Knowing Me, Knowing You
by ABBA

Album: Arrival (1976)
Charted: 1 14
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  • No more carefree laughter
    Silence ever after
    Walking through an empty house
    Tears in my eyes
    This is where the story ends
    This is goodbye

    Knowing me, knowing you (a-ha)
    There is nothing we can do
    Knowing me, knowing you (a-ha)
    We just have to face it
    This time we're through
    Breaking up is never easy, I know
    But I have to go
    Knowing me, knowing you
    It's the best I can do

    Memories, good days, bad days
    They'll be with me always
    In these old familiar rooms
    Children would play
    Now there's only emptiness
    Nothing to say

    Knowing me, knowing you (a-ha)
    There is nothing we can do
    Knowing me, knowing you (a-ha)
    We just have to face it
    This time we're through
    Breaking up is never easy, I know
    But I have to go
    Knowing me, knowing you
    It's the best I can do

    Knowing me, knowing you (a-ha)
    There is nothing we can do
    Knowing me, knowing you (a-ha)
    We just have to face it
    This time we're through
    Breaking up is never easy, I know
    But I have to go
    Knowing me, knowing you
    It's the best I can do Writer/s: Benny Goran Bror Andersson, Bjoern K. Ulvaeus, Stig Erik Leopold Anderson
    Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 15

  • Tshioma from Shayandima , Limpopo Province , South AfricaPainful truth !
  • Rabbi Meyer from Central WisconsinThe ultimate Swedish break-up song!
  • Seventhmist from 7th HeavenThe notes are correct that this was a turning point, being a darker song than anything they had previously released.
  • Khalid from NigeriaI was stuck on the lyrics for days. ABBA, eccentric!
  • Tc from Uk'Walking through an empty house, tears in my eyes'.
    So sad, so simply genius!
  • Scott from Halifax, NsThe great Elvis Costello used to perform Knowing Me, Knowing You in concert and he has called it the best song ever written about divorce.
  • Dane from Green Cove Springs Fla., FlA harmony masterpiece.Very complex.Yet another song I've always loved.
  • Peterm from Birmingham, United KingdomMarried in '76, so the lyrics not really relevant to us at the time....but a good song anyway.
  • Gerry from Swindon, United KingdomThis song haunts me even now some 33 years later I split with my first girfriend in 77 and for the first time in my life I knew how love could actually hurt. She was back a week or two later and we actually kept going unti 1983. But the melody is so perfectly haunting
  • Guy from Woodinville, WaLove the poignancy of this song. "In these old familiar rooms, children would play..." And the great background vocals dancing about--very sophisticated, like something the Beatles would take on.
  • Kate from Austin , TxI love how Abba stands still in all of their videos and live appearances and look so focused on their music. If you never saw any videos you would never know they seem to be really concentrating hard. I love Abba...
  • Martin from London, United KingdomDespite the song's subject, it is not autobiographical in any sense, as the two couples in ABBA were still happily married at this point (early 1977). Agnetha and Björn did not get divorced until 1979. Now, The Winner Takes It All was certainly based on the experiences of divorce.
  • Jerro from New Alexandria, PaTo Guy: you made a small error. Agnetha was married to Björn, not Benny. Despite your error on who was married to who, I do understand your point.
  • Guy from Wellington, New ZealandBelieve it or not my understanding is that this was actually written by ABBA about the breakup of Agnetha and Benny. Incredible to think that they could maintain sufficient distance on the personal stuff as they wrote and recorded the song. It seems much more gut wrenching in this respect than the 'your fault, no, your fault' songs in Rumours (Fleetwood Mac).
  • David from Flushing, MiMarshall Crenshaw does a great and very faithful version of this song on his live album My Truck is my Home. It is clear that he is an ABBA fan.
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