BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1979
REQUEST
“Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)”, (working title “Been and Gone and Done It”), is a song by Swedish band ABBA. It was recorded and released in 1979. It appears on ABBA’s Greatest Hits Vol. 2.
“Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” was written and composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, with the lead vocal sung by Agnetha Fältskog. Agnetha, as the narrator, weaves the image of a lonely young woman who longs for a romantic relationship and views her loneliness as a forbidding darkness of night, even drawing parallels to how the happy endings of movie stars are so different from her own existence.
The song was recorded at Polar Music Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, in August 1979, and was ready for release in October of that year, in conjunction with the group’s tour of North America and Europe.
The single version of this song, which was released in its full length of 4:48 everywhere else in the world, was released in the United States and Canada in an edited format, being just 3:39 in length. This was done by removing the first half of the opening instrumental, the first four of the eight bars of the instrumental bridge between the second and final chorus, and fading the song out early. It is believed the edit was done by Atlantic, ABBA’s North American record label, and not Polar, hence the reason why it was available only in the USA and Canada. This single version has never appeared on any commercial CD issued by Polar/Universal to date, and along with the US radio edit of Chiquitita, it marked the only time Atlantic ever commercially released an edited version of an ABBA single while they had the North American rights to release ABBA recordings.
The single was never released by Polar Music in the group’s native Sweden, instead being featured on the “Greatest Hits Vol. 2” album, which did get a Swedish release. While Polar released the single in neighbouring Norway, Denmark, and Finland, copies of these versions were not made available in the Swedish record stores, who thus arranged to import copies of the United Kingdom version on Epic Records. Sales of these imports were sufficient for the single to reach no. 16 on the sales chart in Sweden.
“Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” was another highly successful song for ABBA. It hit no. 1 in Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, and Switzerland, while reaching the Top 3 in Austria, Germany, Great Britain, The Netherlands, and Norway. It also proved to be ABBA’s most successful song in Japan, hitting no. 17.
SIDE A:
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) (Long Version) 4:48
SIDE B:
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) (Short Version) 3:39
VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint (company)
RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Atlantic – 3652
Format: Vinyl, 7″, 45 RPM, Single, Promo
Country: US
Released: 1979
Genre: Pop
Style: Disco
CREDITS:
Engineer – Michael B. Tretow
Mastered By – GP*
Producer, Arranged By, Written-By – Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus*
NOTES:
“PROMOTIONAL COPY NOT FOR SALE”
From the Atlantic LP “Greatest Hits Vol. 2”
Find the 7″ on DISCOGS
EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut Carbon (DC)
Cartridge: Ortofon 2M
Stylus: Ortofon OM Stylus 30
Platter: Pro-Ject Acryl-It platter
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck
Phono Pre-amp: Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Tube: Tung-Sol 12AX7ECC803-S Gold Electron Tube
Soundcard: ESI Juli@
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Scanner
SOFTWARE USED:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator
RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi
