Waterloo (song)
| Waterloo | |
|---|---|
| ABBA | |
| publication | March 4th 1974 |
| length | 2:45 |
| Genre (s) | pop |
| Author (s) | Benny Andersson , Stig Anderson , Björn Ulvaeus |
| album | Waterloo |
Waterloo is a song by the Swedish pop group ABBA from 1974. The song was composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus , the lyrics were written by the manager Stig Anderson . The lead singers were Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad . The song was recorded in Swedish, English, German and French. On April 6, 1974, ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton with Waterloo .
Shortly after the competition, the single was released in over 50 countries and became the number one hit in eleven countries, including Germany and Great Britain . Waterloo became ABBA's first million seller and sold over 5 million times worldwide.
Creation and publication
After they were eliminated from the preliminary decision for the Eurovision Song Contest with Ring Ring in 1973 , Andersson, Ulvaeus and Anderson decided again for a happier and faster song. Due to the large amount of additional work they had to do for Polar Music , Andersson and Ulvaeus retired to the island of Viggsö to be able to work there in peace. After a few days there were four melodies to choose from, one of which corresponded to your expectations. They recorded a demo tape for Anderson, whose task it was now to write a text. His title Honey Pie , suggested after a week, did not meet the requirements. In the book Bevingade ord (Well-known Quotes) he found with the three-syllable word "Waterloo" the inspiration for the final text, which is about a love affair and draws comparisons to Napoleon's battle at Waterloo .
A Spanish version was originally planned. The English version was recorded on December 17, 1973 and first released on March 4, 1974 on ABBA's second album Waterloo , with the single also being released in Swedish and English on the same day. On the Swedish single, the Swedish version of Honey was on the B-side, Honey, while Watch Out was used as such on the English single . The single was also released in the course of 1974 in numerous other European countries, including Portugal, Spain, Italy, Yugoslavia and Turkey. Waterloo also appeared as a single in Australia, South Africa, Japan, Mexico and the United States .
successes
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The single Waterloo became a hit in Scandinavia shortly after its release in March 1974. The Swedish version was number 2 in the Swedish charts, the English number 3. In addition, Waterloo became ABBA's first number one hit in Norway . After winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 , the single reached number 1 in a total of ten other countries, namely in Germany , Switzerland , France , Great Britain , Ireland , Belgium , Finland , Denmark, South Africa and Costa Rica. In addition, Waterloo became a top ten hit in eight other countries . The single reached number 2 in Austria, the Netherlands and Zimbabwe, number 3 in Spain and New Zealand, number 4 in Australia and number 7 in Canada. It even made it into the top ten in 6th place in the USA and sold around 800,000 times. In Germany, Waterloo received a gold record for 500,000 copies sold .
Waterloo won with a total of 24 points and thus received 10 points more than the previously favored Olivia Newton-John , who finished fourth. On October 22nd, 2005, the song was named "Best Song in the History of the Competition" at the 50th ESC. In 2004 the song reached number 20 on the British charts when it was re-released for the 30th anniversary.
Others
- In 1974 Waterloo was used as the theme music for the German comedy film I, too, was only a mediocre student .
- In 1994, Waterloo was part of the soundtrack of the film Muriel's Wedding, along with a few other ABBA hits .
- In an episode of The Simpsons (Who is Mona Simpson?) That first aired in 1995, a short excerpt from Waterloo is heard towards the end .
- Since the song is not directly in the plot of the musical Mamma Mia! occurs, it was put at the end as a gimmick. In the film sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again from 2018, however , Waterloo is part of the plot.
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
- ABBA - Waterloo on YouTube
- Waterloo - 40 years since ABBA's breakthrough . Accessed July 23, 2018
- Lyrics on golyr.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow. ABBA - The real story. P. 281
- ↑ ABBA Charts ( 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. Retrieved May 2, 2016
- ↑ SuperSeventies.com "Waterloo"
- ↑ Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow: ABBA - The true story, p. 252.
- ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts CH Charts UK Charts US Charts SE
- ↑ ABBA Charts: Norway ( Memento of the original from February 29, 2012 on WebCite ) 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.
- ↑ ABBA Charts: Denmark ( Memento of the original from October 29, 2013 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 April 29, 2016
- ↑ 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 April 29, 2016
- ↑ ABBA Charts: South Africa ( Memento of the original from February 13, 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 April 29, 2016
- ↑ ABBA Charts: Costa Rica ( Memento of the original from October 13, 2009 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 April 29, 2016
- ↑ Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow. ABBA - The real story. 1st edition. Bosworth Musikverlag, 2002, ISBN 3-936026-42-4 , p. 279 .
- ^ Günter Ehnert: Hit balance sheet - German chart singles 1956-1980 . 1st edition. Verlag popular music-literature, Norderstedt 2000, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 , p. 443 .
