Take a Chance on Me: ABBA's Jogging-Born #1 Hit
Take a Chance on Me gave ABBA its seventh UK number one in January 1978.
Bjorn Ulvaeus found the song's title not in a notebook but on a jog through his own neighborhood.
The first studio take of the song didn't survive into the finished single either.
Its dense harmonies swallowed roughly 40 stacked tracks of backing vocals before the song was finished.
In the US it peaked at number 3, one of the group's biggest American hits of the decade.
This is the real songwriting, studio, and chart story, verified against Billboard data and independent research.
Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad performing in Gothenburg, Sweden, 1979.
Image credit: Photo by Kare Eide, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
How a Jogging Habit Gave the Song Its Title
Before Take a Chance on Me existed on paper, it existed as a sound in Bjorn Ulvaeus's head.
He and Benny Andersson wrote the song's backing track early in 1977, months before any lyrics existed.
Ulvaeus was a dedicated runner who later completed the Stockholm Marathon.
He was jogging through Lidingo, the Stockholm suburb where he and Agnetha Faltskog lived.
The rhythm of his own footsteps started running through his head as a percussive "t-k-ch" sound.
He heard the phrase "take a chance" hidden inside that rhythm and simply added "on me" to finish it.
A Song Bjorn Called "a German March Crossed With Country Music"
Ulvaeus has described the finished track in those exact terms.
He points to how it swings between the sing-song chorus and its twangy middle section.
That contrast makes the song feel more playful than most of the band's other big hits.
The Session ABBA Scrapped and Rebuilt
ABBA cut its first take on August 15, 1977, with a small backing band.
- Lasse Wellander: guitar
- Rutger Gunnarsson: bass
- Roger Palm: drums
Andersson and Ulvaeus judged that first version too loose for the song they had in mind.
They went back into the studio and rebuilt it into a tighter, almost metronomic arrangement instead.
Forty Tracks of Voices, One Song
The vocal side of the session turned into its own separate challenge.
Engineers layered roughly 40 individual tracks of backing vocals to build the song's dense harmony stack.
Every one of those tracks had to be sung and timed by hand.
Digital tuning and timing correction did not exist yet in 1977.
That vocal density is a big part of why the chorus still sounds so full nearly 50 years later.
Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, pictured the year before this song's session.
Andersson co-wrote the track and helped build its layered vocal arrangement with Ulvaeus.
Image credit: Photo by Bert Verhoeff for Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL, via Wikimedia Commons.
Take a Chance on Me Topped the Charts on Both Sides of the Atlantic
ABBA released Take a Chance on Me in the UK on January 27, 1978.
It was the second single from ABBA: The Album.
It became the group's seventh UK number one and third consecutive chart-topper in a row.
The single held number one for three weeks.
Kate Bush's debut single, Wuthering Heights, then took over the top spot.
A Slower Climb to Number 3 in the US
The US chart run took a slower path to a similar payoff.
Take a Chance on Me entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 69 on April 16, 1978.
It climbed for weeks before peaking at number 3 on July 2, 1978, where it held for two weeks.
The single spent 18 weeks on the Hot 100 in total.
It was also certified gold for a million US sales.
| Market | Peak Position | Weeks at Peak |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | No. 1 | 3 weeks |
| United States (Hot 100) | No. 3 | 2 weeks |
Stream Take a Chance on Me on this site's own 70s jukebox.
It's the same chart run that reached number 3 that summer.
Compare That Chart Run to the Rest of ABBA's Decade
Compare that whole run yourself with the Random 70s Song Generator, which lines up chart peaks across the decade.
Knowing Me, Knowing You had already reached number 14 on the US chart the year before.
That made Take a Chance on Me's number 3 finish the group's second-best American showing of the entire decade.
Erasure Turned It Into a Hit All Over Again
The song found a second commercial life 14 years after its original chart run.
Match that same upbeat, danceable mood against other 70s tracks with the Mood Song Matcher.
British synth-pop duo Erasure recorded the song in 1992 for their ABBA tribute EP, Abba-esque.
Their version turned it into a techno-leaning dance track spliced with a reggae-style breakdown.
Abba-esque went to number one on the UK singles chart.
It also topped the chart in Sweden, ABBA's home country.
The accompanying video affectionately parodied ABBA's own kitschy 70s style, part of a wider early-90s wave of ABBA nostalgia.
That official video shows the group performing against a plain backdrop.
It's simple staging for a song built entirely on its own vocal stack.
Read more about that same chart-topping era on this site's ABBA artist page.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was ABBA's Take a Chance on Me released, and what album is it from?
ABBA released Take a Chance on Me in the United Kingdom on January 27, 1978.
It was the second single from the album ABBA: The Album.
The backing track was written by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus in 1977.
ABBA: The Album became the group's fifth studio release and its biggest-selling album to that point.
How did Bjorn Ulvaeus come up with the title Take a Chance on Me?
Bjorn Ulvaeus found the title while jogging through Lidingo, the Stockholm suburb where he lived.
The rhythm of his own footsteps turned into a percussive "t-k-ch" sound in his head.
He heard the phrase "take a chance" inside that rhythm and added "on me" to complete it.
How high did Take a Chance on Me chart in the UK and the US?
Take a Chance on Me reached number one in the United Kingdom.
It was ABBA's seventh UK chart-topper, and it held that spot for three weeks.
In the United States it peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
That peak came on July 2, 1978, and the single was certified gold.
This site's own year-end Billboard data confirms both chart runs.
Why did ABBA re-record Take a Chance on Me after the first session?
ABBA scrapped its first take of the song, recorded August 15, 1977.
Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus felt it hadn't captured the song's full potential.
They rebuilt it into a tighter, more metronomic arrangement instead.
The finished version also required roughly 40 stacked tracks of backing vocals, all recorded and timed by hand.
Did anyone else have a hit with Take a Chance on Me?
British synth-pop duo Erasure recorded Take a Chance on Me in 1992 for their ABBA tribute EP Abba-esque.
Their techno-influenced cover version helped send the EP to number one on both the UK and Swedish charts.
The accompanying video affectionately parodied ABBA's own original 1970s style.
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