Super trouper

This article describes the album. For the song of the same name, see Super Trouper (song) , for the headlight, which is the namesake of the song and album, see Super Trouper (headlight) .

Super trouper
ABBA studio album
Publication (s)	3rd November 1980
Label (s)	Polar Music
Format (s)	CD, LP, MC
Genre (s)	pop
Title (number)	10/12
running time	41m57s
occupation	Benny Andersson - synthesizer, keyboard, vocals Agnetha Fältskog - vocals Anni-Frid Lyngstad - vocals Björn Ulvaeus - acoustic guitar, vocals Ola Brunkert - drums Lars Carlsson - horn Anders Glenmark - guitar Rutger Gunnarsson - bass, guitar Janne Kling - flute, saxophone Per Lindvall - drums Janne Schaffer - guitar Ake Sundqvist - percussion Mike Watson - bass Let Wellander - guitar Kajtek Wojciechowski - saxophone
production	Benny Andersson Bjorn Ulvaeus
Studio (s)	Polar Studio Stockholm
chronology Gracias por la música (1980) Super trouper The Visitors (1981)
Single releases July 21, 1980 The Winner Takes It All November 1980 Super trouper

Super Trouper is the seventh studio album by the Swedish pop group ABBA . It was first published in Sweden on November 3, 1980, and internationally at the end of November of the same year. The recordings lasted from February to October 1980. The album includes the two worldwide released singles The Winner Takes It All and the song of the same name Super Trouper , as well as some other, country-specific releases. Just two months after publication, a total of four million copies had been sold.

"Super Trouper" is the type designation of a special stage spotlight the company Strong Entertainment Lighting , with which one illuminates the artist from the line of sight of the audience.

Emergence

After completing the America-Europe tour at the end of 1979, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus traveled to Barbados in January 1980 . When they returned, they had composed five new songs, so recording began on February 4, 1980 with the backing tracks of On and On and On , Andante, Andante , Happy New Year and The Piper . For Andersson's sake, some passages of On and On and On were sung in choir with the head voice , as he was a fan of the Beach Boys and they had done the same with their song Do It Again from 1968. The text is about the flirtations that occasionally take place in high society and includes an additional stanza in an extended version. Also recorded in February were the basic tracks of Elaine , which was later used as the B-side of the single The Winner Takes It All . Work on the new productions continued until the beginning of March 1980. The group then went on their last live tour to Japan, which lasted until the end of March and comprised a total of eleven concerts.

After ABBA returned from their last concert tour to Sweden, the vocals for the five songs that had already started were sung in in April 1980 . By May the tracks were revised and mixed , which is why the recording of new compositions did not begin until the beginning of June. One of them was the never completed and unreleased track Burning My Bridges , which was based on country music and is only included as an excerpt in the 1994 medly ABBA Undeleted .

The songs The Winner Takes It All and Our Last Summer were initially experimented with, especially on the basic tracks of the former, which they had already tried on June 2, 1980, but rejected. Two weeks later, The Winner Takes It All was finished and was released as a single on July 21, 1980. This formed the first foretaste of the new ABBA album and developed into an international bestseller . It reached the top ten of the charts in 21 countries , in six of them number 1. The ballad was later described by both the lyricist Ulvaeus and the lead singer Agnetha Fältskog as "the best ABBA song ever". Also, Our Last Summer was completed in mid-June.

Another recording break followed in July and August. a. the music video for The Winner Takes It All was filmed. In August the composers devoted themselves to new songs and traveled to London for a few days. The sessions continued in September 1980. The musicians worked on Me and I , Lay All Your Love on Me and Put On Your White Sombrero . The album title "Super Trouper" had already been decided at this point, although there were no plans to record a song of the same name. At that time, however, the cover design of the album was already being considered. Since the term " super trouper " colloquially describes large stage lights, the Europa Film Studios in Stockholm were used in October 1980 for photo and film recordings in which ABBA is surrounded by a crowd and illuminated by various spotlights. In addition to the group and some circus artists, employees from Polar Music as well as friends and acquaintances of the group members were also present. The recordings produced there can be seen on the album cover as well as in the music videos of Super Trouper and Happy New Year .

According to Andersson and Ulvaeus, the track Super Trouper was a kind of “last minute song” for the album, the basic tracks of which were recorded on October 3, 1980. Just ten days later, recordings of all the songs were completed, including a Spanish version of Andante, Andante and the live recording of The Way Old Friends Do , which was recorded during their 1979 tour. This title was heavily reworked for the LP. The applause at the end of the Swedish LP merges into the outlet groove and is repeated endlessly until the record player is switched off. The album's track list now consisted of ten tracks, with neither Elaine nor Put On Your White Sombrero being included. The latter, like Burning My Bridges , was only released in 1994 on the compilation Thank You for the Music , but in contrast to this in its full version. Since 2001, both Elaine and Put On Your White Sombrero have been included as bonus tracks on the CD edition of the album Super Trouper .

