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| "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Japanese single picture sleeve | ||||
| Single byQueen | ||||
| from the albumA Day at the Races | ||||
| B-side | "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" | |||
| Released | 25 March 1977[1][2] | |||
| Recorded | July – November 1976 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length |
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| Label | Elektra | |||
| Songwriter | Brian May | |||
| Producer | Queen | |||
| Queen singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" onYouTube | ||||
"Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" (Japanese title:"手をとりあって",te wo toriatte) is a song byQueen from their 1976 albumA Day at the Races. Written by guitaristBrian May, it is the closing track on the album.
The song is notable for having two choruses sung entirely inJapanese, and it was released as a single exclusively in Japan,[3][4] reaching #49 on the charts.[1] (The B-side was "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy".[4]) This song features a plastic piano andharmonium, both of which are played by May.[4] They brought in a local choir to sing the chorus at the end.[citation needed] On the album, the song iscrossfaded to a one-minute instrumental featuring aShepard tone melody, which is actually a reprise of the beginning of the album's opening track, "Tie Your Mother Down", giving the album a cyclical feel.[4]
It was performed live in Tokyo during theJazz Tour in 1979 and again when the band visited Japan during The Game and Hot Space tours in 1981 and 1982, respectively. WhenQueen returned to Japan with Paul Rodgers in 2005, a truncated acoustic version was played during May's solo set. The same arrangement was used forQueen + Adam Lambert's festival appearances in Japan in summer 2014. Two years later, during the Japanese gigs of theQueen + Adam Lambert 2016 Summer Festival Tour, the song was played in its entirety featuring the full band.
"Teo Torriatte" was covered by Japanese singerKokia on her 2008 Christmas albumChristmas Gift, and byMêlée in 2010 and can be found on the Japanese version of their albumThe Masquerade released in Japan on 18 August 2010.Andre Matos (formerAngra singer) covered the song on the Japanese Edition of his 2010 effortMentalize. Queen's version is also one of 38 songs included on the benefit album,Songs for Japan (compiled in response to the aftermath of theearthquake and tsunami in Tōhoku), released on 25 March 2011.[3] An extract from the song was used as the musical accompaniment for a montage of the Olympic torch relay at the2020 Summer Olympics opening ceremony ("Hope Lights Our Way") on 23 July 2021.
The song's alternative title is used on strategy video gameTactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together.
The song's title is aromanisation of the phrase"te o toriatte" (手を取り合って, 'holding hands'); "Teo" is the romanisation ofte (手, hand), plus theJapanese particlewo/o (を). "Torriatte", such as on the back cover of theA Day at the Races album and their official website,[4] is spelled with a double "r", which does not conform toromanisation systems in Japan.[6] The Japanese single's cover gave the romanised version of the title as "Teo Toriatte", a standard single "r".
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The chorus part sung in Japanese goes as follows:[7]
手を取り合って このまま行こう (Te o toriatte konomama ikou/Let's go hand in hand)
愛する人よ (Aisuru hito yo/my beloved.)
静かな宵に (Shizukana yoi ni/In a quiet evening)
光を灯し (Hikari o tomoshi/Light the light)
愛しき教えを抱き (Itoshiki oshie o idaki/Embracing loving teachings)
The chorus part sung in English:[7]
Let us cling together as the years go by,
Oh my love, my love,
In the quiet of the night
Let our candle always burn,
Let us never lose the lessons we have learned.
The Japanese version is an approximate translation from the English original.[8] The album liner notes includes a translation credit: "With special thanks to our Japanese friend and interpreter Chika Kujiraoka."
X: http://twitter.com/queen40jp
(crude translation): ... the single released exclusively in Japan in 1977 reached the top 50s on theOricon Singles Chart. [...] In the fan vote to choose 12 songs for the 2020 albumGreatest Hits in Japan, it earned the 3rd place, more votes than "Bohemian Rhapsody" or "Killer Queen".
(crude backtranslation): I managed to finalize [my English version of] the chorus quite early. Then I consulted Chika Kujiraoka (鯨岡ちか) to add Japanese lyrics, which she immediately accepted. [...]. So [I / we] spent a considerable time to develop the Japanese lyrics.
