People need love
| People need love | |
|---|---|
| Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid | |
| publication | June 1972 |
| length | 2:45 |
| Genre (s) | Pop , rock |
| Author (s) | Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus |
| Label | Polar Music |
| album | Ring ring |
People Need Love is the first single by the Swedish pop group ABBA . It was released in June 1972 with the B-side Merry-Go-Round . The piece was composed by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson , the lead vocals are sung in pairs by the four musicians. The song is about the desire for peace and harmony.
Background and origin
Since the beginning of their collaboration in the summer of 1966, Andersson and Ulvaeus wanted to produce a “real” pop song. Because their single, She's My Kind of Girl, had become a hit in Japan in 1971, they decided to record an English pop song as a group with their two partners, Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad . Andersson and Ulvaeus were inspired by Blue Mink as well as The Sweet and Middle of the Road .
"We listened to these bands and said: 'We can do that at least as well'"
The recording
On March 29, 1972, the song was recorded in the Metronome studio in Stockholm's Vasastan district. The backing band consisted of Janne Schaffer as guitarist, Mike Watson as bassist and Ola Brunkert on drums. Andersson took over the piano and Ulvaeus played the second guitar. Also recorded was a song called Merry-Go-Round , which only includes the women as background singers. In People Need Love , women and men take turns, and at the end Lyngstad and Fältskog sang a kind of yodel as a gimmick .
Publication and Success
As early as April 30, 1972, People Need Love was performed on the Swedish television program Vi i femman . This performance, in which the four musicians sat around a piano, is considered their first joint television appearance as a musical group . The song was released as a single in early June, making it the very first single of the future band. On January 6, 1973 they appeared with the piece on the German music show Disco , in which Fältskog was replaced by a friend due to her pregnancy. This appearance with their first single was also the first television appearance of the (incomplete) group in Germany. The group name was given the somewhat longer name "Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid", which annoyed Stig Anderson , the owner of Polar Music and later manager of the group, because he found the name ridiculous. In addition, Fältskog and Lyngstad were under contract with other labels, which is why Anderson had to make payments to them.
For the cover, a picture was taken from the advertisement for the festfolk tours of the four artists, which was taken in 1970 under a rain canopy on the Stockholm island of Djurgården . Immediately after its release, the single reached number 5 on the Swedish “ Tio i topp ” charts and shortly afterwards it reached number 3. On July 25, 1972, the single rose to number 17 on the combined single and album sales charts. It was thanks to this success that the group decided to record a joint album in the autumn of the same year.
literature
- Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow. ABBA - The real story. Bosworth Musikverlag, Berlin 2009, 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 ( compact story and songs ), (German translation: Cecilia Senge).
Web links
- People Need Love - The First ABBA Song . Retrieved July 23, 2018
- Lyrics on golyr.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow. ABBA - The True Story, p. 211
- ↑ youtube.com: ABBA - People need love 1973
- ↑ http://www.abbasite.com/discography/album/people-need-love-merry-go-round/
- ↑ Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow. ABBA - The True Story, p. 213