- Summer Night City
Infobox Single
Name = Summer Night City
Artist =ABBA
Released =September 6 ,1978 (Sweden)September 16 ,1978 (UK)
Format =7" Single
Genre = Pop/Europop /Disco
Length = 3:34
Producer = Polar (Sweden) Epic (UK)
Writer =Björn Ulvaeus ,Benny Andersson
Producer =Björn Ulvaeus ,Benny Andersson
Director =Lasse Hallström
Certification = Silver (UK)
Last single = "Eagle" (1978 )
This single = "Summer Night City" (1978 )
Next single = "Chiquitita " (1979 )
Misc =
Misc ="Summer Night City", written by
Björn Ulvaeus andBenny Andersson , isABBA 's second non-album single, released onSeptember 6 ,1978 . It was originally intended as thelead single from the group's upcoming "Voulez-Vous" album, but was eventually not included. The single's B-side was a medley of the American traditional songs "Pick a Bale of Cotton ", "On Top of Old Smokey ", and "Midnight Special ", which the group had recorded in 1975. These were the only songs released by ABBA that were not written by any of the members themselves. Björn has later told that the song was difficult to make, and they didn't really manage to make the song as good as they wanted to. There are also several versions of the song.History
The recording sessions for "Summer Night City" began in early
1978 . ABBA's newrecording studio ,Polar Music Studio, had opened in May, but had not been ready to use initially, so the primary backing track had been recorded atMetronome Studio. A 43-second ballad-style introduction to the song had been edited out to improve the overall quality, but nothing seemed to work. Allegedly, mixing the single took at least a week, far more than it took to mix any other track in ABBA's recording history. A reluctant ABBA decided to release the song as a single in September despite their disappointment with the track as it was. The group still performed the song live on their 1979 world tour, though with the original introduction that had been removed in the studio recording.The B-side, "Medley" was actually a remix of the original 1975 version that had been issued on the German charity album "Stars Im Zeichen Eines Guten Sterns" (Polydor). However, the 1978 mix is very similar, so much so that a mistake was made in the booklet notes of the 1994 4-CD boxed set "Thank You for the Music". It turned out that the 1975 mix was included in that set but it was claimed to be the 1978 mix. The Medley mystery was allegedly solved when the UK single master tapes were returned by
Epic Records toPolar Music in Sweden in the early 2000s. As the UK tapes had definitely included the 1978 mix, it then became possible to determine which mix was which. An explanation of this by ABBA expert Carl Magnus Palm appeared on his website.Reception
Despite the group's negative views of the song, "Summer Night City" was another sizeable hit for ABBA, topping the charts in
Ireland ,Finland andSweden ; the group's lastchart-topper in their home country. It also reached the Top Five inBelgium ,Norway ,Zimbabwe (thenRhodesia ), theNetherlands ,Switzerland and the UK."Summer Night City" was, however, the group's first single since "SOS" not to reach the UK top 3.
Chart positions
Cover versions
* The digipack edition of Swedish
Symphonic metal band Therion's "Secret of the Runes" album from 2001 contains their cover of this song. There is also a live version on their "Live in Midgård " album. They also produced amusic video for the studio version of the cover.
* Swedish musicianNils Landgren covered the song on his album "Funky ABBA" from 2004.
* In2005 ,Israeli DJ Offer Nissim did a dance cover of "Summer Night City" on his album "First Time". This version omits some of the original lyrics of the song and features singer Maya Simantov on vocals.
* Dance versions of the song have been recorded by Abbacadabra (released throughAlmighty Records ), Angeleyes on their "ABBAdance" album, Jill Dreski, Astaire, Australian singerDonna Burke on the 2001 Japanese "ABBA Ibiza Caliente Mix" compilation, and DJ Ensamble on the album "Trancing Queen".
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