Mamma Mia (song)
September 1975
Mamma Mia is a song by Swedish pop group ABBA from the year 1975. It appeared on their third album the group, which also had the name of ABBA. The lead vocals were taken over by Anni -Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog. The text is written Stig Anderson, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus composed the music. In September 1975 Mamma Mia was first released on single in Australia and later worldwide. This is the discography of the group so far of great importance, as it ABBA thus able to prove after a prolonged phase again unsuccessful international 1st place among the singles charts.
The title of "Mamma Mia" refers to a famous Italian phrase which translated literally means " my mom " means. Colloquially, it is, however, used as an exclamation of surprise, joy or Schockierung in the sense of "Goodness ". Consequently, the piece is of a woman who is repeatedly disappointed by her unfaithful partner and he still forgives, because it is not firm enough to go through with a separation.
On April 6, 1999, named after the song Mamma Mia! Premiere, based on the famous ABBA songs. This highly successful stage show was followed in June 2008, the musical based on the film, which has since been the most successful musical film adaptation. Mamma Mia has been covered more than 20 times by numerous bands such as the A * Teens, Abbacadabra and the Black Ingvars over time.
Formation
Already using the included piece of SOS ABBA on the album had taken a big step in the direction of their own style. Mamma Mia was a slight increase subsequently. So, in the music hardly influences of rock music of the 1960s. The authors and musicians on the one hand helped themselves in the musical version of the typical music style of Phil Spector, in which the instruments are recorded several times on different tracks and then mixed individually. On the other hand, the polyphonic vocal style of the Beach Boys was an important source of inspiration, from which the composers Andersson and Ulvaeus developed a personal musical property, which have since been characteristic of much of the famous ABBA songs.
The recordings for Mamma Mia ran from March 12 to 16 in 1975 and were the last for the album ABBA, which was released on April 21 of that year. Here, the artist of the most advanced studio techniques served, experimented with the instruments and tried different technical variants. By chance, elements of the marimba used, a xylophone -like percussion instrument which initiate the song came, terminate, and the second verse sing. Andersson discovered such a marimba in the studio and wanted to initially only temporarily attune various clocks, but liked and have therefore been included in the piece. Above all, this instrument became the trademark of the song Mamma Mia The string arrangement concerned the orchestra conductor Sven -Olof Waldoff.
Publication as a single
Originally no further singles released from the album ABBA were planned by Polar Music by So Long, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do and SOS. The marketing concept by Stig Anderson was based on a smaller number of singles to advertise a whole album and to increase the demand for it, since this larger gains achieved. Too many singles according to Anderson led to a reduction in demand for LPs and thus profits. Therefore, the request of, responsible for sales in Australia, record company RCA for a single release of Mamma Mia was initially rejected.
This request was the result of a rapidly increasing interest in the group ABBA and especially to Mamma Mia, whose music video was the beginning of August 1975 broadcast on Australian television. At the urging of numerous calls received at the television, the clip was sent a week later for a second time. After further inquiries at Polar Music RCA finally reached the extraction of Mamma Mia on single, but initially limited to Australia. But after the publication turned out to be extraordinarily successful, the song (" success ", see section below ) appeared a few months later also in Europe and other parts of the world where he could clearly build on the success in Australia. In ABBA's native Sweden Mamma Mia was not released as a single, as the album here previously was able to record the desired success.
B-sides
The single was released in different countries with different backs, with the exception of Japan, all came from the album ABBA. In the B-side Intermezzo no. 1 it was an instrumental piece that was recorded in October 1974.
- Intermezzo no. 1 --- Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Netherlands, Yugoslavia
- Tropical Loveland --- DDR, Spain, UK, USA
- People Need Love --- Japan
- SOS --- Italy, Argentina
- Fernando (1976 ) --- Mexico
- Bang -A- Boomerang --- Turkey
- Hey, Hey, Helen --- Australia, New Zealand, South Africa
Achievements
The great success of Mamma Mia was initially limited to Australia. The single debuted on September 22, 1975 in the charts and reached # 1 on November 3, which they could occupy consecutively for ten weeks. So you replaced the single I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, which already held the top position three weeks. Mamma Mia, the origin for the great success of ABBA in Australia. Around 135,000 units were sold there by the single.
After this great success Mamma Mia was released in connection even in Europe and America. It reached number one in four countries, namely Germany, Great Britain, Ireland and Switzerland. In the UK, ABBA was able to top the charts after 18 months. In Austria, Belgium, Norway, New Zealand and South Africa, the single reached the Top Five, as they came in the top 20 in Canada, Zimbabwe, Finland and the Netherlands. In the U.S., however, Mamma Mia could not keep up with the success in Australia or Europe. There they only reached the Top 40