The Day Before You Came
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| “The Day Before You Came” | |||||
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| Single by ABBA from the album The Singles: The First Ten Years |
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| B-side | "Cassandra" | ||||
| Released | October 18, 1982 | ||||
| Format | 7" Single | ||||
| Genre | Pop/Europop | ||||
| Length | 5:54 | ||||
| Writer(s) | Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson |
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| Producer | Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson |
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| Certification | N/A | ||||
| ABBA singles chronology | |||||
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"The Day Before You Came" is a song recorded and released by Swedish pop group ABBA. It was originally released as the first "new" song off the double compilation album The Singles: The First Ten Years, released in November 1982.
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[edit] History
After the lukewarm success of 1981's The Visitors, both Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson took some time off to write new material, yet at the same time, they were in the beginning of the creation of their first musical Chess, alongside Sir Tim Rice. Meanwhile, Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad slowly began their English-speaking solo careers. Fältskog recorded with fellow ABBA backing vocalist Tomas Ledin the song "Never Again" (a modest hit in Europe), while Lyngstad searched for Phil Collins to produce her solo album Something's Going On.
The group returned to the Polar Studio in the summer of 1982 to record new songs for a planned follow up album to The Visitors. In all, six new songs were recorded, with only two of them being released as singles. One of the other four songs recorded, "I Am the City", would not see international release until 1993, while another, "Just Like That", has never been released in its entirety (partially released in 1995).
"The Day Before You Came" was recorded and mixed on August 20, 1982, with the working title of "Den Lidande Fågeln" (The Suffering Bird). Apart from Fältskog's lead vocal and an operatic solo vocal line of Lyngstad mixed with the instrumental, the only instruments featured on the song were Andersson's synthesizer and drum machine, Ulvaeus' acoustic guitar and a snare drum by Åke Sundqvist. The song minutely details the story of a lonely ordinary office girl's life right before she either met her loved one or met a loved one with whom she'd previously split (another interpretation is before she died), blended with a sombre, haunting melody. Though it was the first song off The Singles: The First Ten Years, "The Day Before You Came" was the last song the group ever recorded together in the studio.
[edit] Reception
The single was officially released on October 18, 1982 with another new song, "Cassandra", as the B-side. In the charts, after the success of 1981's "One of Us", ABBA experienced a slow decline in UK single sales, which later explained the song's placing at No.32. It did, however, hit the Top Five in Finland, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway and West Germany. It also reached No.5 on the RPM magazine Adult Contemporary chart in Canada. The song was promoted by a state-of-the-art music video clip, filmed on September 21, 1982, and directed by the team of Kjell Sundvall and Kjell-Åke Andersson, breaking ABBA's eight year directing relationship with Lasse Hallström. The video featured Swedish actor Jonas Bergström as Fältskog's love interest.
[edit] Chart positions
| Chart (1982) | Position |
|---|---|
| Finnish Singles Chart | 2 |
| Belgian Singles Chart | 3 |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 3 |
| Swedish Singles Chart | 3 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 4 |
| Canadian Adult Contemporary Chart | 5 |
| German Singles Chart | 5 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 5 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 12 |
| Zimbabwean Singles Chart | 14 |
| Mexican Singles Chart | 19 |
| UK Singles Chart | 32 |
| French Singles Chart | 38 |
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 48 |
[edit] Cover versions
- In 1984, two years after the song's original release, the first cover version of "The Day Before You Came" was released by British synthpop duo Blancmange. The cover charted at No.22 in the UK singles chart and was included in that year's Mange Tout album.
- British singer/songwriter Tanita Tikaram covered the song on her 1998 album The Cappuccino Songs.
- A dance cover by Abbacadabra was released by Almighty Records during the late 1990s.
- UK indie band Jacques covered the song for their 2000 album To Stars.
- Swedish opera singer Anne Sofie von Otter covered the song on her ABBA tribute album I Let The Music Speak.
- Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree covered the song on his EP Cover Version II.
- British Antique-Beat band The Real Tuesday Weld covered the song on the compilation album Backspin: A Six Degrees 10 Year Anniversary Project.
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