Honey, Honey

The cast of MM2

I’m participating in Jim’s Song Lyric Sunday again this week, and today he asks for songs about candy, honey, sugar, or sweet. Naturally, I have to feature “Honey, Honey” from ABBA, except I am not using the original 1974 version but the one sung by Amanda Seyfried in the 2008 Mamma Mia movie instead, which I think is better, more emotional, and not as smoothly cool. 

When the movie begins, Sophie greets her friends Ali and Lisa who have arrived at the fictional Greek island of Kalokairi for Sophie's wedding, which is the next day. Sophie tells them she has a big announcement, so of course they immediately think she's pregnant, but that's not it. What happened is that Sophie has found her mother's diary from the summer when Donna was pregnant with Sophie. 

All these years, Donna has maintained the lie that Sophie's dad was a nameless one-night stand who disappeared before Donna knew she was pregnant. But the diary reveals a different story. From the diary, Sophie and her friends learn that Donna had three relationships in a very short span of time, and one of those men is Sophie's father. Not only that, but full names are included in Donna's diary. We hear about Sam Carmichael first...

Honey honey, how you thrill me, a-ha, honey honey

Honey honey, nearly kill me, a-ha, honey honey

I'd heard about you before

I wanted to know some more

And now I know what they mean, you're a love machine

Oh, you make me dizzy

Sophie reads from the diary the heartbreaking account of how Sam left Donna and returned home to the girl he'd been engaged to the whole time, which of course makes Ali and Lisa feel terrible for Donna. But not to worry! Bill Anderson shows up, and though Donna is still depressed about Sam, she goes with Bill for a sail around the islands, and dot dot dot ~ "that's what they did in the olden days!" 

Honey honey, let me feel it, a-ha, honey honey

Honey honey, don't conceal it, a-ha, honey honey

The way that you kiss goodnight

(The way that you kiss me goodnight)

The way that you hold me tight

(The way that you're holding me tight)

I feel like I wanna sing when you do your thing

Finally, we learn about the third man, Harry Bright, Donna's friend from Paris who shows up "out of the blue" after Donna has slept with Sam and Bill, and dot dot dot...

Honey honey, touch me, baby, a-ha, honey honey

Honey honey, hold me, baby, a-ha, honey honey

You look like a movie star (look like a movie star)

But I know just who you are (I know just who you are)

And honey, to say the least, you're a doggone beast

Note that the 2018 prequel sequel shows these events a bit differently. In MM2, Donna meets Harry in Paris and spends a night with him. The next day she travels to Greece, where she meets Bill, who offers her a ride on his boat when she misses her ferry ~ Donna and Bill do not sleep together at this point because they are interrupted by an SOS from Alexio. After helping Alexio, Bill goes off to his boat race, Donna meets Sam on Kalokairi, and Donna and Sam become lovers. When Sam leaves to return to his fiancée, Bill shows up again, and then he and Donna sleep together on his boat. Harry does not return to Kalokairi in MM2, and so Donna goes through her pregnancy and childbirth sans the baby daddy (whoever he is) with help from Sofia, a local woman, who may or may not be related to Bill. 

Some of you may think that I know a little too much about these Mamma Mia movies, and to that I say pffft. Anyway, after the girls are done with Donna's diary, Sophie stands alone at her window and the song subtly switches from being about the three men as Donna's lovers to Sophie needing to find out which one is her father in order to feel complete. Spoiler: she has invited all three men to her wedding and believes she will know which one is her dad at first sight. Ha ha ha. I'm so excited because there are rumors of an MM3, in which we will learn the true identity of Sophie's bio-dad (to date, she's fine with having "three dads").

Listen (and watch) the MM1 song and movie clip here. Songwriting credits go to Benny Goran Bror Andersson / Bjoern K. Ulvaeus / Stig Erik Leopold Anderson. I copied the lyrics from LyricFind.