Summer Night City
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| “Summer Night City” | |||||
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| Single by ABBA | |||||
| Released | September 6, 1978 (Sweden) September 16, 1978 (UK) |
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| Format | 7" Single | ||||
| Genre | Pop/Europop/Disco | ||||
| Length | 3:34 | ||||
| Writer(s) | Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson |
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| Producer | Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson |
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| Certification | Silver (UK) | ||||
| ABBA singles chronology | |||||
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"Summer Night City", written by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, is ABBA's second non-album single, released on September 6, 1978. It was originally intended as the lead 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.
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[edit] History
The recording sessions for "Summer Night City" began in early 1978. ABBA's new recording studio, Polar Music Studio, had opened in May, but had not been ready to use initially, so the primary backing track had been recorded at Metronome 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 to Polar 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.
[edit] 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 and Sweden; the group's last chart-topper in their home country. It also reached the Top Five in Belgium, Norway, Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK.
"Summer Night City" was, however, the group's first single since "SOS" not to reach the UK Top 3.
[edit] Chart positions
| Chart (1978) | Position |
|---|---|
| Finnish Singles Chart | 1 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 1 |
| Swedish Singles Chart | 1 |
| Belgian Singles Chart | 2 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 3 |
| Zimbabwean Singles Chart | 4 |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 5 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 5 |
| UK Singles Chart | 5 |
| German Singles Chart | 6 |
| Mexican Singles Chart | 10 |
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 13 |
| French Singles Chart | 15 |
| Austrian Singles Chart | 18 |
| Japanese Singles Chart | 24 |
| Canadian Singles Chart | 34 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart | 37 |
[edit] Cover versions
- The digipack edition of Swedish Symphonic Metal band Therion's Secret of the Runes album contains their cover of this song. There is also a live version on their Live in Midgård album. They also produced a music video for the studio version of the cover.
- In 2005, 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, Angeleyes on their ABBAdance album, Jill Dreski, Australian singer Donna Burke on the Japanese ABBA Ibiza Caliente Mix compilation, and DJ Ensamble on the album Trancing Queen.
- Swedish musician Nils Landgren covered the song on his album Funky ABBA from 2004.
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