International
Release
As anyone
who as ever attempted to write about ABBA knows, it is very easy to get lost in
mind-boggling statistics. Worldwide record sales rivalled by few other acts, export
figures reportedly comparable to those of Volvo, record-breaking chart history
all over the planet - these are all aspects of ABBA's achievements that
frequently pop up when their history is told. The 1990s revival for the group
has given us yet another piece of statistic which might come in useful for ABBA
chroniclers: How many other groups could release a Greatest Hits compilation
packed with 19 of their most familiar songs one year – ABBA Gold in 1992, which to date has
sold over 14 million copies - and then follow up with a companion volume - More ABBA Gold in 1993 - and have this
latter compilation notch up sales figures of close to 2 million, far more than
most other acts would have gained with their "true" Greatest Hits
release?
Not many,
that's for certain. However, More ABBA Gold, now re-released in 24 bit remastered form, is anything but an
exercise in scraping the bottom of the barrel, as a roundup of some further
statistics proves: No less than seven songs to have reached #1 in at least one
country have been included on this compilation, as well as a further four that
were Top Ten hits - the lower parts of our proverbial barrel will certainly not
be subject to any serious damage.
This point
is perhaps further strengthened by the fact that this compilation includes four
songs that are featured in the hit musical Mamma
Mia!, based on the music of ABBA and at the time of writing playing to
sold-out houses in London's West End. Those songs are I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do,
Honey Honey, Our Last Summer
and Under Attack. Originally, it was even
five, for just shortly before the première in April 1999, Summer Night City
was removed from the show, as so often happens during the process of knocking
musicals into shape. However, fragments of the song are still featured as
linking music between scenes.
Also
appearing on More ABBA Gold is ABBA's first major success in their home country of Sweden,
the 1973 #1 hit Ring Ring. The song had finished third in
the Swedish selections for the Eurovision Song Contest, but proved to be by far
the most successful of the entries that year, and went on to become a hit in
countries such as Norway, The Netherlands, Australia, South Africa and
Zimbabwe. At that time the group was still called Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid, after the first names of the four members.
By the
following year and the Eurovision Song Contest win with Waterloo, manager Stig
Anderson had jumbled around the initials of each member's name and come up
with the name ABBA. The follow-up single to their international breakthrough
hit in many countries was the Waterloo album track Honey Honey,
which reached #2 in West Germany, and was also a Top 30 hit in Australia and
the United States. Around the same time, a cover version by Sweet Dreams made
the UK Top Ten.
By August
1974, ABBA were back in the studio recording their next album, titled ABBA upon its release in 1975. The first
single to be released from those sessions was So Long
in November 1974. Although not very successful in most countries, this attempt
at glam rock did peak at #7 in Sweden, and was a Top 15 hit in West Germany.
The next
single from the ABBA album was I
Do I Do I Do I Do I Do, which, because ABBA's history has so
often been written from a British perspective, has come to be known as a flop.
It is certainly true that the song barely scraped into the UK Top 40, but it
was in fact a major hit in many other countries, reaching #1 in Australia, New
Zealand and South Africa, and also entering the Top Five in The Netherlands,
Zimbabwe, Norway and Belgium.
By the end
of 1976, most of the important music markets of the world, including the UK,
had succumbed to ABBA's charms, and during the year the group had had three
British #1 hits with Mamma Mia, Fernando and Dancing Queen. In October, ABBA's fourth album, Arrival, was released, and the lead-off
track was called When I Kissed The Teacher. One of those
solid ABBA album tracks that could have been successful as singles, the song
was left behind in favour of the equally strong Money, Money, Money and Knowing
Me, Knowing You.
While the
latter track was storming up the charts in early 1977, ABBA were busy touring
Europe and Australia. During the tour, they performed a mini-musical called The Girl With The Golden Hair. One of
the songs in the mini-musical was I Wonder, a
showcase for Frida which was later
released as a single B-side in a recording from the tour. During sessions for
ABBA's fifth album, ABBA - The Album,
the song was re-recorded in the studio, and that version has been included on
this collection.
Another
standout track from ABBA - The Album
was the majestic opening track Eagle. An edited
version receiving a somewhat limited single release in May 1978, Eagle
nevertheless did become a Top Ten hit in West Germany and The Netherlands, even
topping the charts in Belgium.
When Eagle
was released, ABBA had already started work on their sixth album, eventually
titled Voulez-Vous upon its release a
year later. The sessions produced several songs that were never included on the
album, one of which was Summer Night City, released as a single in
September 1978. Summer Night City became a #1 hit in
Sweden, Belgium and Ireland, also reaching the Top Five in the UK, The
Netherlands, Zimbabwe and Norway.
Another
song recorded during the Voulez-Vous
sessions, but never making the track list of the album, was Lovelight,
which was used as a B-side on the Chiquitita
single. ABBA had quite a few single flipsides which were never released on any
of their regular albums, and certainly, Lovelight is one of
the best of those hidden nuggets.
