Songoftheday 3/27/13 - I don't wanna stay here but I can't leave, I'm in a spell on the magic you weave...

Agnetha Faltskog - "Can't Shake Loose"
from the album Wrap Your Arms Around Me (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #29 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 5

Today's Song of the Day is from the second former member of ABBA to have a hit apart from the group, Agnetha Faltskog (one of the "A"s in ABBA). Before she joined the worldwide pop phenomenon, Agnetha was a successful pop singer in her native Sweden already, with a bunch of local hits started out with "Jag var så kär" ("I Was So In Love") back in 1967 (when she was just 17).

As one of the two leading ladies in ABBA, Faltskog enjoyed one of the biggest success stories in pop music of the 70s, climaxed by their #1 US hit "Dancing Queen" in 1976. After her marriage to member Bjorn Ulvaeus and subsequently the group disintegrated, Agnetha ventured back out for a solo career. Her first release apart from ABBA, a duet with Swedish singer Tomas Ledin, became a moderate worldwide hit apart from the US, reaching the top-10 in her homeland, neighboring Norway, as well as Belgium and South America (in a Spanish version).

A year later, Agnetha released her debut solo English-language album, Wrap Your Arms Around Me. It was a big hit in Europe, with the first single "The Heat Is On" topping the chart in Scandinavia as well as becoming a top-40 hit across Europe.  But is took until the third release for her to return to the top 40 in the States. The song that did it, "Can't Shake Loose", was written by Russ Ballard, who also penned bandmate Frida's Top-40 hit "I Know There's Something Going On" as well. The single was produced by Mike Chapman, who happened to co-write yesterday's Song of the Day, Huey Lewis' "Heart And Soul"...

Creepy.

"Can't Shake Loose" became Agnetha's first (and so far only) top-40 solo hit in America, as it did in Canada and a few other countries. Five years later, she had another minor pop hit in a duet with Chicago's Peter Cetera with "I Wasn't The One (Who Said Goodbye)". More recently, she had a moderately successful "comeback" hit in 2004 with "If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind", which went to #2 in Sweden at #11 in the UK (and remains my favorite of her solo work). She just released a new record, "When You Really Love Someone" which is getting good buzz from ABBA fans around the globe.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


...and here's Agnetha on British TV promoting the single (though it totally flopped there)...

...and on German TV...

Up tomorrow: Brit metal/pop kings are deceivin'.