Excerpt from 1973 chapter

the complete recording sessions
1973
10 January
Metronome Studio. Recording ‘Ring Ring’.
17 January
Metronome Studio. Mixing ‘Ring Ring (Klocklåt)’; ‘Ring Ring (Zedaka)’.
Benny Andersson (keyboards), Janne Schaffer (guitar), Rutger Gunnarsson (bass),
Ola Brunkert (drums).
FOR THE 1973 EDITION of Melodifestivalen, the Swedish selection for the Euro-
vision Song Contest, Sveriges Radio (the equivalent of Great Britain’s BBC)
decided that only professional composers would be invited to contribute songs.
In order to decide on a suitable list of song writers, they asked a number of
record industry people to make a list of ten songwriters or songwriting teams
each, whom they thought would be able to come up with a competitive tune.
Among those finally chosen were the team of Björn, Benny and Stig Anderson;
they had proved their viability by finishing third with ‘Säj det med en sång’
(“Say It With A Song”) as performed by Lena Andersson in the 1972 Melodifestivalen, a song that was by far the biggest hit of all the entries that year. Their
participation was announced by the newspapers in November 1972, and, in late
December, it was reported that Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid would perform the Andersson/Anderson/Ulvaeus contribution.
It was a perfect opportunity: not only would they gain exposure on prime-time
television in their home-country, but if they won the selection they would get a
chance to perform their song in front of hundreds of millions of viewers all over
Europe. Indeed, after the past few years’ largely fruitless attempts at getting
Björn and Benny’s music heard abroad, Stig Anderson had concluded that Eurovision would be their best bet for making an international impact. Certainly,
there had recently been the odd promising opening here and there – the release
of ‘She’s My Kind Of Girl’ and subsequent singles in Japan; ‘People Need Love’
being issued in France, New Zealand, the United States and West Germany –
but that decisive breakthrough still eluded them. If they could connect directly
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1973
with an audience, they thought, they would be able to bypass conventional music
business wisdom and prove that, despite being Swedish, they were able to write,
produce and perform hits for an international market.
Björn, Benny and Michael Tretow hard at work in the control room of the Metronome Studio. This was where ABBA
recorded their very first single, ‘People Need Love’, created the embryonic ABBA sound with ‘Ring Ring’, and made the
majority of their recordings for the first half of their career.
On the weekend of 6–7 January 1973, Björn, Benny and Stig Anderson went
out to the island of Viggsö to try to write the perfect song. Of course, Björn and
Benny wrote the melody on their own, but after that it was Stig’s task to come up
with a catchy title and Swedish lyrics. With at least 1,000 lyrics under his belt at
this stage of his career, Stig was well aware that he needed to keep it simple: he
was writing for an international audience and then there was no use in trying to
come up with convoluted lyrical concepts – he needed a catchy title to match the
catchy tune. He was probably familiar with the success of American late Sixties
bubblegum hits such as The Archies’ ‘Sugar, Sugar’ and Ohio Express’ ‘Yummy
Yummy Yummy’, or more recent British hits such as ‘Funny, Funny’ and ‘Co-Co’,
both by The Sweet, noting how effective it could be if you repeated a word twice
or even three times in the chorus. On that January day, seated by the kitchen
table in the Viggsö house, the title must have come to him very soon after hearing Björn and Benny’s finished tune: “Started writing lyrics for Eurovision song
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the complete recording sessions
Ring-Ring,” he wrote in his diary entry for 7 January. “B+B took the boat
home in the evening.” (Note: If Stig’s diary has been quoted accurately
in his daughter Marie’s book about her father, Björn and Benny couldn’t
have been present during the backing vocals overdub session for Ted
Gärdestad’s album on 7 January [see above], as they would still have
been at Viggsö at the time.)
All four ABBA members, and Stig, had entered or tried to enter Melodifestivalen before, with mixed results (see sidebar). Upon finishing
‘Ring Ring’, however, the team knew that they had something with great
potential on their hands. “When we had reached the last note of that
song, we knew that it was the best thing we’d ever written,” said Björn
and Benny in an interview a few months later.
Legendary record producer Phil
Spector was the inspiration
behind the ‘Ring Ring’ sound.
The top picture shows the biography where Michael Tretow
discovered the truth about
Spector’s recording methods.
The two albums feature some
of his most famous early Sixties
productions for acts such as
The Ronettes, The Crystals and
Darlene Love.
