“Fernando” – Single by ABBA from the album Greatest Hits
B-side “Tropical Loveland”, “Hey, Hey Helen” (UK), “Rock Me” (US)
Released 12 March 1976 (UK), 12 April 1976 (Sweden), August 1976 (US)
Label Polar (Sweden), Epic (UK), Atlantic (US)
Songwriters Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Stig Anderson
Producers Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus
Charted No.1 in UK; No.13 in US; No.1 in West Germany; No.1 in Australia; No.1 in Austria; No.1 in Belgium; No.1 in Ireland; No.3 in Italy; No.2 in France; No.1 in Portugal.
ABBA member Anni-Frid ‘Frida’ Lyngstad originally recorded the song in Swedish on her solo album Frida Ensam (meaning Frida Alone) in 1975. ABBA then recorded an English version the following year. The song does not appear on any studio album, only greatest hits collections.
The following year, “Fernando” was re-recorded by ABBA. It was released in March 1976 as a single and included in later releases of their 1975 compilation album Greatest Hits, and was also included on the group’s fourth studio album, Arrival, in Australia and New Zealand. “Fernando” is also featured on the multi-million-selling Gold: Greatest Hits compilation. The song is one of ABBA’s best-selling singles, with six million copies sold in 1976. It is one of fewer than forty singles to have sold at least 10 million physical copies worldwide.
“Fernando” was not originally released as an ABBA song but as a solo single by band member Anni-Frid Lyngstad. It was featured on her No. 1 Swedish solo album Frida ensam (1975). The song was composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and carried the working title of “Tango”. Preparations for recording began in August 1975. The writers made last-minute changes to the title before recording. The name “Fernando” was inspired by a bartender of that name who worked at a club the band frequented in Stockholm, Sweden. The beach and campfire setting for the music video was inspired by the band after visiting Ayr Beach in Scotland.
For ABBA’s version of “Fernando”, Anni-Frid Lyngstad is the sole vocalist for approximately the first minute of the finished recording. Thereafter, she is joined by Agnetha Fältskog who sings with her in harmony for the rest of the song.
This was the biggest selling single in Australian chart history until it was overtaken by Elton John’s “Candle In The Wind ’97.”
A Mexican man named Fernando Gongora claimed that he provided the title to this song. According to Gongora, in 1974 he was working at the El Matador hotel in Acapulco when a minor earthquake hit. (These quakes are common to the area, but freak out tourists.) In Gongora’s account, Abba was staying in the hotel and ran to their balcony, where they were going to jump into the swimming pool below. Gongora told them that the earthquake had stopped, and they should not jump. “I told them ‘I’m Fernando,’ they told me ‘we’re ABBA,'” he said in the Long Beach newspaper Beachcomber. “They told me some day I’m going to hear from the them. Many times, people would send you a postcard, thanks, we appreciate you or your service. A friend from Canada called me. ‘Fernando, did you hear the song ‘Fernando.” When I heard it, I knew they thought I helped save their life before they jumped. They were using my name, ‘can you hear those drums Fernando?’ That’s the noise of the earthquake.”
