Friday, November 21, 1975

Today in Music (1925): Ben Selvin’s “Manhattan” hit #1

Manhattan

Ben Selvin

Writer(s): Richard Rodgers (music), Lorenz Hart (words) (see lyrics here)


First Charted: October 24, 1925


Peak: 14 PM, 5 GA (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): --


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.02 video, -- streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

In 1925, a revue called The Garrick Gaieties was staged at the Garrick Theater that featured seven songs written by the new songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The two “were opposities in personality, temperament, outlook, living and working habits, but their collaboration carried them to the pinnacle of Broadway.” TY2 They wrote such classics as “My Funny Valentine,” “”The Lady Is a Tramp,” and “Bewitched.”

The song, however, that introduced the public to Rodgers and Hart was “Manhattan.” It was performed in The Garrick Gaieties by June Cochrane and Sterling Holloway DJ “and generated 10 curtian calls when first sung in public.” LW “Its urbane lyrics have made it a favorite song about New York.” DJ The song references major New York landmarks, including the zoo, the subway, Greenwich Village, Coney Island, and Central Park. TY2

In 1925, Ben Selvin and his Knickerbockers took the song to #1 and Paul Whiteman hit #3. PM Selvin made more than 2000 records; no other bandleader made more. PM He charted more than 100 hits from 1919 to 1934, reaching #1 eight times. PM

Mickey Rooney performed the song in 1948’s Words and Music, a “rather fictitious movie biography”about Rodgers and Hart. It also showed up in Two Tickets to Broadway (1951), The Eddy Duchin Story (1956), Beau James (1957), The Rat Race (1960), and Mighty Aphrodite (1995). TY2


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First posted 5/14/2025.

Queen released A Night at the Opera

A Night at the Opera

Queen


Released: November 21, 1975


Peak: 4 US, 14 UK, 2 CN, 12 AU, 13 DF


Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, 0.3 UK, 10.0 world, 43.5 EAS


Genre: glam rock/classic rock


Tracks:

Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts.

  1. Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to…) (Freddie Mercury/Queen) [3:43] (35 DF)
  2. Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon (Freddie Mercury/Queen) [1:07]
  3. I’m in Love with My Car (Queen/Roger Taylor) [3:04] (13 CL, 38 DF)
  4. You’re My Best Friend (Deacon) [2:52] (5/22/76, 16 BB, 4 GR, 9 CB, 15 HR, 7 RR, 2 CL, 7 UK, 2 CN, 40 AU, 4 DF)
  5. ’39 (Brian May/Queen) [3:30] (18 CL, 6 DF)
  6. Sweet Lady (Brian May/Queen) [4:03]
  7. Seaside Rendezvous (Freddie Mercury/Queen) [2:19]
  8. The Prophet’s Song (Brian May/Queen) [8:20]
  9. Love of My Life (Freddie Mercury/Queen) [3:38] (7/14/79, 30 CL, 63 UK, 10 DF)
  10. Good Company (Brian May/Queen) [3:23]
  11. Bohemian Rhapsody (Mercury) [5:57] (10/31/75, 2 BB, 1 CB, 4 GR, 4 HR, 3 RR, 1 CL, 16 AR, 1 UK, 1 CN, 1 AU, 1 DF)
  12. God Save the Queen (Queen/traditional) [1:15]


Total Running Time: 43:08


The Players:

  • Freddie Mercury (vocals)
  • Brian May (guitar)
  • John Deacon (bass)
  • Roger Taylor (drums)

Rating:

4.436 out of 5.00 (average of 23 ratings)


Awards:

(Click on award to learn more).

The Beginning

“Queen’s roots can be traced to another group named Smile, which was typical of the blues-based, proto-heavy-metal hard rockers who proliferated in England in the wake of the late-'60s psychedelic explosion. When Smile's lead vocalist quit in 1971, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor formed a new group with flamboyant singer Freddie Mercury, formerly of a band called Wreckage, and a solid and ultra-melodic bass player named John Deacon.” JD

While they came to be known as “revered British art-rockers and glam-popsters,” JD “the quartet’s early releases consisted of fairly straightforward rock, distinguished primarily by Mercury’s theatrical, Broadway-flavored singing style.” JD When A Night at the Opera was released “there was still a perception that Queen was essentially a prog rock band.” CM “Queen was able to fully indulge its vision of symphonic rock for the first time.” JD

