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"Ring Ring" is a song by Swedish group
ABBA ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group' ...
, released as the title track of their 1973 debut album. The single gave the group their big break in several European countries (although the rest of Europe, North America and Australia would be introduced to ABBA the following year). The song was written in Swedish by
Benny Andersson Göran Bror Benny Andersson (; born 16 December 1946) is a Swedish musician, singer, composer and producer best known as a member of the musical group ABBA and co-composer of the musicals '' Chess'', '' Kristina från Duvemåla'', and ''Mamma ...
and
Björn Ulvaeus Björn Kristian Ulvaeus (; born 25 April 1945) is a Swedish singer, songwriter, producer, a member of the musical group ABBA, and co-composer of the musicals ''Chess (musical), Chess'', ''Kristina från Duvemåla'', and ''Mamma Mia! (musical), M ...
, along with their manager
Stig Anderson Stig Erik Leopold Anderson (25 January 1931 – 12 September 1997), better known as Stikkan Anderson, was a Swedish music manager, lyricist and music publisher. He was the co-founder of Polar Music, and is best known for managing the Sw ...
, with an original title of "Ring Ring (Bara du slog en signal)" ("Ring Ring (If Only You Called)"). Translation into English lyrics was helped by
Neil Sedaka Neil Sedaka (; born March 13, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Since his music career began in 1957, he has sold millions of records worldwide and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collabo ...
and his collaborator Phil Cody. The Swedish version reached No. 1 in the Swedish charts. "Ring Ring" tells of a lover waiting alone by the telephone for the object of her desire to call.


History

After the success of "
People Need Love "People Need Love" is the debut single recorded in March 1972 by Swedish pop group ABBA, at the time known as 'Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid'. The song was on the group's first album, '' Ring Ring'', released in 1973. Track listing # A. "P ...
" in 1972 by Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid (as the group was then known), the group's manager,
Stig Anderson Stig Erik Leopold Anderson (25 January 1931 – 12 September 1997), better known as Stikkan Anderson, was a Swedish music manager, lyricist and music publisher. He was the co-founder of Polar Music, and is best known for managing the Sw ...
, realised the potential of coupling the vocal talents of the women with the writing talents of the men. It was then decided that the quartet would record an LP. This eventually turned out to be the album '' Ring Ring''. Andersson, Ulvaeus and Anderson were invited to enter a song into
Melodifestivalen 1973 Sweden chose their entry for Eurovision Song Contest 1973 in a national final called Melodifestivalen 1973. One of the competitors was a group of those who would later be the members of ABBA, but they only finished 3rd with their own entry. In ...
, whose winner would represent Sweden in the
1973 Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest 1973 was the 18th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, following the country's victory at the with the song " Après toi" by Vicky Leandros. Organised by the Eu ...
. After several days, Andersson and Ulvaeus came up with the music for the Swedish version of "Ring Ring", with the working title "Klocklåt" (Clock Tune). Anderson wrote the lyrics with the intention of making a pop-oriented song, trying to remove the pomp and circumstance surrounding the Eurovision Song Contest at the time. After this, the song was retitled "Ring Ring". To make it more accessible to a universal audience, Anderson asked American songwriter
Neil Sedaka Neil Sedaka (; born March 13, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Since his music career began in 1957, he has sold millions of records worldwide and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collabo ...
to pen the lyrics for an English version. Sedaka was estranged from his lyricist Howard Greenfield at the time but, with the help of his then-current lyricist Phil Cody (who did not usually write in that style), wrote a set of English lyrics. On 10 January 1973, the song was recorded at the Metronome Studio in Stockholm. Studio engineer Michael B. Tretow, who later collaborated with Andersson and Ulvaeus on many singles and albums, had read a book about record producer Phil Spector ( Richard Williams' book ''Out of His Head: The Sound of Phil Spector''), famed for his "
Wall of Sound The Wall of Sound (also called the Spector Sound) is a music production formula developed by American record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios, in the 1960s, with assistance from engineer Larry Levine and the conglomerate of session mu ...
" treatment to the songs that he produced. While Spector used several musicians playing the same instruments in the same recording studio at the same time, such a technique would be far too expensive for the recording of "Ring Ring". Tretow's solution was to simply record the song's backing track twice in order to achieve an orchestral sound. Changing the speed of the tape between the overdubs, making the instruments marginally out of tune, increased the effect. This was unlike anything that had been done before in Swedish music. When ABBA performed "Ring Ring" in the Swedish Eurovision selection competition on 10 February 1973, they only finished third. Nevertheless, the song fared much better in the Swedish charts, both in its Swedish and English language incarnations, hitting No. 1 and No. 2 respectively. The quartet then decided that performing as a group was a serious and realistic idea. They toured Sweden, and despite the failure of "Ring Ring" to represent the country at the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, they began to prepare themselves for
Melodifestivalen 1974 The Swedish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest was called Melodifestivalen 1974. It was, by far, won by the group ABBA, consisting of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Their song was calle ...
with " Waterloo".


