Ring Ring (ABBA song)

"Ring Ring" is a song by ABBA, released as the title track of their 1973 debut album. The single gave the group their big break in several European countries (although the rest of Europe, North America and Australia would be introduced to ABBA the following year). The song was written in Swedish by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, along with their manager Stig Anderson, with an original title of "Ring Ring (Bara du slog en signal)" ("Ring Ring (If Only You Called)"). Translation into English lyrics was helped by Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody. The Swedish version reached No. 1 in the Swedish charts.

"Ring Ring (Bara Du Slog En Signal)"
A-side label of the original Swedish release
Single by ABBA
from the album Ring Ring
B-side"Åh vilka tider"
Released14 February 1973
Recorded10 January 1973, Metronome Studio, Stockholm
GenrePop rock, glam rock, europop, schlager
Length3:00
LabelPolar (Sweden)
Epic (UK)
Atlantic (US)
Songwriter(s)Benny Andersson
Björn Ulvaeus
Stig Anderson
Producer(s)Benny Andersson
Björn Ulvaeus
ABBA singles chronology
"He Is Your Brother"
(1972)		 "Ring Ring (Bara Du Slog En Signal)"
(1973)		 "Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure Is Hard Enough)"
(1973)
Audio sample
"Ring Ring (Bara Du Slog En Signal)"
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"Ring Ring"
Single by ABBA
from the album Ring Ring
B-side"Rock'n Roll Band, I Am Just A Girl"
Released19 February 1973
GenrePop
Length3:00
LabelPolar Music
Songwriter(s)Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Stig Anderson, Neil Sedaka & Phil Cody
Producer(s)Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus
Music video
"Ring Ring" on YouTube

"Ring Ring" tells of a lover waiting alone by the telephone for the object of her desire to call.[1]

History

After the success of "People Need Love" in 1972 by Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid (as the group was then known), the group's manager, Stig Anderson, realised the potential of coupling the vocal talents of the women with the writing talents of the men. It was then decided that the quartet would record an LP. This eventually turned out to be the album Ring Ring.

Andersson, Ulvaeus and Anderson were invited to enter a song into the selection process for the Swedish entry in the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest. After several days, Andersson and Ulvaeus came up with the music for the Swedish version of "Ring Ring", with the working title "Klocklåt" (Clock Tune). Anderson wrote the lyrics with the intention of making a pop-oriented song, trying to remove the pomp and circumstance surrounding the Eurovision Song Contest at the time.

After this, the song was retitled "Ring Ring". To make it more accessible to a universal audience, Anderson asked American songwriter Neil Sedaka, together with his songwriting partner, Phil Cody, to pen the lyrics for an English version.

On 10 January 1973, the song was recorded at the Metronome Studio in Stockholm. Studio engineer Michael B. Tretow, who later collaborated with Andersson and Ulvaeus on many singles and albums, had read a book about record producer Phil Spector (Richard Williams' book Out of His Head: The Sound of Phil Spector),[2] famed for his "Wall of Sound" treatment to the songs that he produced. While Spector used several musicians playing the same instruments in the same recording studio at the same time, such a technique would be far too expensive for the recording of "Ring Ring". Tretow's solution was to simply record the song's backing track twice in order to achieve an orchestral sound. Changing the speed of the tape between the overdubs, making the instruments marginally out of tune, increased the effect. This was unlike anything that had been done before in Swedish music.

When ABBA performed "Ring Ring" in the Swedish Eurovision selection competition on 10 February 1973,[3] they only finished third. Nevertheless, the song fared much better in the Swedish charts, both in its Swedish and English language incarnations, hitting No. 1 and No. 2 respectively.

The quartet then decided that performing as a group was a serious and realistic idea. They toured Sweden, and despite the failure of "Ring Ring" to represent the country at the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, they began to prepare themselves for 1974's competition with "Waterloo".

Reception and other versions

Though "Ring Ring" did not get the opportunity to represent Sweden in the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, the subtitled Swedish version ("Bara Du Slog En Signal") performed very well on the Swedish charts, giving ABBA their first No. 1 hit. The English version fared almost as well, peaking at No. 2 in Sweden, Norway and Austria, and reaching the Top 10 in the charts of the Netherlands, South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). On the official South African year-end chart for 1974, "Ring Ring" placed 13th and its successor "Waterloo" finished 14th. It topped the charts in Belgium, becoming the first of 16 No. 1 hits for ABBA there. "Ring Ring" was the group's first release in the UK in October 1973, but failed to chart, selling only 5,000 copies.[4] in 1973 the single won a gold record in Sweden for selling 100,000 copies.[5] In Scandinavia the single has sold 200,000 copies.[6] A remixed version of the song, with overdubbed saxophone by Ulf Andersson, was later described by Carl Magnus Palm as having a "superfluous saxophone solo and leaden sound".[7] This version reached No. 32 in the UK in July 1974,[8] with "Rock'n Roll Band" issued on the B-side. The remix later hit No. 7 in Australia. A second remixed version, based upon the one that had been released in the UK, was included as a bonus track on the original North American release of the Waterloo album. A German-language version of the song was also recorded but failed to chart in West Germany. A Spanish version was also recorded (with lyrics by Doris Band), but was not released until the 1993 CD compilation Más ABBA Oro in selected countries, and internationally on the 1999 edition of ABBA Oro: Grandes Éxitos.

