One Man, One Woman

"One Man, One Woman" is a song by ABBA, released on their 1977 album ABBA: The Album. It is that album's third track after "Eagle" and "Take a Chance on Me".^[1] Composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, it has appeared on several compilation albums over the years, such as 1998's Love Stories and 2012's The Essential Collection.^[2]

Synopsis

The song is about a couple (made up of the titular "man" and "woman") trying to save their marriage.^[3]

Composition

Anni-Frid Lyngstad sang the lead vocals. The instruments used in the song are piano, synths, guitar and strings. The piano is used to add a colourful countermelody to the vocal pauses in the chorus, a similar technique to the "descending double-octave riff" used in "Dancing Queen." The synth is used in a "chord-per-bar" fashion throughout the verses, and strings take over in the chorus.^[4]

Analysis

Abba: Let the Music Speak describes the song as "one of ABBA's most introspective portraits of the fragility of human relationships", adding that it is engulfed by a "genuinely fatalistic quality". It says that Frida's lead vocal is filled with "urgency and inner suffering...insecurity and self-doubt", filling the song with "unsettling realism". Both her performance and the musical progressions of the song illustrate an unsureness and lack of faith.^[5]

Critical reception

The Sydney Morning Herald described the song as a "big-treatment ballad".^[6] Soon after the album was released, The Boston Globe described it as "the most striking of the new songs".^[7]

References

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