Eagle (ABBA song)

"Eagle" is a song recorded in 1977 by Swedish pop group ABBA. It was the opening track on their fifth studio album, ABBA: The Album (1978), and at 5 minutes 51 seconds, the longest they ever released. As the third and final official single from the album, it was issued in a limited number of territories. These did not include the United States, where an intended release was cancelled, or United Kingdom.

History
"Eagle" was written and composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, who provided its music and its lyrics respectively, as a kind of tribute to a band that the two men admired at the time, the Eagles. The recording, which commenced on 1 June 1977, had the working titles of "High, High" and "The Eagle." Ulvaeus said that with the lyrics, he was "trying to capture the sense of freedom and euphoria" that he got from reading Richard Bach's 1970 novella Jonathan Livingston Seagull. In later years, music critics have hailed "Eagle" as one of ABBA's more outstanding tracks in terms of lyrics.

The track inspired the introduction to the 1981 song "Don't You Want Me" by the Human League.

Reception
"Eagle" was not a major chart success. The major reason was that the song was already available on ABBA: The Album;. Another was the limited release only in selected areas. It was for instance withdrawn as a single in the United States. To make the song more radio-friendly it was heavily edited down from 5:51 to 4:25 by omitting an instrumental break and the third chorus. In some countries like Australia, France, Spain, South Africa and Scandinavia it got a further edit, with the song fading shortly after the 2nd chorus making it last just 3:33, 2:18 shorter than the album version.

The single was released on 18 May 1978 to fill the gap between the previous single, "Take a Chance on Me" and the next, a completely new track, eventually titled "Summer Night City." The B-side of "Eagle," "Thank You for the Music", was later released as a single outright in a few countries after the group had disbanded, namely in the UK, where "Eagle" had not been released as a single.

Music video
The single was promoted with a music video directed by Lasse Hallström. The track was inserted into ABBA: The Movie as a fantasy sequence, created using an effects machine caused a "flutter box" which had been developed for the 1978 film Superman.

1999 re-edit
The original 4:25 single edit was issued on CD for the first time in 1993 on the compilation More ABBA Gold: More ABBA Hits. However, for the 1999 re-release of this album, plus subsequent releases, a new version based on the 1980 edit was created. Unfortunately, this edit left out a vital instrumental-only section at the end of the second chorus prior to the closing instrumental, thereby sounding disjointed. The original edit—or at least an exact re-creation of it—was finally issued again on the deluxe version of ABBA: The Album in 2009.

Personnel
ABBA
 * Agnetha Fältskog – lead and backing vocals
 * Anni-Frid Lyngstad – lead and backing vocals
 * Björn Ulvaeus – backing vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar
 * Benny Andersson – backing vocals, keyboards
 * Additional personnel and production staff
 * Janne Schaffer – lead guitar
 * Lasse Wellander – lead guitar
 * Rutger Gunnarsson – bass
 * Ola Brunkert – drums
 * Malando Gassama – percussion

Cover versions

 * The Swedish ragga/dancehall artist Papa Dee recorded a cover of the song for the 1992 compilation ABBA: The Tribute.
 * The English punk rock band Leatherface released a cover of the song as a single in 1992.
 * The song was covered by ABBA tribute pop group Arrival on their 1999 album First Flight.
 * The American Christian heavy metal musician Rob Rock recorded a rendition of the song for his 2000 album Rage of Creation.
 * The song was covered by the German heavy metal band Sargant Fury on their 1993 album Little Fish and also included on the 2001 tribute album ABBAMetal, which was also released as A Tribute to ABBA.
 * The Finnish rock band YUP included a cover of the song as a hidden track on their 2001 greatest hits compilation Hajota ja hallitse 1993–2001.
 * The American indie-gospel band Danielson recorded a cover version on their 2009 7-inch single, "Moment Soakers."
 * The Australian electronic music artist montage collective (ex Static Icon) covered the song with the vocals by English artist Maxx Silver for his project “Androgyny II” (2022).

Appearances in other media

 * The original ABBA recording features in the film ABBA: The Movie, which was released in 1977.