A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races

While the focus here is on Queen’s fourth album, 1975’s A Night at the Opera, it is necessary to mention its follow-up, 1976’s A Day at the Races. The two releases were just over a year apart from each other and shared “similar cover art and titles lifted from movies by the Marx Brothers.” JD

“Mercury said…many of the songs were initially conceived in the same period and intended to be part of an epic double album. The record company prevented that from happening, figuring that two separate releases would be more profitable than one giant blockbuster.” JD

“The combination of these two discs stands as the best testament to the musical muscle and songwriting strength of the band that is still providing new revelations, unforgettable singalong choruses, moments of headbanging glory, and plenty of fodder for arguing and head-scratching.” JD

One of the Most Expensive Albums Ever Made

Opera was the most expensive album made up to that time, taking months to record in as many as six studios simultaneously. PR That “detailed, meticulous productions” AM was a mutual effort from Queen and producer Roy Thomas Baker, who “was more than happy to oblige the boys, piling on the overdubs until the analog 16-track tape shed almost all its oxide and literally went transparent.” GW “Every penny that was spent can be heard in the grooves via the gorgeous harmony vocals, the lush, swelling orchestrations, and the masterfully recorded instrumental flourishes.” JD

The Album’s Impact

“When many rock acts were either preening, sexualized idols or campy, trenchant new wavers, Queen seemed to be both.” CS “Overboard was what Queen was all about.” CS Queen’s A Night at the Opera can be simultaneously viewed as the group’s “crowning achievement” PR and “an extravagant indulgence.” PR Certainly it can be “laughably pretentious and bombastic” JD “but that’s exactly what fans love about it.” JD The group “celebrate their own pomposity” AM in “a self-consciously ridiculous and overblown hard rock masterpiece.” AM In his book 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, Tom Moon called it “the campiest rock concept album ever.” TM

The album “set a new standard for theater-rock that was imitated by dozens of bands that sought to combine the excitement of Kiss with the virtuosity of Cream.” CS The Queen sound by definition was filled with electric guitars in harmony, a rock-solid rhythm section, and many layers of vocals,” CRS but even by their own standards, Queen “broke down all the barricades on A Night at the OperaAM with a mix of “hard rock, wistful ballads, music hall pastiche and perfectly crafted pop with classical trimmings.” PR It was “the disc that established them as a completely unique entity in rock music, quite distinct from the Seventies glam/proto metal pack with which they’d formerly been grouped.” GW “It’s prog rock with a sense of humor as well as dynamics.” AM


The Songs

One “can make the case that the 13 songs here cover 13 genres.” CM “Delivered with sly winks and high-gloss dazzle, these put Queen closer, sensibility-wise, to the theatrical entertainments of a bygone age than anything on pop radio.” TM “Tucked between the kitschy, amazingly detailed period pieces” TM are “head-spinningly intricate, illustrations of Queen’s ability to conjure music of preposterous flamboyance that somehow still manages to flat-out rock.” TM

Here are insights on individual songs.

“Death on Two Legs”
“At heart, Queen was always a Beatlesesque pop band, and it never neglected melody, even when it was rocking out with a metallic crunch, as it does on…standout tracks Death on Two Legs (Dedicated To ...)JD and Sweet Lady, which “encompasses metal.” TM

“Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon”
There were “a few themes that might have been inspired by a toy calliope (Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon).” TM The song “integrated the English music hall tradition into Queen’s canon.” CM

“I’m in Love with My Car”
The album also features “the zooming, cleverly harmonized confession I’m In Love with My Car.” TM The former kicks off the album, “setting up a record where the unexpected is the default setting.” CM

“You’re My Best Friend”
“The lovely, shimmering You’re My Best FriendTM reached the top 20 in the U.S. and top 10 in the UK. It reminded listeners that Queen is unique for showcasing “four distinctive songwriters.” CM In this case, bassist John Deacon – “the least experienced of the four” CM – crafted a song which “proved to be instantly recognizable, with the warm Wurlitzer electric piano tones giving way to Mercury’s persuasive vocal and May’s sure-finger guitar licks.” CM

“‘39”
“Fully half of the album tends toward camp – there are seafaring sing-alongs” TM like the “English folk” CM of ‘39 which features a rare vocal turn by guitarist Brian May, who also wrote the song.

