A Day at the Races is the fifth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 10 December 1976 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. Recorded at The Manor, Sarm East, and Wessex Sound Studios in England, it was the band's first completely self-produced album, and the first completed without the involvement of producer Roy Thomas Baker; engineering duties were handled by Mike Stone. It serves as a companion to Queen's previous album, A Night at the Opera, with both taking their names from Marx Brothers films and having similar packaging and eclectic musical themes. The album reached the top of the charts in the UK, Japan, and the Netherlands. It reached number five on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart and was Queen's third album to ship gold in the US, subsequently reaching platinum status in the country. In 2006, a listener poll conducted by BBC Radio 2 saw A Day at the Races voted the 67th greatest album of all time. Background On 25 April 1976, the band settled back in London after a four-leg, six-month, and exhaustive tour of their highly successful album, A Night At The Opera, recorded during the oppressive summer of 1975. The band had decided to take a two-month hiatus. They only occasionally did business-related activities (like filming the promotional video for You're My Best Friend the following day). During June, the band was beginning to plan out the recording sessions for the album, visiting recording studios around Greater London to determine where they would produce the album. On 15 June, Roger Taylor and John Deacon visited Sweet Silence Studios in Denmark. The studio was completed only two months prior. They put the studio into consideration. This was because of the fresh environment of the studio. After Taylor and Deacon returned from Denmark, rehearsals began on 17 June at Ridge Farm Studio, where the band had rehearsed for their previous album in July 1975. Due to equipment issues during the first week, the band hired Pete Cornish on 25 June to assist in equipment maintenance. Cornish and the band had previous involvement, as his company had helped repair and construct new equipment for the band in January 1972. Brian May traveled to Manhattan at the start of July (and is interviewed by Circus at The Sherry-Netherland Hotel sometime around 6