Benny and Björn's Songwriting

Interesting topic, I’ll contribute more when I have more time, on taking kids to football and gymnastics duty this morning.

I always like how versatile Benny is, going from pop to classical to folk etc.

One thing off the cuff I noticed was how theatrical Gemini’s first album was, B&B seemed so engulfed in musical scores that it seeped into a pop album. I always wondered how ABBA would have fared if it was a follow up to The Visitors.

During the 80’s Benny drifted further and further away from pop that I didn’t think they would ever return (or able to) to pop songs.

Although I said in my OP that, for me, the song and its final recorded incarnation as an arranged track are often enmeshed to an almost unparalleled extent with ABBA, one only has to listen to a few well-played piano solo versions of Benny's superb melodies to realise that, nevertheless, they could have worked equally well (imo) in a variety of arrangements.

Even a song such as the lowly regarded Little Things is a case in point, where a different arrangement might have transformed the song favourably for many. But, admittedly, the lyrics of this song aren't much liked either!

And on the subject of words and music, wasn't the music invariably written first when it comes to ABBA songs? If so, skillful lyricist though he was later on, I've long felt that Björn wrote the 'wrong' words to Our Last Summer, for instance, because I don't find that the character of Benny's tune has that wistfulness that Björn's lyrics have. So, for me, a mismatch between words and music there. Dum Dum Diddle, too, is a glaring example for many of us. But this is vastly outweighed by such lyrics as for KMKY and LAAPTMR to take just two examples of my favourites. Wonderful, especially when one appreciates, again, that they weren't done in Björn's native language.

In general, I don't regard Benny and Björn's songs as better, somehow, than the work of other successful songwriters such as Bacharach and David, Goffin and King, Neil Sedaka, Lieber and Stoller, Lennon and McCartney, Brian Wilson, and lots of others. And, as I said, Benny and Björn weren't prolific songwriters compared with some; but they obviously had high standards, probably taking more time than many might to get the songs as they wanted them.

And of course they also had the unfair advantage of the vocals of Agnetha and Frida - but that's nother matter and another thread!

Benny or Bjorn said that while ABBA were active, they only wrote about a dozen songs a year. That’s not many. They never had a period where songs were flowing out of them, unlike the Gibb brothers, Lennon and McCartney, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, for example.

I’d personally rate Benny and Bjorn among the top five songwriters or songwriting teams, but trying to be objective I don’t think that they rate as highly as that. They rarely feature in articles about the top songwriters. Rolling Stone, for example, rated them as number 100 in a list of the top 100 songwriters.

www.rollingstone.com/interactive/lists-100-greatest-songwriters/#bj%C3%B6rn-ulvaeus-and-benny-andersson

That’s not quite true though, is it? Sounds like their selective memory again (or, as usual, treating fans as though they think we’re stupid). They released a new album almost every year from 1973 to 1981 (apart from 1978) and, including b-sides and non-album singles, released roughly 12 tracks a year. But then there are the unreleased tracks that have been issued since 1993, and about nine tracks partially released in ABBA Undeleted.

Do they count, say, Happy Hawaii and Why Did It Have To Be Me as one song or two? Or, for instance, Monsieur Monsieur and My Love My Life as the same song? They tried out a lot of tracks for Voulez-Vous that went unused, so I’d say there are more than an average of 12 a year. Not hundreds but certainly more than they’d have us believe. If they can say they’ve released every “snippet” ever recorded they can certainly fib about songs written!