SNAPSHOT
During ABBA’s week at Bjorn and Benny Studio in the town of Kungav, they were visited by reporter Fredrik Belfrage and a young ABBA fan – also named Fredrik – for a sneak peak on recording sessions for the new album. This rare talk with Bhoyrn and bennty is probaly the only television interview with any ABBA members during the seven-month writting and recording period for ABBA – The Album. It also offers the first publicly heard sounds of the upcoming single ‘The Name Of The Game’. The report was broadcast on the Swedish morning show Gornorron Sverige on Septmeber 17, 1977. (synopsis via YouTube (c) Troy Lockhart)
I spent a great deal of my childhood and teenage years eagerly anticipating any new songs, or even word of any new songs, from my favourite music group ABBA.
Keep in mind this was in the 1970s for the most part when the internet was a far off dream (save for a few academics and military people in the know) and the unceasing flow of information that characterises our current social media age was but a trickle, confined to ABBA Fan Club newsletters printed on good old paper and sent through the mail.
So any time I heard even the skerrick of a song I was an immensely happy boy whose joy knew no bounds.
You can imagine then what might have happened if I’d been the young boy in this 1977 piece from Swedish TV which gave a preview of the then-forthcoming new LP ABBA: The Album, of which “The Name of the Game”, still one of my favourite songs from the group, was the lead single.
I’m fairly certain if a reporter had taken me into the studio to meet and talk with Benny and Bjorn, and to listen to a brand new song into the bargain, I’m fairly certain my head or heart would’ve exploded (or both) with the excitement.
My childhood glee aside, of which there was and still is no bound (yeah I’m still a big kid when it comes to ABBA), this segment grants us a fascinating insight into the writing and making of ABBA: The Album which, together with ABBA: The Movie, captured the Swedish supergroup at the height of their popularity worldwide.