Religious ABBA enthusiasts would possibly know the identify, however no longer each and every pop gourmet will know the relevance to the crowd of the nature “Rosalita.” However it’s a part of the tale at the back of the tune that introduced the Voulez-Vous album and used to be launched via the Swedish quartet on January 16, 1979, “Chiquitita.”
Writing and recording classes
The tune, credited to ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, had a number of operating titles, maximum particularly “In The Palms Of Rosalita.” However whilst that word used to be a just right are compatible for the metre of the melody, and the crowd recorded a model with a complete, unique lyric on that theme, one thing wasn’t feeling proper. They transformed the quantity broadly, protecting one of the most unique lyrical references because the tune assumed the identify “Chiquitita,” which means that “little lady” in Spanish.
Finished on the finish of 1978 at their Polar Song Studios, the monitor quickly emerged as the favourite to be the primary unmarried from Voulez-Vous. With a delicate lead vocal via Agnetha Fältskog, it were given the nod ahead of the a lot more upbeat “Does Your Mom Know,” which duly changed into the follow-up. That resolution used to be vindicated as “Chiquitita” was a large unmarried, topping the charts in Belgium, Finland, Eire, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Rhodesia, South Africa, Spain and Switzerland.
Liberate and reception
In the United Kingdom, ABBA had via now accomplished no fewer than seven No.1 singles, however had been in a run of releases that fell wanting that benchmark. Certainly, it will be the summer season of 1980 ahead of they reclaimed the British chart summit, with “The Winner Takes It All.” After debuting at No.8, “Chiquitita” just about made the highest, spending two weeks at No.2 at the back of Blondie’s “Center Of Glass.” In the United States, the place ABBA’s singles shape used to be all the time slightly patchy, it peaked at No.29.
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The tune gained an enormous international release when ABBA carried out it on January 9, every week ahead of its liberate, on the Song For UNICEF charity live performance, which additionally featured the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, Donna Summer time, and different stars. ABBA went directly to donate half of of all royalties from the only’s gross sales to UNICEF.
Spanish language model
The team additionally recorded a model phonetically in Spanish, which offered half of 1,000,000 copies in Argentina on my own. That options at the Spanish language model of the multi-platinum ABBA Gold compilation, now titled Oro: Grandes Éxitos, and which has been reissued on 180g heavyweight black vinyl.
The fortieth anniversary of Voulez-Vous used to be celebrated with a 2LP half-speed mastered reissue, a 7” singles field set and a number of standalone image discs. The reissues can also be purchased right here.
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