Happy New Year (song)
| happy New Year | |
|---|---|
| ABBA | |
| publication | 3rd November 1980 |
| length | 4:24 |
| Genre (s) | pop |
| Author (s) | Benny Andersson , Björn Ulvaeus |
| album | Super trouper |
Happy New Year is a song by Swedish pop group ABBA that was first released in 1980 on their album Super Trouper . The lead singer is Agnetha Fältskog ; the other members of the group can also be heard in the chorus.
History of origin
Happy New Year was another attempt to write a song for a possible musical. The idea came to the two composers of ABBA, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson , in January 1980 on a flight to Barbados . The central idea behind the plot of the song was New Year's Eve and the atmosphere that went with it. In Barbados, the two musicians met the British comedian John Cleese , whom they commissioned to work on the musical, which was later not pursued.
On February 11, 1980, recording began under the working title Daddy Don't Get Drunk On Christmas Day . First the music was played; on April 9, 1980 the vocal recordings with Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad took place. Happy New Year was also recorded as Felicidad in Spanish in October 1980 . A music video was shot for both language versions on November 8, 1980, immediately after the album was released, which was then mixed with scenes from the advertising film for the song Super Trouper , which was made around the same time .
Single releases
Felicidad was released in Argentina in November 1980 and reached number 5. In the USA, Happy New Year was also released in 1980 as a promo single in mono sound on the A-side and stereo sound on the B-side. In 1999 the song was released as a single on the occasion of the upcoming millennium and was able to place in the charts in Sweden (No. 4) and Norway (No. 5) as well as in Germany (No. 75) and the Netherlands (No. 8).
Further editions
- Happy New Year / Andante, Andante --- Portugal, promotional single; re-released in 1999 as CD in the Netherlands, supplemented with The Way Old Friends Do (place 15 - January 8, 2000 - 3 weeks )
- Happy New Year --- Netherlands, USA, promotional single
- Andante, Andante / Felicidad --- El Salvador
- Happy New Year / Angeleyes --- Austria 1998 Mini-CD
- Happy New Year --- as a limited Millennium Edition 1999, together with Ring Ring (German) and Thank You for the Music --- Germany, Netherlands
- Happy New Year / The Way Old Friends Thursday --- December 2011, silver glitter vinyl single limited to 500 copies, distributed exclusively through the official ABBA fansite and the ABBF fan club
Charts
| year | Charts | ||
|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 CH
|
 SE
|
|
| 1999/2000 | 78 (2 weeks) |
- | 27 (4 weeks) |
| 2006/07 | - | - | 22 (1 week) |
| 2007/08 | - | - | 4 (2 weeks) |
| 2008/09 | 77 (2 weeks) |
- | 5 (1 week) |
| 2009/10 | 88 (1 week) |
- | 9 (1 week) |
| 2010/11 | 93 (1 week) |
- | 42 (1 week) |
| 2011/12 | 75 (1 week) |
- | 51 (1 week) |
| 2012/13 | 83 (1 week) |
- | 57 (1 week) |
| 2013/14 | 93 (1 week) |
- | 54 (1 week) |
| 2014/15 | - | - | 68 (1 week) |
| 2015/16 | - | - | 73 (1 week) |
| 2016/17 | - | - | 57 (1 week) |
| 2017/18 | - | - | 51 (1 week) |
| 2018/19 | - | 86 (1 week) |
38 (... weeks) |
| All in all | 75 (9 weeks) |
86 (1 week) |
4 (... weeks) |
literature
- Carl Magnus Palm: Abba. Story and songs compact. Bosworth Edition, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-86543-227-8 (German translation: Cecilia Senge).
- Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow. ABBA - The real story. Bosworth Edition, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-86543-100-4 (German translation: Helmut Müller).
Web links
- Happy New Year - and Merry Christmas! Retrieved July 23, 2018
- Happy New Year on abbaannual.com
- getabba.com (see Collection → Audio Vinyl → Singles (45s) → Happy New Year)
- The Releases ( Memento from March 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- Music video on YouTube
Individual evidence
- ^ ABBA - The Worldwide Chart Lists ( Memento April 5, 2012 on WebCite ) - Argentina
- ↑ Chart tracking Dutch charts
- ↑ Release page "Happy New Year" (Netherlands) at discogs
- ↑ Release page "Happy New Year" US at discogs
- ↑ Release page "Happy New Year" 1998 at discogs
- ↑ Happy New Year - on abbaslatestreleases
- ↑ Chart sources: DE CH SE