Slower Dancing Songs: Fernando

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Sorry I’m late. There were internet connection problems at the restaurant. Oh, well, now I’m home and contemplating turning the furnace on! (I won’t, because it’s 68F in the house and the furnace won’t kick on until it’s 65F in the house.) I’m also waiting for the boos and hisses for today’s song, a slower song that you can, at best, sway to but not full-tilt boogie to. This month is for @rebelann (who broke a number of chairs dancing to earlier songs ). Here’s today’s song. Fernando - Abba Dang, but I loved roller staking to this song. I wasn’t all that skilled back in the 70s, so a song that was slow but had a slightly faster chorus was perfect for me to try things with. (Results: I still usually landed on my butt. ) I love this song, period. This is an interesting example of changing the language and changing the song. The original “Fernando,” in Swedish, was about a man who’d lost the love of his life. When it was rewritten in English, it turned into a story about two veterans reminiscing about the war they’d fought in (Björn Ulvaeus said he had the Mexican Revolution in mind when composing the new lyrics). Just think: if they’d had “walk-up music” in the 80s, this would have undoubtedly been the song for the late Dodgers pitching great Fernando Valenzuela! Fernando Written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus (English lyrics), and Stig Anderson (Swedish lyrics) Recorded by Abba Released as a single, 1976 There was something in the air that night: