Cassandra (ABBA song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "The Day Before You Came" | ||
|---|---|---|
| Single by ABBA | ||
| from the album The Singles: The First Ten Years | ||
| Released | 1982 | |
| Format | 7" Single | |
| Genre | Pop/Europop/Rock and Roll | |
| Length | 4:56 | |
| Writer(s) | Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson |
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| Producer(s) | Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson |
|
| Certification | N/A | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| ABBA singles chronology | ||
| "Head Over Heels" (1982) |
"The Day Before You Came" (1982) |
"Under Attack" (1983) |
"Cassandra" is an ABBA song from 18 October 1982, it was the B side for The Day Before You Came single. In Yugoslavia, Cassandra was the A-side with The Day Before You Came as the b-side, despite the fact that Cassandra did not appear on the compilation album it promoted.
"Cassandra" was written and produced by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and performed by ABBA. The song appears to be about an unknown Trojan singing about the events she has witnessed and about Cassandra of Troy for example the chorus: "Sorry Cassandra, I misunderstood, now the last day is dawning." The line "Some of us wanted but none of us would listen to words of warning. But on the darkest of nights nobody knew how to fight and we were caught in our sleep!" appears to be about the Greeks sneaking out of the wooden horse to destroy Troy while the helpless Trojans were asleep or drunk (due to a great celebration in the city). As the song progresses, it becomes clear that Cassandra can see into the future ("You know the future is cast in a shadow... No-one else sees it but you know your fate"). In Greek mythology, no one believed in Cassandra's prophecies (Apollo placed a curse on her so that no one would ever believe her predictions) just like in the song ("I only saw it as dreams you would weave until the final hour").
The The Day Before You Came single reached #32 in the UK.