The Winner Takes It All

Andersson and Ulvaeus brought the song to Polar Music Studios on 2 June 1980 under the working title The Story of My Life. The first backing track was uptempo with handclaps, which Andersson later called stiff and metrical. Four days later, on 6 June, they cut a new backing track around a descending piano line that Andersson found, with a looser chanson feel. Ulvaeus recorded a demo in nonsense French, then wrote the final lyric at home in one go, after a couple of big snifters of whisky, and said he hardly had to change a word. The vocals were added by Fältskog and Lyngstad, and the recording was finished and mixed on 18 June.

Ulvaeus has said the song is fiction and that nobody won or lost in his divorce from Fältskog, but he has also said its story has roots in their separation 18 months earlier. Fältskog called the lyrics deeply personal and the music unsurpassed, and said singing it was like acting a part. Lasse Hallström shot the video on the island of Marstrand on 12 July 1980.

Released on 21 July 1980 with Elaine on the B-side, it was their eighth UK number one and reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100, where it spent 26 weeks, more than any other ABBA single. It topped the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, as Fernando had done. Mamma Mia! producer Judy Craymer has said the song gave her the idea for the stage show. Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield called it the break-up ballad to end all break-up ballads.