The Day Before You Came
| "The Day Before You Came" | ||||
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| Single by ABBA | ||||
| from the album The Singles: The First Ten Years | ||||
| B-side | "Cassandra" | |||
| Released | October 18, 1982 | |||
| Format | 7" Single | |||
| Recorded | August 20, 1982 at Polar Music Studios |
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| Genre | Pop / Synthpop | |||
| Length | 5:50 | |||
| Writer(s) | Benny Andersson Björn Ulvaeus |
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| Producer | Benny Andersson Björn Ulvaeus |
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| ABBA singles chronology | ||||
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"The Day Before You Came" is a song recorded and released by Swedish pop group ABBA. It was originally released in October 1982, as the first new song from ABBA's double compilation album The Singles: The First Ten Years. It is historic as it was the final ABBA recording ever, although it was not their final song to be released.
Contents |
[edit] History
After 1981's The Visitors, both Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson took some time off to write new material, yet at the same time, they were beginning to create their first musical Chess, alongside Tim Rice. Meanwhile, Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad slowly began their English-language solo careers. Fältskog recorded with fellow ABBA backing vocalist Tomas Ledin the song "Never Again" (a hit in Europe) and played a leading role in the Swedish movie blockbuster 'Raskenstam,' while Lyngstad worked with Phil Collins to produce her solo album Something's Going On.
The group returned to Polar Studios in the summer of 1982 to record new songs for a planned follow up album to The Visitors. "The Day Before You Came" was one of six new songs that were recorded, with only two of them being released as singles and two as the B-sides. One of the other songs recorded, "I Am the City", would not see international release until 1993's More ABBA Gold CD, while another, "Just Like That", has never been released in its entirety (partially released in 1994).
"The Day Before You Came" was digitally recorded and mixed on August 20, 1982, with the working title of "Den Lidande Fågeln" (The Suffering Bird). Apart from Fältskog's lead vocal and an vocal line of Lyngstad mixed with the instrumental, the only instruments featured on the song were Andersson's synthesizer and drum machine, Ulvaeus' acoustic guitar and a snare drum by Åke Sundqvist.
According to Michael Tretow, ABBA's longtime sound engineer, this was the last ABBA song ever recorded. He further went on to state that Agnetha performed the lead without the lights on and said that mood had become sad and everybody in the studio knew that 'this was the end'.
On reissues of The Visitors on CD, "The Day Before You Came" has been added as one of the bonus tracks.
[edit] Music Video
A music video was produced to promote the single, featuring Agnetha flirting with a stranger on a train.[1]
[edit] Reception
The single was officially released on October 18, 1982 with another new song, "Cassandra", as the B-side. By this time, ABBA were experiencing a slow decline in UK single sales. Accordingly, the single peaked at #32 there. Ironically in 1984 a cover by British synthpop duo Blancmange charted higher than the ABBA recording reaching #22 on the UK charts.[2]
ABBA's recording however, hit the top 5 in Belgium, Finland, West Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. It also reached #5 on the Adult Contemporary chart in Canada. The song was promoted by a music video clip filmed on September 21, 1982, and directed by the team of Kjell Sundvall and Kjell-Åke Andersson, breaking ABBA's eight year directing relationship with Lasse Hallström. The video featured Swedish actor Jonas Bergström as Fältskog's love interest.
In 2010, "The Day Before You Came" was positively reviewed by Stephen Emms for The Guardian. Emms opined that the song "carries a sense of foreboding almost unparalleled in pop music." Emms continued to state that "the track's power lies in its layering of boredom and grandeur, transience and doom. It combines a rising sense of melancholy, both in its melody and production, with wistful, nostalgic lyrics." Emms also interpreted that the pathos is "heightened by an extended funereal instrumental coda which acts as one big question mark, leaving us with the feeling that this is not just a meditation on the quotidian but something greater, existential even. Is this imagined relationship, like the band itself, doomed?"[3]
On December 5, 2010 on British TV for ITV1 a poll was made where fans could vote for "The Nation's Favourite ABBA song". Despite its poor chart position of #32 in the UK back in 1982, "The Day Before You Came" was voted the third favourite ABBA song.
On January 31, 2011 BBC Radio5 Live's "UP ALL NIGHT" with Dotun Adebayo presiding that night announced that the song had won the weekly vote of the nation and onto their ongoing list of virtual jukebox.
[edit] Chart positions
| Chart (1982) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart | 48 |
| Austrian Singles Chart | 16 |
| Belgian Singles Chart | 3 |
| British Singles Chart | 32 |
| Canadian Adult Contemporary Chart | 5 |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 3 |
| Finnish Singles Chart | 2 |
| French Singles Chart | 38 |
| German Singles Chart | 5 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 12 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 5 |
| Swedish Singles Chart | 3 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 4 |
[edit] Cover versions
- In 1983 Dutch singer Andre Hazes released a christmas-version of this song, with new, Dutch lyrics. It's called Met kerst ben ik alleen.
- In 1984, two years after the song's original release, the first cover version of "The Day Before You Came" was released by British synthpop duo Blancmange. The cover charted at #22 in the UK singles chart and was included in that year's Mange Tout album. Blancmange's version included a slight lyrical alteration. Instead of referencing novelist Marilyn French as the ABBA original does, Blancmange singer Neil Arthur sang "I must have read a while, the latest one by Barbara Cartland or something in that style".
- British singer/songwriter Tanita Tikaram covered the song on her 1998 album The Cappuccino Songs.
- A dance cover by ABBAcadabra was released by Almighty Records during the late 1990s. An audio sample can be heard on the official Almighty Records page.[4]
- UK indie band Jacques covered the song for their 2000 album To Stars.
- Dutch singer Sarah Fairfield included a cover of the song on her 2004 debut album Green.
- Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree covered the song on the second release of his Cover Version series in 2004.
- Swedish opera singer Anne Sofie von Otter covered the song on her 2006 ABBA tribute album I Let The Music Speak
- British "antique beat" band The Real Tuesday Weld covered the song on the 2007 compilation album Backspin: A 6 Degrees 10 Year Anniversary Project.
[edit] Live cover performances
Steve Hogarth (lead singer of Marillion) performed the song in his 2010/2011 solo h natural concerts.
[edit] References
- ^ Oldham, A, Calder, T & Irvin, C: "ABBA: The Name of the Game", page 94. Sidgwick & Jackson, 1995
- ^ Oldham, A, Calder, T & Irvin, C: "ABBA: The Name of the Game", page 207. Sidgwick & Jackson, 1995
- ^ Could an Abba reunion ever top The Day Before You Came? The Guardian. 30 September 2010
- ^ http://www.almightyrecords.com/product/ALMY049/
