DESCRIPTION:
Super Trouper - the song about spotlights!
This performance of Super Trouper was recorded on November 27 1980 in Stockholm and broadcast live by satellite on Show Express, a West German tv show. It was originally planned for Abba to record the show in Germany. This trip was cancelled after kidnap threats against the group and their children were received. Rather than missing out, Show Express came to Abba instead! Abba performed three songs to playback for the show: The Winner Takes It All, Super Trouper and On And On And On.
Super Trouper was recorded on October 3 1980 and was released as a single and the opening track of Abba's 7th album "Super Trouper" on November 3 1980. Super Trouper gave Abba their 9th and final #1 for 3 weeks in the UK. Top 10 positions were: Austria #3, Belgium #1, Finland #5, France #4, Holland #1, Ireland #1, Mexico #3, Norway #2, Spain #8, Switzerland #3, UK #1, West Germany #1.
Bjorn recalls: "We had already decided to call the album Super Trouper because we'd been on tour and had used these huge coloured spotlights called 'super troupers' which we thought would make a good name for the album. And then we listened to the album and thought 'It needs something more, it needs another song'. So it was a song that we wrote in the studio, the only time that ever happened. The title of the album fitted completely with the chorus we had written, but it was very difficult to build a story around that title. To write a song about a spotlight was not easy. I had met my wife Lena at that point and Abba had been on tour ealier in the year, so I was inspired from that. I thought the only way here was to write something about someone who was on tour, since Super Trouper is the title. And then I could only think of me out there on the road longing for her, and what a difference its going to make if she's in the audience and the spotlight hits me. I even managed to get a rhyme out of Glasgow. Tim Rice told me it was probably the only time the word Glasgow had been rhymed with in a pop song!"
Album and single cover designer Rune Söderqvist recalls "First we had the idea to shoot on Piccadilly Circus with a real circus around, with animals and artists. We had arranged that but we had to stop because the police said 'This is not the centre of London, this is the centre of the universe. You are not allowed to use animals and wear funny clothes!' So we had to stop the project and we decided to shoot in Stockholm." There were about 20 circus artists including clowns, jugglers, acrobats and fire-eaters taking part. Friends and acquaintances of the group and Polar employees appeared as extras, and were instructed to dress up in various festive costumes and to apply heavy make-up. There were also two white horses, a donkey and two poodles. A second circus troupe stormed off the Europa Film Studio premises, as they were enemies of the first!
Tim Rice said "Super Trouper sounds like a simple pop song, but it paints a good picture of a pop star who has the confidence to say 'I'm at the top of the tree and I'm not happy.' Bjorn's life is in those lyrics."

Super Trouper
Beams are gonna blind me
But I won't feel blue like I always do
'Cause somewhere in the crowd there's you

I was sick and tired of everything
When I called you last night from Glasgow
All I do is eat and sleep and sing
Wishing every show was the last show
So imagine I was glad to hear you're coming
Suddenly I feel alright and it's gonna be
So different when I'm on the stage tonight

Tonight the Super Trouper
Lights are gonna find me
Shining like the sun
Smiling having fun
Feeling like a number one
Tonight the Super Trouper
Beams are gonna blind me
But I won't feel blue like I always do
'Cause somewhere in the crowd there's you

Facing twenty thousand of your friends
How can anyone be so lonely
Part of a success that never ends
Still I'm thinking about you only
There are moments
When I think I'm going crazy
But it's gonna be alright
Everything will be so different
When I'm on the stage tonight

Tonight the Super Trouper
Lights are gonna find me
Shining like the sun
Smiling having fun
Feeling like a number one
Tonight the Super Trouper
Beams are gonna blind me
But I won't feel blue like I always do
'Cause somewhere in the crowd there's you

So I'll be there when you arrive
The sight of you will prove to me
I'm still alive and when you take
Me in your arms and hold me tight
I know it's gonna mean so much tonight

Tonight the Super Trouper
Lights are gonna find me
Shining like the sun
Smiling having fun
Feeling like a number one
Tonight the Super Trouper
Beams are gonna blind me
But I won't feel blue like I always do
'Cause somewhere in the crowd there's you

Super Trouper
Lights are gonna find me
Shining like the sun
Smiling having fun
Feeling like a number one
Super Trouper
Beams are gonna blind me
But I won't feel blue like I always do...