Written by John Deacon
Recording information by Philipp (PraxisNothaft@t-online.de)
Recorded in summer 1975 in various studios in Wales and England.
Released in December 1975 on the album A Night At The Opera.
General:
A very intelligently arranged pop-song. With that song, John Deacon became the third band-member who could earn royalties for a hit.
Drums & Percussion.
Roger used a kit with bass, snare and hi-hat (all panned fairly into the middle), two crash cymbals and a selection of 3-4 toms that were all tuned very nearly to the same pitch. The lowest tom is a bit left.
There's also a hand-clap track that anybody could've added.
Bass (John)
John used a Fender Precision Bass, which he recorded via D.I. and added he treble with the EQ for his melodic licks.
Electric Pianos (John)
At first he recorded the basic rhythm-track, which forms the sound-carpet.
A second track includes some bell-like overdubs. The E-Piano was maybe linked directly with the mixing-desk. John used a Wurlitzer EP-200, not a Fender Rhodes and not a Hohner Pianet as it's usually mis-attributed.
Guitars (Brian)
All in all he re corded 5 guitar-tracks. One of them includes the solo-guitar, the others play multi-track-backings and fills together.
I suppose, Brian used a small amp, which John (the master of electronics) made.
The setting has lots of treble and sustain. He maybe used his treble booster.
All tracks played on the Red Special, of course.
Vocals:
The main backing-choirs are probably done on three tracks (by Freddie, Roger and Brian for the lower voice). Then there´s another track by Freddie and Roger with additional backing vocals. Besides the main lead-vocal-track, Freddie recorded another track for some additional vocals. The backing vocals were all bounced together. There´s often panning used:
Between 0:50 and 1:12 the lead-vocal stuff is more panned right, while the backing vocals are more left. Also take a look at the last couple of backing-vocals. Most of the bass-frequences have been filtered out of the voices.
They created that kind of "old-radio" - sound of the vocals.
By the way:
John´s second song to appear on a record and already a top-10 - hit.
This guy always knew how to write radio-friendly songs.