It’s New Year’s Day, so it’s appropriate that today’s classic song of the day is ABBA’s “Happy New Year.” Included on the group’s 1980 Super Trouper album, it wasn’t released as a single at the time. It became one of the group’s signature songs, however, and got re-released multiple times over the years, typically at the end of each year.
“Happy New Year” was written by the two “Bs” in ABBA, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. They originally intended the song for a musical they were planning about a New Year’s Eve. That musical never came to fruition, so the boys did it with ABBA instead. Agnetha Fältskog sang lead on the recording.
For a song titled “Happy New Year,” the lyrics are not very joyous. Quite the opposite, actually:
No more champagne
And the fireworks are through
Here we are, me and you
Feeling lost and feeling blue
It’s the end of the party
And the morning seems so grey
So unlike yesterday
Now’s the time for us to say
Happy New Year, Happy New Year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbor is a friend
Happy New Year, Happy New Year
May we all have our hopes, our will to try
If we don’t, we might as well lay down and die
You and I
Even though “Happy New Year” didn’t get released as a single at the time, the group originally thought they might do so and filmed a music video for it. That music video is today’s daily bonus video of the day. Happy New Year, everybody!
