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Lay All Your Love on Me
1981 single by ABBA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"Lay All Your Love on Me" is a song recorded by Swedish pop group ABBA for their seventh studio album, Super Trouper (1980). The song was not intended to be a single but after a remixed version gained popularity in nightclubs, it was released as the album's sixth and final single in the summer of 1981 by Polar Music, eight months after the album's release. At the time, it was the highest selling 12-inch record in UK chart history, where it peaked at No. 7. In the US, "Lay All Your Love on Me" reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. In 2006, Slant Magazine ranked it No. 60 in their list of the greatest dance songs of all time,[2] and No. 66 in the updated 2020 list.[3]
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Composition
"Lay All Your Love on Me" is an electro-disco song penned by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, with Agnetha Fältskog singing lead. Recording began at Polar Music Studios in Stockholm on 9 September 1980, with the final mix of the song being completed on 10 October 1980. It is known for a descending vocal sound at the end of the verse immediately preceding the refrain. This was achieved by sending the vocal into a harmoniser device, which was set up to produce a slightly lower-pitched version of the vocal. In turn its output was fed back to its input, thereby continually lowering the pitch of the vocal. Andersson and Ulvaeus felt that the chorus of the song sounded like a hymn, so parts of the vocals in the choruses were run through a vocoder, to recreate the sound of a church congregation singing, slightly out of tune.[4] The song was not originally intended to be released as a single, but was issued in 12-inch form in the UK and a few other countries in 1981. "Lay All Your Love on Me" has since been much covered and is also featured in the Mamma Mia! musical (and its film adaptation), that showcases many of ABBA's hits.
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Music video
ABBA did not film a promotional video for "Lay All Your Love on Me", and so Epic hastily assembled a video (at a cost of £3,500) by using excerpts from the existing ABBA videos for "Take a Chance on Me", "Summer Night City", "The Name of the Game", "I Have a Dream", "Voulez-Vous" and "The Winner Takes It All". It was never shown on TV because Epic managers thought it "wasn't needed", but was included on the ABBA Gold VHS.[5]
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Chart performance
As "Lay All Your Love on Me" was not intended to be a single, it was not released until 1981, the year after it had been recorded. It was only after a remixed version by Raul A. Rodriguez[6] - (aka C.O.D) of Disconet - had soared in popularity in nightclubs, that it topped the US Hot Dance Club Play chart (along with "Super Trouper" and "On and on and On").[7] Therefore, the decision was made to release "Lay All Your Love on Me" in limited territories in 12-inch form, as opposed to the standard 7-inch record. It peaked at No. 7 in the UK, becoming ABBA's lowest charting single since "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" in 1975. However, reaching No. 7 in the charts was, at the time, the highest charting position achieved for a 12-inch only release in the UK. "Lay All Your Love on Me" also charted in Ireland (No. 8), Belgium (No. 13) and West Germany (No. 26).
As of September 2021, it is ABBA's 17th-biggest song in the UK, including both pure sales and digital streams.[8]
Legacy
In 2006, Slant Magazine ranked "Lay All Your Love on Me" No. 60 in their list of the greatest dance songs of all time,[9] and No. 66 in the updated 2020 list.[10] In September 2024, Swedish national radio Sveriges Radio P3 ranked it among the world's 300 best songs.[11]
Personnel
- Agnetha Fältskog – lead vocals
- Anni-Frid Lyngstad – backing vocals
- Benny Andersson – keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals
- Björn Ulvaeus - guitar, backing vocals
- Lasse Wellander - guitar
- Rutger Gunnarsson – bass
- Ola Brunkert – drums
Charts
Release history
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Certifications
Original version
Mamma Mia! version
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Notable cover versions
Information Society version
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"Lay All Your Love on Me" was covered by American synth-pop band Information Society on their 1988 first album Information Society. The track peaked at No. 83 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1989. It was later included on the compilation ABBA: A Tribute – The 25th Anniversary Celebration.
Track listing
- "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Justin Strauss Remix)
- "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Restricted Re-mix)
- "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Prohibited Dub)
- "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Radio Hot Mix)
- "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Phil Harding Metal Mega-Mix)
- "Funky at 45"
References
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