ABBA iconic disco song Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) is marking its 45th birthday. The song was recorded in August 1979 and released just a few months later on 12th October.
The song would go on to be one of the band’s biggest hits, be sampled by Madonna for her song Hung Up, and be used as the name for a camp British sitcom.
To celebrate the song’s 45th birthday, and the release of a new Greatest Hits collection that covers the band’s entire career, the video for the song has recently been upgraded to 4K on YouTube.
ABBA had originally headed into the studio to record a different track called Rubber Ball Man but decided instead to work on the disco heavy Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! instead.
Originally the track did not appear on any of the band’s albums.
They’d released their disco album Voulez-Vouz in April 1979 and were still putting out singles from the album. Six of the 10 songs on the album would be singles in different territories around the globe with Chiquitita, Does Your Mother Know, the double A-side of the title track and Angel Eyes, As Good as New, and I Have a Dream all becoming hits.
In the middle of this run of hits, they dropped in this additional song feeling that a fresh tune would help them promote their upcoming tour of Canada, the USA, Europe and Japan. This was the only time the band performed the song live, but it is included in their current hologram-based show Voyage.
Years later the tracks would be added as a bonus track on the album Voulez Vouz when the age of CDs arrived.
The band also recorded a Spanish language version of the song known as ¡Dame! ¡Dame! ¡Dame! which was included in their 1980 album Gracias Por La Música which saw the band re-record their biggest hits in Spanish.
In 2005 ABBA gave permission for Madonna and her producer Stuart Price to sample the song for her hit Hung Up.
It’s one of the few times ABBA’ songwriters Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson have given permission for their work to be sampled. The also allowed The Fugees and 98 Degrees to sample their work. In 1988 Austrian band Edelweiss released their song Don’t Bring Me Edelweiss which interpolates the melody from ABBA’s 70s hit SOS but it is not clear if they asked the band for permission.
British sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme also lifts its name from the song. The show was written by Jonathan Harvey the playwright of Beautiful Thing, who would go on to create the musical Closer to Heaven with Pet Shop Boys. It starred Kathy Burke and James Dreyfus as two housemates both on a never-ending search for a male partner. The show ran for three seasons between 1999 and 2001.
 is marking its 45th birthday. Is this your favouyrite ABBA song?){kind=link}