Under Attack
by ABBA

Album: The Singles - The First Ten Years (1982)
Charted: 26
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Songfacts®:

  • This was the last single ABBA released. However, it didn't prove very popular apart from in Belgium and The Netherlands, where it reached the Top 5. It failed to reach the UK Top 20, and it did not become a hit anywhere else. In Australia where ABBA had been as popular as the Beatles, it limped to #96.
  • The paranoid lyrics appear to be about a stalker, and as with almost all of ABBA's later singles, Agnetha was the lead singer. The lyrics later became close to reality for Agnetha, who had stalker problems almost 20 years later with an ex-boyfriend.
  • Though not a hit at the time, the song's nightmarish feel would later be used effectively in the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!.
  • Part of the song was originally part of "Rubber Ball Man," a 1979 reject as Benny and Bjorn never got a good lyric for it. "Rubber Ball Man" does appear on the Thank You for The Music box set. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England, for all above

Comments: 1

  • Seventhmist from 7th HeavenUnderexposed and underappreciated song. One thing I always liked was how the synth-drenched chorus sings some of the lines before Agnetha does (Heart's "These Dreams" followed that formula a few years later.). But pretty haunting how this song became reality for her when an obsessed fan made her life a living hell for a while.
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