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In our listing of the highest ABBA songs we depend down from 40 to 1… By Ian Ravendale
With their worldwide gross sales numbering someplace round an estimated, although troublesome to confirm, 300-million-plus information worldwide, ABBA are one of many biggest-selling pop bands of all time, placing them in the identical bracket because the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Like the previous, their recording profession was comparatively brief, solely spanning 9 years.
ABBA’s liking for catchy choruses and aptitude for melody had its roots of their native Sweden and the early affect on Benny and Björn of the ‘schlager’ music of central and northern Europe, which is knowledgeable by Nordic and Slavic folksongs. The Swedish variant of schlager added memorable choruses and pronounced key modifications, each of that are current in most ABBA songs.
Timeless Attraction
Profitable Eurovision was a jumping-off level and the band shortly progressed, with writers/producers Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson quickly taking part in the recording studio like an instrument. The voices of ABBA, Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid (‘Frida’) Lyngstad had a spread of three octaves between them and got all kinds of difficult vocal components to sing by Benny and Björn, in what wasn’t their first language.
The timeless attraction of ABBA’s songs, the intricacies of their vocal preparations, and the inventiveness of the productions have influenced a era of producers, musicians and songwriters. Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Frida made eight studio albums throughout the interval from 1973 to 1981.
Thank You For The Music
These albums and the various hits compilations are a library of timeless pop songs that transcends fads, fashions, glittery boots, pert bottoms and marriage breakups… When all is claimed and carried out, what ABBA are actually about is the music. Let’s soar in!
40 RING RING, 1973
Written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and ABBA supervisor Stig Anderson, Ring Ring was initially referred to as Klocklåt (Clock Tune). The trio had been requested to submit a music for consideration for Sweden’s entry into the 1973 Eurovision Music Contest. English lyrics have been added by Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody, and the music grew to become Ring Ring. By Melodifestival (the Swedish Eurovision warmth), the quartet weren’t but ABBA and carried out as Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid. Agnetha was 9 months pregnant and Frida realized Fältskog’s components alongside along with her personal, so they might carry out with out her if mandatory. The judges selected one other music to undergo to Eurovision, with Ring Ring coming third – to a lot outcry within the Swedish press. It went on to be a Swedish No. 1. ABBA (as they quickly grew to become) had arrived.
Learn extra: Making ABBA’s Ring Ring
39 WATERLOO, 1974
Instructed by Stig Anderson to put in writing a music for 1974’s Eurovision, Benny and Björn got here up with the fundamental observe in Ulvaeus’ vacation cottage on the island of Viggsö. This was then handed on to Stig to put in writing the lyrics. His unique title of Honey Pie was shortly jettisoned in favour of Waterloo, which suggests the identical in any language. Eurovision’s requirement for songs to be carried out in every nations’ native language had just lately been lifted, enabling ABBA to carry out Sweden’s entry in English. Held in Brighton, Eurovision 1974 was the primary time ABBA went to city visually, with glittery outfits designed by Inger Svenneke. Arranger Sven-Olof Walldoff joined in by conducting the orchestra decked out as Napoleon.
Learn extra: Making ABBA’s Waterloo
38 HONEY HONEY, 1974
The Waterloo album reveals an ABBA who nonetheless hadn’t fairly labored out what kind of band they have been. Half the songs have been clichéd rockers sung by Björn or Benny and don’t sound very like the ABBA everybody is aware of. Rather more within the ABBA ‘schlager’ model of the time, Honey Honey was one of many tracks sung by Agnetha and Frida and will have been a Eurovision contender. ATV Music within the UK owned the publishing and, on studying that ABBA weren’t going to launch it as a single, put collectively the Candy Goals boy/woman duo to report a canopy, which peaked at No. 10 in July 1974. The ABBA unique was the follow-up to Waterloo within the US and made No. 27, beating the Candy Goals model, which stalled at No. 68.
Learn our assessment of ABBA’s new album Voyage right here
37 HASTA MAÑANA, 1974
First included on the Waterloo album and later re-recorded in Spanish for 1980’s Gracias Por La Música album, Hasta Mañana was a detailed contender for ABBA’s 1974 Eurovision entry. The music was extra in keeping with current earlier profitable entries of emotional slow-to-mid-tempo ballads within the European melodic ‘schlager’ model that Eurovision favoured on the time. Lyrics have been written by Stig Anderson, who had been on vacation to Las Palmas within the Canary Islands, the place the phrase “Hasta mañana!’ (see you tomorrow) was extensively used. Hasta Mañana is sung primarily by Agnetha, and it was determined that, taking into account the massive publicity provided by Eurovision, Waterloo can be a greater automobile for the quartet.