“Seaside Rendezvous”
The album features “vaudeville-style soft-shoe tunes” TM such as Seaside Rendezvous. It is “a mutant mix of seaside cabaret and trad jazz.” CM

“The Prophet’s Song”
The “striding, colossal The Prophet’s SongCM took the group into the world of “mystical prog rock” AM with “an eight-minute-plus epic that May conceived after a bout of illness, which touches on the idea of scourging floods and Noah’s Ark, complete with an extended vocal breakdown that turns Mercury’s voice into a self-contained studio orchestra.” CM

“Bohemian Rhapsody”
They “eventually bring it all together on the pseudo-operatic Bohemian Rhapsody,” AM which “went down in history as one of the grandest productions in rock.” CS The group fretted that “this strange song with suicidal overtones, mood changes, and a pseudo-operatic section” CRS “was a bit over the top; it would either be a huge success or an equally huge failure.” CRS It proved to be the former, becoming the group’s most beloved song and one of classic rock’s staples.

The song “was recorded over an intense three-week span and painstakingly spliced together from numerous different segments. The goal of producing a merger of rock and opera had been attempted numerous times since the mid-'60s, but in one song, Queen actually got closer than notable album-length predecessors such as Tommy, Jesus Christ Superstar and the Pretty Things’ psychedelic nugget, S.F. Sorrow, in the sense of producing both an epic story set to song and a great rock tune that embraces operatic motifs.” JD

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First posted 3/23/2008; last updated 9/10/2024.

Thursday, November 20, 1975

Pink Floyd “Wish You Were Here” released as a single

Wish You Were Here

Pink Floyd

Writer(s): David Gilmour, Roger Waters (see lyrics here)


Released: November 20, 1975 (studio version)


Released: July 20, 1995 (live version)


Peak: 1 CL, 13 AR, 68 UK, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.6 UK, 0.75 world (includes US + UK)


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 455.4 video, 568.84 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

The title cut from Pink Floyd’s ninth album “whose overall theme is absence.” DT Accounts vary as to the inspiration for the song. The general consensus is that it is inspired by the band’s founder and frontman Syd Barrett, who departed the band in 1968 because of problems with LSD and schizophrenia. One story says the song emerged from a poem that songwriter and bassist Roger Waters wrote for Barrett. DT

However, Waters has also claimed the song was “about his grandmother’s final years and how she would think Waters was her long-dead husband.” XFM He’s also said the song was about himself, saying the lyrics are about “being present in one’s own life and freeing one’s self in order to truly experience life.” WK Any interpretation allows for the song to be viewed as “a commentary on how people cope with the world by withdrawing physically, mentally, or emotionally.” SF In addition, “the sighing introspection of the music sums up the mundane tragedy perfectly.” XFM

The album version of the song opens with the sound oa radio station being tuned away from “Have a Cigar,” the previous song on the Wish You Were Here album. The listener flips through several stations including a piece of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony before moving on to the beginning of “Wish You Were Here” playing on the radio. The latter was recorded from singer and guitarist David Gilmour’s car radio. WK He performs “the delicate acoustic guitar intro” XFM as if he is playing along with the radio.

The original version of the song was released as a single in 1975. Twenty years, later it was released again as a single in support of Pink Floyd’s 1995 live album Pulse. The latter version reached #13 on Billboard’s mainstream rock chart. In 2001, Wyclef Jean released a “soul-reggae version” SF which reached #28 in the UK. In 2012, Ed Sheeran and others performed the song at the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics in London and hit #34 on the chart. It prompted the original Pink Floyd version to hit the UK charts for the first time the next week at #68. In 2016, Avenged Sevenfold took the song to #16 on the mainstream rock chart. Guns N’ Roses performed the song live in 2017 in a medley with Derek & the Dominos’ “Layla.”

One of the most significant covers, however, was in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy. Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst and Wes Borland performed the song live with the Goo Goo Dolls’ Johnny Reznik on the America: A Tribute to Heroes telethon. They revised some lyrics for the occasion. The version simultaneously captured the sadness over American lives lost and the desire to seek revenge on Osamba bin Laden for orchestrating the 9/11 attacks.


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First posted 3/30/2023.