The master tapes of the 1974 remix were presumed missing, or at least unobtainable, for some years. For this reason, the remix did not appear on the 1994 four-CD box-set Thank You for the Music. In 1999, a CD box set of singles was released that included the remix, but it had been mastered from a vinyl single rather than the unavailable master tape. In 2001, The Definitive Collection was released, which finally included the 1974 single remix sourced from the master tape. It was later revealed on Carl Magnus Palm's website that Polar Music had acquired the master tapes from Epic Records in the UK. This had presumably occurred between 1999 and 2001.

Track listings

Sweden

A. "Ring Ring (Bara Du Slog En Signal)"

B. "Åh vilka tider"

UK, Spain, Brazil, Italy, France, Germany, Peru, Austria, Netherlands

A. "Ring Ring" (English version)

B. "Rock'n Roll Band"

Sweden, Denmark, Columbia

A. "Ring Ring" (English version)

B. "She's My Kind of Girl"

Germany

A. "Ring Ring" (German version)

B. "Wer Im Wartesaal Der Liebe Steht"

Personnel

ABBA

Additional personnel and production staff

Chart history (Swedish and English versions)
Chart (1973) Position
Australian Singles Chart 92 (First), 7 (1976 re-release)
Austrian Singles Chart 2
Belgian Singles Chart 1
British Singles Chart 32
Dutch Singles Chart 5
French Singles Chart 82
New Zealand Singles Chart 17
Norwegian Singles Chart 2
Rhodesian Singles Chart 12
South African Singles Chart 3
Swedish Singles Chart 1 (Swedish)
2 (English)

Official versions
  • "Ring Ring (Bara Du Slog En Signal)" (Swedish Version)
  • "Ring Ring" (English Version)
  • "Ring Ring" (English Version) - (1974 Remix, UK Single Version)
  • "Ring Ring" (English Version) - (U.S. Remix 1974)
  • "Ring Ring" (German Version)
  • "Ring Ring" (Spanish Version)
  • "Ring Ring" (Medley of Swedish, Spanish and German Versions)

Cover versions
  • Magnus Uggla recorded a rock version of the song in 1979.
  • In 1977, Tina Arena and John Bowles recorded a version for their album Tiny Tina and Little John.
  • In 1978, a Swedish country band called Nashville Train (which included some of ABBA's own backing band members) recorded the song on their album ABBA Our Way.
  • In 1992, Swedish alternative rock band Sator recorded a version for the Swedish tribute album ABBA: The Tribute.
  • In 2000, Swedish band the Black Sweden included a cover of the song on their ABBA tribute album Gold. The beginning of this version includes a riff from the Judas Priest song "Breaking the Law".
  • The 1995 New Zealand compilation Abbasalutely includes a cover by Breast Secreting Cake.
  • A eurodance cover version can be found on the 1999 album ABBAdance by Angeleyes.
  • Studio 99 released two versions of the song on their ABBA tribute albums, one performed in the traditional ABBA style and the second as a slower, techno-oriented mix, heavily based on the UK remix.
  • Australian rock band Audioscam covered the song on their 2008 album Abbattack. Samples from the album can be heard on their official MySpace page.[9]
  • In 2012, Norwegian band the Dahlmanns[10] recorded a version for a fundraising CD titled "Super Hits of the Seventies" for radio station WFMU.
  • The song is featured in the film ABBA: The Movie (1977) during a girl's ballet class.
  • In the episode of Still game Ring while waiting for the ring for Tam Mullen, Winston Ingram sings the first line of the chorus.

On 5 December 2010, a poll on British television network ITV placed the 1974 version of "Ring Ring" at No. 25 in a survey of the nation's favourite ABBA song.

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References
  1. Scott, Robert (2002) 'ABBA: Thank You for the Music - The Stories Behind Every Song', Carlton Books Limited: Great Britain, p. 26
  2. Vincentelli, Elisabeth (31 March 2018). "The Year Abba channeled Phil Spector and conquered the world". Salon. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  3. Faltskog, Agnetha & Ahman, Brita (1997) 'As I Am: ABBA Before & Beyond', Virgin Publishing, p.46
  4. Scott, Robert (2002) 'ABBA: Thank You for the Music - The Stories Behind Every Song', Carlton Books Limited: Great Britain, p.26
  5. "From the Music Capitols of the World - Stockholm" (PDF). Billboard. 18 June 1973. p. 52. Retrieved 18 June 2020 – via World Radio History.
  6. "Sweden Music" (PDF). Billboard. 8 December 1973. p. 52. Retrieved 10 June 2020 – via World Radio History.
  7. Carl Magnus Palm (20 February 2014). "Abba: Bright Lights Dark Shadows". Books.google.co.uk. p. 344. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
  8. "Official Singles Chart Top 50 - 7 July 1974-13 July 1974". The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  9. Au. "Audioscam | Gratis muziek, tourneedata, foto's, video's". Profile.myspace.com. Archived from the original on 5 August 2010. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  10. "The Dahlmanns - Listen and Stream Free Music, Albums, New Releases, Photos, Videos". Myspace.
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