36 I DO I DO I DO I DO I DO, 1975
When I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do started climbing the Australian charts in 1975, Countdown, the High Of The Pops equal, requested RCA Australia whether or not a clip was out there. The programme was rewarded with not simply the I Do… video, but additionally promos for Mamma Mia, Bang-A-Boomerang and SOS. The 4 movies have been shot in April 1975 by Lasse Hallström on the breakneck pace of two a day on a miniscule whole finances of fifty,000 kronor (£5,500). Australian tv had solely just lately crossed over to full-colour broadcasts and Hallström’s low-cost and cheerful remedies obtained large publicity, leading to ABBA turning into the preferred act in Australia.
35 BANG-A-BOOMERANG, 1975
This jolly piece of pop was initially recorded because the Swedish entry for 1975’s Eurovision by Swedish duo Svenne & Lotta, who Benny and Björn have been producing. Svenne & Lotta have been unsuccessful, and their vocals have been subsequently taken off the observe and changed by Anni-Frid and Agnetha, with the reworked quantity ending up on the 1975 ABBA album. Lasse Hallström’s exuberant video reveals Benny, Björn, Frida and Agnetha miming furiously by the ocean, as comedian e book imagery (together with a little question unauthorised look by Superman) is reduce in every time ‘Bang!’ is sung. Certainly one of Lasse Hallström’s quickies, the Bang-A-Boomerang video options his trademark close-ups, with the quartet smiling and laughing.
34 MAMMA MIA, 1975
The music that named a musical has come to symbolise the massive ongoing attraction of ABBA. Taken from 1975’s ABBA album, it was the band’s second UK No. 1 and established the outfit as a profitable pop act in their very own proper. Mamma Mia! the musical is a standalone story not primarily based on the music, of a lady who invitations the three males who is likely to be her father to her wedding ceremony on a Greek island. It debuted as a stage manufacturing on 6 April 1999 and continues to be working in theatres, having performed to 50 million theatregoers. Then, in 2008, it was made right into a film. Benny and Björn are credited as government producers of the movie and re-recorded their songs at Metronome Studios in Stockholm, with the solid supplying their very own vocals.
33 FERNANDO, 1976
Initially a Frida solo observe from her 1975 Frida Ensam (Frida Alone) album that had solely been launched in Scandinavia. Written by Benny, Björn and Stig, Fernando had been recorded concurrently ABBA’s Dancing Queen periods. The recognition of Fernando in Sweden shortly persuaded the group to show the observe into an ABBA launch and it grew to become the band’s third UK No. 1 in March 1976. The Swedish lyrics had been written by Stig, however Björn stepped in for the English language model and turned the music from a regular love ballad right into a dialog between two former Mexican revolutionaries sitting outdoors reminiscing – a theme that ABBA reprised for the video, with the quartet sitting round a campfire taking part in acoustic guitars.
32 SOS, 1975
The recording periods for SOS began on the finish of August 1974 beneath the working title of Flip Me On. With Agnetha on lead vocals, SOS was the third single taken from the ABBA album. It was the music that returned the quartet to the High 10 and gave them an look on High Of The Pops, one thing that just about assured a success. SOS ultimately peaked at No. 6 in October 1975 and remained within the charts for 2 months. It additionally took off within the US, making the High 20. It was now apparent that ABBA have been considerably greater than a Eurovision one-off and, in September 1975, they undertook their first US promotional journey, spending two weeks making TV appearances and speaking to journalists.
31 DANCING QUEEN, 1976
Issued as a taster for the Arrival album, Dancing Queen was ABBA’s third chart topper in a row, hitting No. 1 a mere two weeks after launch, staying there for six weeks and promoting 850,000 copies within the UK. Launched within the US in early 1977, it was the primary ABBA single to prime the American charts. Initially titled Boogaloo, the music attracts on the dance rhythms of the time, together with George McCrae’s Rock Your Child and the New Orleans-flavoured drumming on Dr John’s 1972 album, Dr. John’s Gumbo. To depart listeners in little question that this was positively a observe to strut your funky stuff to, Stig got here up with the Dancing Queen title and the music’s unique lyrics, which Björn later modified.
