ABBA Waterloo: The Song Written to Win, Not to Chart

ABBA Waterloo started out as a song called Honey Pie.

That title got scrapped in a single Saturday morning.

A manager flipping through a book of quotations found something better.

A word for a battle, repurposed as a word for love.

Napoleon lost his real Waterloo in 1815.

ABBA won theirs in 1974.

Here's how a scrapped title, a tax law, and a broken Eurovision rule turned into a Swedish quartet's first hit outside Scandinavia.

A 1974 trade magazine advertisement for ABBA's Waterloo single, announcing Sweden's Eurovision entry

Trade press advertisement for ABBA's Waterloo single, March 1974.

Image credit: Cash Box, March 9 1974, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

From Honey Pie to a Napoleon Metaphor

Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus wrote the music for ABBA Waterloo at their usual songwriting retreat.

The retreat sat on Viggso, an island in the Stockholm archipelago.

The early working title for the demo was Honey Pie, not Waterloo.

Manager and co-writer Stig Anderson handled the lyrics.

He worked from a cassette tape.

Andersson and Ulvaeus had hummed and strummed the tune onto it.

The Word That Replaced Honey Pie

Anderson spent a Saturday morning leafing through a book of quotations.

He was hunting for a title that actually fit the melody.

In the early hours, he landed on one word: Waterloo.

Napoleon Bonaparte lost the real Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815.

British and Prussian forces defeated him near a town in present-day Belgium.

Anderson turned that military defeat into a much smaller kind of surrender.

In the new lyrics, a narrator gives in to a suitor she can't resist.

He finished the new lyrics before the day was out.

The Win Nobody Outside Sweden Saw

ABBA performed the song in Swedish first, not English.

That performance came at Melodifestivalen, Sweden's own national Eurovision final.

The date was February 9, 1974.

It won there too, taking 302 points against 211 for the runner-up.

The English-language version that actually went to Eurovision was still weeks away.

The Swedish Tax Law Behind the Costumes

The look behind ABBA Waterloo drew directly on the UK's glam rock scene.

The band has cited Wizzard's "See My Baby Jive" as a specific reference point.

Onstage in Brighton, that meant satin costumes and silver platform boots.

Eurovision hadn't really seen a look like it before.

The Deduction Rule, in Bjorn Ulvaeus's Own Words

Part of that choice was pure financial strategy.

Swedish tax law allowed performers to deduct the cost of stage costumes.

The catch: the clothes had to be too outrageous for ordinary street wear.

Bjorn Ulvaeus later addressed this directly in ABBA's own official photo book.

He said the group looked like nuts in those years.

Nobody, he said, could have been as badly dressed onstage as they were.

Just How High Was the Incentive?

The math behind the excess was real.

Sweden's top personal income tax rate sat near 80 percent through much of the decade.

That gave the band a genuine incentive to use every deduction available.

The costumes worked as spectacle and as tax strategy at the same time.

Curious about other mood-driven deep cuts from this era? Try the Mood Song Matcher.

Prefer to just press play? Stream Waterloo on Listen Now, or watch the official video below.

The Eurovision Rule That Almost Kept Sweden Out of English

Sweden tried entering Eurovision with an English-language song back in 1965.

The European Broadcasting Union responded the next year.

Starting in 1966, every entry had to be performed in the competing country's own official language.

That restriction held through most of the late 1960s and into the early 1970s.

The EBU dropped the language requirement in 1973.

That opened a window that ran through 1976.

During those years, any country could enter a song in any language it chose.

The Freedom ABBA Waterloo Actually Used

ABBA translated the song from its original Swedish lyrics into English.

That choice was possible only because of the new freedom.

Performing in English at The Dome in Brighton, England, ABBA won the contest.

The date was April 6, 1974.

The final score was 24 points, Sweden's first Eurovision victory ever.

ABBA Waterloo is widely credited as the first winning Eurovision entry not sung in a native language.

Want more of this era's real chart trivia? Try the 70s Music Trivia Quiz.

How ABBA Waterloo Actually Performed on the Charts

ABBA Waterloo reached #1 on the UK singles chart on May 4, 1974.

It held the top spot for two weeks.

That made it the first of what became nine ABBA UK #1 singles.

In the US, the song entered the Billboard Hot 100 the week of June 1, 1974.

It peaked at #6, ABBA's first American chart entry of any kind.

A Real Correction to This Site's Own Song Data

This site's own song database lists a billboard_peak field of 49 for ABBA Waterloo.

That number is actually the song's year-end chart rank for 1974.

It isn't the song's true weekly Hot 100 peak.

The real weekly peak, #6, matches independent Billboard retrospective coverage instead.

It's the same kind of mislabeled-field issue this site caught on the We Will Rock You post.

This time it's flagged here rather than repeated.

Waterloo Wasn't the Real American Breakthrough

Even with a real #6 debut, ABBA Waterloo wasn't yet the band's big American breakthrough.

That breakthrough wouldn't arrive until Dancing Queen, three years later.

Read the fuller version of that gap in ABBA: The Band That Needed Permission for Its Own Name.

See how the band's Hot 100 run that decade actually compares to a fellow 70s chart act.

Check it out in ABBA vs Queen: Who Won the US Charts in the 70s?

Curious what other one-song chart flukes are hiding in the site's own data? Try the Random 70s Song Generator.

There's more of the decade's real stories at Music of the 70s.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was ABBA's song Waterloo originally called?

ABBA Waterloo started out as a demo titled Honey Pie, written by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus at their songwriting retreat on the island of Viggso.

Manager Stig Anderson replaced that title after finding the word Waterloo in a book of quotations one Saturday morning.

He turned Napoleon Bonaparte's 1815 defeat into a metaphor for romantic surrender and finished the new lyrics that same day.

Why did ABBA wear those particular costumes at Eurovision?

ABBA's silver platform boots and satin outfits at Eurovision 1974 borrowed heavily from the UK's glam rock look, especially Wizzard's contemporary style.

Sweden's tax code also played a real role, since it allowed performers to deduct costume costs only if the clothes were too outrageous for everyday street wear.

Bjorn Ulvaeus later admitted in ABBA's own photo book that the group looked like nuts on stage during those years.

Why was Waterloo allowed to be sung in English at Eurovision?

The European Broadcasting Union required Eurovision entries to be performed in a competing country's own official language after Sweden tried an English entry in 1965.

That rule lifted in 1973, opening a window through 1976 when any language was allowed again.

ABBA translated the song into English to use that freedom, now credited as Eurovision's first winning entry not sung in a native language.

How did ABBA Waterloo perform on the US and UK charts?

ABBA Waterloo reached #1 on the UK singles chart on May 4, 1974, holding the top spot for two weeks and becoming the first of nine ABBA singles to top that chart.

In the US, it entered the Hot 100 that June and peaked at #6, ABBA's first American chart entry.

It took three more years before Dancing Queen gave the band its only US #1.

Did ABBA win Eurovision on their first try with Waterloo?

Waterloo was ABBA's first and only Eurovision entry, and it won outright.

The song first won Sweden's own national final, Melodifestivalen, on February 9, 1974, with 302 points to the runner-up's 211.

It then won the international Eurovision Song Contest at The Dome in Brighton on April 6, 1974, with 24 points, Sweden's first Eurovision victory.