“Happy New Year” is a popular song by Swedish pop group ABBA from their 1980 album Super Trouper. The lead vocals are by Agnetha Fältskog. The song’s working title was all the more festive and humorous; “Daddy Don’t Get Drunk on Christmas Day”. Although recorded in 1980, the English-language song wasn’t released as a single until 1999 and charted in Sweden, The Netherlands (#8),[3] and Germany (#75), to promote the CD re-release of many of ABBA’s singles.
See My Baby Jive is a song by the British glam rock band Wizzard. Written and produced by Roy Wood, See My Baby Jive was the second single by Wood’s band and their first to reach number one in the UK, spending four weeks at the top of the chart during May and June 1973. The record is deeply indebted to Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. ABBA later acknowledged its influence on their first major international hit “Waterloo” the following year. A cover version by Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids was released in 1977.
“Voulez-Vous” (“do you want?” in French) is a eurodisco track by Swedish pop group ABBA, written and composed by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus (under the working title “Amerika”). Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad shared the lead vocals. The song is the second track on the group’s 1979 album of the same name. In the UK, “Voulez-Vous” was released as a double A-side with “Angeleyes” (“Angeleyes” was the dominant A-side); nearly everywhere else, “Voulez-Vous” was a single A-side. The song also features on the ABBA Gold album, first as a 4:21 edited version when the compilation was first released in 1992 and then in its full 5:09 version from 1999 onwards. “Angeleyes” is featured on the More ABBA Gold compilation. The song was re-released as a single in 1992 to promote the compilation ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits. “Voulez-Vous” is also the only ABBA song to have been officially released as an extended dance remix – albeit only as a promo. The 6:07 version of the track, released as a double A-side 12″ single by Atlantic Records in the United States in 1979, was included as a bonus track on the 2001 compilation The Definitive Collection. The song features a saxophone break which is reminiscent of that featured in John Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night”. A songwriting trip to the Bahamas saw the birth of this melody, and the proximity to Miami made it convenient to recording the backing track at Criteria Studios with members of the disco group Foxy. Criteria Studios is where The Bee Gees made their disco-era records. “Voulez-Vous” is the only ABBA song to be recorded outside of Sweden, not including live recordings.
“Dancing Queen” is a pop song recorded by Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released in August 1976, but was first performed two months earlier, on 18 June 1976, during a Royal Variety Show in Stockholm the evening before the Swedish royal wedding. It was the follow-up single to the hit “Fernando” and is commonly regarded as one of the most successful singles of the 1970s. “Dancing Queen” was written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, and Stig Anderson and is considered by many to be ABBA’s signature song, as it reached the number 1 position on popular music charts in 13 countries. Recorded in 1975, it was released on the group’s album Arrival the following year and as a single with “That’s Me” as the B-side. The song was re-released as a single in 1992 to promote the compilation “ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits”. In 2009, the British performing rights group Phonographic Performance Limited celebrated its 75th anniversary by listing the 75 songs that have played most in Great Britain on the radio, in clubs and on jukeboxes. “Dancing Queen” was number eight on the list. “Dancing Queen” features the shared lead vocal performance of Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad.
“I Know There’s Something Going On” is a song recorded in 1982 by ABBA singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad (Frida). It was the lead single from her solo album Something’s Going On. The song was a huge hit around the world during 1982 and 1983. Recording began in ABBA’s Polar Music Studio, Stockholm, in February 1982. As ABBA were unofficially on a break, Lyngstad spent time on her solo project. At the time of recording this song/album, Frida wanted to distance herself from “the typical ABBA pop sound”. “I Know There’s Something Going On” was written by Russ Ballard and produced by Genesis drummer & singer Phil Collins, who also played drums on the song. The back-up vocals are sung by Lyngstad herself & Collins. The song and video were released in Autumn 1982 and became a massive hit. It hit No. 1 in France (spending five weeks on top), Belgium, Switzerland and Costa Rica and was a Top 10 hit throughout the whole of Europe, as well as in Australia and South Africa. In the United States, the track reached No. 13. In the UK, the song peaked at No. 43 in September 1982 and spent seven weeks inside the Top 75. The single sold 3.5 million copies worldwide. A one hour TV documentary about the making of the album and this song, is included in Frida – The DVD. The whole recording process, from day one in the studio to the release party, was filmed by Swedish TV SVT. This documentary includes interviews with Frida and Phil, Björn and Benny from ABBA, as well as all the musicians playing on the album. The music video was directed by Stuart Orme and filmed at several locations in London, England in early July 1982. The video, which received heavy promotion on MTV due to the worldwide success of the song, shows Frida as a young woman in a struggling relationship. She then discovers through photos taken at a fashion shoot that her husband or lover is seeing another woman. The video is included in Frida – The DVD.
This 45 rpm was a promotional created for Coca-Cola Japan by Discomate Records. The cover of the record features an illustration of the ABBA band members Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltslog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad and the back has the lyrics to the song and the advertising slogan used at the time in Japan, Yes Coke Yes. The record itself has the song on one side and an autographed photograph of the band. While the song was not one of the bands biggest hits, it was used in the musical and movie versions of Mamma Mia. As a collectible, you can find several copies on e-Bay for $ 40.00 to $ 60.00. [Source]
Agnetha sings her second song on “The Heat Is On” Special from April 1983. This show was part of a promotional tour to publicise her first solo album after Abba, which was called “Wrap Your Arms Around Me”. The album reached No.1 in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Belgium and Denmark. Here she sings the title track from the album. This song had limited release as a single, but still reached No.1 in Belgium and No.3 in Holland. Her whispering technique here is as hot as anything you will ever see in a song. She censors it herself by turning her back completely to the audience. As always Agnetha does not hold back in her performances. This will set your temperatures rising alright! Lyrics: Mike Chapman, Holly Knight.
Phenomenal Handclap Band are back! Their forward-thinking, genre-spanning dance party continues on the ambitious new album Form & Control, the follow-up to their acclaimed self-titled debut. PHB’s compelling fusion of international psych rock, soulful pop, and cosmic disco takes things to the next level, and is already drawing comparisons to Blondie, Human League, Roxy Music (Bryan Ferry himself is calling PHB his “favorite new band”) and even Abba (from their long lost collaboration with Conny Plank maybe ?) – the six piece band are brighter, bolder and better than ever before.
Originally the video for “Hung Up” was scheduled to be directed by photographer David LaChapelle. LaChapelle wanted the video to have a “documentary”-style look, much like that of his 2005 film Rize, of which five of the dancers from the “Hung Up” video appeared. LaChapelle and Madonna disagreed on the concept, prompting the project to be reassigned to Johan Renck, who worked with Madonna in her video for “Nothing Really Matters”. According to an interview with MTV, Renck was directing Kate Moss for a H&M commercial whence he received a phone call from Madonna who desperately wanted to work with him. The next day he went to Los Angeles to meet the stylist and the choreographer hired by Madonna, who mailed him with her ideas for the video.
