A-side "Voulez-Vous" Format Single Length 4:20 | Released 2 July 1979 Genre Disco, pop | |
Recorded 26 October 1978 at Polar Music Studio | ||
"Angeleyes" (also known as "Angel Eyes") is a pop song written and recorded in 1978 by Swedish group ABBA. Released as a double A-side with "Voulez-Vous" in 1979, coming from the album of the same name, the lyrics and music were composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. It is known as one of ABBA's most popular tracks in the United Kingdom, becoming a Top 40 hit that peaked at the country's number three spot.
Contents
Lyrically, the track is a sentimental ballad in which the protagonist beseeches women to avoid the deceptively innocent looking gaze of a handsome yet deceitful man, warning them to beware the "game he likes to play". The vocals came from Ulvaeus with Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The main working title for the song was "Katakusom". Over the years, it has appeared in various musical collections such as The Definitive Collection (2001) and The Albums (2008).
History
In the United Kingdom, "Angeleyes" was released as a double A-side with "Voulez-Vous". This being an unusual move for the group, ABBA and the personnel at Epic, the group's British record label, believed that with its classic ABBA arrangement "Angeleyes" would be considerably popular with the record buying public.
"Angeleyes" has been a part of numerous ABBA compilations over the years. Examples include More ABBA Gold: More ABBA Hits (1993) and The Definitive Collection (2001), as well as the 1994 four-CD boxed set Thank You for the Music. It also appeared on the group's 1979 'Greatest Hits Volume 2' album.
A planned version of "Angeleyes" in Spanish remains unrecorded.
No promotional video for the track was made. As ABBA had filmed one for "Voulez-Vous", it was this that was used to promote the AA side single.
The "Angeleyes"/"Voulez-Vous" single was the first ABBA single in the UK to feature a picture sleeve, although ABBA had previously issued picture sleeves in other countries. All of Epic's previous ABBA UK single releases were issued in plain company sleeves, which were yellow until 1976 when they changed to orange during a revision of Epic's label design. The single was also issued in several different colours of vinyl, and marked a change in Epic's presentation of their then most profitable act.
Reception and reviews
The double A-side peaked at number three in the UK.
A notable coincidence occurred in which, at around the same time, the British art rock group Roxy Music released an unrelated song named "Angel Eyes". That track was composed by musicians Bryan Ferry and Andy Mackay. The two songs possess some lyrical similarities although the Roxy Music piece features a bouncier, more upbeat reminiscent of contemporary pop rock; both ended up becoming major UK hits almost contemporaneously.
In the United States, the individual "Angeleyes" single received some interest yet ultimately failed to climb that high in the charts, only scraping into the top 70 in October 1979. "Voulez-Vous" fared more poorly the month before, just making it into the top 80. Compared to expectations, the songs' parent album only performed modestly in the US.
In critical terms, when the track was featured on the BBC's popular TV series Juke Box Jury, the panel (which featured Alan Freeman, Johnny Rotten, Joan Collins and Elaine Paige) unanimously voted the song a "miss", predicting that it would not be a hit for the group. Oddly enough, only "Angeleyes" was mentioned on the show, with no reference made to "Voulez-Vous". A retrospective review of the Voulez-Vous album by AllMusic critic Bruce Eder gave "Angeleyes" a citation as an 'Album Pick' while praising the work as a whole.