Here's a soppy video of my son Simon and his girlfriend Adelle. Please note this is not Bjorn and Agnetha, though they might have looked and acted similar in their younger days! The bench scene is reminiscent of a famous picture where Agnetha is ignored by the other three, though Simon is clearly not as pretty. The school kids are Just Like That at every break time!
Ah Vilka Tider was recorded on June 7th 1972 and has the distinction of being the only song that Abba released in Swedish only. The session sheet shows that Agnetha and Frida were duly paid for their backing vocals contribution at this time. The formation of the group marked the transition from Swedish language recordings as individual artists to English languages recordings for the international market.
Ah Vilka Tider was released as the B-side of the Swedish single version of Ring Ring (Bara Du Slog En Signal) on February 14th 1973. The single was credited to Bjorn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid and was released as record number Polar POS 1171. This was their 3rd single and was number 1 in Sweden for 8 weeks, and stayed in their charts for 17 weeks.
Abba's manager Stig Anderson soon become tired of the four unwieldy names, and started to refer to the group privately and publicly as ABBA. The media was amused at this, as Abba was also the name of the largest herring canning company in Sweden. However since the fish canners were unknown outside Sweden, Stig came to believe the name would work in international markets. A competition to find a suitable name for the group was held in February in the Gothenburg newspaper Goteborgs-Tidningen. The results were reported at the end of March. Several hundred letters were sent in, some of them with long lists of names.The group was impressed with the names "Alibaba", "FABB", "Friends and Neighbours" and "Baba". Curiously the name Abba did not appear at all in the published article about the results, although Stig stated that about 80% of people chose it. Other varied names submitted were Flower Power, Black Devils and Golden Diamonds. But in the end all the entries were ignored and it was announced in the summer of 1973 that the name "ABBA" was official. This is an acronym formed from the first letters of each group member's name: Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid (Frida). Frida later pointed out that the unofficial victor of the contest was probably called Stig Anderson.
Later the group negotiated with the fish canners for the right to use the name "ABBA". Stig phoned the managing director Anders Ekstrom, who kindly said yes on the condition that the group did not discredit his company. He later confessed that he could not have dreamed of better publicity for his product. "Bjorn and Benny didnt like the name very much in the beginning" recalled Stig. "They thought the name Abba smelled of canned fish. But we soon agreed that it was an excellent name in an international perspective. You can say it in any language." The first time the name is found written on paper is on a recording session sheet from the Metronome Studio in Stockholm dated 16 October 1973. This was first written as "Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Frida", but was subsequently crossed out with "ABBA" written in large letters on top
Ah, Vilka Tider (Oh, The Good Old Days)
Composers: Benny Andersson / Bjorn Ulvaeus
Lead vocal: Bjorn
Åh, vilka tider!
Paradiset hägrar
Du får kalla det fantasier
Men nog är det en dröm man minns
Drömde en dröm, jag minns och jag känner
Vatten blev vin ovh fiender vänner
Mmm, det var härlight att leva
Allting var fritt så vem skulle sakna
Någonting då? Nej, paradis, nakna
Var vi som Adam och Eva
Åh, vilka tider!
Underbara dagar
Roar sig kungligt, mår som en prins
Njuter allt gott som finns
Åh, vilka tider!
Paradiset hägrar
Du får kalla det fantasier
Men nog är det en dröm man minns
Ingen var sur och ingen var dyster
Var och en var en bror och en syster
Åh, vad jag dröde den stunden!
Skatan, han gol och göken, han skratta'
Ingenting var som det är, kan du fatta?
Vi var i paradislunden
Åh, vilka tider!
Underbara dagar
Roar sig kungligt, mår som en prins
Njuter allt gott som finns
Åh, vilka tider!
Paradiset hägrar
Du får kalla det fantasier
Men nog är det en dröm man minns
Du får kalla det fantasier
Men nog är det en dröm man minns
30 сен 2024
