Eagle (song)
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| “Eagle” | |||||
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| Single by ABBA from the album The Album |
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| B-side | "Thank You for the Music" | ||||
| Released | May 1978 | ||||
| Format | Single | ||||
| Genre | Pop | ||||
| Length | 4:25 / 3:33 | ||||
| Label | Polar Music | ||||
| Writer(s) | Benny Andersson Björn Ulvaeus |
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| Producer | Benny Andersson Björn Ulvaeus |
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| Certification | — | ||||
| ABBA singles chronology | |||||
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The song "Eagle" was recorded in 1977 by Swedish pop group ABBA. It was the first track on the group's fifth album, simply titled The Album, and the longest track they ever recorded (at 5:51, one second longer than "The Day Before You Came" at 5:50). It was released only in a limited number of territories with the ever-popular and much more famous "Thank You for the Music" as the B-side. The song has certain common denominators with E.L.O.'s "Laredo Tornado" which appears on their 1974 album Eldorado.
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[edit] History
"Eagle" was written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, with Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad sharing the lead vocals. The recording, which commenced on June 1, 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 group that was popular in the 1970s, or simply an ode to the freedom of flight that these birds of prey possess.
[edit] Reception
"Eagle" was not a major success on the charts. One reason was that the song was already available on The Album, another was the limited release only in countries like Belgium (where it did top the charts), West Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Australia. 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 just 3:33, nearly 2:20 shorter than the album version. The single was promoted with a music video by Lasse Hallström, 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, 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 the UK, where "Eagle" had not been released as a single.
[edit] 1999 Re-edit
The original 4:25 single edit was issued on CD for the first time in 1993 on the compilation More ABBA Gold: More ABBA Hits. However, for the 1999 re-release of this album, plus subsequent releases, a new version based on the 1978 edit was created. Unfortunately this edit missed out vital instrumentation at the end of the second chorus prior to the closing instrumental, thereby sounding disjointed. The original edit (or at least an exact re-creation of it) was finally issued again on the deluxe version of ABBA The Album in 2007.
[edit] Chart positions
| Chart | Position |
|---|---|
| Belgian Singles Chart | 11 |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 4 |
| German Singles Chart | 6 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 7 |
| Austrian Singles Chart | 17 |
| French Singles Chart | 36 |
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 82 |
[edit] Cover versions
- A heavy metal cover of "Eagle" by German band Sargant Fury was included on the tribute album ABBAMetal (also released as A Tribute to ABBA).
- Christian heavy metal musician Rob Rock also recorded a metal version of the song on his 2000 album Rage of Creation.
- Almighty Records released a dance version of the song by Abbacadabra in the late 1990s.
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