"Rock'n Roll Band" is a song originally released by Björn & Benny as the B-Side to their final single released in Japan, "Love Has Its Ways". The following year, the song was re-recorded by

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

pop group

ABBA ABBA ( ) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the List ...

(then credited as "Björn & Benny with Anna & Frida") for their debut album ''Ring Ring''.

Background

The previous Björn & Benny single released in Japan " En Carousel" did not repeat the success of " She’s My Kind Of Girl" in Japan. The representatives of the Japanese record company thought that they should contribute a Japanese melody for the duo to record, more akin to "She’s My Kind Of Girl". By autumn 1972, the duo recorded "Love Has Its Ways" and "Rock’n Roll Band". The single did not become a major hit. Around the time of the release, Björn & Benny gave more of a focus towards recording an English-language album LP together as " Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida". A slightly longer version of "Rock'n Roll Band" with vocals by

Agnetha Fältskog Agneta Åse "Agnetha" Fältskog (; born 5 April 1950) is a Swedish singer, songwriter, and a former member of the pop group ABBA. She first achieved success in Sweden with the release of her 1968 Agnetha Fältskog (album), self-titled debut alb ...

and Frida Lyngstad was recorded and included on "Ring Ring". The Benny & Björn version was later released on the remastered version of '' Lycka'' in 2005. Polar had not kept copies of the master tapes for "Love Has Its Ways" and the original version of "Rock'n Roll Band" by Bjorn & Benny. By the mid-1980s,

Sony Music Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is opera ...

(formerly

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

) junked the tapes of the Björn & Benny singles released in Japan when the licence for the recordings expired. The recordings had to be mastered from vinyl.

ABBA version

The ABBA version was the closing track of the debut album Ring Ring originally released in March 1973, but released as a B-side to the English version of Ring Ring in several countries including Germany, France and The Netherlands in May 1973. The song was released in the US in July 1973 as their third single on

Playboy Records Playboy Records was an American record label, based in Los Angeles, California, and a unit of Playboy Enterprises. Artists recording for the label included Al Wilson, Barbi Benton, Blue Ash, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, The Weapons of Peac ...

, credited to "Björn & Benny with Anna & Frieda" (with an 'E' added to Frida). The flip side was the previous single, "

Another Town, Another Train "Another Town, Another Train" is a song recorded by Swedish pop group ABBA at KMH Studios. The song was released as a 7" vinyl single in Japan in March 1973 to promote the group's debut album '' Ring Ring''; the single was also released with t ...

". The '' Ring Ring'' album was not released in the United States until 1995. In the UK, it was released as the B-side to " Ring Ring" when issued in October 1973 and when re-issued in June 1974. As in the US, the ''Ring Ring'' album was not released, so these two tracks were the only ones from the album to be released in the UK until more were included in ''

Greatest Hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be creat ...

'' in 1976. "Rock'n Roll Band" unavailable on an album in the UK until ''Ring Ring'' was eventually released in 1992. South Africa and Rhodesia released it as the B-side to "

" on the Sunshine label in February 1974. The song was the first ABBA song to include ABBA drummer Roger Palm. Guitarist Jane Schaffer had played the guitars for this song and when asked what the most guitar-heavy tracks he recorded with ABBA, three songs came to his mind: "Rock’n Roll Band", " Watch Out" and "

King Kong Song "King Kong Song" (working title "Mr. Sex"), written and composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, is the name of a 1974 recording by Swedish pop group ABBA, included on their album '' Waterloo''. The songwriters later considered it one of t ...

", after being inspired by listening to Deep Purple.

The Big Takeover ''The Big Takeover'' is a bi-annual music magazine published in New York City since May 1980 by critic Jack Rabid. History Establishment Jack Rabid and Dave Stein began publishing ''The Big Takeover'' in May 1980 as a fanzine dedicated to New ...

describes the song as a “lightweight escapist fun but carried musical bite akin to other lushly arranged pop-rock combos like Electric Light Orchestra”.

Release history

References

External links

* 1973 singles ABBA songs Songs about rock music Songs written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus Playboy Records singles {{1970s-single-stub