Happy New Year

This was one of several songs on Super Trouper written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus during a working holiday in Barbados. The song actually started life as an idea for a musical. The plot was to be centered around a New Year's Eve, a thought that got into Björn and Benny's heads on a plane over to the island. They ran into the comedian John Cleese at the holiday resort and asked him if he would be interested in writing a manuscript. When Cleese turned them down, the idea was abandoned.

This wasn't released as a single until 1999 when it reached #4 in Sweden and #8 in The Netherlands. The song was re-released in 2008 and it again peaked at #4 in Sweden, as well as #5 in Norway and #14 in Denmark.

Swedish pop group A-Teens covered the song in 2000 peaking at, yep, #4 on the Swedish chart as well as #12 in Finland.