29 November 1980
Granted, it’s not as pretentiously awful as Sting’s “Nabokov” and “shake and cough” from a few weeks back, and to be fair it’s not their native language either. Still, listening to ‘Super Trouper’ always requires me to first overcome the pretty rotten contrivance of “Glasgow” being rhymed with “last show”.
There’s more yet on the debit side. ‘Super Trouper’ is another of Bjorn and Benny’s then-nudgings of ABBA towards self-referential stage musical numbers, which means it also counts as that dreaded thing: a song about how awful it is to be touring the world by jet and limo as pop superstars. The verses are fairly cornball, both lyrically and melodically.
But honestly, those are the last nits I’ll pick, because what elevates ‘Super Trouper’ almost (but not quite) to top-tier ABBA status is that fantastic chorus. ‘Super Trouper’ is such an obviously catchy title and hook that I’m astounded none of the zillion other bands who spent their nights looking up at said brand of spotlight ever thought of it, the dullards. The jolly backing vocal of “Su-per-per! Trou-per-per!” harks back to the equally su-per-per “Take-a chance, take-a chance, take-a take-a chan-chance!” And the twin strike force of Frida and Agnetha nail that triumphant “Feeling like a number one!” in a glorious pop moment worthy of ‘Waterloo’ or ‘Dancing Queen’. Then they repeat all of the above a few more times for our pleasure; job done.
In a year when brilliant UK chart toppers like ‘Atomic’, ‘Going Underground’ and ‘Ashes To Ashes’ didn’t do likewise in Ireland, ‘Super Trouper’ is looking like the best Irish number one of 1980, and I can’t damn it with fainter praise than that. But there’s still the Christmas runners and riders to come, so who knows? Bet you can’t wait!
