Take a Chance on Me
January 27, 1978
Take a Chance on Me is a hit of the Swedish pop group ABBA from the year 1977. It was written and composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, while Agnetha Fältskog lead vocals Anni-Frid Lyngstad and shared.
The song was first released in December 1977 on the LP The Album and coupled in January 1978 I'm a puppet on the B-side as the second single from the album. In addition, a live version of the track was included on the B- side of the single later I Have a Dream, which was published in 1986 on the album ABBA Live.
Take a Chance on Me is about a woman who is in love with a man who, however, takes no notice of her, which is why they swarmed him and asks her to give her a chance.
Origin and background
The song was written around the title bar, on the Björn Ulvaeus had come jogging. While running, he became aware of a steady "tk - ch" sound, a rhythm, which originated from his smooth running motion. This was followed by the search for the right words for this rhythm.
"I thought: If the music is like, Chuck chuck chuck chuck -a ' sounds which English sentence could fit the rhythm of a refrain? The first notes of the chorus are very short and only the last note is long. And so I came up with the line: ' Take a chance on me .' "
It is this rhythm is one of the characteristic elements of the song, which already comes at the beginning of the song used. Take a Chance on Me starts directly with the chorus in A cappella version, in which the piece of polyphonic vocal works without instrumental music. The recurring during the entire game duration occurring phrase " Take a Chance, Take a, take a chance chance ... " in the background had to be included here, in several sessions, since due to the technology at that time no copying of sound elements was possible. Especially to get to air had to start the lines of text over and over again and each recording snippets then overlap to obtain a continuous rhythm of the singers Andersson and Ulvaeus.
Recorded Take a Chance on Me, the first of the provisional title Billy Boy was, in Stockholm " Marcus Music Studio ". The first attempt to record the song, took place on August 3, 1977. However, the result was not satisfactory, so that a new trial was started on August 15, 1977. An approximately two -minute instrumental section of the original version was released in 1994 as part of the ABBA ABBA medleys Undeleted and can be heard from about the time of 1:36.
In addition to Benny Andersson (keyboard), Björn Ulvaeus (guitar), Agnetha Fältskog (vocals) and Anni -Frid Lyngstad (vocals ) were among others Ola Brunkert (drums), Rutger Gunnarsson ( bass) and Lasse Wellander (guitar) involved in the recording. The responsible engineer was Michael B. Tretow. For the production of Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus were responsible.
Success
Take A Chance On Me was released in late January 1978 as the second single from The Album. Since the latter appeared in most countries at the same time, the single made a companion to the album. She reached in six countries, topped the charts, including Austria, Great Britain, Ireland, Belgium and Mexico while she was also placed in nine other countries in the top ten. In the U.S., Take A Chance On Me ABBA 's most successful single after Dancing Queen.
Music Video
In the music video except for a brief scene is exclusively a white background in the chorus or a black to see in the verses. Particularly striking are the one hand, the camera moves, the camera first moves away from one of the two women and then comes back to the other of the two, and on the other hand, the colorful costumes of women ( Anni -Frid Lyngstad is wearing a blue and Agnetha Fältskog a red costume in front of the white background). The music video was filmed on January 10, 1978 in the SVT Studios in Stockholm.