"The Day Before You Came" is a song recorded and released by Swedish pop group ABBA, their second longest (after "Eagle") at almost 6:00 in length. It was originally released in 1982 as both a single, and a track on the compilation album The Singles: The First Ten Years. Although it was the final ABBA recording, it was not the last song to be released as their final single was "Under Attack", which also featured on the singles compilation album.

After 1981's The Visitors, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson took some time off to write new material, yet at the same time, they were beginning to create their first musical, Chess, alongside Tim Rice. Meanwhile, Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad slowly began their English-language solo careers. Fältskog recorded with fellow ABBA backing vocalist Tomas Ledin the song "Never Again" (a hit in Europe) and played a leading role in the Swedish film Raskenstam, while Lyngstad worked with Phil Collins to produce her solo album Something's Going On.

The group returned to Polar Studios in May–August 1982 to record new songs for a planned follow up album to The Visitors. "The Day Before You Came" was one of six new songs that were recorded, with only two of them being released as singles and two as the B-sides. One of the other songs recorded, "I Am the City", would not see international release until 1993's More ABBA Gold CD, while another, "Just Like That", has never been released in its entirety (partially released in 1994).

Ulvaeus wrote the lyrics, which to some degree are influenced by his divorce from Fältskog. He later said: "Even if 90% of the lyrics were fiction there are still feelings in songs like 'Winner Takes It All' and 'Day Before You Came' they have something from that time in them."

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