"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" is a song by Swedish recording group

ABBA ABBA ( ) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the List ...

. A

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

song, it was first recorded in August 1979 to promote the group's North American and European concert legs of ABBA: The Tour. It was released on 12 October 1979 as the sole single taken from their second greatest hits album '' Greatest Hits Vol. 2'' (1979). Agnetha Fältskog sang the lead vocals to the song. Although it was not recorded for it, "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" was included in reissues of the group's sixth studio album '' Voulez-Vous'' (1979). The track went on to become one of ABBA's signature hits, topping the charts in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, and Japan's international chart, and reached the top ten in multiple countries across Europe and Australia as well. Its release in the United States and Canada was cancelled by

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

even though promotional copies were already pressed, presumably due to the unpopularity of disco as a whole in the US following Disco Demolition Night.

Background

"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" was written and composed by

Benny Andersson Göran Bror Benny Andersson (; born 16 December 1946) is a Swedish musician, composer and producer best known as a member of the pop group ABBA and co-composer of the musicals ''Chess (musical), Chess'', ''Kristina från Duvemåla'', and ''Mamm ...

and

Björn Ulvaeus Björn Kristian Ulvaeus (; born 25 April 1945) is a Swedish musician, singer, songwriter, and producer best known as a member of the musical group ABBA. He is also the co-composer of the musicals ''Chess (musical), Chess'', ''Kristina från Duve ...

, with the lead vocal sung by Agnetha Fältskog. Fältskog, as the narrator, weaves the image of a lonely woman who longs for a romantic relationship and views her loneliness as a forbidding darkness of night, even drawing parallels to how the happy endings of movie stars are so different from her existence. The melody line of the song was played on an ARP Odyssey synthesizer. Originally, ABBA had recorded another song, "Rubber Ball Man", which was planned as a single. It featured the typical "ABBA-arrangement" with both Fältskog and

Anni-Frid Lyngstad Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad (born 15 November 1945), also known simply as Frida, is a Swedish singer who is best known as one of the founding members and lead singers of the pop band ABBA. Courtesy titles ''Principality of Reuss-Gera, Princess Re ...

on lead vocals and the use of classical strings. This song was also performed by the group during rehearsals for its 1979 tour as "Under My Sun". However, the group felt that "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!", with its disco sound, would be a better choice, and thus, "Rubber Ball Man" remained nothing more than a demo. The song came about after Benny and Bjorn heard

Donna Summer Donna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948May 17, 2012), known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the "Queen of Disco", while her music ...

's hit Hot Stuff, and upon hearing it, it inspired the riffs, melody and sentiment of the song with Agnetha yearning for 'a man after midnight' whilst Donna was in need of some 'hot stuff'

Single version

The single version of this song, which was released in its full length of 4:48 everywhere else in the world, was released in the United States and Canada in an edited format, being just 3:36 in length. This was done by removing the first half of the opening instrumental, the first four of the eight bars of the instrumental bridge between the second and final chorus, and fading the song out early. It is believed the edit was done by

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

, ABBA's North American record label and not Polar, hence the reason why it was available only in the US and Canada. This single version has never appeared on any commercial CD issued by Polar/Universal to date and along with the US promo edit of " Chiquitita", it marked the only time Atlantic ever commercially released an edited version of an ABBA single while they had the North American rights to release ABBA recordings. As of September 2021, it is ABBA's tenth-biggest song in the UK, including both pure sales and digital streams. The single was never released by Polar Music in the group's native Sweden, instead being featured on the '' Greatest Hits Vol. 2'' album, which did get a Swedish release. While Polar released the single in neighbouring Norway, Denmark, and Finland, copies of these versions were not made available in the Swedish record stores, who thus arranged to import copies of the United Kingdom version on Epic Records. Sales of these imports were sufficient for the single to reach no. 16 on the sales chart in Sweden. On October 4, 2024, "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" was reissued digitally as a promotional single for the compilation album ''The Singles: The First Fifty Years''. This release was accompanied by a Dolby Atmos remix of the song (the third ABBA release to receive this treatment, after " Waterloo" and '' Voyage'') and a new 4K remaster of the music video.

Spanish version

"¡Dame! ¡Dame! ¡Dame!" is the Spanish-language version of the song. The song was released as a single to promote '' Gracias Por La Música'' in Latin America and other Spanish-speaking countries.

Reception

Critical

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', is an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' called it "another exercise of sparkling euro-pop, with the slightest hint of boogie bottom to give the song an edge." ''

Record World ''Record World'' magazine was one of three major weekly music industry trade magazines in the United States, with ''Billboard'' and '' Cashbox''. It was founded in 1946 as ''Music Vendor''. In 1964, it was changed to ''Record World'' under the ...

'' noted the track's "captivating chorus hook".

Commercial

"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" was another highly successful song for ABBA. It hit no. 1 in Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, and Switzerland, while reaching the top 3 in Austria, West Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Norway. It also proved to be ABBA's most successful song in Japan, hitting no. 17.

Personnel

ABBA

* Agnetha Fältskog – lead and backing vocals *

– backing vocals * Bjorn Ulvaeus – electric guitar, backing vocals *

– keyboards,

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

, backing vocals

Additional personnel

* Ola Brunkert – drums * Rutger Gunnarsson – bass, string arrangement * Lasse Wellander – guitar * Åke Sundqvist – percussion * Anders Dahl, Gunnar Mickols – violin * Halldor Pálsson, Lars O. Carlsson – tenor saxophone * Christer Danielsson – bass trombone

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

Certifications

A-Teens version

"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" was

A-Teens A-Teens (stylized as A*Teens) is a Swedish pop music group from Stockholm. The group was formed by Niklas Berg in 1998 as an ABBA tribute group called ABBA-Teens, which was later renamed A-Teens. The band members are Marie Serneholt, Amit Seba ...

' third single (fourth in other territories) from their first album '' The ABBA Generation'', a collection of

cover versions. The song was remixed for its single release. The single became their third top-10 hit in Sweden, where it earned a gold certification. The song was also recorded in Spanish.

Music video

The music video was directed by Sebastian Reed and filmed in Sweden. The video uses the remixed radio version. The video starts with the boys entering a

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the rural–urban fringe, out ...

, where they find a crystal ball. Inside, there is an "alternate world" where they perform the song. Part of the video also features the band at a

bowling alley A bowling alley (also known as a bowling center, bowling lounge, bowling arena, or historically bowling club) is a facility where the sport of bowling is played. It can be a dedicated facility or part of another, such as a clubhouse or dwelling ...

where they play a few games against each other.

Releases

European 2-track CD single #"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" adio version– 3:45 #"A*Teens Medley" ierre J's Radio Mix– 3:54 European maxi CD #"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" adio version– 3:45 #"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" xtended version– 6:02 #"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" arthbound Late Show Remix– 5:04 #"A*Teens Medley" ierre J's Full Length Mix– 8:19 Mexican CD single #"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" adio version– 3:45 #"¡Dame! ¡Dame! ¡Dame!" ersión en español– 3:43 Japanese maxi CD #"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" adio version– 3:45 #"A*Teens Medley" ierre J's Radio Mix– 3:54 #"Mamma Mia" ersión en español– 3:46 #"¡Dame! ¡Dame! ¡Dame!" ersión en español– 3:43

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Star Academy France version

In 2001, the song was covered by the first edition of the French TV reality show '' Star Academy 1''. The song was credited to Olivia Ruiz, Jenifer Bartoli and Carine Haddadou, three of the contestants. This version went straight to no. 1 in France, dislodging Star Academy's previous hit, " La Musique (Angelica)", and stayed atop for two weeks.

Track listings

; CD single #"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" – 3:30 #"Brigitte Bardot" (remix edit) by Jean-Pascal Lacoste – 3:01

Charts

Film version

"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" was the first single released from the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

for the 2008 film version of '' Mamma Mia!'' by American actress Amanda Seyfried, who plays Sophie in the film. In the film, only the chorus is sung while the rest of the song is instrumental, much like the original stage play. On the soundtrack, Seyfried sings the complete song as a solo performance, and also does the same in a

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

to promote the movie. The version on the soundtrack is a minute shorter than the version featured on the film's tie-in website.

Charts

Certifications

Cher version

American singer and actress

Cher Cher ( ; born Cheryl Sarkisian, May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Goddess of Pop", she is known for her Androgyny, androgynous contralto voice, Music an ...

covered the song on her album '' Dancing Queen'', released on 28 September 2018. Cher's version is the lead single on the album. The accompanying audio video for "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" was premiered through Cher's official YouTube channel on 9 August 2018. An extended version of the track was later released on 14 September 2018. The song peaked at number 4 on the

Hot Dance Club Songs The Dance Club Songs (also known as National Disco Action, Hot Dance/Disco Club Play, and Hot Dance Club Play) was a chart published weekly between 1976 and 2020 by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. It used club disc jockeys set list ...

chart.

Critical reception

Writing for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'', Brittany Spanos felt that "working with producer Mark Taylor who helped seal Cher's legacy with the game-changing " Believe" in the late Nineties, she finds subtle changes that update ABBA classics without totally stripping them of the catchiness that made those songs beloved hits well beyond their heyday. "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)", "

SOS SOS is a Morse code distress signal (), used internationally, originally established for maritime use. In formal notation SOS is written with an overscore line (), to indicate that the Morse code equivalents for the individual letters of "SOS" a ...

