[4] "The Name of the Game", first called "A Bit of Myself", was the first song to be recorded for ABBA's fifth studio album, following the band's European and Australian tour.

It was their most complex composition yet – with Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad sharing the lead vocals but with solo passages from both women – and contained the influences of the laid-back California sound of the day.

[citation needed] A preliminary version of "The Name of the Game" was worked into the 1977 feature film ABBA: The Movie, for which it was written.

"[6] Record World said that "the emotion expressed is again secondary to the compelling nature of the music, as usual simple but dramatic.

[12] An edited version of "The Name of the Game", which omitted the entire second verse of the song, reducing the length of the track from its original 4:51 to 3:58, was released on a promotional single in the US.

The US Promo Edit of "The Name of the Game" then – apparently by mistake – found its way onto the 1982 Polar Music compilation The Singles: The First Ten Years,[citation needed] and then onto a number of hits packages issued on both vinyl and CD in the 1980s and early 1990s.