BENNY RECORDS NEW ABBA-SONG 

Published 2007-03-26

Aftonbladet in the studio - BAO  releases the supergroup's unknown song.

For 142 weeks "Du är min man" has been on Svensktoppen. While the song is breaking records, Benny Anderssons Orkester is in recording studio recording new listener's favourites. Like an unreleased ABBA-song from 1979.

Two songs are sung in English on the forthcoming CD.

- One is titled "Crush On You", says Benny Andersson. Björn and I were working on this one 28 years ago, but the song was never completed. Now we have finished it.

You never recorded it with ABBA?

- No, nothing out of this song

[continued]

Jens Peterson

Source: Aftonbladet. Translation: Maria Westerberg/ABBAMAIL, ABBA Today.

UNRELEASED ABBA TRACK DUSTED DOWN

Ex-ABBA star BENNY ANDERSSON is to delight fans of the legendary Swedish band - he has recorded an unreleased Abba song that dates back nearly 30 years. During the recording of 1979's SUPER TROUPER album, Abba songwriters Andersson and BJORN ULVAEUS penned a track called CRUSH ON YOU. The song remained in the vaults, but now Andersson has recorded it with his band THE BENNY ANDERSSON ORKESTER for his next solo disc. Andersson, 60, says, "Bjorn and I were working on this one 28 years ago but the song was never completed. Now we have finished it."

30/03/2007 09:22

Source: Contact Music.

This story has many curious over the possibility that an ABBA version of this previously unknown song may be lingering in the vaults, along with other rumoured gems. However, as Benny says, the song was never completed at the time nor recorded before (though it's likely Benny and Björn had a reference recording of what they'd composed, possibly a cassette of the two bashing out the tune on piano and guitar in their famous songwriting hut). It's not even clear from what Benny says here that the song had this title until it was completed for this new recording.

There is precedent for such a long gestation period - 'Nationalsång', an instrumental demo recorded in March 1981, was originally written in the mid-1970s, and ended up becoming 'Anthem' in the musical Chess in 1984.

Due to the runaway nature of this story ABBA spokeswoman Görel Hanser has been compelled to issue a comment published on ABBA - The Site expanding on what Benny said in his interview.

UPDATE 26 OCTOBER 2007: In an interview in Aftonbladet on 24 October, Benny talked about 'Crush On You' and other BAO songs:

Röjde i melodiförrådet

En del refränger och melodier är plockade från Bennys förråd. ”Crush on you” föddes på ABBA-tiden.

[Benny] – Själva refrängen är kvar och demotexten var ”Crush on you”. Det fanns bara slarvtext, ingen färdig låt. ”Du är min man” är en jättegammal grej. ”Det är vi ändå” är också gammal som gatan.

Translation:

Revealed from the song vaults

Some of the choruses and melodies are from Benny´s archives. “Crush On You” was born during the ABBA time.

[Benny] - The refrain is there and the demo lyrics were “Crush On You”. They were dummy lyrics, no complete song. “Du är min man” is a very old thing. “Det är vi ändå” is also as old as the hills.

Many people have interpreted this comment to mean that there was an ABBA demo recording, or at least an ABBA-era demo with Benny and Björn. But nowhere does he actually say that. All he does is repeat what he said back in March - he and Björn wrote 'Crush On You' during the ABBA era, but never finished it.

It's likely that Benny and Björn, like many songwriters, had "composing tapes", cassettes they recorded their ideas on during songwriting sessions. They would record melodies with dummy lyrics for future reference. But, as stated before, this song was never finished, never recorded, and never intended for ABBA.

Source: Aftonbladet. Translation: ABBA Today, Scandiaca's ABBA NEWS.

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