Reception and other versions

Though "Ring Ring" did not get the opportunity to represent Sweden in the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, the subtitled Swedish version ("Bara Du Slog En Signal") performed very well on the Swedish charts, giving ABBA their first No. 1 hit. The English version fared almost as well, peaking at No. 2 in Sweden, Norway and Austria, and reaching the Top 10 in the charts of the Netherlands, South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). On the official South African year-end chart for 1974, "Ring Ring" placed 13th and its successor "Waterloo" finished 14th. It topped the charts in Belgium, becoming the first of 16 No. 1 hits for ABBA there. "Ring Ring" was the group's first release in the UK in October 1973, but failed to chart, selling only 5,000 copies. in 1973 the single won a gold record in Sweden for selling 100,000 copies. In Scandinavia the single has sold 200,000 copies. A remixed version of the song, with saxophone by
Ulf Andersson Ulf Andersson (born 27 June 1951) is a leading Swedish chess player. FIDE awarded him the International Master title in 1970 and the Grandmaster title in 1972. Career At his peak, Andersson reached number four on the FIDE rating list. Tourname ...
, was later described by
Carl Magnus Palm Carl Magnus Palm (born 1965) is a Swedish author and historian, writing in Swedish and English, best known for his work on the Swedish pop group ABBA. ABBA Carl Magnus Palm’s first book on ABBA was ''ABBA – The Complete Recording Sessions ...
as having a "superfluous saxophone overdub and leaden sound". This version reached No. 32 in the UK in July 1974, with "
Rock'n Roll Band "Rock'n Roll Band" is a song by Swedish pop group ABBA (then credited as "Björn & Benny with Anna & Frida") from the album '' Ring Ring''. In the US, the song was released in July 1973 as their third single on Playboy Records credited to "Bj� ...
" issued on the
B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...
. The remix later hit No. 7 in Australia. A second remixed version, based upon the one that had been released in the UK, was included as a bonus track on the original North American release of the '' Waterloo'' album. A German-language version of the song was also recorded but failed to chart in West Germany. A Spanish version was also recorded (with lyrics by Doris Band), but was not released until the 1993 CD compilation ''Más ABBA Oro'' in selected countries, and internationally on the 1999 edition of '' ABBA Oro: Grandes Éxitos''. The master tapes of the 1974 remix were presumed missing, or at least unobtainable, for some years. For this reason, the remix did not appear on the 1994 four-CD box-set ''
Thank You for the Music "Thank You for the Music" is a song by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was originally featured on the group's fifth studio album, '' The Album'' (1977), and was released as a double-A sided single with "Eagle" in May 1978 in limited territories ...
''. In 1999, a CD box set of singles was released that included the remix, but it had been mastered from a vinyl single rather than the unavailable master tape. In 2001, '' The Definitive Collection'' was released, which finally included the 1974 single remix sourced from the master tape. It was later revealed on Carl Magnus Palm's website that Polar Music had acquired the master tapes from
Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was founded predominantly as a jazz and classical mu ...
in the UK. This had presumably occurred between 1999 and 2001.


