"Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" (Japanese title: , ) is a song by

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

from their 1976 album '' A Day at the Races''. Written by guitarist

Brian May Sir Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, animal welfare activist and astrophysics, astrophysicist. He achieved global fame as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock band Queen ...

, it is the closing track on the album. The song is notable for having two choruses sung entirely in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, and it was released as a single exclusively in Japan, reaching #49 on the charts. (The B-side was " Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy".) This song features a plastic piano and

harmonium The pump organ or reed organ is a type of organ that uses free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal strips mounted in a frame. Types include the pressure-based harmonium, the suction reed organ (which employs a va ...

, both of which are played by May. They brought in a local choir to sing the chorus at the end. On the album, the song is crossfaded to a one-minute instrumental featuring a

Shepard tone A Shepard tone, named after Roger Shepard, is a sound consisting of a superposition of sine waves separated by octaves. When played with the bass pitch of the tone moving upward or downward, it is referred to as the ''Shepard scale''. This crea ...

melody, which is actually a reprise of the beginning of the album.

Personnel

; Queen *

Freddie Mercury Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer and songwriter who achieved global fame as the lead vocalist and pianist of the rock band Queen (band), Queen. Regarded as one of the gre ...

– lead and backing vocals *

–

, acoustic piano, Vox electronic piano, guitars, backing vocals * Roger Taylor – drums, tambourine, percussion, backing vocals *

John Deacon John Richard Deacon (born 19 August 1951) is an English retired musician who was the bass guitarist for the rock band Queen. He wrote several songs for the group, including Top 10 hits " You're My Best Friend", "Another One Bites the Dust" a ...

– bass guitar ; Additional musicians * Uncredited choir - backing vocals

Live performances

It was performed live in Tokyo during the

Jazz Tour The Jazz Tour was the sixth headlining concert tour by the British rock band Queen, supporting the album ''Jazz''. The tour was memorable for the spectacle created by the band. As James Henke of ''Rolling Stone'' said about the band's Hallowee ...

in 1979 and again when the band visited Japan during The Game and Hot Space tours in 1981 and 1982, respectively. When Queen returned to Japan with Paul Rodgers in 2005, a truncated acoustic version was played during May's solo set. The same arrangement was used for Queen + Adam Lambert's festival appearances in Japan in summer 2014. Two years later, during the Japanese gigs of the

Queen + Adam Lambert 2016 Summer Festival Tour Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

, the song was played in its entirety featuring the full band.

Live recordings

* ''

Super Live in Japan ''Super Live in Japan'' is a DVD by Queen + Paul Rodgers, capturing the performances in Saitama Super Arena in Japan on 27 October 2005 from their world tour, featuring songs from both Queen and Rodgers' catalogues. 15 of these songs became ava ...

'' (2005)

In other media

"Teo Torriatte" was covered by Japanese singer Kokia on her 2008 Christmas album ''

Christmas Gift A Christmas gift or Christmas present is a gift given in celebration of Christmas. Christmas gifts are often exchanged on Christmas Eve (December 24), Christmas Day itself (December 25) or on the last day of the twelve-day Christmas season, Twel ...

'', and by

Mêlée A melee ( or ) is a confused hand-to-hand fight among several people. The English term ''melee'' originated circa 1648 from the French word ' (), derived from the Old French ''mesler'', from which '' medley'' and ''meddle'' were also derived. T ...

in 2010 and can be found on the Japanese version of their album '' The Masquerade'' released in Japan on 18 August 2010.

Andre Matos Andre Coelho Matos (; 14 September 1971 – 8 June 2019) was a Brazilian singer and musician. He was involved in the heavy metal bands Viper, Angra, Shaman and Symfonia. Since 2006, Matos had been dedicating his time to his solo career. I ...

(former Angra singer) covered the song on the Japanese Edition of his 2010 effort '' Mentalize''. Queen's version is also one of 38 songs included on the benefit album, ''

Songs for Japan ''Songs for Japan'' is a charity compilation album created to benefit relief efforts for the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. A collaborative project between the music industry's "big four" record labels ( EMI, Sony, Universal, and Warner), ...

'' (compiled in response to the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Tōhoku), released on 25 March 2011. An extract from the song was used as the musical accompaniment for a montage of the Olympic torch relay at the

2020 Summer Olympics opening ceremony The Olympic Games ceremony#Opening, opening ceremony of the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 23 July 2021 at the Japan National Stadium, Olympic Stadium, Tokyo, and was formally opened by Emperor of Japan, Emperor Naruhito. As mandat ...

("Hope Lights Our Way") on 23 July 2021. The song's alternative title is used on strategy video game '' Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together''.

Romanisation of the title

The song's title is a

romanisation In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...

of the phrase ; "Teo" is the romanisation of , plus the

Japanese particle Japanese particles, or , are suffixes or short words in Japanese grammar that immediately follow the modified noun, verb, adjective, or sentence. Their grammatical range can indicate various meanings and functions, such as speaker affect and ...

. "Torriatte", such as on the back cover of the ''A Day at the Races'' album and their official website, is spelled with a double "r", which does not conform to romanisation systems in Japan. The Japanese single's cover gave the romanised version of the title as "Teo Toriatte", a standard single "r".

Chorus translation

The chorus part sung in Japanese goes as follows: * Romaji: quoted from source, re-spelled to meet Japanese orthography. * Japanese: re-constructed from romaji. * English translation of Japanese part: translated from the Japanese reconstruction. The chorus part sung in English: The Japanese version is an approximate translation from the English original. The album liner notes includes a translation credit: "With special thanks to our Japanese friend and interpreter Chika Kujiraoka."

References

External links

archived discography of ''A Day at the Races'' in Queen official website
*
archived Lyrics

Lyrics on Brian May's official website
– Japanese part have several errors {{Authority control Queen (band) songs Macaronic songs 1976 songs 1977 singles Rock ballads Songs written by Brian May Elektra Records singles Hollywood Records singles