Fernando by Abba

[Jockice]

Is apparently their best-selling single worldwide. And also their worst. Discuss.

(I was going to put this in the Fuck My Hat thread, but I couldn't find it.)

[pigamus]

Under Attack is probably the weakest, no?

[Jockice]

Under Attack is probably the weakest, no?

Worst isn't necessarily weakest though. I just think Fernando's horrible. Even worse than Chiquitita. Or Summer Night City, which I confidently predicted to Ian Brownhill in J4 at St Marie's signaled the end of their career. I was right there obviously. Even though I quite like it nowadays.

[pigamus]

I find I Have A Dream quite irritating.

[checkoutgirl]

I find ABBA quite irritating.

[daf]

Under Attack is probably the weakest, no?

Oh, I love that one - partly as has a chunk of the unreleased Just Like That recycled into it!

[SpiderChrist]

ABBA's worst? Crikey that's a crowded field.

Does Your Mother Know? is just fucking horrible on almost every level.

[the science eel]

Does Your Mother Know? is just fucking horrible on almost every level.

Yes, that's possibly their worst single. Really icky.

'Fernando' is great because of its glorious sun-bursting-through-the-cloud chorus, one of the very best examples of this. 'Daydream Believer' is another one.

[DrGreggles]

Chiquitita

That's the worst of their big hits for me.
Although I'm not keen on I Have A Dream or Fernando either.
Does Your Mother Know is silly, but at least it's over quite quickly.

[Satchmo Distel]

The group itself didn't like Summer Night City:

Their ambivalence about the record has surfaced occasionally in interviews where Benny has said "we shouldn't have released that one", and Bjorn called the recording "really lousy"

Does Your Mother Know is sleazy and indefensible lyrically but musically it's OK.

Fernando was nicked by Brotherhood Of Man as 'Angelo'.

[buzby]

Summer Night City is my favourite ABBA song, closely followed by The Visitors. How they can call Summer Night City, especially the full length version with the string-laden overture 'really lousy' I don't know.

[mrClaypole]

My favourite ABBA songs....

[Dr Rock]

Summer Night City is my favourite ABBA song, closely followed by The Visitors. How they can call Summer Night City, especially the full length version with the string-laden overture 'really lousy' I don't know.

Yeah it's one of my favourites too. All about people going fuck bonkers all over the shop.

[shiftwork2]

Summer Night City is boss.  I was weaned on Greatest Hits vol 2 so, despite not having heard it for decades, I can play it through and can confirm it's a banger.

[crankshaft]

Another vote for Summer Night City. B&B are geniuses but, like all artists, are not to be trusted with their opinions on their own songs. These are, after all, the men who decided that "Two For The Price Of One" should be allowed on The Visitors.

I like Fernando, and whilst it's obviously quite cheesy lyrically it's a masterpiece of atmosphere and, as someone said above, the chorus is an incredible "light through the clouds" moment with a gorgeous set of chord changes.

Worse ABBA singles? Easy; "Head Over Heels" (trying too hard to be jolly when it's obvious their hearts aren't in it), "I Have A Dream" (great songcraft, yes, but just far too saccharine), "Voulez Vous" (massively overrated), "Does Your Mother Know" (if Björn is on lead, SKIP).

[Fr.Bigley]

That's the name of the game is their best track. Condensed rhapsody, Excellent pre-chorus, that weird reggae timed beat in the verse and the rousing Pure pop chorus.

[Brundle-Fly]

When I hear Fernando I am transported right back to 1976, age nine. I'm sat at a dinner table at my friend's house eating another one of his mum's undercooked meals, the scratching of cutlery on crockery,  the secret gagging on the unyielding broccoli, the whiff of stale cabbage water emanating from the kitchen. I'm glassily staring at the dust twinking in the rays of sunshine between the garish orange curtains and counting the minutes until we are allowed to leave the table in time to watch Barbapapa before the news. And Fernando playing softly on the radio in the background. I hated it then, I hate it now*.




*_{Parklife! Got there first.}

[the science eel]

DAMN

[jamiefairlie]

When I hear Fernando I am transported right back to 1976, age nine. I'm sat at a dinner table at my friend's house eating another one of his mum's undercooked meals, the scratching of cutlery on crockery,  the secret gagging on the unyielding broccoli, the whiff of stale cabbage water emanating from the kitchen. I'm glassily staring at the dust twinking in the rays of sunshine between the garish orange curtains and counting the minutes until we are allowed to leave the table in time to watch Barbapapa before the news. And Fernando playing softly on the radio in the background. I hated it then, I hate it now*.




*_{Parklife! Got there first.}

Oooh, so accurate. We must have a shared generational memory.

[Captain Z]

I struggle to get over the fact that Abba-copycats Brotherhood Of Man released the not-even-subtle rip-off track 'Angelo'.

[pigamus]

broccoli

We had very different childhoods.

[Brundle-Fly]

We had very different childhoods.

I was middle-middle class. She made indigestible lumpy swede too. Much like Fernando.

[pigamus]

I remember swede from junior school dinners. Still don't know what it is.

[Captain Z]

They were a British alternative/indie band that helped drive the Britpop movement.

[Jockice]

You're all daft incidentally. Their best single is without any doubt Money Money Money. It's a rich man's world apparently.

[Jockice]

And my talent for signaling the end of a band's career was confirmed a few years later when I predicted to another friend that Embarrassment by Madness would flop horribly and they'd never have another hit.

I should have become a music journalist with such powers.

[Icehaven]

Generally I find ABBA range from OK/meh to no thanks, with the glaring exception of Fernando which is fucking brilliant. Apart from it just being a great song, I've always liked how it was used as the accompaniment to triumphance in ABBA themed romcom "Muriel's Wedding", which I have a soft spot for even if it did possibly help pave the way to the hell that is the Mamma Mia! franchise (albeit probably only slightly).

[Sin Agog]

Fernando is kinda catchy, and even stupid-catchy is something innumerable singer-songwriters have lost hair pecking at various combinations of major chords trying and failing to achieve.  That chorus is dreary as fuck, though.  I'm with Andy Partridge when he said that even verses and bridges should be like another soaring chorus, rather than just time-fillers.  What's the point filling up time in a song that's only going to last a couple of minutes?

[Phoenix Lazarus]

I struggle to get over the fact that Abba-copycats Brotherhood Of Man released the not-even-subtle rip-off track 'Angelo'.

The last line of 'Kisses for Me' was 'won't you save them for me, even though you're only three?'  Get those paedos cancelled and in a cell!

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

The first song I can remember is Super Trouper. I'm glad it's not Does Your Mother Know?