30 TIGER, 1976
For a part of ABBA’s brief worldwide touring profession, Tiger, from the Arrival album, was the up-tempo ‘get ’em going’ music they got here on to. In ABBA: The Film, the quartet are standing in conjunction with the stage; Frida does a number of vocal warm-up workouts; the prolonged intro begins to play and helicopter sounds that nod to the Arrival cowl echo around the stadium. The 4 run on, throw off the lengthy glittery cloaks they’re sporting and launch into Tiger. The Lasse Hallström promo video attracts on the music’s lyrical theme of the town at evening being a harmful place and reveals Agnetha and Frida doing their greatest to look streetwise in denim and bandanas as they drive round a bustling metropolis, whereas Benny and Björn sit passively within the again wanting bored.
Learn extra: Making ABBA’s Arrival
29 WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE ME?, 1976
One of many songs that Benny and Björn introduced into Metronome Studios in April 1976 for the Arrival album was a piano-and-sax boogie-woogie quantity referred to as Why Did It Have To Be Me. Novel pedal metal and crashing waves sound results have been then added, and Stig Anderson got here up with lyrics a few woman going to Hawaii to neglect the lover who’s jilted her; Frida and Agnetha recorded a joint lead vocal, the music was renamed Completely happy Hawaii and blended. Because the Arrival periods drew to a detailed, the Fat Domino therapy was revived – though the Completely happy Hawaii model with Seashore Boy-esque backing vocals additionally noticed launch because the B-side of Figuring out Me, Figuring out You.
28 DUM DUM DIDDLE, 1976
Frida’s horny Norwegian accent on strains like: “You’re solely smileen, if you play your violeen. Want I used to be Dum Dum Deedle, Your darling feedle!” and the sheer bonkers subject material peg this Arrival observe as a traditional piece of ABBA kitsch – Eurovision carried out proper. Dum Dum Diddle was later dismissed by each Frida (“A foolish music – I don’t prefer it!”) and Björn (“It’d as effectively have been Dumb Dumb Diddle!”). A drunken Björn had written the phrases (so he later admitted) at 5 o’clock within the morning with a recording session looming. The thought of a girl wanting to exchange a violin as the article of her lover’s affections undeniably ranks as certainly one of ABBA’s extra uncommon lyrical ideas.
27 MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, 1976
In all probability ABBA’s most theatrical quantity, Cash, Cash, Cash underwent a number of lyrical idea modifications earlier than reverting again to the unique. On the premise that songs about money have been (actually) ten-a-penny, Björn ditched his unique thought and title of Cash, Cash, Cash in favour of latest lyrics primarily based round a gypsy woman. In the end deciding this didn’t work, the Cash, Cash, Cash thought was reinstated. Benny and Björn needed to put in writing a musical and sometimes crafted songs that would work inside a dramatic context. Melodramatically sung by Frida, Cash, Cash, Cash wasn’t launched as a single within the US, on the grounds of being extra European than American.
26 THE NAME OF THE GAME, 1977
Over their nine-year recording profession, ABBA proved themselves masters of many musical types. The Identify Of The Sport demonstrates that along with impassioned ballads and full-on Europop, they might additionally do restraint and subtlety. Recording periods began on 31 Could 1977 of a music initially referred to as A Bit Of Myself, laying down bass and synthesiser refrains. The remainder of the music was then developed as a six-part construction, with Frida and Agnetha including solo and harmonised sections. Benny offered unique synthesiser results, together with a piccolo-trumpet sound. Stig Anderson instructed The Identify Of The Sport as a title, which Björn then constructed his lyrics round.
Learn extra: Making ABBA: The Album
25 KNOWING ME, KNOWING YOU, 1977
Regardless of being recorded on 23 March 1976, Figuring out Me Figuring out You wasn’t launched as a single till 16 February 1977, demonstrating how assured ABBA have been within the different songs that they had able to go. The quantity was the primary observe recorded for the Arrival album and spent 5 weeks at No. 1 in April 1977. Stig instructed the title, however Björn mapped out the lyrical journey into heartbreak, the place a pair realise that: “There may be nothing we will do. This time we’re by.” The straightforward however efficient Lasse Hallström promo has the 4 band members singing whereas dealing with one another after which turning away when a brand new line is sung. The conclusion, with Agnetha and Frida sadly strolling away from Benny and Björn within the thick Swedish snow, assist make the promo certainly one of pop’s most iconic movies.
24 TAKE A CHANCE ON ME, 1978
From the a cappella vocals initially of the observe onwards, Take A Likelihood On Me is a traditional pop music, the place the singer is asking a potential beau to throw warning to the wind and ‘take an opportunity’. It cuts to the chase instantly, as lots of ABBA’s songs do, particularly after Björn started writing the lyrics on his personal with out Stig. And whereas the collaboration between Benny and Björn was by no means solely reduce and dried, since Björn wrote many of the lyrics and Benny was the prime musical drive, it was in all probability Andersson who got here up with certainly one of ABBA’s prime signature touches of getting an instrument ‘discuss again’ to the vocal as right here, when the ‘It’s magic’ line is adopted by a bit of ‘magical’ synthesiser swagger.
23 SUMMER NIGHT CITY, 1978
ABBA opened their very own state-of-the-art recording studio in Stockholm in Could 1978. The primary music to be labored on at Polar Studios over an preliminary backing observe recorded at Metronome Studio was the disco-influenced Summer season Evening Metropolis. Benny, Björn and Michael B Tretow spent every week making an attempt to get a combination they have been glad with, with out success. In the end, a combination was chosen that eliminated the 45-second vocal, string and piano introductory part which gave the observe extra immediacy (though this was reinstated when ABBA performed the music stay on their 1979 world tour). To Tretow’s ears, the edit was obviously apparent. Björn later remarked that the recording was awful and shouldn’t have been launched. The general public didn’t agree and Summer season Evening Metropolis charted at No. 5 in September 1978.
22 VOULEZ-VOUS, 1979
At all times evolving musically, Voulez-Vous, ABBA’s sixth album, noticed the group experimenting with funk and disco. Many songs are set to a dance beat and are longer than typical. Within the Bahamas in February 1979, writing and getting ready songs for the subsequent album, Benny and Björn had entry to all kinds of music not usually out there in Sweden. Impressed sufficient by what they heard to put in writing Voulez-Vous and Kisses Of Fireplace, the duo flew throughout to Miami and booked themselves into Standards Studios, the place the Bee Gees had made lots of their mid-70s hits. They laid down a fundamental observe for Voulez-Vous which was taken again to Sweden and accomplished. It was backed with Angeleyes, one other dance-influenced observe.
Learn extra: Making ABBA’s Voulez-Vous
21 IF IT WASN’T FOR THE NIGHTS, 1979
Engineer Michael Tretow was flown over from Sweden to Miami to ensure no matter was carried out at Standards can be suitable with the gear at Polar Studios. Working alongside producer Tom Dowd have been disco band Cunning supplying the backing. Along with Voulez-Vous, a brand new model of If It Wasn’t For The Nights was tried however didn’t work – Benny later recalled: “The music has so many peculiar chord modifications within the verse, it made it laborious for them to get into the groove like they have been used to.” Dwell reveals round this time began with Voulez-Vous and segued straight into If It Wasn’t For The Nights, proving ABBA might write and carry out disco in addition to anybody.
20 GIMME! GIMME! GIMME! (A MAN AFTER MIDNIGHT), 1979
The follow-up single to Voulez-Vous was initially going to be Rubber Ball Man (also called Beneath My Solar). The music solely made it to demo stage and Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) issued as an alternative. With its disco bass and drums, the music was extra in step with the dance tracks that ABBA have been making in 1979. Sung by Agnetha, the marginally risqué lyrics spin the story of a lonely girl needing romance to loosen up her late nights. An up-tempo, catchy calling card for the band’s forthcoming world tour, it was edited down to three.36 for North America, as its 4.46 length was too lengthy for daytime radio.
19 I HAVE A DREAM, 1979
In main distinction to the brisk disco rhythms of many of the remainder of the Voulez-Vous album, I Have A Dream might be essentially the most sickly candy music ABBA ever recorded. It’s additionally the one ABBA observe to characteristic vocalists from outdoors the band, when a youngsters’s choir from the Worldwide College Of Stockholm take part for the ultimate refrain. As 1979 was UNICEF’s Yr Of The Little one, ABBA would deliver on stage a youngsters’s choir from every metropolis visited on their world tour to sing I Have A Dream with the group. Because the band later admitted, the outcomes have been variable – however the youngsters’ choirs typically additionally caught round for Thank You For The Music, confirming ABBA in live performance was a household present relatively than a rock gig.
18 CHIQUITITA, 1979
Chiquitita is likely one of the only a few events ABBA repeated themselves. The quantity borrows closely from the sooner Fernando and, as a ballad, stands out from the remainder of the Voulez-Vous album. In The Arms Of Rosalita, an earlier model of the music, had been even slower, with vocals shared by Agnetha and Frida. An interim, lyrically totally different model of the music referred to as Chiquitita Angelina was additionally recorded however discarded. Chiquitita is quicker and Fältskog dominates the person sections. With all publishing royalties going to UNICEF, the music was premiered in 1979 at a profit in New York as a part of the Worldwide Yr Of The Little one, with ABBA on the identical invoice because the Bee Gees, Earth Wind And Fireplace and Rod Stewart.
17 DOES YOUR MOTHER KNOW, 1979
Attending to No. 4 within the UK charts and later coated by REM, the discharge of Does Your Mom Know as a single reveals a band supremely assured about what they have been doing and the assure of success for just about something they launched. Relatively than characteristic a lead vocal by Agnetha or Frida, in all probability among the many world’s most vocally recognisable singers, Does Your Mom Know has Björn (at greatest a median vocalist) on his solely 45RPM lead vocal, singing about having the hots for a feminine rather a lot youthful. “Take it simple. That’s no method to go”, he concludes; Frida and Agnetha take part with traditional harmonies for a center eight lifted from the band’s unreleased Dream World music.
16 SUPER TROUPER, 1980
Their ninth UK No. 1 and title music of ABBA’s seventh album is confident however accessible pop music. With a lead vocal from Anni-Frid, the music tells of the trials and tribulations of being in a band on the street and stage with a Tremendous Trouper being the nickname of the hefty spotlights that ABBA have been lit up by at their stadium gigs. The namecheck for Glasgow was instructed by Howard Huntridge of Bocu Music, ABBA’s UK publishers. The video and report sleeves characteristic circus performers – artwork director Rune Söderqvist and photographer Lars Larsson initially thought-about Piccadilly Circus, however this was quickly dominated out and the Europa Movie Studios in Stockholm and a circus have been booked as an alternative.
Learn extra: Making ABBA’s Tremendous Trouper
15 ME AND I, 1980
The closing observe on Aspect 1 of the Tremendous Trouper album, Me And I is a main reduce of Europop, with Frida’s commanding lead vocals driving over a strong Benny Andersson synth-dominated observe. Michael B Tretow, who engineered nearly all of ABBA’s output, would typically multitrack the backing vocals, however then fluctuate the tape pace at successive passes to create a shimmering impact which is current right here. Frida’s vocals are barely greater than regular, with occasional syllables working collectively, indicating that the principle vocals have additionally been sped up. Björn Ulvaeus’ lyrics inform the story of an inside battle inside a cut up persona – fairly a development from “digging the dancing queen”.
14 THE PIPER, 1980
With Agnetha, Frida and Michael Tretow in Stockholm engaged on the Spanish album, Benny and Björn adjourned to Barbados to put in writing songs for Tremendous Trouper, with the considered making part of it a trial run for the musical the duo had been hankering to put in writing. Björn had began his profession in The Hootenanny Singers, a Swedish folks group, and The Piper has folk-styled medieval-sounding music full with flutes, jigs and army drumming. It’s rescued from novelty hell by the vocals of Frida and Agnetha. Ulvaeus’s lyrics discuss with the Pied Piper legend and the concern that sooner or later, a fascist chief may have the ability to rise once more, an thought impressed by Stephen King’s 1978 novel, The Stand.
Learn extra: High 20 Reunion Albums
13 HAPPY NEW YEAR, 1980
Very squarely set in 1979, because the lyrics inform us: “It’s the top of a decade. In one other 10 years’ time, who can say what we’ll discover… on the finish of ’89?” The opener of Aspect 2 of the Tremendous Trouper album was written by Benny and Björn whereas in Barbados. They’d met comic John Cleese and mentioned the opportunity of writing a musical collectively. Completely happy New Yr was supposed to play a big half within the manufacturing, which was to be primarily based across the characters wanting again over the earlier 12 months and speculating concerning the future. Cleese finally backed out and Benny and Björn put the thought on maintain, however saved the central music – a maudlin ballad with an amazing refrain.
