Our Last Summer

"Our Last Summer"
Single by ABBA
from the album Super Trouper
Released	November 23, 1980
Recorded	1980
Genre	Pop, Rock, Rock/Pop
Length	4:19
Label	Polar (original release) PolyGram (1992 - 1997) Universal Music (1998 - )
Writer(s)	Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus
Producer	Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus
Super Trouper track listing Side one "Super Trouper" "The Winner Takes It All" "On and On and On" "Andante, Andante" "Me and I" Side two "Happy New Year" "Our Last Summer" "The Piper" "Lay All Your Love on Me" "The Way Old Friends Do"

"Our Last Summer" is a song by ABBA from the group's seventh studio album, Super Trouper. It was written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus.

Recording for this track began on 4 June 1980 in Polar Music Studios.^[1] The song features Anni-Frid Lyngstad on lead vocals and her time in the studio during the recording is captured in a series of photographs taken by Anders Hanser.^[2]

In the background of the bridge to this song, during Lasse Wellander's guitar solo, part of the Chess song, 'Anthem' can be heard. Andersson and Ulvaeus had been working on the melody for Anthem for a number of years but had never found a place for it in any ABBA project. When they finally came to use it in the musical Chess they hoped that no one would notice that part of it had already been used in Our Last Summer.^[3]

Ulvaeus found lyrical inspiration for this song in a memory of a romance he had during a visit to Paris as a teenager.^[4]

Cover versions

• British singer Hazell Dean recorded a cover for her 1996 tribute album The Winner Takes It All: Hazell Dean Sings Abba.
• Swedish teen pop group A*Teens covered the song for their debut album The ABBA Generation in 1999.
• The song is used in the musical Mamma Mia! and the lyrics provided the writer of the storyline, Catherine Johnson, with the name of one of her characters - Harry.
• In the film adaptation of the musical, the song is sung mainly by Harry (played by Colin Firth) and Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), but also includes parts sung by Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Bill (Stellan Skarsgård), and Donna (Meryl Streep). In this context, the three 'potential fathers' are telling Sophie about how they spent their last summer with Donna, her mother.

Notes

1. ^ Magnus Palm, C: "ABBA The Complete Recording sessions", page 98. Century 22 Ltd, 1994
2. ^ Magnus Palm, C et al.: "From ABBA to Mamma Mia!", page 84-89. Virgin Publishing Ltd, 1999
3. ^ Magnus Palm, C: "ABBA The Complete Recording sessions", page 99. Century 22 Ltd, 1994
4. ^ Ulvaeus, B et al.: "Mamma Mia! How Can I Resist You?", page 104. Weidenfield & Nicolson, 2006