Track listings

* Sweden :A. "Ring Ring (Bara Du Slog En Signal)" :B. "Åh vilka tider" * UK, Spain, Brazil, Italy, France, West Germany, Peru, Austria, Netherlands :A. "Ring Ring" (English version) :B. "
Rock'n Roll Band "Rock'n Roll Band" is a song by Swedish pop group ABBA (then credited as "Björn & Benny with Anna & Frida") from the album '' Ring Ring''. In the US, the song was released in July 1973 as their third single on Playboy Records credited to "Bj� ...
" * Sweden, Denmark, Columbia :A. "Ring Ring" (English version) :B. "She's My Kind of Girl" * West Germany :A. "Ring Ring" (German version) :B. " Wer Im Wartesaal Der Liebe Steht"


Personnel

ABBA *
Agnetha Fältskog Agneta Åse Fältskog (born 5 April 1950), known as Agnetha Fältskog (), is a Swedish singer, songwriter, and musician. She first achieved success in Sweden with the release of her 1968 self-titled debut album. She later achieved internatio ...
– lead and backing vocals *
Anni-Frid Lyngstad Princess Anni-Frid Synni Reuss, Countess of Plauen (born Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad on 15 November 1945), also known by her nickname "Frida", is a Norwegian-born Swedish singer, songwriter and environmentalist, who is best known as one of the foun ...
– lead and backing vocals *
Björn Ulvaeus Björn Kristian Ulvaeus (; born 25 April 1945) is a Swedish singer, songwriter, producer, a member of the musical group ABBA, and co-composer of the musicals ''Chess (musical), Chess'', ''Kristina från Duvemåla'', and ''Mamma Mia! (musical), M ...
– harmony and backing vocals, rhythm guitar *
Benny Andersson Göran Bror Benny Andersson (; born 16 December 1946) is a Swedish musician, singer, composer and producer best known as a member of the musical group ABBA and co-composer of the musicals '' Chess'', '' Kristina från Duvemåla'', and ''Mamma ...
– backing vocals, keyboards ;Additional personnel and production staff *
Janne Schaffer Jan Erik Tage "Janne" Schaffer (born 24 September 1945) is a Swedish songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for his work as a session guitarist for ABBA but he has also recorded with artists such as Bob Marley, Johnny Nash, Art Farmer and Ton ...
– lead guitar *
Rutger Gunnarsson Johan Rutger Gunnarsson (12 February 1946 – 30 April 2015) was a Swedish musician, bass guitarist, guitarist, arranger and producer. He was closely associated with the pop group ABBA. Career Gunnarsson grew up in Ledberg parish. His career began ...
– bass *
Ola Brunkert Ola Brunkert (15 September 1946 – 16 March 2008) was a Swedish drummer who was one of the main session drummers for the pop group ABBA. Brunkert and bassist Rutger Gunnarsson are the only two side musicians to appear on every ABBA album, not cou ...
– drums *
Ulf Andersson Ulf Andersson (born 27 June 1951) is a leading Swedish chess player. FIDE awarded him the International Master title in 1970 and the Grandmaster title in 1972. Career At his peak, Andersson reached number four on the FIDE rating list. Tourname ...
– saxophone (English remix)


Charts

;Original English version ;Remixed English version ;Swedish version


Official versions

* "Ring Ring (Bara du slog en signal)" (Swedish Version) * "Ring Ring" (English Version) * "Ring Ring" (English Version) – (1974 Remix, UK Single Version) * "Ring Ring" (English Version) – (U.S. Remix 1974) * "Ring Ring" (German Version) * "Ring Ring" (Spanish Version) * "Ring Ring" (Medley of Swedish, Spanish and German Versions)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ring Ring (Song) 1973 singles Number-one singles in Belgium Number-one singles in Sweden ABBA songs Melodifestivalen songs of 1973 Songs written by Neil Sedaka Atlantic Records singles Epic Records singles Polar Music singles Songs written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus Songs written by Stig Anderson Songs about telephones Music videos directed by Lasse Hallström 1973 songs Song recordings with Wall of Sound arrangements Glam rock songs Songs about telephone calls