Bang-A-Boomerang

"Bang-A-Boomerang" is a song by ABBA, first released by Svenne & Lotta (both Swedish and English language versions). The track was first recorded as a demo with English lyrics (but without any recorded vocals) in September 1974 by the ABBA musicians for their forthcoming eponymous album ABBA. The song was written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Stig Anderson and at one point had the working title "Stop and Listen to Your Heart". The lyrics compare the "message of love" with the returning boomerangs which the Australian Aborigines developed.

In late 1974 Andersson, Ulvaeus and Anderson were invited by Sveriges Television as composers to submit a song to the 1975 melodifestivalen. Since ABBA themselves did not want to compete in the contest again, just one year after having won, they instead gave the opportunity and the song to Polar Music labelmates Svenne & Lotta. "Bang-A-Boomerang" was given new Swedish lyrics by Stig Anderson and retitled "Bang en Boomerang" and the duo subsequently made a vocal recording of the track in November 1974 - produced by Björn & Benny - with a different arrangement, most noticeably slightly shorter (2:50) than the original demo, to fit the Eurovision three-minute rule. The song finished 3rd in the Swedish preselections in February 1975, became one of Svenne & Lotta's biggest hits and spent 7 weeks on the Svensktoppen radio chart during the period 9 March-11 May 1975, with a 2nd place as best result.^[1] Svenne & Lotta also recorded the song with the original English lyrics, both versions were included on their 1975 album Svenne & Lotta 2/Bang-A-Boomerang (Polar POLS 259). The English version was also released as a single in Denmark and became a big seller there, from a Scandinavian perspective the track is therefore still primarily seen as a hit single and Melodifestivalen classic by Svenne & Lotta. Under the name of "Sven & Charlotte", their original English version was also released in most European countries, and in Oceania, charting in several.^[2]

ABBA then re-recorded their English language version of the song in the Spring of 1975, using the Svenne & Lotta backing track - reputedly to the surprise of the duo, included it on their ABBA album and later also released it as a single in France on April 21, 1975, with "SOS" as B-side, where it was a minor hit. Although the track was included on the band's first Greatest Hits album, released on 17 November 1975, the ABBA version was in fact never issued as a single in Scandinavia.

Other cover versions, appearances in other media etc.

• Danish singer Ulla Pia covered the song in her native language.
• Swedish band Noice recorded the song on their 1981 album Det ljuva livet.
• In 1998 the Swedish heavy metal group Black Ingvars covered the song, in a heavy metal version for their album Schlager Metal.
• In the year 2000, the Swedish dansband Lotta Engbergs recorded a cover version on the Swedish language version of the song, on their album "Vilken härlig dag", and the song is also on Swedish dansband singer Lotta Engberg's 2006 compilation album "Världens bästa lotta".
• A hi-NRG/eurodance cover of the song by Les Blue Belles was released as a single in 2002 and included on various dance compilations.
• In 2007 producer Leonard T. released a song called "Go" (featuring vocals from Maia Lee), the song uses the same melody as "Bang-A-Boomerang" but different lyrics.
• A dance/pop cover in Swedish was recorded by modern schlager music artists the Banana Girls.
• A German language cover was recorded by singer Nico Gaik for the album Musicalstars sing ABBA. Gaik's version is called "Sing, wenn du mal traurig bist".
• Danish duo Olsen Brothers (winners of the Eurovision contest in 2000) covered the song on their 2010 album Wings of Eurovision.

External links

• ABBA - for the record - Collector site and discography.

References