"Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)"
Japanese single picture sleeve
Single by Queen
from the album A Day at the Races
B-side"Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy"
Released25 March 1977[1]
RecordedJuly – November 1976
GenreRock
Length
  • 5:54 (LP version)
  • 4:55 (single version)
LabelElektra
Songwriter(s)Brian May
Producer(s)Queen
Queen singles chronology
"Tie Your Mother Down"
(1977)		 "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)"
(1977)		 "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy"
(1977)
Music video
"Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" on YouTube

"Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" (Japanese title: "手をとりあって", te o toriatte) is a song by Queen from their 1976 album A Day at the Races. Written by guitarist Brian May, it is the closing track on the album.

The song is notable for having two choruses sung entirely in Japanese, and it was released as a single exclusively in Japan,[2][3] reaching #49 on the charts.[1] (The B-side was "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy".[3]) This song features a plastic piano and harmonium, both of which are played by May.[3] 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 melody, which is actually a reprise of the beginning of the album.[3]

Personnel

Live performances

It was performed live in Tokyo during the Jazz Tour 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, the song was played in its entirety featuring the full band.

Live recordings

In other media

"Teo Torriatte" was covered by Japanese singer Kokia on her 2008 Christmas album Christmas Gift, and by Mêlée in 2010 and can be found on the Japanese version of their album The Masquerade released in Japan on 18 August 2010. Andre Matos (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 (compiled in response to the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Tōhoku), released on 25 March 2011.[2] 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 ("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 of the phrase "te o toriatte" (手を取り合って, 'holding hands'); "Teo" is the romanisation of te (手, hand), plus the Japanese particle wo/o (を). "Torriatte", such as on the back cover of the A Day at the Races album and their official website,[3] is spelled with a double "r", which does not conform to romanisation systems in Japan.[5] The Japanese single's cover gave the romanised version of the title as "Teo Toriatte", a standard single "r".

Chorus translation

Lyrics in handwriting by Freddie Mercury

The chorus part sung in Japanese goes as follows:[6]

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:[6]

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.[7] The album liner notes includes a translation credit: "With special thanks to our Japanese friend and interpreter Chika Kujiraoka."

References

  1. 1 2 クイーンのシングル売上TOP4作品 [Queen's 4 topmost selling singles]. Oricon (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 21 December 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  2. 1 2 Masuda, Yūichi (16 July 2021). クイーンが日本語で歌った「手をとりあって」：誕生の軌跡と日本で愛され続ける理由 [The song Queen sang in Japanese: "te o toriatte" : its origin, and why Japanese always love it]. udiscovermusic.jp (in Japanese). Universal Music Group. Archived from the original on 21 July 2021. Retrieved 26 July 2021. (crude translation): ... the single released exclusively in Japan in 1977 reached the top 50s on the Oricon Singles Chart. [...] In the fan vote to chose 12 songs for the 2020 album Greatest Hits in Japan, it earned the 3rd place, more votes than "Bohemian Rhapsody" or "Killer Queen".
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Discography – A Day At The Races". Queen official site. Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together). Archived from the original on 26 August 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Archived copy of Queen Songs website". Archived from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  5. ↑ ローマ字のつづり方 訓令，告示制定文 – ローマ字のつづり方 第1表・第2表 [Romaji spellings act Table 1 and 2]. Agency for Cultural Affairs, The Government of Japan (in Japanese). Cabinet of Japan. 9 December 1954. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  6. 1 2 "Discography – A Day At The Races – Lyrics". Queen official site. 10. Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together). Archived from the original on 26 August 2016.
    • 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.
  7. ↑ クイーン単独インタビュー【後編】ブライアン・メイさん [Queen interview part 2 – Brian May]. NHK (in Japanese). 27 December 2018. 「手をとりあって」の歌詞. Archived from the original on 7 August 2019. (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.
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