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Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" | |||||
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| Single by ABBA from the album Greatest Hits Vol. 2 |
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| Released | October, 1979 | ||||
| Format | Single | ||||
| Genre | Disco | ||||
| Length | 4:46 | ||||
| Label | Polar Music | ||||
| Writer | Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus | ||||
| Producer | Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus | ||||
| Certification | — | ||||
| ABBA singles chronology | |||||
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"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" is one of Swedish pop group ABBA's biggest disco hits. It was recorded and released in 1979 with "The King Has Lost His Crown" as the B-side. "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" - originally titled "Been And Gone And Done It" [1] - features on ABBA's Greatest Hits Vol. 2 album, as well as their bestselling ABBA Gold album.
Contents |
"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" was written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, with the lead vocal sung by Agnetha Fältskog. Agnetha, as the narrator, weaves the image of a lonely young 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 own existence. The song was recorded at Polar Music Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, in August 1979, and was ready for release in October of that year, in conjunction with the group's tour of North America and Europe.
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 on lead vocals and the use of classical strings. This song was also performed by the group during rehearsals for their current tour as "Under My Sun". However, they 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 single version of this song, which was released in its full length of 4:46 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, ABBA's North American record label, and not Polar, hence the reason why it was available only in the USA and Canada. This single version has never appeared on any commercial CD issued by Polar/Universal to date, and marked the only time Atlantic ever released an edited version of an ABBA single while they had the North American rights to release ABBA recordings.
"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" was a No.1 hit in Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, France and Ireland. It reached the Top 3 in Austria, Norway, the Netherlands, the UK and West Germany, and was a No.8 hit in Australia.
| Chart (1979) | Position |
|---|---|
| Belgian Singles Chart | 1 |
| Finnish Singles Chart | 1 |
| French Singles Chart | 1 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 1 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 1 |
| Austrian Singles Chart | 2 |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 2 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 2 |
| German Singles Chart | 3 |
| UK Singles Chart | 3 |
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 8 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart | 15 |
| Swedish Singles Chart | 16 |
| Japanese Singles Chart | 17 |
- The song has remained well-known over the years. In 2005, it was sampled by Madonna, a self-confessed ABBA fan who used it on her worldwide hit "Hung Up". Madonna claimed to have begged Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus to use the song as a sample [2], 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".
- Ooh, Yes I Do, a single of the Dutch girl group Luv', uses a melody inspired by the flute theme of the song.
- A faithful cover in 1986 by British synthpop duo Erasure, who released it as the B-side to their 12" single "Oh L'amour", gave the song an even greater camp appeal, as gay male singer Andy Bell didn't change a word. Such was its success - and the band's appeal to gay audiences - that Erasure would go on to record a further EP of ABBA songs.
- In the same year the song was also recorded and released as a single by the Swedish band The Leather Nun.
- A decade and a half later, teen pop group A*Teens, who recorded a full album of ABBA material, released their cover of the song as a single.
- An electronica cover of the song by Motor Industries can be found on the album The Electronic Tribute To ABBA.
- British electronic band O.V.N.I also recorded their own rendition of the song.
- On the tribute album ABBAlicious performed by various U.S. drag queens, the song was covered by Hedda Lettuce.
- A dance version was recorded by the group Angeleyes on their album ABBADance.
- Another dance version by Marmic can be found on the compilation Lay All Your Love On ABBA.
- Dance tribute group Abbacadabra released numerous remixes of the song through Almighty Records in the late 1990s.
- As a B-side to their single "Gimme Back My Brain", the Northern Irish rock band Therapy? recorded a cover version.
- A version of the song performed by singer/actress Denise Van Outen was included on the British 1999 Abbamania tribute album. Van Outen was also the host of the ABBAMania TV special. On the subsequent ABBAMania 2 album from 2004 which featured covers performed by various British TV stars, the song was performed by actress Julie Forsyth.
- The famous guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen released a metal version of the song, titled "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (Your Love After Midnight)". The song features the same lyrics, with minor edits, and the same music with a more powerful metal feel. Malmsteen plays an arpeggiated version of the main theme in his version, and has added guitar solos in the instrumental bridge.
- Another heavy metal version of the song is the track by Finnish power/speed metal band Sinergy from the ABBAMetal tribute album.
- A duet version by German heavy metal vocalist Doro Pesch and comedian Dirk Bach was featured on the German ABBA Mania album (released in conjunction with a TV special).
- A cover by Swedish goth metal band Beseech can be found on their 2004 album Souls Highway.
- The song was covered by Swedish metal band Black Ingvars on their 2000 album Kid's Super Hits.
- Swedish musician Nils Landgren included a cover on his tribute album Funky ABBA.
- German alternative band Bananafishbones covered the song with slightly altered lyrics.
- A cover of the song was featured on one of the album compilations for the French edition of the TV reality/singing contest series Star Academy.
- The song is one of the major numbers in the Mamma Mia! musical.
- A looped sample at the end of the chorus before the eight-bar instrumental was used for a song with the same title, by Shana Vanguarde.
- Video of the song being recorded (from Abba's official web site)