"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)," Abba (1979)
To watch this video without sound you might think it was Abba doing the Brill Building. Turn it up and it's a galloping cheesy crystal ball of late classic era disco, right after "Disco Duck" has stormed the Senior Centers and Schlager disco like Abba rules the cruise ships. And how Stellas and Bellas and Agnethas and Fridas get their grooves back, I think, to this day. Begins with some classic rock fanfare. An Arabian Nights chug raises the pace when some big synths kick in, augmented by frilly keyboards. The vocals start out drab cliches, Abbaesque vocal group harmonies, we know this formula. And then, as if waking up, Agnetha leans into the cliches, ripping off a stem-winding couplet, "Not a soul out there/no one to hear my prayer," and the chorus lifts off, "gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight/won't somebody help me chase the shadows away/gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight/Take me through the darkness to the break of day." SOS! Man overboard: Transcendental bubblegum mature kitsch! And, again, 1979! TGIF.
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