12 LAY ALL YOUR LOVE ON ME, 1981
Two tracks from the Tremendous Trouper album got the full-on dancefloor therapy. Relatively than put one or each out as singles, it was determined to package deal them collectively and make the report out there solely within the format of selection of membership and dance DJs – the 12-inch single. Each On And On And On and Lay All Your Love On Me had been remixed with nice success and had topped the US dance and membership chart. July 1981 noticed the 2 remixes packaged up collectively and issued as a 12-inch-only launch. The ‘Unique 12 inch Collector’s Merchandise’ single peaked at No. 7 and stayed within the chart for shut on two months.
11 ON AND ON AND ON, 1980/81
Benny Andersson’s keyboards, sequencers, staccato piano stabs and the poppier finish of the economic European electro of Kraftwerk are all in proof right here, regardless that On And On And On is certainly one of ABBA’s extra rocky numbers. The heavy guitars are nearly actually keyboard-generated and an efficient distinction to Agnetha and Frida’s robotic vocals. Benny and Björn had been taking part in round with the duo’s vocals for years and carried on doing so till the top. ABBA have been by no means ashamed of borrowing riffs or musical types from totally different sources (together with themselves!) and On And On And On has Benny’s Seashore Boys-esque falsetto backing vocals. Seashore Boy Mike Love should have heard the homage, as he coated the ABBA music on his Trying Again With Love solo album a 12 months later.
10 OUR LAST SUMMER, 1980
This emotive ballad that has a girl immediately addressing a former lover is sung with a lot feeling by Anni-Frid that the suspicion is it’s a real story that occurred to Frida herself. Not the case: the observe from the Tremendous Trouper album is Björn writing a few vacation romance he loved in France as a youngster and references strolling alongside the Seine, sitting within the grass by the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and morning croissants. It’s all properly punctuated, unusually for ABBA, by an amazing piece of rock guitar courtesy of Lasse Wallander. Within the closing verse, Frida flips it by saying the ex-lover now works in a financial institution and watches soccer, however she nonetheless tells him: “You’re the hero of my desires.”
9 THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL, 1980
Also known as certainly one of ABBA’s most private songs, regardless that, as Björn later confessed, the lyrics got here to him in an hour-long rush of creativity when he was drunk one evening. Ulvaeus says that the lyric, which discuss with a just lately ended love that’s nonetheless inflicting emotional ache, is “90 per cent fiction”, including, poignantly: “There have been no winners in our divorce.” The video was filmed 10 days after Björn and Agnetha finalised their divorce, has Benny and Frida laughing with Björn whereas Agnetha sits glumly, misplaced in thought of days passed by. As a result of he was filming a film there, Lasse Hallström shot the video within the small city of Marstrand on the west coast of Sweden.
8 THE VISITORS, 1981
The title observe of ABBA’s closing studio album, the place the recording periods have been later described by Benny as an “uphill wrestle”. Components of the album are melancholy and downbeat, mirrored within the dimly lit entrance cowl, which has the band members barely acknowledging one another. By this album, Björn had progressed massively as a lyricist. The title observe tells of being a dissident within the Soviet Union and the “secret conferences” (the place) “we talked and talked in quiet voices, smiling” after which waited for the ominous ring of the doorbell by “the guests” – the Secret Police? – who’ve “come to take me”. Benny’s swirling keyboard introduction and Frida’s handled otherworldly vocals are elegant ‘pop prog’.
Learn extra: Making ABBA’s The Guests
7 SLIPPING THROUGH MY FINGERS, 1981
Taken from The Guests album with Benny’s keyboards as lead instrument, Slipping By My Fingers is a slow-paced emotional perception into ABBA’s personal lives. With lyrics by Björn and restrained lead vocal from Agnetha, the music is in stark distinction to the heavyweight idea of the album’s title observe. Slipping By My Fingers was impressed by Björn watching their daughter Linda going away to her first day at college and turning spherical and waving as she did so. Björn and Agnetha acknowledge that Linda is rising up and have blended emotions, however know that they finally have to let go. In frequent with many mother and father, Björn later regretted having missed out on a few of the magical childhood years when work dominated – predominantly ABBA, after all.
6 ONE OF US, 1981
Amongst Lasse Hallström’s most memorable ABBA promos, the video for One Of Us provides us a forlorn-looking Agnetha transferring into a brand new flat. Noticeably on her personal, she carries in packing containers of her possessions which she begins to unpack and prepare with a number of weird modern-art work taking delight of place. Hallström’s interpretation of the music may very well be considered because the director (and ABBA themselves, who could have needed to approve his therapy) taking part in on the current private cleaning soap opera taking place between Ulvaeus and Fältskog and threatening to overshadow the music. The record-buying public disagreed and One Of Us was a High Three single within the UK and plenty of different nations, has been coated many instances and options within the stage model of Mamma Mia!.
