Angeleyes/Voulez-Vous - 40 years on

Rock Me was included on Greatest Hits Vol 2 as it was a hit in Australia (in reality, it was the flip side of I Do and they merely turned over the same record and promoted it). I Wonder is the real head-scratcher. The only one not to be a single anywhere.

Today.. Ironically Angeleyes played on UK radio 2 Steve Wright in the Afternoon show.. couldn’t believe 40 years ago and mentioned that the harmonies are very complicated..

Its been a little bit of ABBA this week I’ve heard  VV and DQ in the past few days.. still radio favourites..

I've never been a fan of the whole Double A-side concept if both tracks are from the same album. One track always suffers, like a default B-side. "Voulez-Vous" was strong enough to lead a charge on the charts on its own. I wasn't so confident about "Angeleyes" at the time and was a little taken aback that its side A1 status effectively relegated the album's sassy title track to almost-B-side status. 

All these years later, I tend to favour "Angeleyes" over "Voulez-Vous." I love the whole Motown/disco hybrid and the way that its intrinsic ABBAness cuts through any categorisation. What really tipped the balance for me, was John Grant's gorgeously heartbroken acoustic cover. 

Speaking of the intricate harmonies on offer, I recently found these videos on YouTube. Both sides of the single represented.

And also the Czars’ version.  

Is it just me, or do the lyrics sound quite sinister in these versions?  It’s now a man singing and the “young girl” line is changed to “young boy” and to me this implies something much worse is going on.

I seem to recall a disagreement I had with a non-native English speaker on a previous forum about how “young girl” can still imply someone of 16 or older but “young boy” might not. Certainly in UK English, we’d tend to say “young man” or “young lad” to mean a young adult. For some unknown reason, “girl” or even “young girl” can still imply someone in their late teens or early 20s.

A friend heard one of those versions (I think it was the Czars one) and, although they knew it was an ABBA cover, they weren’t familiar with the original.  At that point, I hadn’t heard the version they were referring to but they wanted me to confirm what and who the song is about in ABBA’s version.  It was only when I heard it for myself that I realised why they were asking.

Sorry, Alan. I did mean The Czars (lead vocal by John Grant; I know he did a live version with Villagers later, but the Czars' version is the definitive one for me)

I have to admit that I didn't notice the "young boy" nuance at first, and simply wondered why he hadn't used "guy" instead. The sinister retelling really changes everything, adding layers and layers to an otherwise traditional love gone wrong lyric. Grant is quite the ABBA fan. He also does a lovely modern version of "My Love, My Life."

I know that the whole Mamma Mia thing is enormously successful, but there are times when I try to imagine a whole new story rooted in ABBA songs, something more human and relatable. For instance, I feel that "I Wonder (Departure)" could be a coming out song - you wouldn't even have to change a word. Weaving that alternative "Angeleyes" theme into the storyline would make things darker, but if ABBA's music couldn't soundtrack a dark story, whose could?

HOMETIME, yes, “young guy” is another acceptable alternative I was looking for.  The combination of “young” and “boy” suggests only one thing to me.  It must have been intentional in both those versions?

The evolution of language, intention, and artistic reinterpretation might all have a part to play here. If English wasn't John Grant's first language, I'd be better prepared to consider it a linguistic accident.The replacement of just one word in "Angeleyes" changes the story utterly. I think Bjorn would approve. I think it unlikely that Grant, a very intelligent and articulate lyricist himself, would have been unaware of the different impact of the difference between guy and boy.  

As for "the boys and girls in ABBA," my elderly neighbour refers to other women as girls - one such girl celebrated her 70th birthday last Sunday. I notice that Benny and Bjorn have to stop themselves referring to Frida and Agnetha as girls. It's cute (even if one the accidental sexism drives one of my friends insane!).

I’m resurrecting this thread because I happened to catch Top of The Pops from this week in 1979 on BBC Four tonight.

David Jensen introduced the Voulez-Vous video by explaining it was a double A-side, with Angeleyes on one side and this one on the other.

Angeleyes remains the only track on the Voulez-Vous album for which no visual performance was ever made. Even As Good As New was performed on the tour that year (though no footage of it exists).

My understanding is that the two tracks were alternated on radio chart shows (and presumably both tracks got airplay outside of that?) but any TV promotion had no choice but to use the Voulez-Vous video.

The double A-side strategy clearly worked, as the single was a bigger hit in the UK than it was in most other countries, but I’d still love to know how it came about. CBS/Epic didn’t just choose it randomly, they would have done market research on the popularity of the two tracks. The outcome led to Angeleyes being the favoured A-side and therefore listed first.

There was no chance of ABBA filming a video for it, or coming to the UK to promote it, and Angeleyes wasn’t one of the tracks performed on ABBA In Switzerland. Therefore what made the UK licensee so sure of it that it could overcome such obstacles? And also that, as the track was listed first, it was intended to be the primary A-side even though in reality both tracks would have to get exposure?

It wouldn’t be the last time this happened either. Lay All Your Love On Me similarly had no visual performance whereas its b-side, On and On and On, kind of did. That time there was no double A-side and a rather dodgy video assembled, but again it somehow worked commercially.

This is where I really wish someone who worked for CBS in the UK at that time would come out of the woodwork and give an insight on how and why certain decisions were made. As a major player in a major market, they could advise and influence Polar to their advantage, but clearly not in all cases.

The more I see the 1979 videos, the more annoyed I get. The clips filmed in 1979 must rank as ABBA's laziest and cheapest videos ever. Keeping the cameras in situ and allowing for three costume changes (white/pink-purple/black), they could have filmed performances of every track on the album in a day. A little canny editing would have given them ten videos and/or a TV special. 

I wonder if Epic spotted that, when ABBA's singles had a little more sonic edge, were slightly harder - e.g. SNC and DYMK - their chart positions were slightly lower than desired? If so, might that explain them hedging their bets by pairing the poppier Angeleyes with the slightly tougher VV? 

Angeleyes is one of my top favourite ABBA tracks, and I've always preferred it to Voulez-Vous! For me, it's one of the best examples of Agnetha and Frida's combined vocals. But I don't think Benny and/or Bjorn were too enamoured of the song at the time of recording. Didn't Benny once say that that the key seemed, paradoxically, both too high and too low at the same time? I don't get that. I think he also said that he found it more like a pop song from a previous era; but that it didn't matter 'now' (at the time Benny made the comment) as the years had moved on.

That’s because the King Kong Song is awesome!

Personally, I’ve always preferred Angeleyes over VV.

Whilst VV has survived better and even blossomed in this social media age (a Tik-Tok standard) I just think the pure-pop melodic genius of Angeleyes makes it a better song; indeed one of their very best.

There are several “if only” moments in ABBA’s history. Not having any tv performance or promotional clip for Angeleyes ranks near the summit.

As an aside, the one other track that I feel really deserved to be caught on film, was “Gonna Sing you my Love Song”.

Kind words, Alan and thank you.

Am I right in saying that Benny was unhappy with Angeleyes and therefore was happy to see VV get the spotlight?

Apart from Just Like That of course! “We didn’t like it” etc.