ABBA's manager Stig Anderson would often come up with titles that musicians Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson would write lyrics around, and this is an example of that workflow. The phrase "Mamma Mia" is an Italian saying that literally means "My Mother" and is used to express surprise.
In a great example of lyrical dissonance, this infectiously catchy tune contains very sad lyrics dealing with heartbreak and the pain of letting someone go who you wish you could have back. This attention to lyrics (at least the English ones) was new for ABBA. Bjorn Ulvaeus explained: "In the beginning lyrics were a sort of necessary evil for us, just something you had to have to sing, usually it was about looking out for a hookline and then building something around that. But by the third album, when my grasp of English had got much better because we'd traveled a lot, I began to think that it would be fun to say something as well, and that people would listen to what we sang."
Owing to a Musician's Union ruling, ABBA were forced to perform the song live on Top Of The Pops when it hit #1, the only time they appeared live on the show.
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