On And On And On

Great album track - might have gone OK as a single but would have been remembered, I think, as a second-tier or third-tier ABBA effort. I think the chorus is the thinnest part of it, which makes me conclude that it might have struggled to do much better than SNC, for instance. Personally, I might have slipped out 'Happy New Year' hot on the heels of 'Super Trouper' to catch the January market and target people spending their record tokens.

I think the Super Trouper album actually has a whole raft of songs that could have been singles, but that might have performed a little 'disappointingly' by ABBA's standards. 'Our Last Summer', 'Me and I', 'Happy New Year', 'On and On and On' - all great songs, though. On balance, I think they got it spot-on with singles selection from this album - 2 UK numbers 1s and the 12-inch triumph of 'Lay All Your Love on Me'. After that trio, I remember being brim-full of confidence for ABBA's UK chart future. That was scuppered, though, with the release much later in 1981 of 'One of Us', which I thought was pretty limp at the time and haven't changed my mind on since. That song struck me as a non-ABBA-fan's idea of an ABBA song - ABBA by numbers, if you like. Worse than that, it gave us a totally bum steer as to what 'The Visitors' would be like.

No idea about the last verse of 'On' - sorry!

I regard 'On And On And On' as an 'OK' ABBA Song. It was released as a Single in some Countries.
It was not a really huge Hit in any of them:

Australia - No.9 &&&
France - No.18
Japan - No.52 @@@
USA - No.90 - (With 'Lay All Your Love On Me' as the 'B' Side)

&&& - With 'The Piper' as the 'B' Side. The Australian 'Super Trouper' had 'Happy New Year' as the 'B' Side

@@@ = With 'The Piper' as the 'B' Side. The Japanese 'Super Trouper' had 'If It Wasn't For The Nights' as the 'B' Side

It was influenced by the Beach Boys 'Do It Again' Single, (1968). That was 1 of only 2 UK No.1 Singles, that the Beach Boys
had in the UK. The other being 'Good Vibrations', in 1966.

In 1981, Mike Love of the Beach Boys, covered 'On And On And On' on his 'Looking Back With Love' Solo Album.

That one is surprising, because the songs are from albums so far apart chronologically.

I don't know much about the singles. I noticed that on all the singles listed in the back of the book ABBA Gold-The Complete Story, both songs are from the same album.

I know a Belgian fellow, who works very hard to compile old Pan-European Charts, from the Singles Charts
of several European Countries. 'Officially' the Euro Charts only began at the end of May 1976. Although he
has already taken those Charts back as far as 1960, he is now re-doing them all, as he has decided to use
some alternative Charts for some Countries.

What does this have to do with 'On And On And On'? Well, he only uses Points from Top 15 Hits, to create his
Euro Charts. As 'On And On And On' was not a Top 15 hit anywhere in Europe, it was never a Hit in his past
Euro Charts. That includes Austria. However, he now uses different old Charts for Austria. The ABBA Song
was a Hit in those. It reached No.2, for 2 Weeks, & spent 9 Weeks on the Charts. This means that it is a Hit
in his re-done 1981 Euro Charts. However, as its only Points are from Austria, it is not a very big Euro Chart
Hit. It reached No.32, for 2 Weeks.

His re-done 1976 Euro Charts have already seen 'Mamma Mia' increase its No.1 Weeks from 6 to 8. 'Fernando' has the
same No.1 Weeks as before - a massive 18. As does 'Dancing Queen' - 10. He's just finished the final Chart of 1976 -
W/E 25th December.  'Money, Money, Money'  has been at No.1 for 3 Weeks - so far. It gives ABBA an incredible 39 No.1
Weeks in the 1976 Euro Charts. Frida gets 41 1976 No.1 Weeks. That is because she sang on Harpo's 'Movie Star', which
was a 2 Week Euro Chart No.1 in 1976. 

Both 'On and On and On' and 'Super Trouper' were ABBA Singles in Australia. First 'On and On and On' reached No.9 there,
but 'Super Trouper' stalled at No.77 there. ABBA's Australian popularity had fallen dramatically, not long after their early 1977
Tour, which is why 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' got no higher than No.9. (I'm not sure if those 2 1980 Singles were released in
New Zealand. Neither were Hits there).

'The Piper' was the 'B' Side of 'Super Trouper', in most of the World. It it was the 'B' Side of 'On and On and On' in Australia,
so 'Happy New Year' was the 'B' Side of 'Super Trouper' there. (Japan had 'If it Wasn't For The Nights', as 'Super Trouper's
'B' Side. Japan got 'Tiger' as the 'B' Side of 'Dancing Queen', due to 'That's Me' being an 'A' Side there. That Single had
'Money, Money, Money' as its 'B' Side!).

There was time for 'On and On and On' to be a January 1981 UK & European Single. However, I think that 'Lay All Your Love On Me'
would have been a bigger Hit, had that been released - on normal priced 7" Vinyl - in January 1981. By only releasing it, on too
expensive, 12" Vinyl, in July 1981, ABBA just cheated themselves out of a huge Hit. By July 1981, the 'Super Trouper' Album had
sold so many, that a 7" Single off it would have had a tough time, but it had no chance as an expensive 12" Record - that was not
even extended. Hence why it stalled at No.7 in the UK & at No.26 in Germany.

I like 'On and On and On', but I think that 'Lay All Your Love On Me' is stronger. 'On and On and On' is said to be influenced by the
Beach Boys 1968 Hit 'Do It Again'. I've never been able to see any resemblance between them. Mike Love, from the Beach Boys,
eventually covered the ABBA Song, on one of his Albums.