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Devout ABBA followers might know the identify, however not each pop connoisseur will know the relevance to the group of the character “Rosalita.” But it’s a part of the story behind the music that launched the Voulez-Vous album and was launched by the Swedish quartet on January 16, 1979, “Chiquitita.”
Writing and recording periods
The music, credited to ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, had a number of working titles, most notably “In The Arms Of Rosalita.” But whereas that phrase was match for the metre of the melody, and the group recorded a model with a full, authentic lyric on that theme, one thing wasn’t feeling proper. They reworked the quantity extensively, conserving a number of the authentic lyrical references because the music assumed the title “Chiquitita,” which suggests “little girl” in Spanish.
Completed on the finish of 1978 at their Polar Music Studios, the monitor quickly emerged as the favourite to be the primary single from Voulez-Vous. With a delicate lead vocal by Agnetha Fältskog, it acquired the nod ahead of the far more upbeat “Does Your Mother Know,” which duly grew to become the follow-up. That resolution was vindicated as “Chiquitita” became an enormous single, topping the charts in Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Rhodesia, South Africa, Spain, and Switzerland.
Release and reception
In the UK, ABBA had by now achieved no fewer than seven No.1 singles, however had been in a run of releases that fell in need of that benchmark. Indeed, it might be the summer time of 1980 earlier than they reclaimed the British chart summit, with “The Winner Takes It All.” After debuting at No.8, “Chiquitita” practically made the highest, spending two weeks at No.2 behind Blondie’s “Heart Of Glass.” In the US, the place ABBA’s singles type was all the time considerably patchy, it peaked at No.29.
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The music acquired an enormous world launch when ABBA carried out it on January 9, every week earlier than its launch, on the Music For UNICEF charity live performance, which additionally featured the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, Donna Summer, and different stars. ABBA went on to donate half of all royalties from the only’s gross sales to UNICEF.
Spanish language model
The group additionally recorded a model phonetically in Spanish, which bought half 1,000,000 copies in Argentina alone. That options on the Spanish language model of the multi-platinum ABBA Gold compilation, now titled Oro: Grandes Éxitos, and which has been reissued on 180g heavyweight black vinyl.
Buy Voulez-Vous as an unique image disc, amongst many different highlights of ABBA’s peerless discography.