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The Metronome studio was promptly booked for 10 January and the
night before, Björn, Benny and Michael Tretow met up at Michael’s
place – an apartment located only a short walk from the recording
studio – and discussed the best way to record the song. Michael, always
keen to try new recording methods, had read a recently published book
about legendary producer Phil Spector (Out Of His Head: The Sound
Of Phil Spector by Richard Williams), which was the first time he was
able to confirm his theories about the secrets behind Spector’s recording techniques. On classic hits such as ‘Be My Baby’, ‘Then He Kissed
Me’, ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’, ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’’ and ‘River Deep
– Mountain High’, the book revealed, Spector had used three guitars
instead of one, three pianos instead of one, three basses instead of one,
and so on, with each particular instrument playing the exact same
part and blending into his famous ‘wall of sound’, rendering individual instrumental contributions almost impossible to separate. “That
explained why it sounded like five guitars,” Michael would later recall,
“it was because Spector really did use five guitars.”
Björn and Benny, who were long time fans of Spector, agreed that
they should try this approach when recording ‘Ring Ring’. With fate
decreeing that Michael had come across the Phil Spector book at this
particular point in time, he points out that “it was just a coincidence
that [we tried this recording method on] ‘Ring Ring’, although it was
i feel like i win when i lose
1973
understood that it had to be an up-tempo song.” However, there was no budget
for bringing a Spectorian number of musicians into the studio, so they would
have to let the musicians record their parts twice instead, in the hope of achieving the same effect.
Recently Michael had also been staying late at Metronome Studio, experimenting with the tape machines on his own. While recording himself playing the
electric guitar and then overdubbing the exact same part, he discovered that
another way to deepen the sound was to alter the speed when doing the overdub, in fact making the second part just slightly out of tune. “It sounded like the
world’s biggest guitar,” Michael would recall. “It was like stepping inside of a five
feet high guitar.” He decided that he would try this approach when they recorded
the second overdub on the ‘Ring Ring’ backing track, although he didn’t tell
Björn and Benny about it. “I changed it…on the sly,” he remembered. “It was a
risky thing to do considering the expense of the musicians and studio time that
would be wasted if it failed.” But Michael’s risk-taking paid off in a way that perhaps even he hadn’t dared imagine. “It was like the roof was caving in, Björn and
Benny were ecstatic. And I can still remember the chills and how the hair stood
up on my arms. It really was something else.”
Changing the speed during the recording of vocal and/or instrumental parts was
an effect that would be used on and off during ABBA’s recording career, although
with all the sounds blending into each other in the group’s soundscape it’s often
impossible to determine when the effect has been used. ‘Ring Ring’ may be an
exception, however, with close listening revealing vocal parts on the choruses
that sound almost like cartoon mice, particularly on the Swedish version.
Another typical ABBA feature, introduced on this record and also borrowed
from Phil Spector, was the handling of the lead vocals. Rather than being the
focal point of the recording, they were almost buried in the mix, more or less
treated as just another sound ingredient. So unusual was this approach to
recording that when the single was released, Polar received complaints from
Sveriges Radio, who insisted that there must be something wrong with the mix.
In all likelihood, considering the time and effort that was spent perfecting the
backing track, the Swedish vocals were not recorded at the 10 January session.
The group probably didn’t return to Metronome Studio until 17 January – after
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the complete recording sessions
all, Polar usually only had access to Metronome on Wednesdays, and both 10 and
17 January were Wednesdays. At any rate, the Swedish version was mixed on 17
January; presumably the working day started with the recording of the vocals,
after which Agnetha and Frida left for home, while Björn, Benny and Michael
remained at the studio and did the mixing.
On the tape box containing the finished mixes, the title of the song is given
as ‘Ring Ring (Klocklåt)’, the title within brackets translating as “Bell Song”.
Although this suggests that ‘Klocklåt’ was the working title of the song, this
was not the case since the ‘Ring Ring’ title already existed when the song was
brought to the studio. Instead, ‘Klocklåt’ was probably jotted down on the tape
box just for fun, being a humorous reference to Kalle Sändare (“Charlie The
Transmitter”), a comedian who was a favourite for all four ABBA members
as well as the session musicians and many others in the group’s entourage. A
number of the weird working titles used on ABBA songs over the years were
references to Kalle Sändare (see sidebar), and ‘Klocklåt’ seems to be the first
instance when one of these references appear in documentation related to the
group’s recordings. ‘Klocklåt’ was a split-second non-sequitur that appeared on
the track ‘Telefonsamtal med Bertil Schütt’ (“Phone Call To Bertil Schütt”) on the
‘Ring Ring’ was a groundbreaking recording in the Swedish music industry. To the left is the Danish single sleeve, to the right the Swedish issue.
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i feel like i win when i lose
1973
1968 album Lejonklösa – Kalle Sändare på nya äventyr (“Lion-clawing – the further adventures of Kalle Sändare”).
The mix tape also features a track entitled ‘Ring Ring (Zedaka)’. This could possibly be the finished English version, with the deliberate misspelling of lyricist
Neil Sedaka’s last name probably just being a silly joke. However, there’s also
notation on the tape box that this was simply “a demo mix”, indicating that
this was the version, perhaps with the melody played as an instrumental, that
Sedaka was sent so that he could write the English lyrics. Stig Anderson knew
Sedaka through his publishing contacts and sent him a telegram asking if he’d
like to help out with the words. Although Björn would have been perfectly capable of writing the lyrics himself, they enlisted Sedaka’s help to get someone
with international fame on the song writing credits, in the hope that this would
create some attention for ‘Ring Ring’. The American singer and songwriter, who
was indeed famous for numerous late Fifties and early Sixties hits – such as
‘Oh Carol’, ‘Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen’ and ‘Breaking Up Is Hard To Do’, for
himself, and ‘Stupid Cupid’,
for Connie Francis – agreed
on the condition that he
liked the melody. A demo
version of the song, along
with a rough translation
of the Swedish lyrics, was
promptly sent to him, and
Sedaka did indeed approve
of the tune: “I thought it
could become a hit,” he
recalled several decades
later. A few days later the
English ‘Ring Ring’ lyrics,
penned by Sedaka and his
then song writing partner,
Phil Cody, arrived.
When released in Sweden ‘Ring Ring’ became an
astonishing success: the Swedish and English singles
and the album occupied the top three positions on
Sweden’s combined singles-and-albums chart.
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the complete recording sessions
A C LO SER LO O K
ABBA, Stig and Melodifestivalen (the Swedish
selection for the Eurovision Song Contest)
‘Ring Ring’ was not the first brush with the Swedish selection for any of the four
ABBA members, nor for Stig. This was the mixed results of their efforts up until
1973, in as far as they have been made public.
1958: The very first year that Sweden participated in
the contest Stig Anderson submitted a song entitled
‘Jag sänder dej solsken – det kommer på posten!’
(“I’m Sending You Sunshine – It Will Arrive In The
Mail!”). That year there was no selection event for
the general public to watch, a jury simply decided
on a suitable song. Although Stig’s song was not
chosen, later the same year it was recorded by
singers Britt Damberg and Sølvi Wang, and in 1973
it was also recorded by accordionist Gnesta-Kalle
on his slightly bizarre Benny Andersson-produced
Polar Music album Ny-gammal kultis (“New-old
traditional dancing”, featuring Benny on Moog
synthesizer).
1968: Agnetha submitted a sentimental ballad entitled ’Försonade’
(“Reconciled”), which she hoped that
singer Gunnar Wiklund would perform. However, the tune was rejected
and thus not entered into the competition. Instead she recorded it herself
and released it as a single A-side later
the same year (it was also featured
on her first, eponymous album).
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1969: Benny became the first ABBA
member to enter the competition
as a songwriter when his and Lasse
Berghagen’s sentimental ‘Hej clown’
was performed by singer and actor Jan Malmsjö.
They almost won as well – they achieved the same
score as singer Tommy Körberg’s ‘Judy, min vän’
(“Judy, My Friend”, recorded in English as ‘Dear Mr
Jones’), but a second round of voting to determine
the winner gave Körberg’s entry the final victory.
1969: Björn, Benny and Stig’s satirical ‘Ljuva sextital’ was rejected, but subsequently became a hit for
singer Brita Borg.
1969: Frida was the first ABBA
member to enter the competition as
a performer, with a mid-tempo song
entitled ‘Härlig är vår jord’ (“Our Earth
Is Wonderful”). She finished in joint
fourth place.
1971: Björn and Benny submitted
’Välkommen till världen’ and, with
Stig as lyricist, ‘Det kan ingen doktor
hjälpa’. Both entries were rejected: the
first title became a major hit for singer
Lill-Babs (see 25 May 1971), while the
second was recorded by Björn and
Benny with Agnetha & Frida on backing vocals (see 23 April 1971). According to a 1972
magazine article, the 1970 Björn & Benny single
‘Hej gamle man!’ was also a rejected Melodifestivalen submission. If this is accurate it would have
been for either the 1969 or the 1971 edition, since
Sweden didn’t take part in the Eurovision Song
Contest in 1970.
