Written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of Abba! It’s from a musical they wrote in the 80’s called Chess 🤗 One of my favourite one hit wonders ever!
@Karina Rodriguez - I'm Gen X, I had NO idea about this information, you @toriboy25 just blew my mind, lol. Makes sense why it was such a hit and why ABBA could not sing it, lol.
I Did not Know this I’m a gen x also. We never had readily available info back then though. So many times I watch reactions and I had no idea what the songs were about. You had to buy the “album” to get the mystery lyrics
In general, I would say this song was emphasizing mental pleasures over physical ones; And the game of Chess is considered a supreme mental exercise. This is one of my favorite songs of All Time.
The man singing the lyrics in this musical is the reigning American chess world champion. He’s in Bangkok to defend his title against a soviet player. A game he ultimately loses to his Soviet opponent. The entire play uses a US-USSR chess rivalry as a metaphor for the Cold War, but this song is mostly known for the double-entendres. It’s one of my favorite musicals of all time.
He was talking about chess tournaments being held in all these big seedy cities but the chess players aren’t into all of the stuff normal tourists would be. They are after a ‘different’ type of queen - one that can’t be found on the streets but in the chess board. They get their kicks above the waistline - meaning their brains / cerebral fitness - chess is a brain game. Thats what I always got from this song. Loved this ! One of my favs.
It's the curse of the traveling artist. All the cities look the same because you are focused on the next move on the board. It also as A LOT of double meanings... You had to live the 80s to get this... it was pre dial-up lol... This host doesn't get the song. He thinks the singer is a tourist. He was talking about being a musician gig hopping.
@@mrballoonpimp no. It was written for the musical Chess and is sung from the perspective of one of the players in an international tournament in Thailand.
This song is from an musical called chess. The chess tournament is being held in Bangkok. You should react to Abracadabra by the Steve Miller band soon.
@@thebronywiking This song opens Act 2. In the stage version, the beginning cacophony is twice as long and starts with the orchestra tuning up to an A.
@@rickardroach9075 In Merano the Russian played the American, who is quite an antagonist. The Russian wins, I think because the American has a hissy fit and forfeits. He's portrayed as a bit of a dick. This second act is some significant time later, a year or more, and the Russian is defending his title against another player and the American from the Merano match shows up as a member of the press gallery. This song is being sung by the American as a journalist doing his field piece from Bangkok and basically belittling the place because he's still a bit of a dick. The thing is from the cold war but makes both sides look childish and petulant instead of the typical hero American and cold Russian trope we were fed constantly in the 1980s.
The brother of Anthony Head, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Technically a one hit wonder, he was the lead singer on the hit Jesus Christ Superstar from the '60s. From a musical taking place at a chess tournament. Music by the guys from ABBA, words from the lyricist for Jesus Christ Superstar.
I had no idea they were brothers! Whenever I've heard his name, it always reminds me of Anthony Head, but it never occurred to me they might be related. lol
Matt, you should be a comedian, one of those alternative ones who observe real life and make it interesting and funny. Loved the Walmart incident! 😂 When I was in New York ion vacation from London, I was in a CVS and this song came in. I couldn't help but walk purposefully around to the beat, even threw in a couple of fancy moves. It was New York, no one took a blind bit of notice... 🗽❤️That's why I love the place.
Part of that is that he's staying in character - the American literally couldn't give a s#*t about anyone or anything but himself - it's why the lyrics are so sarcastic. He was also the original Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar and strangely enough had a hit single then too.
@@alphaomega7191 fair point but a small part I feel. I think that's Murray Head who couldn't even be arsed to learn the lyrics or keep time to the music.
This song is from the musical Chess that was written by Benny and Bjorn from ABBA, and the guy singing it is the older brother of Anthony Stewart Head who played Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Jayvee obviously doesn’t know the background to this song. It’s about playing chess and not being involved in the nightlife. It’s from the musical Chess
I was in Bangkok about 6 months after this song came out. (mid eighties0. It was certainly an eye opener for the young me at the time. Love Thailand. The people are generally quite friendly and it's a relatively safe place to visit.
