Song Analysis - Bang-A-Boomerang

I have been very much looking forward to writing this post haha.

ABBA began working on the song Bang-A-Boomerang in September of 1974, as part of the recording sessions for their upcoming album.  

In early 1975, Bjorn, Benny, and Stig as songwriters were presented with another opportunity to submit a song to Sweden's selections to the Eurovision Song Contest, but seeing as ABBA had just won in 1975, it made sense to them to not enter again.  So they submitted the song Bang-A-Boomerang, but instead of ABBA performing it, their friends Svenne & Lotta performed the song.  The song had already been written in English, so Stig wrote up new Swedish lyrics for Svenne & Lotta to sing, and the song became Bang-En-Boomerang.  

Svenne & Lotta didn't win the contest, but Bang-En-Boomerang came in with third place and became successful around parts of Europe and Scandinavia.  With Svenne & Lotta's newfound success, they went on record to record the song in the original English lyrics as well.

Following the success of Bang-A-Boomerang, ABBA resumed their recording of Bang-A-Boomerang, and the song was released in April that year on their next album, their self-titled ABBA.

Now, there's been quite a dispute among fans about whether Bang-A-Boomerang is a cover or not.  I've already discussed this on my blog a couple of years ago, and my personal conclusion is that no, the song is not a cover.  With Bjorn and Benny being the songwriters, it is impossible for them to cover their own song.  

There have been a lot of cases of songwriters recording demo tracks to give to other artists.  Notable examples that I can think of at this moment are Kirsty MacColl and Andy Leek.  Kristy MacColl wrote the song One Little Lie for Frida's album, and Andy Leek also wrote the song Twist In The Dark for Frida's album.  Both of these songwriters recorded demos of these tracks, but the first official release for these songs is by Frida.  Since then, the songwriter's demos for these songs have been released to the public.  Kristy MacColl's version of One Little Lie was released on a compilation of her work in 2023, and Andy Leek's Twist In The Dark was included on a special edition of his Midnight Music album in 2009.   While Kristy MacColl's One Little Lie and Andy Leek's Twist In The Dark were released after Frida's in 1984, the songwriters are not covering Frida, nor is it correct to say that Frida is covering them as the songs were given to her for her album.  In fact, these tracks by Kristy MacColl and Andy Leek are the original demos that Frida was presented with when songs were submitted by songwriters for her album.

Similarly, Bjorn and Benny as songwriters make up half of ABBA, and they are ABBA.  So ABBA, as songwriters, cannot cover themselves, and Svenne & Lotta are not covering ABBA either as the song was given to them.  So yeah, there you have it.

ANYWAYS, the Swedish lyrics to Bang-En-Boomerang are very similar to the English lyrics.  First verse: "What you learn about love is that it takes talent.  It must be caught in flight because it is like a boomerang.  It takes a certain technique for that and you have to have feeling with it.  Give, and you shall be given. It is as true as written", Chorus: "Like a bang, a boomer, boomerang. Dum de dumm dumm de dumm de dumm dumm. A bang, a boomer, boomerang. The message of love finds its way. You give of yourself and from a friend you get love again. A bang, a boomer, boomerang it is, a boomerang is love."  Second verse: "What you learn about love is that you must always give. From the beginning of time, it was the idea of love. But also part of its nature. What you give you get in return.  Give, and you shall be given. It is as true as written."

The song is a really sweet song about, in order to be loved, you must give love.  And if you haven't quite figured it out yet, don't worry, you will.  "By givin’ away, I think you’ll learn, you’ll get love in return . So bang-a-boome-boomerang is love, a boome-boomerang is love."  It's a very simplistic way of looking at love, but it is true.  Relationships aren't meant to be a one-sided relationship.  You deserve love just as much as you're giving it.  If you're being all loving and nice and they're not putting in any effort, that's not fair.  

All three versions of this song that are not covers of each other are all really good.  Svenne & Lotta perform the song so well, really making it their own, and ABBA's version is also really good and sweet, with that magical ABBA sound making it extra special. 

Svenne & Lotta of course performed the song plenty, and you can find a lot of their performances all over YouTube.  Their performances of the song are always fun, and there are so many from the entire span of their career.  

Sadly ABBA only performed the song once, and that being for a music video.  (Though there's also clips from ABBA's TV special in Austrlia, 1976, of them throwing boomerangs set to bang-a-boomerang but that's not a performance.)  I think this song would have been awesome live in concert even.  It's just such a good, sweet song.