Song Analysis - Money Money Money

During the 1979 tour, while performing this song live, Frida would jokingly say, "This is my song!" before jumping immediately into the chorus.  And Frida speaks the truth - this IS her song!  And I'll get into that in a little bit.

Money, Money, Money had two working titles before becoming the song that it ultimately became: Gypsy Girl and Lebensraum.  ABBA began working on the song in May, 1976, and it wouldn't take long for it to develop into the final version of the song.

Often times when people see the title Money, Money, Money and ABBA, they think it's about ABBA and their obsession with money.  The number of news reports and articles that love to talk about ABBA and their money, starting from way before Money, Money, Money even existed.  There was always an assumption that ABBA had a lot of money, liked money, only did things for the money, and I think a lot of famous people, celebrities, and anyone remotely successful are treated that way. Money is nice to have, everyone wants to have money, but that doesn't mean that they're only doing things for the Money.  And clearly ABBA never liked this assumption about them.  I've always liked this specific interview because we get to see Agnetha and Frida fired up and a bit annoyed, an image that they didn't really present much when doing interviews to promote their music.  

Anyway, Money, Money, Money is not a song about flaunting wealth.  The song is actually about your average working class person who works all nigh and works all day to pay the bills.  Interestingly ABBA have a lot of songs about the working class.  Off the top of my head, there is Nina, Pretty Ballerina, The Day Before You Came, If It Wasn't For The Nights, and several more.  (I had made a compilation of it, but I have yet to reupload it to my YouTube channel since the purge of my original channel....)  Anyways, I digress.

Our main character finds life to be repetitive, sad, and not really productive.  So she derives a plan to maybe bootstrap her way up in life, like maybe marrying a wealthy man so she wouldn't have to work at all, and can just live her life as freely as she'd like.  But she realizes that's not practical, as men like that are hard to find and probably wouldn't be interested in her, so she comes up with a better idea.  She'll go to Las Vegas or Monaco, and it hit it big by winning a fortune and her life will never be the same!  

In the chorus, Agnetha and Frida sing "Money, money money, must be funny in the rich man's world."  I already talked about this a bit in my post about Rikky Rock N Roller, but I've always wondered if they meant that money is fun, as in enjoyable and exciting, and they chose the word funny to rhyme with money, or they truly mean funny, as in humorous, hilarious, or in a sarcastic manner.  I would love to ask Bjorn and Benny this one day haha.

I love how when crafting the lyrics, Bjorn and Benny came up with such a crafty and unique scenario.  It's so wacky and fun, and this song slaps.  Also,this song also features some really fun piano, especially in the intro and outro to the song, and some fun "wee-ooo-weee-ooo-weee"s in the background of the second verse.  In fact during a demo version for the song, there are some even more fun backing vocals that can be heard during the line "so I must leave, I’ll have to go to Las Vegas or Monaco and win a fortune in a game.  My life will never be the same," but I think they were removed in the final mix.  This song also uses the word Aha, another classic ABBA move.

Then we have Frida singing the lead vocals, and she gives this performance her all!  She has such a lovely almost cynical sound to her voice during the verses, and my absolute favorite part is that with each "Aha, aha", the key gets higher and higher, and she absolutely nails this song.  Not only does she nail it in the studio, she does it live as well.  We have two official live releases, one on the 1986 Live album from the 1977 tour, and the other from the live at Wembley album, and Frida has so much fun on stage, as does Benny, always throwing in some extra piano notes between the first verse and first chorus.  We have a fair bit of bootleg footage of ABBA during the 1979 tour performing this song, and Frida can be seen having a lot of fun as well.  I get the feeling that she really enjoys this song, and she really shares that energy on stage.

Agnetha's harmonies and vocals in the chorus are really beautiful as well.  Where Frida really shines on this song, Agnetha's vocals add this sparkle that really makes the song perfect.  Everything combined, all the little details, makes this song honestly one of ABBA's best in my opinion.  It shows the versatility in singing style, music, and lyrics, and their ability to write such intricate songs over the most interesting of topics.

Of course ABBA performed this song a lot on various TV shows, and I have compiled that for you.

If I'm being honest, when i first listened to ABBA Gold back in the summer of 2009 or 2010, this song didn't stand out to me all that much.  But I have learned to love it, and lately have had an even greater appreciation to the song, specifically with the "Aha, aha"s getting higher and higher.  Frida can really sing (I mean obviously) and I'll always love her performance on this song.