People Need Love
People Need Love is the first single of Swedish pop group ABBA. It was published in June 1972 with the Merry- Go-Round B-side. Was composed the piece by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. The song has a playing time of 2 minutes and 45 seconds; the lead vocals are alternately sung by the four members of pairs. The song is about the desire for peace and harmony.
Background and development
Ever since the beginning of their collaboration in the summer of 1966, Andersson and Ulvaeus wanted to produce a "real" pop song. Because their common single She's My Kind of Girl in Japan had become a hit in 1971, they decided now to take with her two cohabitees Agnetha Fältskog and Anni- Frid Lyngstad as a group an English pop song. Inspired Andersson and Ulvaeus were from Blue Mink and The Sweet and Middle of the Road.
" We listened to these bands and told us, 'We can just as well ' "
The recording
On 29 March 1972, the song was recorded at Metronome Studio in Stockholm Vasastan. The backing band consisted of Janne Schaffer on guitar, Mike Watson on bass and Ola Brunkert on the drums. Andersson took over the piano and Ulvaeus played second guitar. Has also recorded a song with the name Merry- Go-Round, which involves the women only as background singers. When People Need Love, men and women take turns, and finally sang Lyngstad and Fältskog gimmick as a kind of yodel one.
Publication and success
The song was released as a single in early June and is thus regarded as the very first single of the group. On the B-side Merry- Go-Round has been set. As a group, the name slightly longer name " Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni -Frid " is specified, which Stig Anderson, the owner of Polar Music, and later manager of the group, angry because he found the name ridiculous. In addition, Fältskog and Lyngstad were other labels under contract, which is why Anderson had to make payments to these.
For the cover no new picture was taken, instead they took a two year old picture from advertising their hard folk tours. The single shot immediately after its publication in 5th place of the Swedish " Tio i Topp " charts and could prove shortly thereafter 3rd place. On 25 July 1972, the single debuted at number 17 of the combined single and album sales charts. This success was due to that the group decided in the autumn of the same year to record a joint album.