72 years ago you were Bjorn, I mean born
April 26, 2017 3:21 AM   Subscribe

Hey, at 72 years old, Björn Ulvaeus is still going strong. But since it's his birthday today, we get to listen to ABBA! Let's start with a lead vocal track from ABBA's first album, Another Town, Another Train.

There are a lot of Björn lead vocals on Ring Ring, but we'll move on to the most ridiculous of his lead vocal songs: King Kong Song from Waterloo. (I think that's Benny doing the low "bom bom boms" in the chorus.)

Their next album, the eponymous ABBA, had Rock Me as a deep cut. While the next album Arrival included Why Did It Have To Be Me?

What is the punctuation convention there? The question mark is part of the song title so I want to include a period at the end.

ABBA: The Album doesn't really have a Björn lead vocal unless you count the chant in Take A Chance On Me, so we'll include that here.

However, the next album, Voulez Vous, held the biggest hit ABBA had with a Björn lead vocal: Does Your Mother Know.

See, there's no question mark in that song title. *shrug*

Super Trooper has nothing that can even pretend to be a Björn lead vocal. Perhaps the guys were feeling a bit guilty about all the Fleetwood Mac-level relationship bullshit. Anyway...

I lied earlier about King Kong Song being their strangest Björn lead vocal. The Visitors, their final album, brought us Two For The Price Of One.
posted by hippybear (19 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Epönysterical.
posted by runcifex at 4:45 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]


Listening to Rock Me and I suddenly realise that ABBA albums were the soundtrack to my childhood. I mean, I could have sworn that I had never heard anything beyond the GOLD compilations and here I am singing along to Rock Me.

Folks, be careful what you listen to around your toddlers. They will remember.
posted by kariebookish at 4:45 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


Links to videos that are available outside of the US pls?
posted by eviemath at 4:53 AM on April 26, 2017


eviemath, I'm in the UK and all the links work for me.
posted by kariebookish at 4:54 AM on April 26, 2017


Links to videos that are available outside of the US/UK pls?
posted by eviemath at 5:15 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


Perhaps it's a device-specific issue? I am browsing from my phone.
posted by eviemath at 5:24 AM on April 26, 2017


There should be a contest for the weird kid department. 6th grade, 1981, US, when everyone who was even interested in Abba in the first place had already moved on. It was my sister who bought the 45 "Does Your Mother Know," and I decided to buy Voulez-Vous because I didn't want to have to deal with her by asking to borrow it. Spent hours, hours, hours alone listening to them. That album is still my favorite. Love the live version of DYMK too.

I was always puzzled by "Suzy-Hang-Around," because it has been clearly stated that Benny is the lead vocal. Except that it sounds exactly like Björn. Perhaps they sound similar (need more data).
posted by Melismata at 5:26 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


Still prefer the Blancmange version of The Day Before You Came, though. Took some guts to do an Abba cover in 1984, let alone release it as a single, but it charted higher in the UK than the Abba original had.
posted by Devonian at 6:58 AM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


Thank you for leaving out Man in the Middle so I could dig it out of my lizard brain and post it here.
posted by Elizabeth the Thirteenth at 8:31 AM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


Devonian Ah, there was a Blancmange cover! That explains why, when I heard the ABBA version on their Hits comp I bought in the 90s it seemed familiar but not-quite-right. The original will have been just too early for me to catch the first time round.
posted by amcewen at 8:40 AM on April 26, 2017


Elizabeth the Thirteenth, I'll see your "Man in the Middle" and raise you "Crazy World". They were so versatile!
posted by Melismata at 8:48 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


When I want a Bjorn deep cut, I always go to the Hootenanny Singers / Northern Lights. (Thank you, Pierrette's jug milk store in Laval for having that cutout of the one LP they released over here.)

Gabrielle (live performance with teeny Bjorn and a big guitar)
Marianne (stately black and white music video, choreography somewhere between a square dance and a pavane)
Baby, Those Are the Rules (YT fan video with bonus Anita Ekberg)
Love Comes, Love Goes (1968: slowly turning into Abba via the Partridge Family)
posted by maudlin at 8:53 AM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


eviemath: It's impossible for me to test for which videos are available on which devices and in which region. You might try doing some searching for videos from where you are on your device and see if you can get anything to work for you. If you do, you might link your finds here to help others in your situation.
posted by hippybear at 9:35 AM on April 26, 2017


Last weekend I made my first visit to an Ikea. I was extremely disappointed that I did not hear any ABBA on the in-store music selections. I made a point of letting them know about my disapproval at the suggestion kiosk.
posted by vibrotronica at 11:54 AM on April 26, 2017


When I want a Bjorn deep cut, I always go to the Hootenanny Singers

For another slice, here's his Eurovision career: posted by effbot at 12:53 PM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]


(Well, I guess to be technically correct, that's his Melodifestivalen career. Here's the Eurovision Song Contest version of Waterloo, with English lyrics and a presenter who has no idea how to pronounce Björn, and also repeatedly calls Agnetha "Anna".)
posted by effbot at 1:10 PM on April 26, 2017


IIRC, Agnetha is called "Anna" on the original Waterloo album and probably other places.
posted by Melismata at 8:39 AM on May 1, 2017


Here's the original Polar album on Discogs (which says Agnetha on the front, even) but they list 109 other releases so I guess someone somewhere might have found it too difficult to pronounce her real name.
posted by effbot at 11:27 AM on May 1, 2017


And here's mine with Anna on the front, bought in the US in the early 80s. (I'll show you mine, you show me yours!)
posted by Melismata at 7:36 AM on May 4, 2017 [1 favorite]


« Older You can’t sell a box that stops people from...   |   Just in time for the Twin Peaks reboot... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments