Or as Jools Holland would say on his annual BBC 2 extravaganza, HOOTENANNY! A moderately sleep-deprived Jacob Braybrooke here, wishing you a very happy new year!
Pictured: Benny Andersson (Keyboard/Synths/Piano/Percussion), Agnetha Fältskog (Lead Vocals/Backing Vocals), Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad (Lead Vocals/Backing Vocals) and Björn Ulvaeus (Lead Guitar/Lead Vocals/Backing Vocals)
Well, I suppose it’s fair to say that this is, hands down, the best day of the year so far! The decade, even, in fact! “Happy New Year” by the legendary 1970’s pop vocal quartet ABBA is the best track we’ve covered on One Track At A Time all year around! Ok, enough with the New Year jokes! I’m going to write to you about ABBA to ring it in!
“Happy New Year” seems to be the closest ABBA have come to a full-fledged foray into Christmas music offerings. A vocal track from the golden age of early 80’s ABBA, the track was originally written as a track for a musical that was eventually scrapped as the screenwriter backed down. Lyrically, it references the end of the 1970’s and it tells the story of a relaxed aftermath to a New Year’s Eve’s party. Agnetha Fältskog opens proceedings: “No more champagne/And the fireworks are through/Here we are, me and you/Feeling lost and feeling blue”, before Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad leads the chorus: “Happy New Year/May we all have a vision now and then/Of a world where every neighbour is a friend” and “Happy New Year/May we all have our hopes, our will to try/If we don’t we might as well lay down and die/You and I”, as the New Year’s Eve party draws to a standstill and it begins to momentarily meet it’s conclusion. When you read these lyrics written down on paper, they seem a bit melancholic and bleak. However, as you listen to the track, the track has much more light-hearted and optimistic qualities to it’s sound. The male harmonies from Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus are noticeably absent, who provide the instrumentation on the track instead, which is mostly acoustic. It has up-tempo and light piano melodies and a taste of the Accordian from Ulvaeus. The music machine hadn’t come into fashion yet! Nevertheless, this is still the best song that I’ve heard all year round!
Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Super Trouper” (1986)
Thank you for reading this post! It’s been a long time since we’ve covered a Jamaican classic on the blog, so I’ll be helping you through the very weird day tomorrow with a slow and diverse Rocksteady classic that appeared on the “This Is Trogan – Rocksteady” compilation album box-set! If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/
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