Award-winning songwriter and producer Nile Rodgers joins ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus on the inaugural episode of 'Björn from ABBA and Friends’ on Apple Music Hits — a new four-part series features conversations with friends, collaborators, and artists about all things ABBA.
The duo discuss their similarities as hitmakers, songwriting secrets, ABBA’s ongoing popularity and iconic body of work, and the role that luck and timing have played in their success. Rodgers also discusses co-writing Diana Ross’s smash hit “I’m Coming Out”, early musical influences, and more.
Nile Rodgers On Co-Writing Diana Ross’ Smash Hit “I’m Coming Out”…
"I'm Coming Out." I promise you when I came up with that idea, I walked into a bar, there were a lot of transvestites and Diana Ross impersonators, I guess they were having some contest that night. Diana Ross was the very first big star I ever worked with. And all of a sudden I walk in and I see the life of one aspect of Diana Ross's life - that the gay community really looks up to Diana Ross as a real icon. And I was like, "Oh, my God, how do I translate that into a song without saying obviously what I'm feeling?" And it just popped into my head, like ‘I'm coming out’. Yeah, honestly, and I thought that it was a life changing moment. I remember calling my partner and I said, "James Brown in the black community seems apolitical because he's hanging out with Richard Nixon and blah, blah, blah. But all he had to do was write one song, say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud.” And I said to my partner, “By Diana Ross going, ‘I'm Coming Out’, that's all she's got to say.” What we now have is a woman, a black woman, who is an icon who my partner said the very first time we saw her, we saw her at one of our shows. She came to see Chic playing live. And my partner turned around while we were jamming. And he said, "Damn, that's like a queen coming to see us. So she's like our queen." And I remembered him saying that. So when I was doing the arrangement, I wrote a fanfare. So we go, "I'm coming out." And I go [sings fanfare]. A fanfare for a queen. A person who's revered by the gay community. She's acknowledging that alliance. And it's also going to hopefully make you go to the dance floor.
Nile Rodgers On Early Musical Influences…
My parents, they were beatniks, they were the beat generation. So they loved all sorts of music. So I would have to say the main music landscape in my particular environment was probably modern jazz. So we were big into bebop, but you got to remember, I was also in the American standardised school system where we were only learning classical music as part of our training. But as part of our recreation, we were listening to pop music. So we'd have school dances and things of that sort. So fortunate for me, America was a real potpourri of music. I had a wide, wide beautiful mosaic of different styles.
Nile Rodgers on ABBA’s Success in the U.S...
What’s really interesting about ABBA's music is that not only are the European roots very clear, I think that when ABBA broke, you were giving us something and this is what I always love about great, great, great artists is that you were giving us something that we didn't know we needed. And all of a sudden we hear it and go, "I need that." And it's like, you're giving people something to feed off of that they actually didn't know that they were hungry for until they experienced it.
Björn Ulvaeus On Writing Hit Songs...
We never knew. We just wrote away, but we were very, very careful with every part of a song that every part should be as good as it could be. I mean, as good as we could make it at that point, never neglecting a bridge because we had a good chorus. So we only wrote 12, 14 songs a year because the rest 95% was thrown away and we just kept the good stuff. But it must have been the same for you that you wrote something, but who the hell knows when they've written a hit? Nobody does.
Björn Ulvaeus On ‘Mama Mia!’ The Musical…
The most fabulous thing is for instance, when we did Mamma Mia, the musical to sit in an audience and see people being happy and moved by something that you've written. I mean, that is the ultimate reward, isn't it?
Nile Rodgers On ABBA’s Longevity…
I honestly think it's because the songs are so good. And they've been ingrained into our souls on such a deep level that it is like The Beatles. You almost think of ABBA as existing all the time. Just like we think of The Beatles existing all the time. You think of certain things just existing all the time.
