The Winner's Gonna Take It All: The final...

He/Him
37. - a tie

'...I don't believe in fairytales... Sweet nothings in my ear... But I do believe in sympathy... That's me, you see...'
- Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad in That's Me -

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Frida grinning and bearing it there...

Average: 7.8478
Highest score: 1 * 11.00 - @TrueBeliever
6 *
10.00 - @haps @constantino @Mumty @Gotnomoretosay @tylerc904 @Angeleyes
Lowest score: 2 * 4.00 - @funkyg @dancingwithmyself
My score: 7.00

First up from our tie at #37 is That's Me... And this time it's TrueBeliever who falls victim to losing his 11...

Written and recorded in 1976, the song was first released in August that same year as the b-side to Dancing Queen, one of their signature songs, and was eventually put on the album as the seventh song on the tracklisting. However, it received an official single release in Japan in 1977 (with Money, Money, Money as its b-side) to promote the album over there, reaching the top 75 in the end.

It features the girls singing in harmony throughout and it's another fine example of how good these girls actually sounded together, complimenting each other perfectly.

This is one of Agnetha's favourite songs from their discography and she loved it so much, she actually named the 1998 compilation That's Me - The Greatest Hits after it...
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I never actively seek this song out myself... I don't mind it, but it stops there. Hence the 7 I threw at it.

Anyway, let's get to what you lot had to say about it.

TrueBeliever, sis... You okay? "My favorite ABBA song gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. The girls’ harmonies are top notch here, and Benny’s keyboard work is a jaunty, jangly uplift that I needed in my life through my mom’s 4-year cancer battle and death. This song gave me (and saved) my life while I would have otherwise wallowed in total despair. At one point, I would listen to this song 20 times a day on repeat. I would hope that others love it as much as I do, but I fully expect to the first 11 out … bastards!". Well, it was the third last out, so the rest of us did something right, eh? But on a serious note, I'm very happy this song gave you some extra neeeded help in getting through such a hard time.

tylerc904 absolutely loves this as he states it's "An ode to being tough to love. I can relate.", while P'nutbutter is reminded of other strong women while listening to this, saying it's an "Early ABBA version of Independent Women.".

Screaming "LOVE it!!" is WhatKindOfKylie?, following that with "It's total cheese granted, but who cares. A decent piece of fun Euro Disco, though as a result perhaps would feel much more at home on follow up album, Voulez-Vous.", totally ignoring The Album, yet, who's complaining...?
Speaking of Voulez-Vous, ufint calls this "Disco heaven! I love self-deprecation, and the “Carrie not-the-kind-of-girl-you’d-marry --that’s-me” lyric is brilliant.". Someone who wasn't impressed with the lyrics, but also kinda impressed, is SecretsOfFatima, thinking "Half of the lyrics seem to be there for the sake of rhyming, and that’s what makes it great. Bop.".

Poor ol' Sprockrooster dares to call this "Quite average and the album could have done easily without this.", but here's a few people saying otherwise...
Mumty names it "The album track that could.", while chris4862 thinks this is an "Underrated bop." and VivaForever goes one further and claims it's "Better than its A-side tibb.".

"If Bang-A-Boomerang and Dum Dum Diddle had a child, it would be That’s Me. It’s perhaps a little less sophisticated than the rest of the parent album but I don’t hold that against it, it’s still a great track and when you realise that it's a forgotten track is still incredible, it really dawns on you just how amazing ABBA were." gushes Mikey1701. It's truly heartwarming how much you fucking love them.

bichard thinks this is "One of the few non-singles from Arrival that could have been so (Dum Dum Diddle aside, obvs). Effortlessly euphoric." and after stating "Relegated to a B-side despite being one of the best tracks on Arrival," Hudweiser asks "wouldn't you kill to see F&A doing a sort of Charlston jig to this?". There are no negative answers to that question.

Filippa admits she "Used to like this song more when I was younger. Still a very catchy song!" and CasperFan loves "the opening to this song-that intro is just great", but concluding that that's "the best thing about it really- The verses are good but the chorus is kinda non-existant.", constantino calls this a "a right ’ol toe-tapper, huh? Easily one of my biggest discoveries doing this rate. It’s just hook-after-hook.".

JonBcn simply says "proto Balearic piano motif", so let's listen to it again, shall we?



A music video was shot during filming for their 1976 Australian tv special ABBA-dabba-dooo!!, but it was never actually shown during that special though. Instead, it made its debut a mere seventeen years after it was filmed when it was released on the More ABBA Gold video compilation in 1993. It features outtakes from videos they shot before, with some added close-ups from the girls while they're miming to the song... Mina really didn't like it though, calling it "an odd single. Did they recycle the convertible and engagement ring shots from the Money, Money, Money video? The super close-ups of the ladies' eyes and lips was a bit much.". But that was their thing back then, no?


They also performed the song for their 1978 tv special ABBA in Japan and it features some iconic choreography from a bunch of dancers... One Stop Candy Shop even remembered this one as he says this is "One of my favourites on Arrival. There's a performance of this song for some Japanese tv-show with a lot of dancers.". Here it is!


ABBA tribute band Arrival released a cover of the song on their 1999 album First Flight too.

Seriously though... Who the fuck produced this???
 
It's truly heartwarming how much you fucking love them.

My dear old mother has had such an impact on my life. I can clearly remember her listening to Better The Devil You Know and Cher's cover of The Shoop Shoop Song when I was 2 and a half. Then she steered me towards ABBA as a 10 year old before pointing me back to Kylie as at age 12. We very often joke that she was determined to have a gay son and tried to influence me through exposing me to the gay icons!

I have been a Frida stan for 20 years this year. I was instantly captivated by her voice and her ever changing weaves. With Agnetha, make no mistake I've always loved her but I've only started stanning after I heard I Won't Let You Go on plug and then We Got A Way brutally ripped every follicle from the top of my head.
 
A fun bop, but I believe in my heart that @TrueBeliever gave this an 11 for reasons largely unrelated to the song's relative merits. Gurl, I understand and wonder how many of us have similar life associations with specific Abba songs? Also, I'm sorry about your mother.
 
D

Deleted member 312

So it is "I'm Carrie not the kind of girl you'd marry"?! All these years I've been convinced I was mishearing it, and that it's "I'm clearly not the kind of girl you'd marry"! Good to know the old lugs are in working order.

That's Me got an 8 from me. There are probably other songs that I would have liked to have fallen before it, but top 40's not bad, eh?
 
I had this weird dream that I encountered Agnetha in a car park having a meltdown because the pay machine wouldn't accept her card - turned out the charge was over her limit - so I gave her coins and we drove off in her tiny 60s convertible and found a guy lying on the tarmac who may or may not have been hit by a car. By this point Agnetha had morphed into my Aussie friend Artemis though.

#ABBAsubconcious
 
I had this weird dream that I encountered Agnetha in a car park having a meltdown because the pay machine wouldn't accept her card - turned out the charge was over her limit - so I gave her coins and we drove off in her tiny 60s convertible and found a guy lying on the tarmac who may or may not have been hit by a car. By this point Agnetha had morphed into my Aussie friend Artemis though.

#ABBAsubconcious
Agnetha coming to recreate your dream:
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he/him
I don't understand the hostility directed toward poor "Does Your Mother Know"....could someone enlighten me?

For me it's simply I gave it 4/10 and the rest of the songs left are 7/10+, which has been the case since we were in the 50s.
 
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