Fragile is the fourth studio album by the English progressive rock band Yes, released in the UK on 12 November 1971[5] and in the US on 4 January 1972 by Atlantic Records.

The band entered rehearsals in London in August 1971, but Kaye's reluctance to play electronic keyboards led to his departure from the group.

He was quickly replaced by Wakeman, whose virtuosity, compositional skills, and experience with the electric piano, organ, Mellotron, and Moog synthesiser expanded the band's sound.

Due to budget and time constraints, four tracks on the album are group arrangements; the remaining five are short solo pieces by each band member.

The tour was significant for the band as it included their first set of gigs in the US which helped them gain momentum as The Yes Album and its single, "Your Move", reached the US top 40.

The line-up during this time consisted of lead vocalist Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, drummer Bill Bruford, keyboardist Tony Kaye, and guitarist Steve Howe.

[10] As recording began, Kaye was reluctant to expand his sound beyond his Hammond organ and piano and play newer instruments, like the Mellotron or Moog synthesiser, causing artistic disagreements with his bandmates, particularly Anderson and Squire.

[12] A replacement was quickly found in Rick Wakeman, a classically trained pianist with experience playing a wide variety of keyboards.

He was offered a spot with David Bowie's touring band on the same day that he was asked to join Yes, but chose Yes due to the opportunity for more artistic freedom.

[10][15] Squire spoke about that first session: "That marked the first real appearance of the Mellotron and Moog synthesiser on that—adding the flavour of those instruments to a piece we'd basically already worked out".

[16] Eddy Offord, who served as a recording engineer on Time and a Word (1970), assumed his role while sharing production duties with the band.

[17] According to Michael Tait, the band's lighting director, Lane came up with the album's title while on the phone to "some press guy" enquiring about it: "He was looking at some photos from that Crystal Palace gig, saw the monitors at the front of the stage and, like all equipment, they had 'Fragile' stamped on the back".

[nb 1] Squire reasoned that this approach was necessary in part to save time and reduce studio costs: "We have a lot of mouths to feed.

[14][28] He looked back on the piece as "dreadful", as contractual problems with A&M Records, with whom he was signed as a solo artist, prevented him from writing a composition of his own.

[29] Anderson described "We Have Heaven" as a "rolling idea of voices and things",[30] with its two main sets of chants containing the phrases "Tell the Moon dog, tell the March hare" and "He is here, to look around".

[32] According to Tait, its original title was "Suddenly It's Wednesday",[22] but it was changed in reference to Yes paying off their former manager Roy Flynn with the deal of five percent of future royalties.

[33] Anderson's lyrics to "Long Distance Runaround" address "the craziness of religion" and how people are "taught that Christianity is the only way", which he called a "stupid doctrine".

The lyrics to the second verse were inspired by the Kent State shootings in 1970 and the US government's crackdown on young people for criticising the Vietnam War.

[34] The song segues, after Howe plays a guitar run with an Echoplex delay effect,[24] into Squire's solo track, "The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)".

[35] The track is where Wakeman's classically trained background came into play; he introduced the band to recapitulation, a musical concept where previous segments in a piece are revisited.

[36] Bruford considers it as the group's breakthrough piece in terms of originality: "It had the drama and the poise and the kind of fey, pastoral English-y lyrics at the beginning where the music all gives way to a slightly feminine vocal.

Fragile marks the start of the band's long association with English artist Roger Dean, who would design many of their future album covers, their logo, and live stage sets.

[38] Dean was aware that the album's title described "the psyche" of the group at the time, which influenced his "very literal" design of a fragile Bonsai world that was going to break up.

"[19] Dean continued the narrative in his artwork for Yes's first live album, Yessongs (1973), but his style had evolved by this time and the planet no longer looked like the Fragile original.

He writes: "Fragile was Yes' breakthrough album, propelling them in a matter of weeks from a cult act to an international phenomenon; not coincidentally, it also marked the point where all of the elements of the music (and more) that would define their success for more than a decade fell into place fully formed.

[nb 3] A remastered edition for CD and cassette by Joe Gastwirt followed in 1994, which includes a reprise of "We Have Heaven" after "Heart of the Sunrise" for a track running time of 11:32.

[nb 5] 2003 saw Rhino and Elektra put out a new remastered CD conducted by Dan Hersch, with "America" and an early rough mix of "Roundabout" as bonus tracks.

Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab put out a "24 KT Gold" edition for CD headed by Shawn Britton,[nb 7] and a 200-gram LP from Analogue Productions by Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman.