Cher to release ABBA cover album
Cher, quite frankly, is still having the time of her life.
On Wednesday, the pop legend announced that her ABBA cover album, “Dancing Queen,” goes on sale Sept. 28. Then, on Thursday, she released its first song: an electric, bass thumping rendition of the band’s 1979 song “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight).”
(And if that main riff sounds familiar, yes, Madonna sampled it for her 2005 hit “Hung Up.”)
The “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” star’s social media accounts also were awash with a marquee of twinkling lights bearing her name in ABBA-style animations.
The 72-year-old diva previously said the Warner Bros. Records album was inspired by her experience on the set of the feel-good musical’s sequel, which, like its predecessor, has a narrative that unfolds through the Swedish pop group’s catalog of hits.
“I’ve always liked ABBA and saw the original ‘Mamma Mia’ musical on Broadway three times,” the Oscar, Emmy and Grammy Award winner said in a statement to The Times on Thursday.
“After filming ‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,’ I was reminded again of what great and timeless songs they wrote and started thinking ‘why not do an album of their music?’ The songs were harder to sing than I
imagined but I’m so happy with how the music came out. I’m really excited for people to hear it. It’s a perfect time.”
The track list is as follows:
1. “Dancing Queen
2. “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)”
3. “The Name of the Game”
4. “SOS”
5. “Waterloo”
6. “Mamma Mia”
7. “Chiquitita”
8. “Fernando”
9. “The Winner Takes It All”
10. “One of Us”
It was the show-stopping number “Fernando,” performed
along with the ensemble cast and co-star Andy Garcia, that also led her to make the album, Cher said while promoting the film on the “Today” show last month.
Her previous track-list reveal omitted the song, but the version included on the album will be different from that of the film, her rep confirmed to The Times on Thursday.
The star-studded film has enjoyed a wave of positive reviews — it’s 80 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes — and an impressive $238 million at the global box office since its release in mid-July.
Here’s to Cher’s cover songs getting a similar reception.