“Arrival” is a 1976 composition by Swedish pop group ABBA featured on their album Arrival. It is an instrumental piece, mainly the brainchild of member Benny Andersson. The most widely heard cover versions are ones by French singer Michèle Torr released under the title “J’aime”, British musician Mike Oldfield on his album QE2, the singing duo Daniel Balavoine and Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad creating a French-language song titled “Belle”, and the duo Frida and BA Robertson, as part of the UK musical Abbacadabra, performing an English-language version titled “Time”.
“Arrival” was the second and last composition from the group not to contain lyrics, following “Intermezzo No.1” the previous year. As with “Intermezzo No.1”, the choral tune, heavily influenced by traditional Swedish folk music, was written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. It was recorded in August 1976 at Stockholm’s Metronome Studio. The title of the album, Arrival, gave the instrumental its name, rather than vice versa. It was also one of the last tracks to be recorded for the album before its release in October 1976.
In 1980, Mike Oldfield recorded a cover version of the song for his album QE2. The artwork for Oldfield’s single is a recreation of ABBA’s Arrival album artwork, depicting the artist flying in a Bell 47G helicopter (Oldfield is a helicopter pilot); the “K” in “MIKE” is likewise mirrored as a nod to ABBA’s ambigram logo.
As part of the French musical Abbacadabra, Daniel Balavoine and ABBA member Frida recorded a French-language cover of Arrival, titled “Belle” (lit. ”Beautiful”) in August 1983, with lyrics written by Alain and Daniel Boublil. Released by Barclay Records, the single, backed with B-side “C’est fini”, sold 80,000 copies in France, and peaked at No. 28 in the French Top 50 charts.
Shortly after “Belle”, Frida and BA Robertson recorded an English-language version called “Time” for the British production of Abbacadabra, with lyrics by Don Black and Mike Batt. Batt also produced the song. Released in December 1983 by Polar and Epic Records, A music video was created to promote the single. The single, backed with “I Am The Seeker” as B-side, entered the UK singles chart and peaked at No. 45.
French singer Michèle Torr covered the song and added lyrics, under the title “J’aime”. Released as a 1977 single in France, it reached No.2 in the charts, selling over 500,000 copies and receiving a gold disc. It also made it to No.4 in Portugal. “Arrival” was used as the theme tune for the BBC TV series Robbie, presented by Fyfe Robertson.
