On ABBA’s first two studio albums, Benny and Björn featured almost as prominently on vocals as Agnetha and Frida – it was clear that the influences of the ‘Björn and Benny’ duo had yet to fully wear off. However, by the time that the ‘ABBA’ album was being recorded, the group had realised that Agnetha and Frida were extremely talented vocalists, and they needed to take advantage of that as much as possible. Thus, the boys’ vocal contributions were significantly downplayed. However, there was still the occasional lead vocal from Björn, a prominent example of which would be “Rock Me”.
As the title suggests, the song had a heavy rock influence, but was nonetheless still profoundly ‘Europop’. However, what was even more noticeable was Björn’s downright vicious lead vocal coupled with extremely raunchy lyrics. The girls’ backing vocals, are similarly violent, and the whole track has a strange sense of ‘power’ over it not seen regularly on ABBA’s records. It was clearly an experimental sound on ABBA’s part, and in fact if the casual ABBA fan heard this song, they’d probably be surprised that the group would ever record a song like this. With lyrics like “Gonna be, gonna be, nice and gentle if you want me to” and “I can teach you how to rock alright”, it’s made explicit exactly what he wants to do with her.
In most countries, the song was the B-side to ABBA’s successful “I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do” single. In Australia, which had just become caught up in ‘ABBAmania’, this single had stayed at no.1 for three weeks, and so the decision was made to flip the single over and release “Rock Me” in Oceania as well. In other words, the exact same single which had already been a chart-topper was re-released, but with the A-side and B-side being switched. It was a very clear and obvious marketing ploy to capitalise on ABBA’s sudden surge in popularity.
At any rate, their plan worked perfectly. Soon enough, the song had become a chart hit in both Australia and New Zealand, peaking at no.4 and no.2 respectively. In the former country, the song ended up being the 14th best-selling single of 1976 (“I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do” had already been the 13th best-selling single of 1975). Whilst the track’s strength is up for debate (it has its merits, but it doesn’t have that ABBA ‘magic’ that permeates many of their best hits), it was clear evidence that Australia wanted more ABBA. Indeed, every single released there up until 1977 would end up being a huge hit. As such, “Rock Me” was perhaps a bigger hit than it warranted.
Matthew Hardy - I am a confident, determined and eager young writer, constantly improving my writing techniques, and I am very happy to be sharing my ...
Join the Conversation