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Eagle (ABBA song)

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"Eagle"
Single by ABBA
from the album The Album
A-side"Thank You for the Music"
ReleasedMay 1978
RecordedJune 1977
at Marcus Music Studio
GenreProgressive rock, art rock
Length5:51 (Album Version)
4:25 (Short Version)
3:36 (7" Edit)
LabelPolar Music
Songwriter(s)Benny Andersson
Björn Ulvaeus
Producer(s)Benny Andersson
Björn Ulvaeus
ABBA singles chronology
"Take a Chance on Me"
(1978) 		"Eagle" / "Thank You for the Music"
(1978) 		"Summer Night City"
(1978)
Music video
"Eagle" on YouTube

"Eagle" is a song recorded in 1977 by Swedish pop group ABBA. It was the opening track on their fifth studio album, ABBA: The Album (1978), and at 5 minutes 51 seconds, the longest they ever released.[a] As the third and final official single from the album, it was issued in a limited number of territories.[b] These did not include the United States, where an intended release was cancelled, or United Kingdom.[1]

History

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"Eagle" was written and composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, who provided its music and its lyrics respectively, as a kind of tribute to a band that the two men admired at the time, the Eagles.[2] The recording, which commenced on 1 June 1977, had the working titles of "High, High" and "The Eagle."[citation needed] Ulvaeus said that with the lyrics, he was "trying to capture the sense of freedom and euphoria" that he got from reading Richard Bach's 1970 novella Jonathan Livingston Seagull.[3] In later years, music critics have hailed "Eagle" as one of ABBA's more outstanding tracks in terms of lyrics.[citation needed]

The track inspired the introduction to the 1981 song "Don't You Want Me" by the Human League.[4]

Reception

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"Eagle" was not a major chart success. The major reason was that the song was already available on ABBA: The Album;. Another was the limited release only in selected areas. It was for instance withdrawn as a single in the United States.[5] To make the song more radio-friendly it was heavily edited down from 5:51 to 4:25 by omitting an instrumental break and the third chorus. In some countries like Australia, France, Spain, South Africa and Scandinavia it got a further edit, with the song fading shortly after the 2nd chorus making it last just 3:33, 2:18 shorter than the album version.

The single was released on 18 May 1978 to fill the gap between the previous single, "Take a Chance on Me" and the next, a completely new track, eventually titled "Summer Night City." The B-side of "Eagle," "Thank You for the Music", was later released as a single outright in a few countries after the group had disbanded, namely in the UK, where "Eagle" had not been released as a single.

Music video

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The single was promoted with a music video directed by Lasse Hallström.[3] The track was inserted into ABBA: The Movie as a fantasy sequence, created using an effects machine caused a "flutter box" which had been developed for the 1978 film Superman.[6]

1999 re-edit

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The original 4:25 single edit was issued on CD for the first time in 1993 on the compilation More ABBA Gold: More ABBA Hits. However, for the 1999 re-release of this album, plus subsequent releases, a new version based on the 1980 edit was created. Unfortunately, this edit left out a vital instrumental-only section at the end of the second chorus prior to the closing instrumental, thereby sounding disjointed. The original edit—or at least an exact re-creation of it—was finally issued again on the deluxe version of ABBA: The Album in 2009.

Personnel

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ABBA

Additional personnel and production staff

Charts

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Chart (1978) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[7] 82
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[8] 17
Germany (Media Control Charts) 6
Netherlands (Nationale Hitparade)[9] 7
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[10] 7

Notes

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  1. ^ The Day Before You Came" (1982) is one second shorter.
  2. ^ In Belgium, France, and the Netherlands, it was as a double A-side with "Thank You for the Music".

References

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  1. ^ "ABBA - Eagle (Vinyl)". Discogs. 1978. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  2. ^ Album's remastered liner notes.
  3. ^ a b Sheridan, Simon (2009). The Complete ABBA. London: Reynolds & Hearn. pp. 97–99. ISBN 978-1904674030.
  4. ^ Paphides, Pete (2022). ""We Learned from the Beatles"". Record Collector. No. 539. London. pp. 100–107.
  5. ^ "ABBA - Eagle (Vinyl)". Discogs. 1978. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  6. ^ Palm, Carl Magnus (2001). Bright Lights, Dark Shadows: The Real Story of ABBA. London: Omnibus Press. p. 353. ISBN 0711983895.
  7. ^ David Kent (2006). Australian Charts Book 1993—2005. Australian Chart Book Pty Ltd, Turramurra, N.S.W. ISBN 978-0-646-45889-2.
  8. ^ "ABBA – Eagle" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  9. ^ "ABBA – Eagle / Thank You For The Music". Dutch Charts (in Dutch). Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  10. ^ "ABBA – Eagle". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
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