Happy New Year

ABBA to start 2025

This is a new song for me. I’ve been listening to Christmas compilations and this was on one. I particularly appreciate this lyric:

May we all have a vision now and then of a world where every neighbour is a friend.

The song was conceived during ABBA’s songwriting retreat in the Canary Islands in early 1980 before being recorded a few months later in Stockholm. It was originally titled Daddy Don’t Get Drunk on Christmas Day but the band decided to expand on the theme and make it more introspective, which was a theme on the album it appeared on, Super Trooper.

The song talks about what happens when the party’s over and you have to face what comes after. Its melancholy seems to really fit the global mood this year. And yet through it all there’s a sense of wanting to still hope and believe in a better future, and that’s my wish for this year.

They also released a Spanish version which was released to Spanish speaking territories and appeared on the South American version of the Super Trooper album.

The video is notable for having been directed by Lasse Hallström, of My Life As A Dog and Gilbert Grape fame. He started off his career as a director, cameraman and editor for Swedish television. This is where he met ABBA and they brought him on to direct their music videos. ABBA were pioneers in this field, having created videos for all their songs starting with Ring, Ring, their first single.

In this video, we see the aftermath of a party, interspersed with scenes from the party the night before. The ending hints at the growing tension in the marriage between Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus.

Enjoy your first song of the day for 2025!