‘I Know There’s Something Going On’: Phil Collins Helps Frida Into Hot 100

When Anni-Frid Lyngstad, much more widely known as Frida, resumed her solo career in early 1982, ABBA were officially still together, although their album of the year before, The Visitors, turned out to be their final studio work before their spectacular 2021 reunion Voyage.

Seven years after her previous solo offering, Frida’s name appeared on record again with the album Something’s Going On, produced by Phil Collins, and on the chart of November 6, it gave the singer her only US solo Hot 100 single.

The 45 (like ABBA’s output, on Atlantic in the US and Epic elsewhere) was the near-title track, written by the prolific and highly successful British composer Russ Ballard, once of Argent. It was recorded, like the rest of the album, at Frida’s familiar surroundings of Polar Studios in Stockholm in the early months of 1982.

The album itself went on to chart a week after the single, and while it only peaked at No.41, the LP racked up an impressive 28 weeks on the chart. That was helped considerably by “I Know There’s Something Going On,” which went on to establish a place in the Top 20 of the American singles chart, peaking at No.13.

The association with Collins could hardly have been hotter for the American market. After scoring his own first solo Top 20 US hits in 1981 with “I Missed Again” and “In The Air Tonight,” the Genesis frontman debuted on the chart with his cover of the Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love” in the very same week as Frida.

When she spoke to Billboard about the single and album, Frida was keen to make it known that her motivation was creative. “Money has nothing to do with this. I still enjoy singing, and this was an attempt to do something different from what I usually do with the group. I enjoyed working with Phil. I would do it again.”

Listen to the 80s Classic Hits playlist.