Song Analysis - When I Kissed The Teacher

So far on Arrival we have two songs about youthful experiences, Dancing Queen, and When I Kissed The Teacher.  Recorded in June, 1976, This song is about someone who has a major crush on her math teacher.  She dreams about him every night, and can't stop thinking about him at all.  Like he is all she can think about at all times of the day, and one day she just can't stop herself and kisses him in class.

My favorite thing about this song is the fact that it's written from just the student's perspective, and  she has these kinda immature statements like, "one of these days, gonna show him I care, gonna teach him a lesson alright," but all of this is from her perspective.  The teacher NEVER reciprocates her feelings, never does anything to tell her that omg yes he will make all her dreams come true because it's wrong, creepy, and illegal.  All he does in the song is blush a bit when she first kissed him and just smile a little bit after the fact, and that's it.  The student hasn't done anything wrong to have a crush on him and then act on her impulses and kiss him when he was leaning over her desk and helping her understand geometry, and it is the teacher/adult in the situation's responsibility to make sure it ends there and nothing more comes of it.  And this song is just that.  Especially with the phrasing, "but then he just smiled," all he did was smile.  That's all.  And that's the end of it.  Doesn't mean it made the student's crush fade at all, in fact now she thinks she's in the seventh heaven and really wants to "hug, hug him", but that's okay.  

I love this song a lot.  It's very cheerful, happy, and I think perfectly captures the immaturity and youthfulness of the narrator, and also what it's like to have a really intense crush.  I love the acoustic guitar intro, and the happy instruments throughout the rest of the song, the incredible backing vocals that I think are, "hug, hug him, wanna kiss him, wanna kiss him, wanna hug, hug him, wanna kiss him, wanna kiss him, wanna" etc.....  Both Agnetha and Frida sing most of the song together, but Agnetha sings the lead on the chorus, with some absolutely beautiful harmonies behind her.  This such is just so fun, energetic, enjoyable, and also the outro of the song is amazing as well.  

ABBA performed this song a good number of times, once with it's own music video for the ABBA-Dabba-Doo tv-special, at least three more times for TV perfomances, and then also during the 1977 tour, and thus included in ABBA the Movie.  We have a lot of bootleg audios from the 1977 tour and they sound incredible live.  They even have a bit of an extended outro during the live performances, repeating "Everybody screamed, when I kissed the teacher, and they must have thought they dreamed, they dreamed, they dreamed.....".  Really pretty.

Anyways, here's a compilation of all of their performances.  I love how Frida has so much energy during this song, especially in the outro.  Really, really fun performances. :)

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.

Song Analysis - Happy Hawaii

Happy Hawaii is a song that is a perfect example of how ABBA, or more specifically Bjorn and Benny, would reuse and recycle their melodies if they for some reason didn't like how the song originally turned out.  

From what I can piece together, in April 1976, ABBA began working on a demo titled Why Did It Have To Be Me.  But then the song changed vibes entirely and became Hawaii, and from there, in May 1976, became Happy Hawaii.  However, the song didn't stay as Happy Hawaii, with the song going back to Why Did It Have To Be Me, in August of 1976.

Happy Hawaii is basically about a woman who's so done with "work", she's taking a vacation to Hawaii.  From the first part of the song, it just sounds like she needs a vacation from her busy job, longing for walks in the sand, swimming and surfing, and enjoying the beauty that is Hawaii.  Her friend Alice had been here before, had good things to say, so she's really excited.  

 However, as the song progresses, specifically in the second verse, you get the line "I can imagine the beach and the sand, walking with someone and holding his hand. Hey Honolulu, I’m going to happy Hawaii" which indicates the song is actually about love, and leaving a relationship, rather than taking a break from a job.  It's further emphasized by the last line of the song, "I’ve got a feeling the dream will come true, somebody’s waiting and I forget you. Hey Honolulu, I’m going to happy Hawaii."  I find it pretty cool, how the song suddenly takes a sudden twist and is revealed to be about something entirely different.  Kind of similar to Crazy World or Two For The Price Of One in that manner, but not necessarily taking the humorous route.  Or maybe it is, I don't know.

