Eagle (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Eagle" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by ABBA | ||
| from the album The Album | ||
| Released | May 1978 | |
| Format | Single | |
| Genre | Pop | |
| Length | 4.25 / 3.33 | |
| Label | Polar Music | |
| Writer(s) | Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus | |
| Producer(s) | Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus | |
| Certification | — | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| ABBA singles chronology | ||
| "One Man One Woman" (1978) |
"Eagle" (1978) |
"Summer Night City" (1978) |
The song "Eagle" was recorded in 1977 by Swedish supergroup ABBA. It was the first track on the group's fifth album, simply titled The Album and the longest track the group ever recorded (at 5:51; one second longer than "The Day Before You Came" with 5:50). It was released in only a few countries with the ever-popular and much more famous "Thank You for the Music" as the B-side.
[edit] The song
"Eagle" was written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad shared the lead-vocals. The recording, which commenced on 1 June 1977, had the working titles of "High, High" and "The Eagle". Lyricist Ulvaeus was inspired by Richard Bach's novel Jonathan Livingston Seagull when he wrote the lyrics for this song. In later years, music critics have hailed "Eagle" as one of ABBA's more outstanding tracks in terms of lyrics, and there is some debate over whether the song is also a tribute to The Eagles, a band that was popular with Andersson and Ulvaeus, or simply an ode to the freedom of flight that these birds of prey possess.
[edit] Chart Success
"Eagle" did not perform that well in the charts. One reason was that the song was already available on The Album, another was the limited release only in countries like Germany, France, Austria, Australia, Switzerland and some others. To make the song more radio-friendly it was heavily edited down from 5:51 to 4:25 by omitting an instrumental break and the third chorus. Australia and France even got an edit from the edit, with the song fading shortly after the second chorus making it last 3:33, nearly 2:20 shorter than the album version. The single was promoted by a music video by Lasse Hallstrom, while an earlier, much more interesting video in terms of special effects was included as a part of ABBA: The Movie.
The single was released in May 1978 to fill the gap between the previous single ("Take a Chance on Me") and the next single, a completely new track, eventually called "Summer Night City". The B-side of "Eagle", "Thank You for the Music", was later released as a single outright in a few countries after the group had disbanded, namely in Britain, where "Eagle"/"Thank You for the Music" had not been released.
