Lay All Your Love on Me


"Lay All Your Love on Me" is a song recorded by the Swedish pop group ABBA for their seventh studio album, Super Trouper. The song features lead vocals by Agnetha Fältskog. It was originally not intended as a single by Polar Music, the group's label, but a remix version of the track gained major popularity in nightclubs. As a result, "Lay All Your Love on Me" was released on 10 July 1981, as Super Trouper's sixth and final single, only in certain territories and only as a 12-inch single.
"Lay All Your Love on Me" became a chart success, charting at number seven on the UK singles chart and becoming the then-highest selling 12-inch single in UK chart history. In the United States, the song peaked atop the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. It has gone on to become one of the group's most enduring hits. Slant Magazine ranked the song at number 60 in their list of the greatest dance songs of all time in 2006, and number 66 in the revised 2020 list.
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Composition

"Lay All Your Love on Me" is an electro-disco song penned by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, with Agnetha Fältskog singing lead. Recording began at Polar Music Studios in Stockholm on 9 September 1980, with the final mix of the song being completed on 10 October 1980. It is known for a descending vocal sound at the end of the verse immediately preceding the refrain. This was achieved by sending the vocal into a harmoniser device, which was set up to produce a slightly lower-pitched version of the vocal. In turn its output was fed back to its input, thereby continually lowering the pitch of the vocal. Andersson and Ulvaeus felt that the chorus of the song sounded like a hymn, so parts of the vocals in the choruses were run through a vocoder, to recreate the sound of a church congregation singing, slightly out of tune. The song was not originally intended to be released as a single, but was issued in 12-inch form in the UK and a few other countries in 1981. "Lay All Your Love on Me" has since been much covered and is also featured in the Mamma Mia! musical, that showcases many of ABBA's hits.

Music video

ABBA did not film a promotional video for "Lay All Your Love on Me", and so Epic hastily assembled a video by using excerpts from the existing ABBA videos for "Take a Chance on Me", "Summer Night City", "The Name of the Game", "I Have a Dream", "Voulez-Vous" and "The Winner Takes It All". It was never shown on TV because Epic managers thought it "wasn't needed", but was included on the ABBA Gold VHS.

Chart performance

As "Lay All Your Love on Me" was not intended to be a single, it was not released until 1981, the year after it had been recorded. It was only after a remixed version by Raul A. Rodriguez - of Disconet - had soared in popularity in nightclubs, that it topped the US Hot Dance Club Play chart. Therefore, the decision was made to release "Lay All Your Love on Me" in limited territories in 12-inch form, as opposed to the standard 7-inch record. It peaked at No. 7 in the UK, becoming ABBA's lowest charting single since "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" in 1975. However, reaching No. 7 in the charts was, at the time, the highest charting position achieved for a 12-inch only release in the UK. "Lay All Your Love on Me" also charted in Ireland, Belgium and West Germany.
As of September 2021, it is ABBA's 17th-biggest song in the UK, including both pure sales and digital streams.

Legacy

In 2006, Slant Magazine ranked "Lay All Your Love on Me" No. 60 in their list of the greatest dance songs of all time, and No. 66 in the updated 2020 list. In September 2024, Swedish national radio Sveriges Radio P3 ranked it among the world's 300 best songs.

Personnel

Charts

Chart Peak
position
Sweden 68
UK Singles Sales 10
UK Physical Singles 4
UK Vinyl Singles 1

Chart Peak
position
Netherlands 10
UK Singles Sales 11
UK Physical Singles 2
UK Vinyl Singles 2

Notable cover versions

Information Society version

"Lay All Your Love on Me" was covered by American synth-pop band Information Society on their 1988 first album Information Society. The track peaked at No. 83 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1989. It was later included on the compilation ABBA: A Tribute – The 25th Anniversary Celebration.
Track listing
  1. "Lay All Your Love on Me"
  2. "Lay All Your Love on Me"
  3. "Lay All Your Love on Me"
  4. "Lay All Your Love on Me"
  5. "Lay All Your Love on Me"
  6. "Funky at 45"