Song Analysis - Baby

ppearing at 4:19 in the ABBA Undeleted medley is a demo track titled Baby.  Recorded in October, 1974, Baby is an early version of what was to become the super fun and rocky Rock Me.  Interestingly, according to ABBA Omnibus (which is an amazing website and also generally how I'm choosing which song to write about), Baby was recorded on October 18th, 1974, and recording for Rock Me began on October 21s, 1974, so it didn't take long for Baby to evolve into Rock Me.  

Already in Baby's lyrics you can see that Rock Me is already beginning to take shape.  "Baby, you can do magic, baby, isn’t it tragic. Maybe you can do something I can’t, and I can’t get enough of it.  Baby, you can do wonders, maybe you can do something I can’t, so don’t stop doing it don’t stop doing it.  Baby, you can do wonders..."  A lot of the lyrics ended up making it into the finished product: "roll me, you can do magic, baby, and I can’t get enough of it," and  "so don’t stop doin’ it don’t stop doin’ it now".  

Baby is just a snippet of the full-length demo, so who knows what more to the song it was, but it's very interesting seeing how the song evolved into the completed song.   

While Rock Me ended up being sung with Bjorn on lead vocals, Baby is performed by Agnetha.  I love hearing the contrast between her style of singing and what ended up being the final vocal take.  I've already discussed this a bit in my post about SOS, but I have to say it again: I absolutely LOVE when we hear initial/different takes of songs featuring a different member on lead vocals rather than the ABBA member who ended up singing the final version.  Undoubtedly, I think ABBA made the right choices in picking out who sings which song, and I think Bjorn ended up being much better suited for Rock Me than Agnetha, but it's still so much fun to picture Agnetha singing the final version of Rock Me or Frida singing The Winner Takes It All even.   (Hey, people who mess with AI vocals and AI versions of Agnetha and Frida, can you please show us what it'd be like for Agnetha to sing Rock Me, or even more fun, try to make Bjorn and Benny sing Dancing Queen?  Wouldn't that be fun???)

Despite being just a demo, Baby is super fun, and Agnetha sounds like she had a lot of fun recording it as well, with a hint of playfulness to her voice, and it's really sweet.