"Lay All Your Love on Me" is an electro-disco song penned by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, with Agnetha Fältskog singing lead. Recording began at Polar Music Studios in Stockholm on 9 September 1980, with the final mix of the song being completed on 10 October 1980.

"Lay All Your Love on Me" is known for a descending vocal sound at the end of the verse immediately preceding the refrain. This was achieved by sending the vocal into a harmoniser device, which was set up to produce a slightly lower-pitched version of the vocal. In turn its output was fed back to its input, thereby continually lowering the pitch of the vocal. Andersson and Ulvaeus felt that the chorus of the song sounded like a hymn, so parts of the vocals in the choruses were run through a vocoder, to recreate the sound of a church congregation singing, slightly out of tune.^[3] The song was not originally intended to be released as a single, but was issued in 12-inch form in the UK and a few other countries in 1981. "Lay All Your Love on Me" has since been much covered and is also featured in the Mamma Mia! musical (and its film adaptation), that showcases many of ABBA's hits.

ABBA did not film a promotional video for "Lay All Your Love on Me", and so Epic hastily assembled a video (at a cost of £3,500) by using excerpts from the existing ABBA videos for "Take a Chance on Me", "Summer Night City", "The Name of the Game", "I Have a Dream", "Voulez-Vous" and "The Winner Takes It All". It was never shown on TV because Epic managers thought it "wasn't needed", but was included on the ABBA Gold VHS.^[4]

As "Lay All Your Love on Me" was not intended to be a single, it was not released until 1981, the year after it had been recorded. It was only after a remixed version by Raul A. Rodriguez^[5] - (aka C.O.D) of Disconet - had soared in popularity in nightclubs, that it topped the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart (along with "Super Trouper" and "On and on and On").^[6] Therefore, the decision was made to release "Lay All Your Love on Me" in limited territories in 12-inch form, as opposed to the standard 7-inch record. It peaked at No. 7 in the UK, becoming ABBA's lowest charting single since "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" in 1975. However, reaching No. 7 in the charts was, at the time, the highest charting position achieved for a 12-inch only release in the UK. "Lay All Your Love on Me" also charted in Ireland (No. 8), Belgium (No. 13) and West Germany (No. 26).

As of September 2021, it is ABBA's 17th-biggest song in the UK, including both pure sales and digital streams.^[7]

• Agnetha Fältskog – lead vocals
• Anni-Frid Lyngstad – backing vocals
• Benny Andersson – keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals
• Björn Ulvaeus - guitar, backing vocals
• Lasse Wellander - guitar
• Rutger Gunnarsson – bass
• Ola Brunkert – drums

Original version edit

Mamma Mia! version edit

Information Society version edit

"Lay All Your Love on Me" was covered by American techno-pop band Information Society on their 1988 self-titled debut album. The track peaked at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989. It was later included on the compilation ABBA: A Tribute – The 25th Anniversary Celebration.

Track listing

1. "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Justin Strauss Remix)
2. "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Restricted Re-mix)
3. "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Prohibited Dub)
4. "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Radio Hot Mix)
5. "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Phil Harding Metal Mega-Mix)
6. "Funky at 45"

Helloween version edit

"Lay All Your Love on Me" was covered by Helloween from their Metal Jukebox album. It was released as a single in Japan.

Single track listing

Credits

• Andi Deris – vocals
• Roland Grapow – lead and rhythm guitars
• Michael Weikath – lead and rhythm guitars
• Markus Grosskopf – bass guitar
• Uli Kusch – drums

Avantasia version edit

"Lay All Your Love on Me" was also covered by German supergroup metal opera project Avantasia on their Lost in Space Part I EP and was included on their compilation album Lost in Space Part I & II.

EP track listing

Credits

• Tobias Sammet - Lead vocals, bass
• Sascha Paeth - Rhythm & lead guitars
• Eric Singer - Drums, vocals (Track 6)
• Michael "Miro" Rodenberg - Keyboards/Orchestration

Guest vocalists

• Jørn Lande (Track 3)
• Bob Catley (Track 4)
• Amanda Somerville (Tracks 1, 4)

Guest musicians

• Henjo Richter - Additional lead guitars (Track 3)