An ABBA song that could have been great...

Always wondered why they settled for those lyrics on an otherwise flawless album. However The Police had an equally bad title in De Do Do Do De Da Da. I sure there must be others out there ...Agadoo , Da Da Da, Toast , I eat cannibals etc.

(Disagree with madonabba about The Police's 'De Do Do Do' - I think it's a perfect title for quite a clever little throwaway song about being tongue-tied. And let's face it, we've all been there!)

Some ABBA tracks would perhaps have been 'better' if they'd appeared in a different place on an album. I still think 'Arrival' would have been much more effective as a stately album opener, offering a bit of grandeur (and signifying the album's arrival, of course) before DQ piles in. In its regular place at the end of Side 2, it just sounds like an afterthought and doesn't give me the sense that, having listened to the whole album, we've arrived anywhere particular. I'd have ended Side 2 with a beefed-up 'Tiger' - now that's a song that's pretty good but SHOULD have been a dyed-in-the-wool, world-renowned mega-classic. Needs more a bit more 'heft' in the production and an injection of drama more generally, I think. Could have been epic, but isn't really.

richard, I feel exactly the opposite about Should I Laugh Or Cry - I love the kind of haunting verses but can't stand the chorus It only shows how individual tastes can differ...

Well… no hope I've been listening to the song for years and every time the chorus comes, it spoils it for me It's not that it's completely bad, it just don't match the mood of the verse in my opinion as it's very lightweight… As for TDBYC, I'm one of those who love it.

I'm one of those who loves Lovers. If you ask me, it's just a remix away from being single worthy. The backing vocals on the chorus are too upfront and shrill. If they cooled that down in a mix and continued the sexiness that Frida brings to the verses, I reckon it would be near perfect. And that string arrangement! Gorgeous!

As for Should I Laugh Or Cry?, those verses are perfection. That guitar riff, Frida's embittered lead vocal, that weapons-grade reverb, then those incredibly angelic call-and-response backing vocals in the second verse - all spine-tingling stuff. I can't understand why they didn't work a little harder on the transition from the verse to the chorus. Lyrically and vocally, it's spot on all the way through the song, but the jaunty feel of the chorus jars with everything. I sometimes wonder if the acoustic guitar might be the biggest culprit. It's a song I could almost imagine on Frida's Shine album, with a Twist In The Dark-style production. 

I totally agree with the selection of Dum Dum Diddle  for this list. The tune, the singing and the production (for the most part) are spot on. It's the only blip on an otherwise flawless album. Another song that might even have been single-worthy had the lyrics been better.

The same problem blights Bang A Boomerang for me. Terrific tune, brimful of energy and brilliant vocals. But that title, those chorus lyrics? Sheesh. 

One of my all time favourites is Hey, Hey, Helen. I know it's not held in the greatest of esteem by Benny and some fans, but I think it's an absolute highlight of its parent album. I think a beefier drum sound, a lead vocal rather than the unison singing and more emphasis on that gospel feel that colours the outro chorus would have made a huge difference. For me the drums are too light on both this and Rock Me.

Finally, I think My Mama Said is the biggest loser when it comes to really bad lyrics. Musically, it's a much needed move into an adult sound on the album. It has a  soulfulness and swing to it, and it feels like a natural partner for the grown-up warmth of Gonna Sing You My Lovesong. GSYMLS has a surprisingly good lyric, but MMS really misses the mark for me. 

Some interesting thoughts here.

I'm one of those who love 'Lovers (Live A Little Longer)' now. What can I say? It grew on me, like so many ABBA songs. How much is because it's not been overplayed, I'm not sure. But I definitely feel it more now. There is that shrillness but I can live with that. 'Tiger' I think is perfection but I can understand how it could be improved with a little tweaking. Something along the lines of the sound of She Sells Sanctuary by The Mission, perhaps? Really rock out.

Another forgotten gem is Lovelight. Personally, I adore it but I'm probably in the minority. I concede it needs a little something but oh there's just something so lovely and whimsical in there and moments of real, almost celestial joy.

I think what Lovelight needs is better verses. I'm not wild about them, but the chorus is catchy.

Yes, some interesting opinions and comments.
I find that, as I've acquired additional and different tastes in music over the years - not a bad thing in itself, I think - I've become more 'picky and niggly', which means I enjoy less than I used to a number of songs, including a number of ABBA's. The compensation for me is that I enjoy other songs I wouldn't have done before.
But I'm almost envious of Hometime - great contribution, by the way -- that he can use such words as 'perfection' and ''spine-tingling' for the SILOC verses, which  don''t appeal to me so much nowadays.

I think your " observation " is spot on and his possibly wasn't !

I agree with you about That's Me. It's a decent song but it sounds like they ran out of ideas when trying to resolve the end of the song. That fade out seems to come from nowehere. It should have faded during an instrumental passage or the song should have been given a natural end. 

The sheer catchiness and immediate appeal of many ABBA songs can make one ignore the brilliance of the arrangements sometimes because it's all so wonderfully integrated - as it should be, of course. But two of their songs come to mind which I think rely more crucially than most on their arrangements, in the sense that I can't imagine them working in any other way: Knowing Me, Knowing You, and When All Is Said And Done. (I'm vaguely aware that Benny did a version of WAISAD comprising just him on piano with a singer, which I should check out. I hope, after hearing it, that I don't think it makes a nonesense of my argument!).

Played as single line tunes (no supporting bass notes or chords), the me!odic kernals of these two songs don't strike me as being particularly promising as the bases for songs. But of course I'm dead wrong. It's the genius of Benny and Bjorn to have seen, and realised so brilliantly, the possibilities.

Having said that, although Angeleyes is one of my favourites, I do consider the arrangement to be overloaded and dense. So I wonder if anyone thinks there is an ABBA song/track that would have benefited from a more pared-down, 'less is more', approach?

Regarding fades, with songs planned to end that way, I'm guessing they just carried carried on singing until they got a signal that said 'that's enough'.
ABBA weren't immune, I think, from using fades to fill out a song to a desired length.

As for pared-down versions. ..I actually think many ABBA songs would benefit from that approach- but as an added bonus. I so would have loved to have heard Agnetha and Frida sing acapella versions of some of the big, strident hits, purely for contrast and added appreciation.

Yes, Richard. I'd love that. Don't get me wrong- I love the music as much as the vocals but I love to dissect things. Maybe it's a throwback to when I was a kid and I used to dismantle my watches to see how they worked!

In the same way I love to hear instrumental versions of ABBA songs, I am always thrilled when someone uploads isolated harmonies and the like of ABBA songs to YouTube.