I like this song a lot.  The instruments are fun, Agnetha and Frida have some lovely join vocals, and some fun vocals from the guys as well, with some "lulu, I'm going to Honolulu, I'm going to Honolulu" repeated throughout the verses.  It's really fun and clever lyrics, and I like it a lot.  I also find the use of the name Alice interesting, as the name also later got used in Two For The Price Of One.

Although Happy Hawaii was recorded and completed in 1976 for ABBA's upcoming Arrival album, the song ultimately got recycled into Why Did It Have To Be Me, which was released on Arrival  Usually when that happens, the various original versions of the songs don't see the light of day and don't get an official release.  Like, for example, ABBA's song I Am An A from the 1977 tour, a simple funny song introducing each ABBA member, was never recorded in the studio, but the melody was reused for the track from 1978, Free As A Bumblebee.  But that song also never got officially released (there's a snippet of it included in ABBA Undeleted but that's all we ever get to hear of it), and instead Bjorn and Benny reused the melody for I Know Him So Well for their musical Chess.  However, clearly ABBA liked Happy Hawaii enough that in early 1977, the song was released as the B-side to Knowing Me, Knowing You, and was explicitly labeled as "Happy Hawaii (Early version of Why Did It Have To Be Me.)  As far as I know that's the only case of them officially releasing a song that was turned into another song after the finalized song was already released.

ABBA never performed Happy Hawaii, but the song was turned into a cartoon for what was possibly going to be an ABBA cartoon, maybe similar to the Beatles cartoon show?  I'm not sure. But the ABBA animated tv-show didn't end up going through, but in 2006 this clip was made public. 

 

Honestly not a big fan of the animating or the idea of an ABBA cartoon, so I'm glad they didn't go through with it, but the song is still amazing and I like it a lot.

Song Analysis - That's Me

 I used to have hard time understanding the meaning of That's Me, but I think I kind of get it now.   It's a super fun sounding song, with beautiful joint vocals by Agnetha and Frida, some lovely harmonies and "oooooo" and "aaaaa-aaaa-aaa-aaaa"s during the verses and between the last chorus and last verse.  You even get some fun backing vocals from Bjorn and Benny during the bridge??, singing "na-na-na-na-nothings".  

The song is about a girl who is not like other girls.  She's jealous, she's proud, she'd emotional, and she's not mild or meek.  It seems she wants to find true love someday, and she refuses to be just a man's toy - she wants actual, real love.  But, because she's loud, she's different, and she's Carrie-not-the-kind-of-girl-you'd-marry.  She's not afraid of being single, but she admits that it's getting a big lonely.  But she won't settle just for some guy because there's an expectation that women must get married.  When she finds the right one, even if it's sort of out of the ordinary and unusual, like an eagle flying with a dove, she'll be happy.  But until then, she just accepts that she's not your ordinary girl, and that's okay.

The song kind of reminds me of I'm Just A Girl from ABBA's first album three years prior, but more like how it's the complete opposite.  The girl in that song is extremely love sick, wants to find her true love, but she's too ordinary and unexemplary.  Nothing stands out about her, and she feels like she'll never find the one.  But then one day she does, and now she feels special.  and it's such a sweet song and message.  However, Carrie from That's Me is not ordinary, she does not blend in, and she stands out too much.  But she's confident she will find the one.  And maybe she will someday.

But it just has me wondering, if the girl from I'm just a girl is too average and Carrie from That's Me is too exemplary, what do you have to be to find true love...? :'D

I like the song, I like the message.  It's a very interesting and fascinating concept, and possibly pretty feminist for the time?  Especially the line, "but I’m not a man’s toy, I’ll never be."  

ABBA performed the song during the 1977 tour, as the second track in the setlist, and while we only have bootleg recordings of it, they still sound amazing.  However ABBA only "performed" the track twice, one for TV and the other as a music video.  And the music video was mostly recycling old footage with hardly anything new.  And the one tv show they performed on has a lot of certainly talented but very distracting dancers lol.

