Lay All Your Love on Me

Last updated

"Lay All Your Love on Me"
Lay All Your Love On Me.jpg
Single by ABBA
from the album Super Trouper
B-side "On and on and On"
ReleasedJuly 1981
RecordedSeptember–October 1980
Genre Dance-pop [1]
Length4:32
Label Polar Music
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
  • Benny Andersson
  • Björn Ulvaeus
ABBA singles chronology
"Andante, Andante"
(1981)
"Lay All Your Love on Me"
(1981)
"One of Us"
(1981)
Lyric video
"ABBA - Lay All Your Love On Me (Official Lyric Video)" on YouTube
DiscoNet 12" extended remix 1981 Lay All Your Love on Me - 12 in.jpg
DiscoNet 12" extended remix 1981

"Lay All Your Love on Me" is a song recorded by Swedish pop group ABBA for their seventh studio album, Super Trouper (1980). The song was not intended to be a single but after a remixed version gained popularity in nightclubs, it was released as the album's sixth and final single in the summer of 1981 by Polar Music, eight months after the album's release. At the time, it was the highest selling 12-inch record in UK chart history, where it peaked at No. 7. In the US, "Lay All Your Love on Me" reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. In 2006, Slant Magazine ranked it No. 60 in their list of the greatest dance songs of all time, [2] and No. 66 in the updated 2020 list. [3]

Contents

Composition

"Lay All Your Love on Me" is an electro-disco song penned by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, with Agnetha Fältskog singing lead. Recording began at Polar Music Studios in Stockholm on 9 September 1980, with the final mix of the song being completed on 10 October 1980. It is known for a descending vocal sound at the end of the verse immediately preceding the refrain. This was achieved by sending the vocal into a harmoniser device, which was set up to produce a slightly lower-pitched version of the vocal. In turn its output was fed back to its input, thereby continually lowering the pitch of the vocal. Andersson and Ulvaeus felt that the chorus of the song sounded like a hymn, so parts of the vocals in the choruses were run through a vocoder, to recreate the sound of a church congregation singing, slightly out of tune. [4] The song was not originally intended to be released as a single, but was issued in 12-inch form in the UK and a few other countries in 1981. "Lay All Your Love on Me" has since been much covered and is also featured in the Mamma Mia! musical (and its film adaptation), that showcases many of ABBA's hits.

Music video

ABBA did not film a promotional video for "Lay All Your Love on Me", and so Epic hastily assembled a video (at a cost of £3,500) by using excerpts from the existing ABBA videos for "Take a Chance on Me", "Summer Night City", "The Name of the Game", "I Have a Dream", "Voulez-Vous" and "The Winner Takes It All". It was never shown on TV because Epic managers thought it "wasn't needed", but was included on the ABBA Gold VHS. [5]

Chart performance

As "Lay All Your Love on Me" was not intended to be a single, it was not released until 1981, the year after it had been recorded. It was only after a remixed version by Raul A. Rodriguez [6] - (aka C.O.D) of Disconet - had soared in popularity in nightclubs, that it topped the US Hot Dance Club Play chart (along with "Super Trouper" and "On and on and On"). [7] Therefore, the decision was made to release "Lay All Your Love on Me" in limited territories in 12-inch form, as opposed to the standard 7-inch record. It peaked at No. 7 in the UK, becoming ABBA's lowest charting single since "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" in 1975. However, reaching No. 7 in the charts was, at the time, the highest charting position achieved for a 12-inch only release in the UK. "Lay All Your Love on Me" also charted in Ireland (No. 8), Belgium (No. 13) and West Germany (No. 26).

As of September 2021, it is ABBA's 17th-biggest song in the UK, including both pure sales and digital streams. [8]

Legacy

In 2006, Slant Magazine ranked "Lay All Your Love on Me" No. 60 in their list of the greatest dance songs of all time, [9] and No. 66 in the updated 2020 list. [10] In September 2024, Swedish national radio Sveriges Radio P3 ranked it among the world's 300 best songs. [11]

Personnel

Charts

Chart (1981)Peak
position
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders) [12] 13
Ireland (IRMA) [13] 8
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan) [14] 68
UK Singles (OCC) [15] 7
US Dance Club Songs ( Billboard ) [16] 1
West Germany (GfK) [17] 26
Chart (2025)Peak
position
Netherlands (Single Tip) [18] 10

