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"Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" is a song by Queen from the 1976 album "A Day at the Races." Written by guitarist Brian May, it appears as the tenth and final track on the album, not including bonus tracks added in later re-releases.
The song is distinctive for including two verses sung in Japanese, making it one of four Queen songs that contain verses in a language other than English. Instrumentation includes piano, a plastic piano, and a harmonium, all played by Brian May. This track marks the only instance on the album where Freddie Mercury does not play piano.
The musical motif used at the end of the song also appears at the beginning of "Tie Your Mother Down," the opening track of the album. May described this recurring melody as a "never-ending staircase," a musical concept known as a Shepard tone.
"Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" was released as a single exclusively in Japan, where it was issued as a 7-inch and reached number 49 on the Japanese charts. The B-side of the single was "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy." The single version omits the closing Shepard tone sequence.
Brian May performed the song live during the Queen + Paul Rodgers tour in Japan in 2005. A new digital remix of the song was included in Queen's 2011 40th Anniversary remaster of "A Day at the Races." This mix was first featured on the Japanese-only compilation "Jewels II" in 2005. The remaster booklet includes a note from Brian May, explaining that while he appreciated the original version, he felt it was limited by the technology available at the time. The remix aimed to present the song with improved clarity and definition.
The title of the song uses an older romanisation of Japanese, combining the particle を (commonly romanised today as "o" or "wo") with the preceding word. Modern romanisation would render the title as "Te o Toriatte" or "Te wo toriatte." The Japanese single featured the romanised title as "Teo Toriatte (Let Us Cling Together)," while the back cover of "A Day at the Races" misspelled it as "Teo Torriatte," inserting an extra "r." The title in Japanese script is "手をとりあって (Let Us Cling Together)."
The Japanese chorus lyrics are:
"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 (Aisuruhito 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 English chorus is:
"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 song has been referenced in other media. Yasumi Matsuno, a known Queen fan, named the video game "Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together" in tribute to the song. Additionally, Queen referenced "Teo Torriatte" in the lyric "we'll sing to you in Japanese" in the song "Let Me Entertain You" from their 1978 album "Jazz."
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