ABBA — Take A Chance On Me

JUL 01 1978 · 12:00

ABBA — Take A Chance On Me (1978) Director: Lasse Hallström Era: Late 1970s Europop Promo Era (1978) - Peak ABBA commercial dominance; single released January 1978 as part of ABBA: The Album campaign, coinciding with the London premiere of ABBA: The Movie and the group's seventh UK #1. A high-value archival artifact representing one of the most commercially successful singles of the 1970s, directed by a filmmaker who would go on to an Academy Award-nominated Hollywood career. The video's technical simplicity makes it an ideal primary source for studying the conventions and constraints of the pre-MTV promo era, and its split-screen technique offers a traceable influence on subsequent pop video grammar. Its muted saturation, warm tungsten lighting, and moderate shot rhythm are quantitatively consistent with late-1970s European film stock aesthetics. Context: Released January 1978, 'Take A Chance On Me' arrived at the apex of ABBA's commercial dominance, becoming their seventh UK #1 and third consecutive chart-topper — cementing them as the act with the most #1 singles in the UK during the 1970s. The single was promoted concurrently with the London premiere of ABBA: The Movie and the sustained chart run of ABBA: The Album. The promo video exemplifies the nascent promotional clip format that Hallström and ABBA had pioneered from 1974 onward as a distribution strategy for markets (notably Australia) that the group could not easily tour. The video's deliberate simplicity — plain backdrop, split-screen, direct performer address — reflected both budget constraints and a growing conviction that ABBA's visual identity resided in the performers themselves rather than elaborate staging. Director notes: Confirmed by IMDB (tt6725118), IMVDb, storyofsong.com, abbaontv.com, and TCM as directed by Lasse Hallström, released 1978. Multiple sources describe the production as characteristically minimal and low-budget, completed in a single day per abbasite.com/abbaontv.com convention. The video employs a signature Hallström device: a multi-panel split-screen opening (colloquially compared to The Brady Bunch grid by contemporary reviewers) showing performers in simultaneous close-up, before opening to a wider plain studio space. Camera movements are notably dynamic for the era and budget — including rapid push-ins and vertical reframes — which distinguished this clip from the more static ABBA promos preceding it. The video ends memorably on the back of Agnetha Fältskog's head. The official promo has been released on the DVD ABBA: The Definitive Collection.