One track
that did appear on the Voulez-Vous
album was Angeleyes, which was coupled with the
title track as a double A-side single release in July 1979. The UK was one of
the few countries to actually list Angeleyes as the
"first" A-side of the single, which is why this song is probably more
fondly remembered as a hit in that country - peaking at #3 - than Voulez-Vous, which was included on ABBA Gold.
The release
of the Voulez-Vous album was followed
by a tour of North America and Europe between September and November 1979.
ABBA's 1977 tour had offered brand new songs in the shape of a mini-musical,
and the group had a few surprises up their sleeve for this tour as well. Closing
the shows before the encores was a new composition called The Way Old Friends
Do. A recording of this Auld Lang Syne-style song, made at
London's Wembley Arena in November 1979, also closed ABBA's 1980 album Super Trouper, and performs the same
function on this collection.
One of the
first songs to be recorded for the Super
Trouper album was the rocker On And On And On,
one of the few ABBA songs to openly showcase Björn and Benny's love
for The Beach Boys. In this case, it was Benny's
falsetto backing vocals that was an obvious nod to the Beach Boys sound. The
first single to be released off the Super
Trouper album was The Winner Takes It
All, and while most countries chose the title track as a follow-up,
Australia and the United States opted for On And On And On
instead. The song was particularly successful in Australia, where it became a
Top Ten hit.
The lyrics
for Our Last Summer, also off the Super Trouper album, were based on
lyricist Björn's memories of a
romance he enjoyed with a girl in Paris when he was a teenager. The strong
narrative structure of the lyrics certainly came in useful when the Mamma Mia! musical was put together, and
it was one of the few songs in that production that was not a familiar ABBA
hit.
When the Super Trouper album was released in
November 1980, one of the two marriages within the group was already over - Björn and Agnetha had divorced in 1979 - and the other was on the verge of
collapsing. Indeed, when the recording of the group's final album The Visitors started in March 1981, Benny and Frida had just recently announced their divorce.
Björn has pointed out that this sad
event provided the basis for his lyrics to When All Is Said And Done,
sung by Frida and recorded shortly
after her split-up with Benny.
Arguably one of the very strongest tracks on The Visitors, which reached record shops at the end of 1981, it was
unfortunately only released as a single in a limited number of territories,
entering the US Top 30 in early 1982.
Around the
same time, the tongue-in-cheek Head Over Heels was
lifted as a single off the album in several countries, reaching the Top Five in
Belgium and The Netherlands. In the US, however, the dramatic title track off The
Visitors was chosen as the next single A-side, reaching the Top
Ten on the Billboard Dance/Disco chart.
1982 proved
to be ABBA's final year together, and can be said to be a transitional period,
with the individual members pursuing outside projects such as film careers and
solo recordings. During the year, only six songs were recorded, four of which
appear on More ABBA Gold - and one of those was previously unreleased when this
compilation first appeared in 1993.
In May and
June 1982, ABBA made their first attempt at coming up with two songs that would
be suitable for inclusion as new tracks on a double album compilation of their
singles that they planned to release at the end of the year. Those sessions
yielded three tracks that ultimately were not what the group was looking for at
the time: You Owe Me One, which became the B-side of Under Attack
later in 1982, Just Like That, an edited version of which is available on the
1994 box set Thank You For The Music,
and I Am The City, which was made available to
ABBA fans on More ABBA Gold in 1993.
In August,
a new attempt was made to come up with songs, and this time all three tracks
were released before the year was over. The Day Before You Came
was issued as a single in October 1982, and although it did not become a
massive hit, it was a Top Five hit in Sweden, Norway and The Netherlands, even
reaching #1 in Belgium. With time, this excellent Agnetha-led recording has become a cult favourite among ABBA fans,
and stands out as one of their most accomplished recordings. Its B-side, Cassandra,
is another "lost gem" that is brought to the well-deserved attention
of the record-buying public through its inclusion on this compilation.
The last
album to be conceived and released while the group still existed was the
compilation double album The Singles —
The First Ten Years, issued in November 1982. The album of course included The
Day Before You Came, as well as the third recording from the
August sessions, Under Attack, which was released on single
in November. Despite reaching #5 in The Netherlands and hitting #1 in Belgium, Under
Attack met with the same muted enthusiasm from record buyers as The
Day Before You Came had done.
Parallel
with a waning interest in ABBA from the general public, Björn and Benny took the
lack of motivation that had started to make itself known when writing and recording
for ABBA as a sign that it was indeed time to try something new. It was
announced that ABBA were to "take a break", and that the next few
years were to be devoted to collaboration with lyricist Tim Rice on the musical Chess.
Meanwhile, Agnetha and Frida recorded solo albums, but by the mid-1980s it was fairly
clear that there would be no ABBA reunion. Except for a TV appearance in
January 1986, when the four members were videotaped performing a song for
inclusion in Stig Anderson's This Is Your Life show, there has been
no more ABBA music recorded.
After a few
years when public interest in ABBA was comparatively low, the 1990s have seen
what started out as a revival for the group's music growing to the point where ABBA
have been able to lay claim to their own special place in pop music history.
Indeed, the continued success of compilations and musicals centred around the
group's songs proves beyond any shade of a doubt that as long as people go on
listening to pop music, they will also listen to ABBA.
