Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvaeus wrote most of their songs with an eye on the singles charts, including this heavily produced orchestrated track, although it was not marketed as such in the US or UK. The album version runs to 5 minutes 51 seconds, and is the longest ABBA song ever released. There were various radio edits: in Japan, the 1978 single which was released on the Disco Mate label (backed by "Thank You For The Music") ran to 4 minutes 25 seconds and reached only #62 in the chart. The Spanish release, on Carnaby, ran to 3 minutes 36 seconds, and failed to chart. In Holland, it was released on Polydor, ran to 4 minutes 26 seconds, and reached #4.
The theme of the song is similar to that of "Paloma Blanca," "Skyline Pigeon" and countless other songs where birds feature in the title or the lyrics, though "Eagle" had a more specific inspiration. In Bright Lights Dark Shadows: The Real Story of ABBA it is revealed as the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull, of which Björn said: "I was trying to capture the sense of freedom that I got from reading that book."
Although this song could not match the success of the majority of ABBA's hits, it managed to reach the Top 10 in Netherlands and West Germany and topped the charts in Belgium.
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