Release history

RegionDateTitleLabelFormatCatalogue
Netherlands,

West Germany

3 Jul 1981"Lay All Your Love On Me" / "On And On And On" Polydor 12-inch vinyl2141 397
UK,

Ireland

13 Jul 1981 Epic EPC A 13 1456
France1981Vogue310922
USA Atlantic 12-inch vinyl, promo DMD 259
BrazilRCA Victor100.8063
Japan"Lay All Your Love On Me" / "Super Trouper"DiscomateDSS-1008
"Lay All Your Love On Me" 7-inch vinyl, promo, single-sidedDSS-11
Netherlands,

West Germany

1988"Lay All Your Love On Me" / "The Day Before You Came" / "Cassandra" / "Under Attack" Polydor CD871 115-2
Europe30 Oct 2020"Lay All Your Love On Me" / "On And On And On"Polar 7-inch vinyl, picture disc 0602508778643
7 Feb 2025"Lay All Your Love On Me" / "I’ve Been Waiting For You" 7-inch vinyl, shaped disc00602475143727
Worldwide14 Feb 2025"Lay All Your Love On Me"Streaming

Certifications

Original version

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Denmark (IFPI Danmark) [19] Gold45,000
Germany (BVMI) [20] Gold300,000
Italy (FIMI) [21]
sales from 2009
Gold50,000
Spain (PROMUSICAE) [22] Gold30,000
United Kingdom (BPI) [23] Platinum600,000

Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Mamma Mia! version

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI) [24] Gold400,000

Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Notable cover versions

Information Society version

"Lay All Your Love on Me"
Lay All Your Love on Me (Information Society single - cover art).jpg
Single by Information Society
from the album Information Society
Released1989
Label Tommy Boy
Songwriter(s)
Information Society singles chronology
"Repetition"
(1989)
"Lay All Your Love on Me"
(1989)
"Think"
(1990)

"Lay All Your Love on Me" was covered by American synth-pop band Information Society on their 1988 first album Information Society . The track peaked at No. 83 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1989. It was later included on the compilation ABBA: A Tribute – The 25th Anniversary Celebration.

Track listing

  1. "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Justin Strauss Remix)
  2. "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Restricted Re-mix)
  3. "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Prohibited Dub)
  4. "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Radio Hot Mix)
  5. "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Phil Harding Metal Mega-Mix)
  6. "Funky at 45"

References

  1. Cox, Jamieson (29 September 2019). "ABBA: Gold: Greatest Hits Album Review". Pitchfork . Retrieved 20 December 2024. ..."Lay All Your Love on Me" and "The Winner Takes It All": cavernous, sprightly, desperate dance-pop confections...
  2. Slant Magazine 100 Greatest Dance Songs
  3. Slant Magazine 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time
  4. Palm, Carl Magnus: ABBA – The Complete Recordings Sessions, page 101. Verulam Publishing Ltd (13 October 1994). ISBN   0-907938-10-8. ISBN   978-0-907938-10-1.
  5. "ABBA on TV".
  6. "Discomusic.com Profile of Raul Rodriguez". Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
  7. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003. Record Research. p. 15.
  8. UK Official Charts ABBA's Official Top 20 biggest songs
  9. Slant Magazine 100 Greatest Dance Songs
  10. Slant Magazine 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time
  11. "P300 – Världens 300 bästa låtar" (in Swedish). Sveriges Radio P3. 19 September 2024. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
  12. "ABBA – Lay All Your Love on Me" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
  13. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – ABBA". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
  14. "ABBA – Lay All Your Love on Me". Singles Top 100. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
  15. "ABBA: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
  16. "ABBA Chart History (Dance Club Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
  17. "Offiziellecharts.de – ABBA – Lay All Your Love on Me" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
  18. "Dutch Single Tip 15/02/2025" (in Dutch). MegaCharts . Retrieved 15 February 2025.
  19. "Danish single certifications – ABBA – Lay All Your Love on Me". IFPI Danmark . Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  20. "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (ABBA; 'Lay All Your Love on Me')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie . Retrieved 10 January 2025.
  21. "Italian single certifications – ABBA – Lay All Your Love on Me" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana . Retrieved 28 September 2024.
  22. "Spanish single certifications – ABBA – Lay All Your Love on Me". El portal de Música. Productores de Música de España . Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  23. "British single certifications – ABBA – Lay All Your Love on Me". British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  24. "British single certifications – Original Cast Recording – Lay All Your Love on Me". British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved 26 February 2021.