In what year was Queen’s album A Night at the Opera released? It was released in 1975, with the UK release arriving on 28 November. It was Queen’s fourth studio album and followed Sheer Heart Attack, which had established the band as major rock stars.
The album took its title from the Marx Brothers film A Night at the Opera. Queen recorded it during 1975 at several British studios, including Trident, Olympic, Rockfield, Lansdowne and Sarm East. Roy Thomas Baker co-produced it with the band, and the sessions were widely described as exceptionally expensive for their time.
Its ambitious mixture of hard rock, progressive rock, pop and theatrical vocal arranging became central to Queen’s identity. The best-known track, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” was released as a single before the album and topped the UK Singles Chart for nine weeks in its original run.
A Night at the Opera is often paired with its 1976 successor, A Day at the Races, whose title also came from a Marx Brothers film. That follow-up was recorded as a companion in spirit, but it was released the following year.