Song Analysis - Knowing Me, Knowing You

 I haven't really been discussing much of ABBA's working titles to their songs, but I found the working titles to Knowing Me, Knowing You to be interesting.  We have "Ring It In" and "Number One, Number One."  I find Number One Number One to be interesting as the phrase "feeling like a number one" became part of Super Trouper from 4 years later.

Anyways, Knowing Me, Knowing You is a glorious song.  Lyrics wise, it is sad.  It's about a breakup, but not just between two partners but also there are children and a family involved, which makes it all the more painful.  ABBA had already discussed breakups involving a full on family before in Hey, Hey Helen, and that song is a lot more empowering, reminding the character of Helen that she's doing the right thing, whereas Knowing Me, Knowing is just pain and sorrow.  

The first lines of the song really set the scene.  "...Walking through an empty house, tears in my eyes. Here is where the story ends, this is goodbye." And then with the chorus, "...There is nothing we can do.  Knowing Me, Knowing You, we just have to face it.  This time we're through...."  

Frida sings lead vocals on this song, and you can feel the pain in her voice.  She managed to perfectly capture the emotions of the song and the feelings of he narrator in her voice.  I talked a bit about Agnetha's story telling abilities in my post about SOS, and how she manages to capture the emotions of her songs as well, but that's not saying that Frida doesn't do that as well.  Frida gives this song her all, her vocals are incredibly powerful, and then when Agnetha joins her, it's just magic.  Agnetha also adds some really nice whispered words in the second verse, repeating what Frida sings, "Memories, good days, bad days.  They'll be, with me, always."

In the chorus, we're hit with an amazing wall of harmonies stacked on top of one another, layers upon layers of Agnetha and Frida's voices blending together so well.  Then we also have Bjorn and Benny, not only singing some lower harmonies, but also they get some pretty amazing backing vocals, with ABBA's iconic "aha"s, and "this time we're through, this time we're through, we're really through" and "I have to go, this time, i have to go, this time I know." I love how the boys' backing vocals mirror Agnetha and Frida's vocals, and honestly it reminds me of Bjorn and Benny's backing vocals in Keep An Eye On Dan from 2021, in the way they're singing almost the same lines but from the man's perspective.  Keep An Eye On Dan is also about a family breaking up.

Though I think Knowing Me Knowing You is possibly also referenced in Don't Shut Me Down from ABBA's same Voyage album.  The line "Once these rooms were witness to our love, my tantrums, and increasing frustration" is reminiscent of "in these old familiar rooms, children would play. Now there’s only emptiness, nothing to say."  

A lot of people have always wondered if Knowing Me, Knowing You was inspired by real events, especially as ultimately, both couples in ABBA ended in divorce, however this song was written and recorded in 1976, long before their relationships were beginning to end.  This song is a fictional story about a painful divorce, and nothing more than a fictitious story.  As I've already mentioned multiple times throughout my postings, Bjorn and Benny would, at most, write their songs loosely inspired by personal life, but most if not all ABBA songs are complete works of fiction.  And we love that.

In 1980, ABBA included Knowing Me, Knowing You on their Spanish language album, and it was titled Conociéndome, Conociéndote.   It's generally the same song, verse 1:"There is no more smile everything ends our house is empty today it makes me cry and the story ends here you have to forget."  Chorus: "Only you, only me little and nothing was achieved only you, only me our love who can deny, happened was over separating is so difficult I know but I will go knowing me knowing you."  Verse 2: "Good, bad, both I keep laughter, tears in the rooms where we saw children play today there is only a great silence in the place"

My thoughts on the Spanish version of KMKY is the same as the other Spanish songs.  Without Bjorn and Benny, and not as many harmonies as the English version, it just kinda sounds empty.  Still good, just not the same. 

Anyways, ABBA performed Knowing Me, Knowing You as part of their 1977 tour and 1979 tour, even performing the song for the last time on the Dick Cavett TV special in 1981.  The song is just as good live as the studio, though in the live versions it's not as easy to replicate all the amazing harmonies that are in the studio version.  Not saying their backing vocalists aren't good, of course.  they all did amazing.

Here's a compilation of all the recorded performances of them performing this song. 

 

All in all, I really love this song as it's really that perfect ABBA sound - beautiful harmonies, deep lyrics, the use of Aha, and just overall good.