Song Analysis - Just A Notion

I have been so so excited to write about this post, hahahahaha.  

I know I mentioned in the last post how Bjorn and Benny were becoming a lot less vocally prominent in tracks from the Voulez-Vous album, and while that is certainly true, that's not to say they weren't there recording any vocals.  I think it's probably that when they were mixing the songs, they just slowly and slowly faded Bjorn and Benny's vocals to be so much lower and quieter in the mix that you can't hear them.  However that is no the case with Just A Notion!  ABBA began recording this song in August, 1978, and surprisingly it features very prominent harmonies and backing vocals from Bjorn in the verses, namely the "Ahaha"s that are throughout the whole song.  The song featured Agnetha and Frida together in the chorus, singing together in perfect harmony with that wonderful, blended, almost metallic-sounding, and the backing track is just happy and exciting.

Just A Notion is one of ABBA's just pure, happy songs.  It's not happy music with sad lyrics, it's just a song about someone who has this feeling, this small little notion, that maybe this person who they like, likes them back.  It almost sounds like what happens when you get a major crush on a person, and suddenly they're all your thinking about, and suddenly you're coming up with all these fantasies about what's going to happen, what your wedding will be like, what your future life will be like, how many kids you'll have, etc, even though it's all just a crush and said person that you're crushing on hasn't even said or done anything to indicate that they're interested in you, haha.  But it's all innocent and fun, and of course you can't just walk up to the crush and be like "omg I like you," you have to wait for them to  take initiative.  But of course you can't help but wonder and come up with reasons for why that hasn't happened yet.  

Agnetha and Frida sing, "Just a notion, that's all.  Just a funny feeling deep inside that you're out there waiting.  You're not sure I'm alone, and you wonder if I'm occupied," basically assuming that the reason why that the person hasn't come up to them is because maybe they think the main character of the song is occupied or with someone else.  Then in chorus, there's that fantasizing about what's going to happen and what it'll be like when they actually get together, "Just a notion, that you'll be walking up to me in a while.  And you'll smile and say hello.  And we'll be dancing through the night, knowing everything from there on must be right!"  And in the second verse, there's the line, "Just a feeling that you're watching me, every move I'm making.  Am I reading your mind?  'Cause it's almost like you're touching me."  

It's like the narrator of the song is projecting their own feelings and the person they're crushing on, and just making silly little assumptions, and honestly, it's just fun and innocent, and happy.  And that's just one of the many reasons why I like this song. 

However, Bjorn and Benny were never really satisfied with the it, and as much as they liked the song, Bjorn and Benny just weren't happy with the mix, and ultimately left the song as unreleased.  And so it remained, until 1994, when Michael B. Tretow was assembling the ABBA Undeleted medley, he included a ~2:20 second snippet of the song, starting from the second chorus until the end of the song, appearing 4:55 in the ABBA Undeleted medley.  That was the first time fans ever heard the song, and when I first got into ABBA and was listening to literally every single song I could find on YouTube, I fell in love with Just A Notion.  I loved the music, the sound, the vocals, everything, and I couldn't believe Bjorn and Benny deemed the song unworthy of being finished because to me, it was everything.  I love all the songs on ABBA Undeleted, but this one, along with Giving A Little More, stood out to me as just fantastic and amazing songs, and I would listen to them over and over again.

Clearly I'm not the only ABBA fan who loved this song so much.  In 1999, before I was even born hahah, the ABBA tribute-band, Arrival, were given permission to record the song in full or their debut album, First Flight.  Their version is basically a recreation of the original 1978 version, and it's decent.  I can't listen to it, hahaha, but for what it is, it's not bad.  And they ended up being the first official release of the song in full.  It has a piano crescendo intro in the style of Dancing Queen in the beginning, and a saxophone instrumental break in where the second chorus would be, and it also repeats the first verse at the end of the song, and it's basically a fun little tribute to ABBA.  But I'm only listening to it for the sake of the review and analysis as I cannot bear to listen to anyone other than ABBA singing ABBA songs more than once.  Not trying to put down the singers of the tribute band, I just can't listen to it.  

Anyways, fast forward to 2021, and Bjorn and Benny had the idea to revive Just A Notion, and find a way to release it.  Ultimately, the only way to make it workable for them was to rerecord the entire backing track, and that's what they did.  I believe they kept Lasse Wellander's original guitar from the 1978 mix, and that aside from the vocals are the only things from the original 1978 recording.  Everything else was recorded anew, and it's amazing.  When I first heard this new version of the song, I was at first a little disappointed because I preferred the 1978 instruments more, and this 2021 version has more of a ragtime feel and less exciting, however I don't feel that way anymore.  I really enjoy it, I love all of Benny's piano bits throughout the entire song, I love the extended outro, and I love the extra vocals that Agnetha and Frida recorded in 2021 as well.  (More on that in a bit.)

The one thing that does bother me though is the fact that they mixed Agnetha and Frida's vocals differently.  Before, they were singing at like the same volume, with Agnetha and Frida's voices sounded perfectly level and you get that wonderful blended sound that I described earlier.  However, for the 2021 mix, they made Agnetha's vocals more prominent, and Frida's vocals lower in volume, and the result is it sounds more like it's Agnetha's lead with Frida just harmoinzing rather than the two of them singing together.  They still sound beautiful together, and what a treat it is to hear this song in full finally after all these years of being locked away as an unmixed, unfinished track, but it would have sounded so amazing if they kept the blending of their voices.

Now while the entirety of the song's vocals are from the 1978 version, Agnetha and Frida did record a line for the extended outro.  That line being, "I, I think it's more than a notion.  Even more than your dream is about to come true!" and I love how you can tell that Agnetha and Frida are older, their voices aren't as crisp and light as they used to sound, yet they still sound really, really good singing in that higher pitch to try and sound like their younger selves, with all these layers and layers of harmonies, and I bet if someone who wasn't as familiar with ABBA's voices were to hear this song, they wouldn't even be able to detect that these are modern vocals.

So all in all, I love this song with my entire heart and soul, and I am so so so glad that ABBA chose to release it finally on 2021's Voyage album.  It was just such a treat, hearing it for the first time, and although the instruments sound a lot more modern compared to other songs recorded in 1978, I sometimes like to make a little playlist of my favorite Voulez-Vous era songs, like Dream World, Lovelight, Kisses Of Fire, Angeleyes, and Just A Notion, and it fits right in.