5 HEAD OVER HEELS, 1982
Taken from The Guests album with a lead vocal by Agnetha, Head Over Heels was ABBA’s poorest-selling UK single in seven years. The band’s run of High 5 singles was over. Musical tastes had modified – New Romantic bands like Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet dominated the charts and the media was at all times hungry for the Subsequent Large Factor. Head Over Heels (and the video which accompanied it) illustrates the theatrical path Andersson and Ulvaeus have been getting in. The music is a few girl who enjoys the fabric issues in life, as rammed house within the promo which reveals a worn-out Björn carrying parcels and packages for shopaholic Frida, who then dances spherical in a collection of extravagant outfits whereas he falls asleep on the sofa.
4 THE DAY BEFORE YOU CAME, 1982
The final observe (and penultimate unique single) that ABBA recorded as a bunch, with Benny’s keyboards offering all of the instrumentation. Andersson and Ulvaeus often got here into the studio with completed songs, however on this event, Benny solely had a small fragment which he began taking part in. Michael Tretow had the foresight to report all the things he was doing and inside an hour, Den Lidande Fågeln (The Struggling Chicken) had a full melody. The quantity was a brand new path for ABBA, with no refrain and sequencers changing Benny’s typical majestic chords. Björn made an inventory of on a regular basis issues that someone main an extraordinary existence would go about doing earlier than “The day earlier than you got here”. Agnetha was then instructed to sing the lyrics in a disinterested manner, to emphasize the routine side of the narrator’s life.
3 UNDER ATTACK, 1982
Beneath Assault was ABBA’s twenty eighth and final unique UK single. The group began work on what was initially supposed as a brand new studio album in early August. This was deserted in favour of a double album of ABBA hits, referred to as The Singles: The First Ten Years which included Beneath Assault and The Day Earlier than You Got here from the autumn periods. Beneath Assault underachieved, solely reaching No. 26 within the UK charts and barely scraping into the High 100 in Australia, beforehand an ABBA stronghold. The video for Beneath Assault was shot in a warehouse to a backdrop of revolving crimson lights, dry ice and working up and down staircases. In step with the intense tone of the music, the video concludes with Agnetha, Frida, Benny and Björn with their backs to the digital camera strolling out of the warehouse and into the daylight. Symbolic?
2 YOU OWE ME ONE, 1982
Following the troublesome periods for The Guests album, Benny and Björn returned to Polar Studios in Could 1982 and ultimately recorded a number of songs for an album to be issued later within the 12 months that by no means materialised. Certainly one of these was You Owe Me One, which confirmed an ABBA unsure of their place in modern music by returning to their ‘schlager’ roots, which introduced big worldwide success within the mid-Nineteen Seventies. The multilayered music pops like loopy, with Agnetha and Frida sharing joint (barely sped up) lead vocals. You Owe Me One could also be ABBA-by-numbers, however the group’s knack for making ultra-catchy pop information hadn’t abandoned them. The quantity finally surfaced because the B-side of Beneath Assault, and as a bonus observe on the 1997 remastered version of The Guests.
Learn extra: The story of ABBA: The Film
What’s the perfect ABBA music?
1 THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC, 1983
Issued as a single in November 1983, a 12 months after Beneath Assault and when, to all intents and functions, ABBA have been no extra, Thank You For The Music (which may very well be thought-about an epitaph for the band) solely made No. 33 within the UK. It was initially a part of The Woman With The Golden Hair, the ‘mini musical’ that concluded Aspect Two of 1977’s ABBA: The Album. Björn and Benny used the 1977 tour to attempt it out as a show-closer in entrance of their big stay viewers. Lasting solely 25 minutes, The Woman With The Golden Hair revolves round a lady leaving her small city searching for fame. The complete musical remained unproduced, however Thank You For The Music grew to become a traditional observe.
Honorary mentions –
I Nonetheless Have Religion In You, 2021
ABBA’s comeback single got here out too late to make our listing, however we expect it deserves an honorary point out. I Nonetheless Have Religion In You feels so classically ABBA, it’s in some way looks like a misplaced music from the late 70s. The video gained a tremendous 4.4 million views within the first 24 hours following its launch. That’s really staggering!
Take a look at ABBA’s official web site right here
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