Head over Heels (ABBA song)


"Head Over Heels" is a 1981 song recorded by Swedish pop group ABBA, released as a single the following year. The song is the second track from their eighth studio album, The Visitors.

History

"Head Over Heels", whose working title was "Tango", was written and composed by both Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Agnetha Fältskog sang the lead vocals, singing about her "very good friend," played in the music video by Anni-Frid Lyngstad, an overactive high-society woman who rushes through the shops, with her hapless and exhausted husband following behind and being forced to carry the shopping bags. The song's video, filmed on January 21, 1982, was the group's final clip directed by long-time collaborator Lasse Hallström, who cameos as a man the woman bumps into while running around the city.
As with the previous single "One of Us", Epic Records in the UK used a different picture sleeve from the standard one used in most countries.
The single itself was not released in the United States; it was accompanied as the B-side to another single "The Visitors" instead.
The sheet music has been released, and the song has been choreographed for dance numbers.

Reception

"Head Over Heels" was not a successful chart hit; the release came as the group's popularity was declining, and became ABBA's worst selling single since "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do", seven years earlier. It only managed to chart as high as #25 in the UK, breaking a run of 18 consecutive Top 10 hits. This 18-hit run had equaled that of The Beatles, who had consecutive Top 10 hits from 1964 to 1976, broken by "Back in the U.S.S.R.". Although "Head Over Heels" did experience Top 10 success in Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and France, by this time, ABBA's chart domination was all but over, and the group effectively disbanded a year later. The track was excluded from their retrospective double LP , which was released later in 1982.

Personnel

Cover versions