time. The band denied this claim, which is understandable once you look into it. The album’s estimated cost was £40,000, or around £320,000 in today’s money. That is well over USD $400,000. I read an article from Business Insider that said the present-day baseline cost to professionally record a full length album could be anywhere from USD $250,000 to $300,000. So for all intents and purposes, the budget for A Night At The Opera was actually reasonable. Sure, it still cost a lot of money to make, but not enough to be a selling point. I would reserve that for when an album’s recording budget reaches a million.
Anyway, though the budget of A Night At The Opera was overstated, the ambition behind it cannot be. I feel there is nothing new I could say about “Bohemian Rhapsody,” so let’s instead look at the rest of the album.
The album opens with “Death On Two Legs,” a hard and heavy diss track to their former manager Norman Sheffield, then it is immediately followed by “Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon,” a campy homage to British hall. Both were written by Freddie Mercury. He also wrote the similarly campy Side A closer, “Seaside Rendezvous,” and the sentimental ballad “Love Of My Life” which became a live favorite.
Guitarist Brian May wrote four songs: “‘39,” “Sweet Lady,” “The Prophet’s Song,” and another British-ly campy track called “Good Company.” “The Prophet’s Song,” by the way, is a progressive rock tune runs over eight minutes long. I’d argue it’s too long, especially the a cappella section in the middle. And just to remind you that the band is British, the album closes with an instrumental rendition of “God Save The Queen.” Drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon wrote one song each for the album, which both appear right next to each other on the tracklist. Roger wrote and sang “I’m In Love With My Car” while John wrote the classic pop hit “You’re My Best Friend.” I’ll let you decide who gets a better grade.
But when you listen to all the songs I listed, you realize what a large variety of genres and styles there is across A Night At The Opera. There was hard rock, prog rock, pop, Dixieland jazz, ballads, opera, and the genre most important to this album, British. And for the most part, the album moves at a pretty good pace. I definitely recommend A Night At The Opera, if only to give attention to songs other than “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
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