200 SONGS WITH THE BEST LYRICS. This post: #29: THE DAY BEFORE YOU CAME Continues: tomorrow.

CAFFE` LATTE` PRESENTS

200 SONGS

WITH THE

BEST LYRICS

of all-time.

#29

THE DAY BEFORE YOU CAME

“…It’s funny,

but I had no sense of living

without aim,

the day before you came...”

By the time ABBA recorded "The Day Before You Came", the band was a galaxy away from the bubblegum cheesy pop that made the 4 Swedes famous.

Agnetha Faltskog delivered one of her greatest vocals, mundanely going through the protagonist's everyday life. She routinely details the minutia of repeating the same activities day after day. After recounting her train journey to work, the protagonist begins working. She stops for lunch. Smokes cigarettes. Once the working day is over, our narrator is on the train reading the evening paper. She picks up some Chinese take-away for her dinner. Arriving home at 8pm, she eats while watching "Dallas" on TV. After 10, she heads to her bed. 

Each day sees her repeating the same routine, until unexpectedly, her boring and aimless life is radically changed. Our protagonist meets a man. 

The track was recorded and issued as a single in 1982. ABBA shelved plans for a new studio album, so the song was included on 'The Singles: The First Ten Years'. 

Although the single made the Top 10 in many European countries, it struggled in the UK where it peaked at #32. In Australia, the disc failed to reach the Top 40. This was to be the final track ever recorded by ABBA.

As new songs are covered on this blog, a definitive version will be added to a spotify playlist. Find it and the other Caffé Latté playlists at:

spotify:user:alanrosscaffelatte:playlist:7FJhffENQ1Siz0aLBE9ilv

https://open.spotify.com/user/alanrosscaffelatte/playlist/7FJhffENQ1Siz0aLBE9ilv