"Take a Chance on Me" | ||||||||
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Single by ABBA | ||||||||
from the album ABBA: The Album | ||||||||
B-side | "I'm a Marionette" | |||||||
Released | 12 December 1977 | |||||||
Format | Vinyl | |||||||
Recorded | 15 August 1977 at Marcus Music Studio | |||||||
Genre | Europop, disco | |||||||
Length | 4:05 | |||||||
Label |
Polar (Sweden) Epic (UK) Atlantic (US) |
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Writer(s) |
Benny Andersson Björn Ulvaeus |
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Producer(s) | Benny Andersson Björn Ulvaeus |
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ABBA singles chronology | ||||||||
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"Take a Chance on Me" | ||||
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Single by Erasure | ||||
from the album Abba-esque | ||||
Released | June 1, 1992 | |||
Genre | Synthpop | |||
Length | 4:45 | |||
Label | Mute Records | |||
Writer(s) | Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus | |||
Producer(s) | Dave Bascombe | |||
Erasure singles chronology | ||||
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"Take a Chance on Me" | ||||
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Single by A-Teens | ||||
from the album The ABBA Generation | ||||
Released | 2000 | |||
Format | Airplay | |||
Recorded | 1999 | |||
Genre | Europop | |||
Length | 3:52 | |||
Label | Universal Music Group | |||
Writer(s) | B. Andersson B. Ulvaeus |
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Producer(s) | Thomas Johansson Ronald Malmberg |
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A-Teens singles chronology | ||||
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"Take a Chance on Me" is a song by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released in January 1978 as the second single from their fifth studio album ABBA: The Album. The song has been featured on a number of ABBA compilations such as Gold: Greatest Hits.
The working title of "Take a Chance on Me" was "Billy Boy". Written and recorded in 1977 by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, it opens as a cold intro and was sung by Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, with Fältskog delivering the solo passages. It has a constant uptempo throughout the entire recording. It was one of ABBA's first singles in which their manager Stig Anderson did not lend a hand in writing the lyrics, firmly establishing Andersson and Ulvaeus as a songwriting partnership.
The song's origins sprang from Ulvaeus, whose hobby was running. While running, he would sing a "tck-a-ch"-style rhythm to himself over and over again, which then evolved into "take-a-chance" and the eventual lyrics. The song's B-side was "I'm a Marionette", which, like "Thank You for the Music" and "I Wonder (Departure)" (the B-side to their previous single, "The Name of the Game"), was intended to be part of a mini-musical entitled The Girl With the Golden Hair that Andersson and Ulvaeus had planned, but ultimately shelved.
"Take a Chance on Me" proved to be one of ABBA's most successful chart hits, becoming the group's seventh UK #1 (their third consecutive chart-topper in the country after "Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "The Name of the Game"). It was also ABBA's final #1 in the UK of the 1970s, and gives the group the distinction of being the act with the most chart-topping singles of the 1970s in the UK.
"Take a Chance on Me" also topped the charts in Austria, Belgium, Ireland and Mexico, and was a Top 3 hit in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Rhodesia, Switzerland, and the United States (also reaching #9 on the AC chart), where it allegedly sold more copies than "Dancing Queen". "Take a Chance on Me" also reached the Top 10 in France, Norway and South Africa.