"Waterloo" was originally written as a song for the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, after the group finished third with "Ring Ring" in the previous year's national heats. Since it focused on lead vocalists Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson chose it in place of another of their songs, "Hasta Mañana". "Waterloo" is about a girl who is about to surrender to romance, as Napoleon had to surrender at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The song proved to be a good choice. It sailed through the Swedish heats (in Swedish) in February 1974 and won that year's Eurovision Song contest (ESC) final on April 6 by six points. "Waterloo" was one of ABBA's few songs to be written with simultaneous rock music and jazz beats, something later discarded in favour of more disco-esque rhythms. The song broke the "dramatic ballad" tradition of the Eurovision Song Contest by its flavour and rhythm, as well by its performance. By the end of the show, ABBA had given something the audience had never seen before in ESC: flashy and flamboyant costumes, silver platform boots, a group singing not in their native language, a catchy "uptempo" song and a simple, still unseen before, choreography. Though it isn't well-known, Polar accidentally released a different version of "Waterloo" shortly after ABBA's Eurovision win before pulling it off the shelves & replacing it with the more famous version. The alternate version had a rockier sound, omitting the saxophones, plus an addition "oh yeah" in the verses. The alternate version is on The Complete Studio Recordings. However, it was this version that ABBA performed in the 1979 Europe/North American tour. [604x455]