Abba - Happy New Year

This performance of Happy New Year was recorded in Stockholm on November 27 1980 and is known as "Abba Around the Piano". It became the official tv version of this song and was sold to numerous countries. Abba wished viewers a Happy New Year in several languages prior to this performance. It was broadcast at midnight on New Year's Eve 1980 in Sweden and France to bring in the New Year and has since been shown in Sweden on every New Year's Eve at midnight! This recording was made after Abba had earlier performed 3 songs for Show Express, which was broadcast live by satellite link to West German tv. These were The Winner Takes It All, Super Trouper and On And On And On. Abba were forced to cancel their planned trip to Germany for recording Show Express after kidnap threats to Björn and Agnetha's children were received. Frida and Agnetha changed their outfits for this song, Benny and Bjorn flew to Barbados in January 1980 for a song writing holiday hoping for some creative musical inspiration for their next album which would be Super Trouper. They rented a house where Paul McCartney and his family had stayed in the summer of 1978 at the same time as Benny and Frida were there on holiday. This was a repeat of their previous successful song writing holiday to the Bahamas in January 1979, where they wrote several songs for the Voulez-Vouz album. This time they completed 5 songs intended for the Super Trouper album. These were Adante Adante, The Piper, Happy New Year, On And On And On and Elaine (which was later dropped and released as a B-side only). On the plane they had the idea of writing a musical based on New Year's celebrations. Benny recalls "We thought it would be a good framework, a few people in a room, looking back on what has been, thinking about the future, that sort of thing". They met British comedian John Cleese, star of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers which they were huge fans of, at the holiday resort and asked him over dinner if he would be interested in writing the story for their proposed musical. Cleese turned them down however, and the idea of an Abba musical was abandoned - until Mamma Mia appeared 20 years later! They finished writing Happy New Year anyway, as a song with a message for the future. Bjorn says "I feel that one of the biggest problems in the Western world today is the lack of confidence, and the way of looking negatively at the future. So 'Happy New Year' is about trying to set up positive goals for the future. That's a political message in itself." Happy New Year was recorded on April 9 1980 and released on the Super Trouper album on November 3 1980. Its the closest Abba came to recording a traditional Christmas song, wth the original working title being the more festive and humurous: 'Daddy Don't Get Drunk On Christmas Day'. It was released as a single originally in Japan, Brazil and Portugal only. Happy New Year has since become a traditional New Year pop song in Scandinavian countries, being finally released there in 1999 for the millennium celebrations (Sweden #27). It re-entered their charts in 2008 (Sweden #4) and 2009 (Sweden & Norway #5). The Slade song "Merry Christmas Everybody" similarly charts every year in the UK. A Spanish version of Happy New Year with lyrics translated by Buddy & Mary McClusky was recorded in October 1980 with the title "Felicidad". This was released as a single with Super Trouper as the B-side and reached #5 in Argentina. Music / Lyrics: Benny Andersson / Björn Ulvaeus Lead vocal: Agnetha. 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 neighbour 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 Sometimes I see How the brave new world arrives And I see how it thrives In the ashes of our lives Oh yes, man is a fool And he thinks he'll be Ok Dragging on feet of clay Never knowing he's astray Keeps on going anyway Happy new year Happy new year May we all have a vision Now and then of a world where Every neighbour 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 Seems to me now That the dreams we had before Are all dead nothing more Than confetti on the floor It's the end of a decade In another ten years time Who can say what we'll find What lies waiting down the line In the end of eighty-nine Happy new year Happy new year May we all have a vision Now and then of a world where Every neighbour 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