Yeah there are several I've seen that only stop to talk about random stuff...they only wanna hear themselves talk rather than actually react to something new. Like their title says of their vid.
This was one of my favorite songs in the 80's! The flute solo is phenomenal. Fun bit of trivia - Murray Head is the brother of Anthony Stuart Head who played Giles on the Buffy the Vampire TV series.
The hook is sung by Swedish singer Anders Glennmark who was a big star in Sweden in the 90s mostly due to him being in the group GES, they mostly did songs in Swedish but it’s a nice 90s band.
I know this will get buried, but after watching your reaction to Bangkok RU-vid suggested me Sandra - Maria Magdalena. I totally forgot about this song, I loved it as a child, and it goes well with 80's hits theme :) check it out someday.
Say it ain't so Joe, Never even thought, and many more gorgeous songs were written by Murray Head. He wrote even French lovely song... Check out his discography!
It’s from a musical-Chess. Murray Head sang the part of Judas in the original version of Jesus Christ Superstar, which is fabulous. The album. The musical Chess is about a puppet master & the ‘the chess game’ of power. His brother, Anthony, played the part of Giles the librarian in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. He can sing too.
Murray Head is the brother of Anthony Stewart Head, who you may recognize as Giles in the TV show "Buffy The Vampire Slayer", or as Rupert in the TV show "Ted Lasso"
This song was written for a movie called "Chess", so what I gather is that he is singing from the perspective of a professional chess player, not so much a tourist. Like the line "One town's very like another, when your head's down over your pieces, brother." So it's like he is the chess player singing to the simple tourists.
This was after Agnetha and Frida Solo Albums a additional release from the Abba guys it was played in the radio with no warning and i thought what is it ,this is something very new and different and I was proud that the radio dj said this is from the Abba guys . A Rap Song ? They can write everything , crazy 7/8 Rythm at the beginning,Rap in the verse ,catchy Hugh ,great bridge ,cool bass,bang this was straight to number one worldwide for weeks.
Hello Jayvee, First of all, thank you very much for your very entertaining channel. It is funny, fascinating and great to see how people react on music I danced on all my life. I have a tips for you if you didn’t know that band: Lebel 42. Very popular in Europe during the 80’s. Mark is a fabulous bass player and singer. The whole band is fantastic! Lots of their songs are very well known, but not this one: “It’s over” It is a gem!! The music and the lyrics are poignant!! There are not much ballads which reach people sensitivity as this one. Thank you very much for your kindness and reactions which aren’t only groovy, but priceless! A French fan 😊
Back in the day, we would listen to this song over and over again trying to figure out what the lyrics were. In the pre-Internet era, they were quite a few songs like that. I’m laughing as I recall the arguments with my friends over what this guy was singing. “He said God’s a sheep!” “He said she, dummy.” Lol.
I remember that lots of people wondered why there were Tea Girls Warm & Sweet some are set up in the Somerset Maughan Suite not realising that it's really T-Girls.
Fabulous, fascinating song - and the lyrics are SO sharp - have to listen more than once to catch them all - Thank you - this is one of my absolute favourites
There's more than this from "Chess"...check out "Anthem" and "I Know Him So Well", for instance. Andersson and Ulvaeus didn't quit after ABBA broke up...oh and Murray Head, a West End actor/singer, recorded other stuff too...
Funny how both AL Webber's earlier musicals and this one have the same lyricist Tim Rice on board. Same with how Murray Head, the main singer here, was also the original Judas of the 1970 cast recording of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Just a great song! Thanks for reacting. ☺ Edit: you are right in your interpretation. There is a definite line you can cross if you choose. Be on your guard.
One Night in Bangkok was written for the musical Chess. The song hit #12 on the UK charts and got as high as #3 on the US Billboard Hot 100. One of the actors in the original broadway cast is a woman named Judy Kuhn who provided the singing voice for the title character in the 1995 animated Walt Disney film Pocahontas.
Another excellent reaction as always. I'm going to suggest something completely different for you to check out. Her name is Skott, and the song is called Wolf. Also give her song Mermaid a try. Complete eargasm. Cheers.
