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

V

VivaForever

she/her
I would say "well done everyone" but clearly that would be a lie because the only way this could be considered "well done" would be if it had gone out first. Nonetheless it's good to see the back of it... to say the least.

Now, Nina and Love Isn't Easy to sashay away next, please.
 
SecretsOfFatima

SecretsOfFatima

VivaForever said:
I would say "well done everyone" but clearly that would be a lie because the only way this could be considered "well done" would be if it had gone out first. Nonetheless it's good to see the back of it... to say the least.

Now, Nina and Love Isn't Easy to sashay away next, please.
Click to expand...
Not while Rock n Roll Band remains...
 
Remorque

Remorque

He/Him
94.

'Now we can make a jungle out of any old place... We can make gorillas out of people, yeah! Well, who can tell a monkey from a monkey...'
- Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad in King Kong Song -

abba-honey-honey-vogue.jpg

Those dots actually say a lot, don't they..........

Average: 4.0652
Highest score: 1 * 10.00 - @Remorque (oh, come on...)
Lowest score: 6 * 0.00 - @One Stop Candy Shop @Filippa @idratherjack @DJHazey @WhatKindOfKylie? @CasperFan
My score: 10.00 (ddddddd)

Before I get dragged to the high heavens, hear me out. Okay, gurls?

King Kong Song was a record that was played a lot at my house when I was a kid. My mother would make time in her schedule for me, because she never actually saw me during the week and on Sundays she would play records and dance around with me. It either was the beginning of my love of pop music or the beginning of me being a big 'mo. wejustdontknow.gif

The song just has this child-like quality to it that makes you jump around and act aloof. The fact that all four of them sound like they're having a lot of fun recording this, just tips it over the edge for me. Benny hitting that piano as if his life depended on it, Björn sounding possessed with the spirit of bands like Sweet and T. Rex and the girls giving it their all and shouting their lungs out. I fucking love the screaming parts as you can hear Frida first, but then Agnetha takes it home.

It's the third track on Waterloo and our first cut to be taken from that album. It eventually reached a wider public, being released as the b-side to Honey, Honey.
In 1977 though, it was released as a single in Australia to tie in with the re-release of the 1976 movie version of King Kong, starring queen Jessica Lange. Before that, it was actually released over there as the b-side to I've Been Waiting for You.
But more on those songs a bit later, eh.

I gave it a 10, yes, but it received the highest number of 0's (tied with I Saw It in the Mirror) and I saw this tumbling down the leaderboard with every single set of scores I put in. Yes, you really did that.

Let's start with Mikey1701 who makes it short, but not so sweet, saying "ABBA meets the Beach Boys and I’m not here for it. No ma’am."... The Beach Boys is what you get from this? I'd definitely think of other, more glam rock bands from the '70s, but do you... CasperFan kinda gets it: "ABBA does Status Quo (not very well)."... Well, he kinda gets it. P'nutbutter's with them, but I actually get where he's coming from: "What a mess, Benny and Bjorn still attempting that rock career." They've admitted in the past that for the first three records they were trying to be a rock band, but also acknowledged that it never really worked.

TrueBeliever has the same kind of story I have with it, "Much more enjoyable than it should be. I have a vivid memory of this song as a kid. I must have liked dancing around like an ape. Has a very Sha-Na-Na feel to it." Exactly!

idratherjack is still feeling ha Ring Ring oats whilst listening to this and says "Dire. I can't even make it halfway throught this before skipping.", but VivaForever actually acknowledges it's a bit better than a lot of the first album, telling us "Oh my Lord this is bad. But again, at least it's better than the first album. I can imagine what it would have sounded like on that album and it is NOT pretty.". Oh.
Speaking of the Lord, here's Filippa again... "Oh my god²…"... Well, I for one think Frida does sound glorious on this.

Both of these next voters bring up someone that calls for Mariah's iconic idontknowher.gif... First up, it's bichard who asks "Elton...is that you?" and next we have kalonite who admits "Keeps making me think I'm listening to Saturday by Elton John. Confusing. Mess."... I can now totally see where both of you are coming from. Elton wishes he could shout as gloriously as Anna and Frida theaux.

Sprockrooster only gives this a 6 and I'm still shook. "Screaming a bit at this title, but one would expect a less soft song with a title like this. Not sure if King Kong deserved this."... Well, the poor monkey didn't deserve to die either, but he did. He did.
And let's pretend ufint's thinking about the film too and not something else (my dirty mind wanders...) when he says "It smashes my tower in all the wrong ways." Uhu.

Some of you didn't like the song for certain aspects of it, with WhatKindOfKylie? wanting his pop music a bit more sereen ("What kind of noisy racket is this?! Way too shouty for my liking."), constantino actually starting to grow up with us ("This veers a little too far into the region of ‘kidz bop’ for my liking…") and Mina being utterly confused ("Puzzling, not in a good way.").
You're all wrong.

Hudweiser thanks his lucky monkeys they weren't writing about another tragedy, saying "Let's just be thankful they weren't watching Schindlers List on TV instead. I love the guitar/keyboard combo that drives the song though, and the girls shriek for it (is it just Frida in the second verse?)". The song features the girls singing in usison all the time, but you can distinctly hear them apart during the shouting.

And now... Some commentary from people that were actually on my side. tylerc904 could be talking about me ("Utterly bonkers but I ADORE it."), for chris 4862 this was a nice little discovery ("Unexpected bop - I am *still* bopping!") and SecretsOfFatima imagines how their manager's reaction was when he was first presented the song ("I kind of love it, if only for how wacky it is. I can imagine Stig’s reaction to them submitting a song about a fictional gorilla. Iconic, versatile, innovative legends. The idea of trying to recreate the background “vocals” in the chorus in a live setting also amuses me.").
You're all correct.

We'll end with Baby Clyde who's puzzled... "It’s really hard to believe these are the same people that wrote The Winner Takes It All"...
Well, they did, sis. They did.



And here's a rare live recording from 1974:
​
 
DJHazey

DJHazey

he/him
It's about time I'm tagged for being low scorer! Shocked that you're high scorer @Remorque but after reading the writeup, I completely understand. It's sort of like what I was saying about my ability to not mind the "dad rock" songs in the rate.
 
tylerc

tylerc

Aww King Kong Song is a bonkers bop. I feel like we're almost at the point where I like everything that will be eliminated. The last two stinkers for me won't be out for a while (I Have a Dream and I Wonder) so let me hope for these instead:

Gonna Sing You My Love Song
Sitting In A Palmtree
Intermezzo
Tropical Loveland
 
idratherjack

idratherjack

Not much more dross to get through now luckily. Think I have another 3 or 4 zeroes then we get to the good stuff.

This will be an unusual rate in that almost every song from the Top 80 or so onwards is at least good and after the Top 40 every single cut is going to hurt.

I can't wait to see the average of the Top 20 songs, bet it's crazy high like every song above an 8 or 9.
 
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