Chart successes

album

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	SE
1980	Super trouper	DE1 × 2 Double platinum (51 weeks)DE	AT3 (34 weeks) AT	-	UK1 platinum (43 weeks)UK	US17th gold (38 weeks)US	SE1 (22 weeks) SE

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Super Trouper was released in Sweden on November 3rd, 1980 and entered the charts a week later. Two weeks later, it reached number 1 , which it held for eight weeks. A million copies of the album were pre-ordered in the UK, so Super Trouper quickly became number 1 there and at the same time the most successful album of the year. Also in Germany , Norway and the Netherlands came Super Trouper at No. 1, while it reached in Finland the 2nd place. In order to promote the album, the group or individual group members u. a. to Germany, France and Spain, so that it soon entered the top ten of these countries and came 8th in France, and even 3rd in Spain. The LP was also successful in many countries outside Europe; it reached number 1 in Mexico and Zimbabwe and number 2 in Argentina, number 4 in Canada, number 5 in Australia and New Zealand and number 8 in Japan. In addition, Super Trouper was awarded gold in the USA . The album sold between seven and ten million copies worldwide, making it one of the most successful ABBA albums.

Singles

After The Winner Takes It All was released as the first single from the album and had great success worldwide, Super Trouper was also released on single in November 1980 at the same time as the album. This too became an international success and reached number 1 in six countries, including Germany and Great Britain, as well as the top ten in seven others. Super Trouper also appeared in the USA (45th place), Australia (77th place), Mexico (3rd place), Japan (93rd place) and Zimbabwe (18th place). In the following year 1981 Lay All Your Love On Me appeared in Great Britain (7th place), the Netherlands (kP) and France (18th place) with On And On And On as the B-side. In Australia (9th place), New Zealand (kP), the USA (90th place) and Japan (52nd place) the latter appeared as the A-side. In some Latin American countries, such as Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and El Salvador, Andante, Andante appeared as A or B side in 1981 , as well as in Portugal and South Africa. However, these single issues could not be successfully placed in the charts in any of the countries.

Singles in the charts

year	Title B side	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, B-side , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	SE
1980	The Winner Takes It All Elaine	DE4 (29 weeks) DE	AT3 (18 weeks) AT	CH3 (11 weeks) CH	UK1 silver (10 weeks)UK	US8 (26 weeks) US	SE2 (16 weeks) SE	First published: July 21, 1980
	Super Trouper The Piper	DE1 (30 weeks) DE	AT3 (20 weeks) AT	CH3 (12 weeks) CH	UK1 gold (12 weeks)UK	US45 (11 weeks) US	SE11 (8 weeks) SE	First published: November 14, 1980

Track list

page 1

1. Super trouper
2. The Winner Takes It All
3. On and on and on
4. Andante, Andante
5. Me and I

Page 2

1. happy New Year
2. Our last summer
3. The Piper
4. Lay All Your Love on Me
5. The Way Old Friends Thu

Bonus tracks

The following songs have been added to the 2001 remastered version:

1. Elaine
2. Put On Your White Sombrero

The following songs including DVD have been added to the 2011 Deluxe Edition:

1. Elaine
2. On And On And On (music video version with additional bridge )
3. Put On Your White Sombrero
4. Andante, Andante (Spanish version)
5. Felicidad (Spanish version of Happy New Year  )

See also

• List of the best-selling music albums certified by BVMI in Germany

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

• The Making Of Super Trouper . Retrieved July 23, 2018
• “Super Trouper” on abbaannual.com
• “Super Trouper” on allmusic.com
• Cover picture

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow. ABBA - The real story. Paperback edition, Bosworth 2006, pp. 493-499.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Carl Magnus Palm: Abba - Story and Songs compact, Bosworth Verlag, 2006, p. 69 - p. 77
3. ↑ ABBA Omnibus information on Burning My Bridges
4. ↑ ^{a b c} ABBA - The Worldwide Chart Lists ( Memento of the original from April 6, 2012 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ ABBA Omnibus information on Put On Your White Sombrero
6. ↑ ABBA Charts: United Kingdom - Additional Information ( Memento of the original from March 10, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 10, 2016 
7. ↑ ABBA Charts: Finland ( Memento of the original from June 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 10, 2016 
8. ↑ ABBA Charts: France ( Memento of the original from March 29, 2012 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 10, 2016 
9. ↑ ABBA Charts: Españole / Spain ( Memento of the original of October 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 10, 2016 
10. ^ Recording Industry Association of America database
11. ↑ ABBA sales ( Memento of the original from July 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Worldwide album sales (estimated)