Rahul Sharma (Editor)

Lay All Your Love on Me

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A-side
  
"On and On and On"

Format
  
12"

Length
  
4:32

Released
  
July 1981

Genre
  
Synthpop, europop

Label
  
Polar Music

"Lay All Your Love on Me", is a song recorded by Swedish pop group ABBA in 1980 for their Super Trouper album. It was released only as a 12-inch single in 1981 in limited territories, rather than as a standard 7-inch record. At the time, it was the highest selling 12-inch record in UK chart history, where it peaked at number 7. "Lay All Your Love on Me" appears on the group's ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits collection.

Contents

Slant Magazine placed it at number 60 on their list of the greatest dance songs of all time.

History

"Lay All Your Love on Me" is an electro-disco song penned by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, with Agnetha Fältskog singing lead. Recording began at Polar Music Studios in Stockholm on 9 September 1980, with the final mix of the song being completed on 10 October 1980.

"Lay All Your Love on Me" is known for a descending vocal sound at the end of the verse immediately preceding the refrain. This was achieved by sending the vocal into a harmoniser device, which was set up to produce a slightly lower-pitched version of the vocal. In turn its output was fed back to its input, thereby continually lowering the pitch of the vocal. Andersson and Ulvaeus felt that the chorus of the song sounded like a hymn, so parts of the vocals in the choruses were run through a vocoder, to recreate the sound of a church congregation singing, slightly out of tune. The song was not originally intended to be released as a single, but was issued in 12-inch form in the UK and a few other countries in 1981. "Lay All Your Love on Me" has since been much covered and now features in the Mamma Mia! musical that showcases many of ABBA's hits.

Music video

ABBA did not film a promotional video for "Lay All Your Love on Me", and so Epic hastily assembled a video by using excerpts from the existing ABBA videos for "Take a Chance on Me", "Summer Night City", "The Name of the Game", "I Have a Dream", "Voulez-Vous" and "The Winner Takes It All".

Reception

As "Lay All Your Love on Me" was not intended to be a single, it was not released until 1981, the year after it had been recorded. It was only after a remixed version by Raul A. Rodriguez - (aka C.O.D) of Disconet - had soared in popularity in nightclubs, that it topped the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart (along with "Super Trouper" and "On and On and On"). Therefore, the decision was made to release "Lay All Your Love on Me" in limited territories in 12-inch form, as opposed to the standard 7-inch record. It peaked at No.7 in the UK, becoming ABBA's lowest charting single since "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" in 1975. However, reaching No.7 in the charts was, at the time, the highest charting position achieved for a 12-inch only release in the UK. "Lay All Your Love on Me" also charted in Ireland (No.8), Belgium (No.14) and Germany (No.26).

Personnel

  • Agnetha Fältskog – lead vocals
  • Anni-Frid Lyngstad – vocals
  • Benny Andersson – keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals
  • Björn Ulvaeus - guitar, backing vocals
  • Lasse Wellander - guitar
  • Rutger Gunnarsson – bass
  • Ola Brunkert – drums

    • Information Society version

    "Lay All Your Love on Me" was covered by American techno-pop band Information Society on their 1988 self-titled debut album. The track peaked at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989. It was later included on the compilation ABBA: A Tribute – The 25th Anniversary Celebration.

    Track listing
    1. "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Justin Strauss Remix)
    2. "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Restricted Re-mix)
    3. "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Prohibited Dub)
    4. "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Radio Hot Mix)
    5. "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Phil Harding Metal Mega-Mix)
    6. "Funky at 45"

    Helloween version

    "Lay All Your Love on Me" was covered by Helloween from their Metal Jukebox album. It was released as a single in Japan.

    Single track listing
    Credits
  • Andi Deris – vocals
  • Roland Grapow – lead and rhythm guitars
  • Michael Weikath – lead and rhythm guitars
  • Markus Grosskopf – bass guitar
  • Uli Kusch – drums

    • Other cover versions

  • UK rival ABBA group, Brotherhood of Man recorded a cover version on 20 Disco Greats album.
  • In 1986, a hi-NRG cover by Poison # 9 was released as a dance single in the UK.
  • In 1992, the song was covered on Erasure's Abba-esque EP which topped the UK charts that year.
  • In 1997, the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus recorded a cover of the song on album ExtrABBAganza!.
  • British pop star Cliff Richard recorded his own version of this song and has performed it in live concerts.
  • In 1999, Swedish pop group A-Teens included a cover of the song on The ABBA Generation. Their version omits the final verse of the song.
  • In 1999, British pop group Steps recorded the song for the ABBAmania album and TV special. The subsequent ABBAMania 2 album released in 2004 included a cover by British TV actresses Charlotte Bellamy from Emmerdale and Jane Danson from Coronation Street.
  • An acoustic version was recorded by Swedish singer Michael Michailoff, and released as a single.
  • The song is covered by Yolanda on the compilation Abbalicious, a tribute album performed by American drag queens.
  • Dance covers of the song have been recorded by artists including: Abbacadabra (through Almighty Records), German eurodance group E-Rotic on their 1997 Thank You For The Music tribute album, Housecream (audio sample can be heard here), Ecstatica on the Lay All Your Love On ABBA compilation, Euphorica on their 2003 album ABBA Dance, Abilar featuring Sia for the 2004 compilation Absolute Hitmania, and DJ Ensamble on their 2006 Trancing Queen tribute album.
  • In 2005, Honest Touch recorded a pop orchestral version for their album Memories From A Dream.
  • In June 2006, a dance cover was recorded by Sylver, on their album Crossroads. It was actually recognized as the best song on the CD, and was the first single to be released.
  • In 2007, the song was covered by the symphonic metal music project Avantasia on the EP Lost in Space Part I.
  • In 2008, the song was covered by Susanna and the Magical Orchestra on their album Flower of Evil.
  • Scottish artists Connie Palermo recorded an acoustic cover of the song. An audio sample can be found on their MySpace page.
  • Lebanese indie band Scrambled Eggs recorded an alternative rock cover of the song. An audio sample can be found on their MySpace page.
  • Irish band Ash covered the song in 2012 on the EP Little Infinity

    • Live cover performances

  • The song is sung in the Mamma Mia! musical by the characters of Sky and Sophie. In the context of the musical, the song is used when Sky and Sophie reminisce about how they felt when they met each other and they express how much they love each other. The song is also sung in the film adaptation by Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper.
  • Argentine electropop band Miranda! has performed the song live.
  • Canadian band Woodpigeon performed the song during a live session for the British music magazine PULP. A video of the performance can be seen here.

    • Sampling

  • Yugoslav pop band Zana's verse melody of Dodirni mi kolena sounds similar to the verse melody of Lay All Your Love on Me. That could be a coincidence however, similar to how Lay all your Love on Me's verse melody sounds like The Logical Song.
  • In 2010, the debut single by American alternative rock band The Pretty Reckless, Make Me Wanna Die, featured a reworked intro sample.

    • References

    Lay All Your Love on Me Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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