" and " Mamma Mia" are given just enough of a knob turn that they're transformed from upbeat

FM radio FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting that uses frequency modulation (FM) of the radio broadcast carrier wave. Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to transmit high fidelity, high-f ...

pop into club bangers, pulsating with every beat."

Track listing

Digital download

#"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" – 4:11

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) xtended Mix– Single

#"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) xtended Mix – 7:25

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) idnight Mixes/h3>
#"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) xtended Mix – 7:25 #"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) ffer Nissim Needs a Man Remix – 7:19 #"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) ove To Infinity Classic Remix – 5:27 #"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) uy Scheiman Anthem Remix – 7:19 #"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) alphi Rosario Remix – 7:52 #"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) ove To Infinity Insomniac Remix – 6:11 #"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) anny Verde Remix – 5:54 #"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) hris Cox Anthem Remix – 6:06 #"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) uy Scheiman Anthem Dub Remix – 6:06 #"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) alphi Rosario Dub Remix – 6:27

Credits and personnel

Credits for ''Dancing Queen'' adapted from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

Management

*Published by Universal Songs of PolyGramInt., Inc. (ASCAP) and EMI Waterford Music Inc. (ASCAP) *Recorded by Mark Taylor and Paul Meehan at Metrophonic Studios, London *Mixed by Matt Furmidge and Mark Taylor at Metrophonic Studios, London *Mastered by Stephen Marcussen Mastering, Hollywood, CA

Personnel

*Cher – primary vocals *

– songwriter *

– songwriter *Ash Soan – drums *Adam Phillips – guitars *Hayley Sanderson – backing vocals *Andy Caine – backing vocals

Charts

Other notable covers

BNB version

In 2008, the song was covered in a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

/ lounge style by American group BNB on its album ''Bossa Mia: Songs of ABBA''.

Arkells version

Canadian rock band Arkells have covered the song during their live shows. In 2023, they released a studio recording of the cover.

Molly Sandén version

Swedish pop singer Molly Sandén released a version of the song in April 2024, following a live performance on SVT's ''En Fest för ABBA'' (A Party for ABBA) concert, celebrating the 50th anniversary of ABBA's Eurovision win.

Unix/Linux Easter egg

The

Unix Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

computer operating system command line utility "man" for displaying manual pages would print "gimme gimme gimme" when run without arguments on 00:30 (as the opening lyrics of the song are "half past twelve"). The

Easter egg Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian holiday of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are commonly used during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The ...

has been removed since version man-db 2.8.0 after it had been discovered as an annoyance in a software automatic test system on 20 November 2017 and brought to broad attention on the Stack Exchange Q&A network site dedicated to Unix & Linux.

Sampling

In 2005, the song was sampled by

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...

, who used it on her worldwide hit single " Hung Up" from '' Confessions on a Dance Floor''. Madonna is said to have sent a letter to

and

asking to use the song as a sample, since the Swedish songwriting duo are reluctant to let other artists sample their material. It was only the second time that an ABBA track had been officially sampled, the first being the Fugees in 1996 with their hit " Rumble in the Jungle", sampling part of 1977's " The Name of the Game". Ava Max "subtly sample the song in her 2019 single " Torn". Max stated that she listened to ABBA and

Ace of Base Ace of Base is a Swedish pop group formed in 1987, originally consisting of siblings Jonas, Linn, and Jenny Berggren, with Ulf Ekberg. They achieved worldwide success following the release of their debut album, '' Happy Nation'', in 1992. L ...

during her childhood, and wanted to "add a little disco flair in there".

Rina Sawayama is a Japanese and British singer-songwriter, actress and model. Born in Niigata (city), Niigata, Japan, she immigrated to London with her parents at the age of five. In 2017, she Self-publishing, self-released her debut extended play, ''Rina ...

sampled the guitar riff of the ABBA song in her 2022 single " This Hell".

References

{{Authority control 1979 songs 1979 singles 2000 singles 2002 singles 2018 singles ABBA songs A-Teens songs Cher songs Decca Records singles European Hot 100 Singles number-one singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Island Records singles Music videos directed by Lasse Hallström Music videos shot in Sweden Number-one singles in Finland Number-one singles in France Number-one singles in Switzerland Oricon International Singles Chart number-one singles Polar Music singles Polydor Records singles Songs about loneliness Songs about nights Songs written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus Star Academy France songs Ultratop 50 Singles (Flanders) number-one singles Universal Music Group singles Warner Records singles

Background

Single version

Spanish version

Reception

Critical

Commercial

Personnel

ABBA

Additional personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

Certifications

A-Teens version

Music video

Releases

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Star Academy France version

Track listings

Charts

Film version

Charts

Certifications

Cher version

Critical reception

Track listing

Digital download

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) xtended Mix– Single

Credits and personnel

Management

Personnel

Charts

Other notable covers

BNB version

Arkells version

Molly Sandén version

Unix/Linux Easter egg

Sampling

See also

References