The Winner Takes It All by ABBA Song Info
"The Winner Takes It All", originally titled "The Story of My Life", was written by both Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, with Fältskog singing the lead vocal. The lyrics to the song were thought to mirror the divorce between Ulvaeus and Fältskog in 1979. However, Ulvaeus himself denies this, saying the basis of the song "is the experience of a divorce, but it's fiction. There wasn't a winner or a loser in our case. A lot of people think it's straight out of reality, but it's not". According to The Winner Takes It All Songfacts, Ulvaeus has said that while he usually didn't use drugs or alcohol while writing, he had a bottle of brandy next to him while writing the lyrics for this song. It was very personal to him.