1972: Björn, Benny and Stig wrote the saccharine
ballad ‘Säj det med en sång’ (recorded in English as
”Better To Have Loved”), performed by Polar Music
artist Lena Andersson. This was the first of Björn
and Benny’s joint compositions to actually enter
the competition. Although it only finished third, it
became a major hit in Sweden.
i feel like i win when i lose
1973
25 January
KMH Studio. Recording ‘Me And Bobby And
Bobby’s Brother’; ‘Love Is Always Young’; ‘Feel’.
Benny Andersson (keyboards), Björn Ulvaeus (guitar), Rutger
Gunnarsson (bass), Roger Palm (drums): ‘Me And Bobby And
Bobby’s Brother’ only.
Charlie Norman (piano), Lennie Norman (bass), Roger Palm
(drums): ‘Love Is Always Young’ and ‘Feel’ only.
‘ME AND BOBBY AND Bobby’s Brother’, with lyrics
by Benny, was yet another track for the forthcoming album. It was a typically cheerful ditty featuring
a whimsical, somewhat inconsequential narrative,
so typical for the group’s early years. And yet, lead
vocalist Frida somehow still manages to sound as if
she has waited all her life for the opportunity to relate
this tale of childhood memories. A piece of fluff is
almost turned into a deep and meaningful statement
– a poignant example of the special talents of ABBA’s
female vocalists and a vital clue to the group’s subsequent global success.
At this time Agnetha was highly pregnant with her
and Björn’s first child, and since the day’s recording session was focused on
recordings with Frida on lead vocals (see below), she may have very well stayed
home to rest. Indeed, it is doubtful that her vocals were added to ‘Me And
Bobby And Bobby’s Brother’ at a later date – there certainly isn’t any strong
aural evidence that she is on the recording.
Frida in 1973.
The other songs recorded on this day were two demo tracks not written by
Björn and Benny, both of them with Frida as lead singer. These two tunes
were to be performed by Frida and Lena Andersson, respectively, at Festival
Mundial De Onda Nueva, a song festival in Caracas, Venezuela, to be held in
February.
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the complete recording sessions
The first song was ‘Love Is Always Young’. In all likelihood, this was the English-language version of Peter Himmelstrand’s ‘Barnen sover’, originally
recorded by Frida on her eponymous 1971 album (see 8 September and 19
December, 1970; 14 and 15 January, 1971); sheet music exists of the song with
English lyrics written by Jack Fishman. However, contemporary press reports
stated that ‘Love Is Always Young’ had been written by composer and arranger
Bengt-Arne Wallin with lyrics by Roffe Berg. If this is in fact true, it seems a
very strange coincidence that two songs, written only a couple of years apart
and strongly related to the same performer –
Frida – featured identical titles.
The other song, entitled ‘Feel’, was written by jazz
pianist and entertainer Charlie Norman; Frida, of
course, had a previous association with Norman,
having performed with him extensively in cabaret
and in the Swedish folkparks in 1969 and 1970.
The tune was originally an entry in Melodifestivalen in 1967, under the title ‘Ren vals’ (“Pure Waltz”,
The original version of ‘Feel’ was
‘Ren vals’, first recorded by singer
Swedish lyrics by Björn Lindroth). It was perRoffe Berg.
formed in the contest by singer and guitarist Roffe
Berg (who finished third); Berg was another partner of Frida’s, having toured
with her in 1972. For the English version recorded on this day, Berg himself
had written the lyrics.
On the demo, ‘Feel’ was sung by Frida – at least the session sheets mention no
other singer – although the song was to be performed by Lena Andersson at
the song festival. According to Frida, these particular demo recordings were
never intended for release on record. Presumably, proper recordings would
have been made if they had been successful at the festival in Caracas. As it
was, none of the songs appear to have scored very highly in the contest, which
was won by Chilean singer Monna Bell and the song ‘Deshojada’.
Later in 1973, ‘Feel’ was recorded in an instrumental version by Charlie
Norman himself and released on his Polar Music album Garner & Hemvävt
(“Yarns & Homespun”), co-produced by Benny. It’s unclear whether ‘Love Is
Always Young’ was ever recorded and released on record by anyone.
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