The number one hit ABBA never recorded
IT’S no coincidence that ‘I Know Him So Well’ sounds like an ABBA song. The Swedish band’s songwriting duo of Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus co-wrote the hit with lyricist Tim Rice and it bears a strong resemblance to the chorus of ‘I Am An A’, a song performed live by Abba during their 1977 tour (check it out on Youtube). In an interview, Barbara Dickson acknowledged the Abba influence. ‘ It sounded to the average person in the street like a fantastic new ABBA record and they loved the chance of buying an ABBA record again.’
The song was written for Rice’s stage musical ‘Chess’ and first featured on the concept album of the same name. It was a major UK No. 1 hit and remains the biggest selling single by a female duo in that market.
It was also number one in Ireland, spending ten weeks on the chart here.
While ‘I Know Him So Well’ did not figure in the US charts, Murray Head’s ‘ One Night In Bangkok’, another release from the ‘Chess’ album, did reach number three in the Billboard Hot 100, giving Andersson and Ulvaeus only their third top three hit in the US.
Before the huge success of ‘I Know Him So Well’, Scottish singer Barbara Dickson had tasted moderate UK chart success, reaching No. 18 with ‘Another Suitcase in Another Hall’ (from ‘Evita’) in 1977 and eleven with ‘January February’ in 1980. Meanwhile, Elaine Paige, who played Eva Peron in the first production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Evita’ in 1978, had scored a No. 6 hit with her recording of ‘Memory’ from Webber’s 1981 musical ‘Cats’.
For logistical reasons Dickson and Paige did not meet during the recording of their ‘I Know Him So Well’ duet, laying down their vocals separately. They finally came together for the video recording and Top of the Pops performances.
In 1987 Whitney Houston and her mother Cissy recorded a version of the song for the singer’s second album ‘ Whitney’. When released as a single, it reached number 46 in German and 14 in the Netherlands. ‘I Know Him So Well’ has returned to the UK Top 20 on two occasions. In 2001 it featured on the double A-side of the last ever Steps single, reaching No. 5. Ten years later, a cover by Susan Boyle and comedian Peter Kay recorded for Comic Relief peaked at No. 11.