Super Trouper (album)

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This article is about the ABBA album. For other uses, see Super Trouper.
Super Trouper
Super Trouper cover
Studio album by ABBA
Released November 3, 1980
Recorded Polar Studio
February-October 1980
Genre Pop
Length 41:57
Label Polar (original release)
PolyGram (1992 - 1997)
Universal Music (1998 - )
Producer Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus
Professional reviews
ABBA chronology
Gracias Por La Música
(1980)		 Super Trouper
(1980)		 The Visitors
(1981)

Super Trouper was Swedish pop group ABBA's seventh studio album, first released in 1980 (see 1980 in music). Led by the international hit "The Winner Takes It All", Super Trouper was the group's sixth chart-topping album in the UK. It was also the best-selling album in Britain for 1980. Super Trouper was first released on CD in 1983. The album has been reissued in digitally remastered form three times; first in 1997, then in 2001 and again in 2005 as part of the The Complete Studio Recordings box set.

Contents

[edit] The album cover and title

Super Trouper is a registered trademark owned by Strong Entertainment Lighting, for their brand of followspots, i.e., directional spotlights used to follow a performer on stage - see Super Trouper (spotlight). Album cover designer, Rune Söderqvist, decided to use the spotlight theme and photograph the group, surrounded by circus performers, at Piccadilly Circus, London. After discovering that there was a law preventing any entertainers or animals appearing in central London, they instead invited the members of two local circuses to Europa Film Studios, Stockholm to take the photograph there. Several of ABBA's friends were also invited to take part and the following also appear on the cover: Görel Hanser (vice-president of Polar Music who subsequently married the band's photographer Anders Hanser), Berka Bergkvist (another Polar Music employee), Tomas Ledin and Anders Anderson (ABBA's manager's son).[1]

At the same time, Lasse Hallström also filmed scenes that eventually ended up in the video for "Super Trouper" despite the fact that the song had not even been composed at this time.

[edit] Track listing

All songs by Andersson and Ulvaeus, except where noted.

Side A:

  1. "Super Trouper" – 4:11
  2. "The Winner Takes It All" – 4:55
  3. "On and On and On" – 3:40
  4. "Andante, Andante" – 4:39
  5. "Me and I" – 4:54

Side B:

  1. "Happy New Year" – 4:23
  2. "Our Last Summer" – 4:19
  3. "The Piper" – 3:26
  4. "Lay All Your Love On Me" – 4:33
  5. "The Way Old Friends Do" (Live) – 2:57

[edit] CD re-issues, bonus tracks

Super Trouper was remastered and reissued in 1997 and 2001 with two bonus tracks:

  1. "Elaine" – 3:44
  2. "Put On Your White Sombrero" – 4:34

The 1997 remaster of the album also included "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)", but the 2001 remaster did not, the song being shifted as a bonus track onto the Voulez-Vous album.

Super Trouper was remastered and reissued again in 2005 as part of the The Complete Studio Recordings box set with three bonus tracks:

  1. "Elaine" – 3:45
  2. "Andante, Andante (Spanish version)" (Andersson, Ulvaeus, Buddy McCluskey, Mary McCluskey) – 4:40
  3. "Felicidad" (Andersson, Ulvaeus, B. McCluskey, M. McCluskey) – 4:24

Tracks 12–13 are from the Spanish and Latin American version of the album Super Trouper.

[edit] Personnel

ABBA

Additional personnel

[edit] Production

  • Producers: Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus
  • Engineer: Michael B. Tretow
  • Arranger: Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Rutger Gunnarsson
  • Design: Rune Söderqvist

[edit] World Charts

Album

Year Chart Position
1980 Argentina Album Chart 2
1980 Australia Album Chart 5
1980 Austria Album Chart 3
1980 Belgium Album Chart 1
1980 Canada Album Chart 4
1980 Dutch Album Chart 1 (9)
1980 Finland Album Chart 2
1980 France Album Chart 8
1980 Italy Album Chart 13
1980 Japan Album Chart 8
1980 Mexico Album Chart 1 (1)
1980 New Zealand Album Chart 5
1980 Norway Album Chart 1 (3)
1980 Spain Album Chart 4
1980 Sweden Album Chart 1 (7)
1980 Switzerland Album Chart 1
1980 UK Album Chart 1 (9)
1980 The Billboard 200 17
1980 West Germany Album Chart 1 (2)
1980 Zimbabwe Album Chart 1 (6)

[edit] UK Singles Charts

Year Chart Position
1980 "The Winner Takes It All" UK Singles Chart 1 (2)
1980 "Super Trouper" UK Singles Chart 1 (3)
1981 "Lay All Your Love On Me" UK Singles Chart 7

[edit] Norway's Singles Charts

Year Chart Position
1980 "The Winner Takes It All" Norway's Singles Chart 3
1980 "Super Trouper" Norway's Singles Chart 2 (3)
1981 "Happy new year" Norway's Singles Chart 11

[edit] US Singles Charts

Year Chart Single Position
1980 "The Winner Takes It All" The Billboard Hot 100 8
1980 "The Winner Takes It All" Adult Contemporary 1
1980 "Lay All Your Love On Me/Super Trouper/On And On" Club Play Singles 1
1981 "Super Trouper" The Billboard Hot 100 45
1981 "Super Trouper" Adult Contemporary 14
1981 "On And On And On" The Billboard Hot 100 90

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Magnus Palm, C: "Bright Lights, Dark shadows", page 432-433. Omnibus Press, 2001

[edit] External links

v • d • e
ABBA
Agnetha Fältskog • Björn Ulvaeus • Benny Andersson • Anni-Frid Lyngstad
Studio albums
Ring Ring • Waterloo • ABBA • Arrival • The Album • Voulez-Vous • Super Trouper • The Visitors
Compilations
Hit singles
"People Need Love" • "He Is Your Brother" • "Ring Ring" • "Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure Is Hard Enough)" • "Waterloo" • "Honey, Honey" • "So Long" • "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" • "SOS" • "Mamma Mia" • "Fernando" • "Dancing Queen" • "Money, Money, Money" • "Knowing Me, Knowing You" • "The Name of the Game" • "Take a Chance on Me" • "Eagle" • "Summer Night City" • "Chiquitita" • "Does Your Mother Know" • "Voulez-Vous" • "Angeleyes" • "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" • "I Have a Dream" • "The Winner Takes It All" • "On and On and On" • "Super Trouper" • "Lay All Your Love on Me" • "One of Us" • "When All is Said and Done" • "Head over Heels" • "The Visitors" • "The Day Before You Came" • "Under Attack" • "Thank You for the Music"
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