Song Analysis - Why Did It Have To Be Me

On most of ABBA's albums until now, Bjorn would have a few couple of songs where he sang lead vocals. But over time, eventually his performances would decrease, and ABBA would go on to mostly feature vocals from the ladies.  That's not saying that Bjorn, and Benny, don't sing on ABBA songs, as Bjorn and Benny would always sing backing vocals and harmonies, but Bjorn only has one lead vocal on Arrival, that being Why Did It Have To Be Me, whereas prior to that, he has two lead vocals on self-titled (Man In The Middle and Rock Me, though after the fact Crazy World would be included in remastered versions of the album), has two lead vocals on Waterloo (Sitting in the Palmtree and Watch out) as well as some joint vocals songs such as Dance (While the music still goes on) and King Kong Song, and then so many lead/joint vocals with Benny songs on Ring Ring. Then Bjorn does not get any lead vocals on The Album (he has a spoken verse in Move On and he and Benny do sing on Hole In Your Soul, but no lead vocals), Super Trouper, or Voyage (though he and Benny do feature a little bit in I Still Have Faith In You and Keep An Eye On Dan.)

I have always liked Bjorn's vocals on songs.  I think it adds a fun twist to ABBA's most popular hits.  People who only know ABBA's greatest hits (with the exception of Does Your Mother Know) don't usually expect ABBA to have any other vocalists, and then surprise surprise, there are actually a decent selection of Bjorn-led songs.

Why Did It Have To Be Me is quite a fun track, with a bit of a back and forth between Bjorn and Agnetha & Frida together.  The songs is about a guy complaining about how he had an affair or like a one-night stand with this woman, and for her, it's no big deal, she does this sort of thing all the time, casually hooking up with people when she so desires, the problem is, this guy who she "picked", who Bjorn plays in the song, is finding it very difficult because he has fallen in love with her!  But she is the way she is, and she doesn't care that he's caught feelings for her.  Her terms were established from the start, that there will be no attachment, just a one time thing, and yet he still fell for her and is telling her, "Why did it have to be me?????"  He can't get her out of his head, he's forming to much of an attachment, but she's like "believe me, it's better to forget me.

I mentioned previously how this song is a later, revised version of Happy Hawaii.  They reused the melody for the verses from Happy Hawaii to become the verses in Why Did It Have To Be Me, but the chorus is completely different.  (I just realized, they gave that exact same treatment to Just Like That from 1982, though that time they reused just the chorus and changed the verses when they gave the song to Gemini in 1984, but I digress.)

I really like this song.  The energy in the song, the vocals, the story progression in the lyrics!  It's really fun, and I like how Angetha and Frida sing with Bjorn in the vocals and then sing the chorus mostly alone.  The instrumental break after the chorus is energetic and exciting, too.  There's also a lot of lovely "ooooohs" in the background of the verses, sang by Agnetha and Frida.  And the way the two of them sing "But baby, believe me, it's better to forget me," is honestly one of my favorite vocals from the two of them.  Bobby's Brother on YouTube described Agnetha and Frida's vocals, specfically on the track Kisses of Fire (which I am soooo excited to get around to talking about btw - the song is literally one of my two favorite songs ever), as metallic, and that is exactly how I would describe their vocals in this part of the song.  It always gives me chills down my spine, especially when their voices blend together and make that perfect blend of sound.  It's superb, and they did such a great job on this song. 

While Agnetha does sing in the studio version of the track, and performed it twice, interestingly enough, when ABBA would go on to perform the song live in their 1977 and 1979 tour, with just Frida performing it with Bjorn.  And this songs becomes quite the song, with so much fun and toying with each other on stage, and Frida absolutely rocking it!  She has so much fun in this song, playfully playing with the microphone stand, teasing Bjorn, and also singing some of her best vocals ever.  She took this song and really made it her own, adding her Frida shine to it.  I love her performances of this song she makes it such a memorable number, but I've always been so curious as to why Agnetha chose to bow out of this song.  I'm curious if we'll ever find out the answer.

Anyways, sadly we only have one official video of Frida rocking the stage with Bjorn during any of their live performances, that being from the 1977 tour and the whole performance was thankfully included in ABBA the Movie, but we have plenty of bootleg audio from the 1977 and 1979 tour, plenty of bootleg video footage from the 1979 tour, and even an official release of ABBA's last night at Wembley, including this song!   But we also have two TV performances, one of them even live from the ABBA-Dabba-Doo TV Special. 

I have compiled all the official releases on compilation.  Sadly I could not include any of the bootleg 1979 footage, but definitely go look them up if they're still on YouTube as they are amazing!