Mamma Mia (song)

Mamma Mia
ABBA
publication	19th September 1975
length	3:35
Genre (s)	Europop , pop
Author (s)	Benny Andersson , Stig Anderson , Björn Ulvaeus
album	ABBA

Mamma Mia is a song by the Swedish pop group ABBA . It was released in April 1975 on the group's third album, also called ABBA . The lead vocals were taken over by Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog . Stig Anderson wrote the text ; Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus composed the music.

In September 1975 Mamma Mia was released as a single in Australia and then worldwide. This is of great importance in the group's discography insofar as ABBA succeeded in returning to first place in the international singles charts after a lengthy unsuccessful phase.

The title "Mamma Mia" ("my mom") refers to the well-known Italian phrase, which is used colloquially as an exclamation of surprise, joy or shock in the sense of "My goodness!" The play is about a woman who is repeatedly disappointed by her unfaithful partner and yet forgives him because she is not steadfast enough to pull through a breakup.

Emergence

ABBA had already taken a big step in the direction of their own style with the track SOS , which was also included on the album . Mamma Mia was subsequently a slight increase. There are hardly any influences from rock music of the 1960s in the music. When performing the music, the authors and musicians used the typical style of Phil Spector , in which the instruments are recorded several times on different tracks and then mixed individually. On the other hand, the polyphonic singing style of the Beach Boys was an important source of inspiration, from which the composers Andersson and Ulvaeus developed a personal musical trait that has since been characteristic of a large part of the famous ABBA songs.

The recordings for Mamma Mia ran from March 12 to 16, 1975 and were the last for the album ABBA , which was released on April 21 of the same year. The artists used the most modern studio technology, experimented with the instruments and tried out various technical variants. A marimba was also used, a xylophone- like percussion instrument, which, among other things, introduces and ends the song. Andersson discovered such a marimba in the studio and initially only wanted to temporarily tune in various bars, which, however, pleased and were therefore integrated into the piece. This instrument in particular became the song's trademark. The orchestra conductor Sven-Olof Waldoff took care of the string arrangement. In January 1980 the song was recorded with Spanish lyrics and released in June 1980 on the album Gracias por la música .

Released as a single

Were originally part of Polar Music by So Long , I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do and SOS no further single releases from the album ABBA planned. The marketing concept of Stig Anderson was based on promoting a whole album with a smaller number of singles and increasing the demand for it, as this achieved greater profits. Too many singles led, according to Anderson, to a reduction in the demand for long-playing records and thus to lost profits. Therefore the request of the record company RCA, responsible for the distribution in Australia, for a single release of Mamma Mia was initially rejected.

This request was the result of a rapidly growing interest in the group ABBA and in particular in Mamma Mia , whose music video was broadcast on Australian television in early August 1975. At the insistence of numerous calls the television station received, the clip was broadcast a second time a week later. After further inquiries from Polar Music, RCA finally managed to release Mamma Mia as a single, albeit initially limited to Australia. In ABBA's home country Sweden, Mamma Mia was not released as a single, as the album had already achieved the desired success here.

B sides

The single was released in different countries with different backs, which with the exception of the Japanese B-side People Need Love all came from the album ABBA and are listed below:

• Intermezzo No. 1 ( instrumental ) --- FRG, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Netherlands, Yugoslavia
• Tropical Loveland --- GDR, Spain, Great Britain, USA
• People Need Love --- Japan
• SOS --- Italy, Argentina
• Fernando --- Mexico
• Bang-A-Boomerang --- Turkey
• Hey, Hey, Helen --- Australia, New Zealand, South Africa

reception

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Singles

Mamma Mia   DE 1 December 15, 1975 (24 weeks)   AT 3 January 15, 1976 (16 weeks)   CH 1 December 19, 1975 (25 weeks)   UK 1 December 13, 1975 (21 weeks)   US 32 05/22/1976 (9 weeks)

Since Mamma Mia was released at the request of RCA , the success of the single was initially limited to Australia. It entered the charts on September 22, 1975 and reached number 1 on November 3 , after the previous single I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do had topped the chart for three weeks. Mamma Mia held the position for ten straight weeks, making her one of the most successful singles of the year. It achieved 9 golds and was sold at least 135,000 times. This success marked a significant step in ABBA's career and contributed significantly to Abbamania in Australia.

In Great Britain, Mamma Mia was released on November 14, 1975 and reached number 1 on the charts on January 31, 1976 . The single was awarded silver. Mamma Mia also topped the charts in Germany and is estimated to have sold 320,000 times. The single also reached number 1 in Ireland , Switzerland and Costa Rica. It came in second in Belgium, Norway and New Zealand, third in Austria and fourth in South Africa. In Canada, Zimbabwe, Finland and the Netherlands, the single made it into the top 20.

Mamma Mia has been covered more than 20 times by numerous bands such as the A * Teens , Abbacadabra and the Black Ingvars . On April 6, 1999, the musical Mamma Mia! Premiere based on the most famous ABBA songs . This extraordinarily successful stage show was followed in 2008 by the film based on the musical , which has since been one of the most successful musical adaptations, and its sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again in 2018. In the first film the piece is interpreted by Meryl Streep , in the second by Lily James .

literature

• ABBA. (Album). Text accompanying the CD by Carl Magnus Palm, 2001.
• Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow. ABBA - The real story. Bosworth Musikverlag, Berlin 2002, 638 pages. ISBN 978-3-86543-100-4 (German translation: Helmut Müller).
• Carl Magnus Palm: Abba. Story and songs compact. Bosworth Music, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-86543-227-8 (German translation: Cecilia Senge).
• Robert Scott: ABBA - Thank You for the Music. The stories for all songs. Edel & Rockbuch Verlag Germany, 1st edition 2011, 175 pages. ISBN 978-3-84190-105-7 .

Web links

• Mamma Mia - The Song that saved ABBA . Retrieved July 23, 2018
• Single cover
• Lyrics on golyr.de
• Music video on YouTube

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ABBA Gold- The Success Story, p. 46
2. ↑ Carl Magnus Palm: Abba - Story and songs compact. Page 35f
3. ↑ Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow. ABBA - The real story. Page 312f
4. ↑ Italian Leo Dictionary meaning "Mamma Mia"
5. ↑ Carl Magnus Palm: Abba - Story and songs compact. P. 37f.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow. ABBA - The real story. Page 300f (applies to the entire section)
7. ↑ Abba Annual Abba Album Info
8. ↑ Abba Gold , p. 57f. . Elisabeth Vincentenelli. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004. ISBN 978-0-8264-1546-2
9. ↑ Data for the ABBA album on www.discogs.com
10. ↑ Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow. ABBA - The real story. Page 311f
11. ↑ Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow. ABBA - The real story. Page 326
12. ↑ www.abba4therecord.com , record covers and records from different countries. Enter Mamma Mia in the search field.
13. ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts CH Charts UK Charts US
14. ↑ ABBA Charts: Australia - Additional Information ( Memento from April 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). Accessed May 2, 2016
15. ↑ Peter Charley: THE ABBA ALBUM Horowitz Publications, January 1977 (?) Retrieved April 2, 2016
16. ^ ^{A b} British Phonographic Industry Certified Awards, database search, accessed May 2, 2016
17. ↑ UK Mix estimate based on the German Top 20 - The Chart Of 1976.Retrieved on May 2, 2016
18. ↑ ABBA Charts ( memento from April 6, 2012 on WebCite ). Accessed May 2, 2016
19. ↑ ABBA Charts ( Memento from February 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive )