Today’s classic song of the day, a guilty pleasure of mine, is “Waterloo” by ABBA. Released in March of 1974, “Waterloo” was a worldwide hit, reaching #1 in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland, and the UK. It was a Top Ten hit in Australia, Austria, Canada, New Zealand, Rhodesia, Spain, Sweden, and the U.S., where it peaked at (just) #6 on the Billboard Hot 100.
On top of all that, “Waterloo” (which was written by the two B’s in ABBA, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, along with lyricist Stig Anderson) won the 19th annual Eurovision Song Contest. The Eurovision contest was the springboard for ABBA’s global domination; that was the one that broke things open for them in country after country around the world. And, to commemorate that, the Eurovision folks, in 2005, named “Waterloo” as the best song in the contest’s history. (I’ve heard some of the other Eurovision winners, and can’t argue with that decision.)
“Waterloo” was the group’s second single in Europe (after “Ring Ring”) and their first in the U.S. Thirteen more Top Forty hits followed in this country, a few more in Europe, and ABBA became first a cultural phenomenon and then a cultural institution. Everybody of a certain age knows that ABBA consisted of Agnetha, Benny, Björn, and Anna-Frida. Everybody knows “Dancing Queen” and “Fernando” and “Take a Chance on Me” and “Knowing Me, Knowing You.” Everybody knows they broke up in 1982 and never got back together again.
And it all started with “Waterloo,” a simple little song about a woman “surrendering” to her man (just like Napoleon did at Waterloo), put to a catchy beat and a Wall of Sound-inspired arrangement. “Waterloo” is a pure pop confection that was made for heavy radio play. It’s an earworm you can’t get out of your head, perkily performed by those two attractive young ladies with those adorable Swedish accents. In terms of ’70s pop music, it just doesn’t get any better than this.
A personal reflection. My high school marching band traveled to Europe in August of 1974 to participate in the World Music Contest in Kerkrade, Netherlands. All throughout that two-week trip, whenever we turned on the radio, “Waterloo” was playing. We’d never heard ABBA before but, boy, did we know them by the time we caught our plane flight home. To me, I’ll always associate “Waterloo” and ABBA with that two-week trip to Europe when I was just 16 years old.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, ABBA performing “Waterloo” on the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. The other performers didn’t stand a chance.
