Song Analysis - Ring Ring

 I just need to preface this post by saying that Ring Ring, specifically the 1974 remix version, was my budgie Skyler's favorite song.  The moment that song played, just hearing the intro, he was singing his little budgie heart out, with pin eyes and fluffed feathers, and lots of headbobs.  He could listen to the song over and over and over again, and never get tired of it.  There were times that he was stressed even, and just hearing that song calmed him down.  So for that reason, on top of my existing love for the song, Ring Ring will always be a top favorite for me.

In January of 1973, ABBA began working on the song that would go on to be the title of the first ever album together, Ring, Ring.  Originally written and recorded in Swedish, Ring, Ring (Bara Du Slog En Signal) is about someone waiting and waiting for the phone to ring.  In the first chorus there is the line roughly translated into English via Google Translate, "You don't call and say "Lovely" now like you did," which already tells us a bit about the context.  The person isn't just waiting for any specific person, it's someone who used to call all the time, tell sweet nothings to the main character, but now they've just gone radio silent.  But why?  Who knows.  "Ring ring! If only you called. Ring ring! The silence is so total Ring ring! Dispel that worry like a moth." is what the chorus roughly translates to. 

Then, we have the English version, which is so far the only English language ABBA song to feature lyrics by someone other than ABBA and Stig.  "It was a bit of a gimmick, to have someone as well known as [Neil] Sedaka writing.  We thought that might just create an interest in the song," Bjorn says in an interview in 1977.  The English version of the song tells pretty much the same story as the Swedish one.  Our main character is yet again sitting by the phone, waiting for their special someone to call them.  From the second verse of the song, "You were here and now you're gone.  Hey did I do something wrong?  I just can't believe that I could be so badly mistaken.  Was it me or was it you?  Tell me, are we really through?  Won't you hear me cry and you will know that my heart is breaking" indicates that they had a really bad fight which lead to a breakup of sorts, maybe caused by some misunderstanding.

In February of 1973, ABBA had the opportunity to submit a song to the Melodifestivalen - Sweden's contest to decide the song to enter in the Eurovision Song Contest.  ABBA entered Ring Ring, with a live performance.  Sadly the video of this performance is nowhere to be found, but we do have the audio.  Unfortunately, ABBA only placed third, however the song ended up becoming a big hit throughout Scandinavia and Europe.  With that success, ABBA went on to record Ring, Ring in two more languages in July of that year- German and Spanish.

Instead of being about someone waiting for the phone to ring, the German version seems to be about someone waiting for the person on the other end to pick up the phone!  With the first verse roughly translating to "I'm all alone at home. Nobody can stand something like that. Your jealousy is stupid and silly and stupid.Baby, don't take it too far.You keep arguing. Can you tell me, you, why, why and why only?" seems to indicate that this is again due to some big fight.  The person whom the main character really, really, really wants to answer the phone is refusing to talk to her because he's jealous.  And then in the chorus we see the line, "Finally answer the phone, Finally say: "Come on, I'll be waiting" Oh-oh, ring, ring, 140703 Oh-oh, ring, ring, otherwise it's over and over."  

And then the Spanish version of the song is pretty much an exact translation of the English version, with lines like "It is the sad and gray night. I don't feel very happy. And my love, what do I do? I am here waiting" and the chorus, " Ring Ring! Call me finally, please. Ring Ring! It is the most beautiful song. Ring Ring! I keep it with emotion."  

The German version of the song was released as a single in Germany, but the Spanish one never got released until 1994, when it appeared on a compilation of ABBA's Spanish-language hits.

Not only are there four different language versions of Ring Ring, there are also two other remixes done in 1974.  In fact, the US Remix 1974 version was put onto the English language release of the Waterloo album, replacing the Swedish version of Waterloo the song.  The 1974 remixes of the song slow down everything in the song, from the instruments to the vocals, pitching them down a bit.  And then there was some added saxophone and guitar added to the track.  

 All prior versions of Ring Ring were sped up to make the song more fast paced, but in my opinion, while still sounding absolutely amazing and really capturing that ABBA sound, it makes Agnetha and Frida, and even Bjorn and Benny who sing in the second half of the chorus, sound a little chipmunk-y.  The 1974 version makes them sound a lot more natural, and while I like both original and remixed speeds, the remix definitely sounds a little bit more pleasing to my ears.  (And clearly to my budgie Skyler's ears, because he did not perk up to the 1973 versions like he did the 1974 versions, lol.)

Anyways, throughout ABBA's career, up to 1976, they performed Ring Ring on multiple occasions, not just on TV but I'm sure on their early tours from 1973 as well.  While we may not have all of their performances, you can see a good portion of them here in a compilation I made in 2022.

 

Oof, this post was long hahaha. But honestly, I really enjoyed comparing and understanding the lyrics on all the different versions of the songs, and I love that there's such a variety of different versions of this song. I don't think there are any ABBA songs that have this many versions!