How a British rejected song became a hit

It was 1980. The United Kingdom had a national selection for Eurovision with no less than 12 songs. It was a close call: in the end, there was a tie between two songs, only a revote could bring a decision.
But in this field of participants there was also a lady with the name of Sonja Jones. She sang the Tony Colton/Jean Roussell song “Here we’ll stay”. She ended up quite anonymous at the 11th place.

The song would have been long forgotten. However, things went different. Abba’s Frida released a solo album, “Something goin’ on”, produced by Phil Collins. And of course it was inevitable: a duet between the two stars. And guess what! They chose the flopped Eurosong “Here we’ll stay”!

However, Collins wasn’t credited on the song. So when Frida’s record company decided to release “Here we’ll stay” as the next single, he didn’t want to be associated with it at all. A solo version of “Here we’ll stay”, by Frida only, was made for the occasion.

The success of the song was not as big as the first singles from the album, “I know there’s something goin’ on” and “To turn the stone”. It reached the charts in The Netherlands and Belgium. Okay, and in the United Kingdom: 1 week, on the number 100 spot.

But many people know the song, either from the album or from the single version. And who could have said thát when Frida had never added it to her album……

Martijn

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