Eamon Blog

Today's Shelf Pull: ABBA, Honey Honey (English) / King Kong Song

Two Small Sparks from the Waterloo Fuse

ABBA's Honey Honey (English) / King Kong Song picture disc pulls two Waterloo-era songs into a compact 2024 Pop 7-inch.

Some singles behave like postcards from a larger country. ABBA's Honey Honey (English) / King Kong Song is exactly that sort of thing: small, bright, specific, and carrying more history than its size lets on. The catalogue gives us the essentials cleanly. ABBA, Honey Honey (English) / King Kong Song, a 2024 Pop 7-inch picture disc, tied to the Waterloo-era songs that caught the group while the world was still learning how large the name would become.

That matters because early ABBA is not simply famous ABBA with smaller lighting. It has its own fizz. Honey Honey is one of those early examples of the group's melodic engineering: flirtatious, neat, sugared, and built around a chorus that knows exactly where the latch is. You can hear the future forming, but it has not yet become imperial.

The sleeve understands the assignment. Red field, white ABBA logo, a circular black-and-white photograph, then the title pairing at the bottom. It is clean enough to feel iconic and compact enough to feel like an object you might actually pull from a singles box with a pleased little nod. No long speech required. The thing announces itself.

Honey Honey is the easy doorway. It is bright melodic pop, the sort of song that makes light work sound like craft. The catalogue notes point to clean studio sparkle, crisp rhythm guitar, bright harmonies and sugary hooks. None of that needs embroidery. It is early-1970s Europop with the corners polished, but not yet polished into museum glass.

On the shelf today

ABBA - Honey Honey (English) / King Kong Song

7" / Pop / 2024

EUR20 / Available now

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