Bad Songs I Love: Brotherhood of Man's "Angelo" (1977)

Of all the acts in the 1970s who echoed the sound and, in this case, the gender symmetry of international pop musical industrial complex Abba, none came closer to actually recreating that authentic Abba sound we all know and love than the English band Brotherhood of Man. In 1977 they released “Angelo,” an irrisitible earworm that went to number one in the U.K., Ireland, and South Africa. You will note in short order that this song bears a striking resemblance to Abba’s “Fernando,” which was a worldwide hit a year earlier. I am quite sure that many people at the time just assumed that “Angelo” was a new Abba single—it’s that close. As far as I’m concerned, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson just called and they’d like their musical D.N.A. back.

How Abba-esque do you think “Angelo” is?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zvgd4C9TWQs

More Bad Songs I Love:

Bad Songs I Love: Marcia Strassman’s “The Flower Children” (1967)

Bad Songs I Love: Sammy Davis Jr.’s “The People Tree” (1972)

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13 of the Most Over-the-Top Vocal Performances of The 1960s, Volume One

3 Comments

Adriano

March 10, 2014 at 11:20 am

An even more ‘Abba-esque sound – in the same period (since 1976, 1977-78) was made by the Dutch group ‘CHAMPAGNE’. See (on You Tube) their cathcy hit singles : ‘ROCK’N’ROLL STAR’, ‘VALENTINO’ and ‘OH ME OH MY GOODBYE’. They could have been thought as ABBA’s singles and they really were, as a matter of fact, at that time! The way B.O.M. wanted to be ‘abbaesque’ is evident even in the ‘girl’s hair (see them and their hair change since the Eurovision time -‘ Save your kisses for me’ , 1976, and later to ‘Angelo’), not only in the music sound or in they way Abba were perfoming on stage. Despite this, Abba’s style was more elegant and ‘cool’ …no comparison with the Agnetha’s (beauty too) and Frida’s way to sing and stand on stage. A copy may be very close to the original but it’s very diffcult and rare to find a copy better than the original one…

David Munk
March 11, 2014 at 1:21 am

Hi Adriano,

Thank you for your thoughtful comment. I will definitely check out Champagne. Thanks again for Stargayzing. David

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