It's a safe bet that the majority of people with any form of music collection once had, or still has, something by ABBA. Whether you admit to it or not is a different matter.
Does this divide the room? It probably divides the internet ! It was inevitable though that ABBA would feature in Vinyl Vault at some point and now is as good a time as any. Just days ago, after 40 years, the group announced a new studio album and a set of virtual concerts. 54 years ago this very day, in 1967, a young singer won a talent contest on a TV show called 'Hyland's Corner'. That singer was Anni-Frid Lyngstad with her group the Anni-Frid Four. I bet the other members of the group were slightly miffed when she joined three different people and became part of ABBA.
When they formed ABBA, Anni-Frid and Benny Andersson were a couple, as were Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog (hubba-hubba), hence their initials ABBA (yes, OK, everybody knew that.)
This double vinyl really is one of the best definitive collections. Everything even the most casual ABBA fan could want, from their Eurovision winner 'Waterloo' to the open heart surgery of 'The Winner Takes It All' there is something for everyone. I'm not going to go through song by song, if you have the slightest feeling for ABBA then you have a favourite - one or more. IMHO their music has been cheapened by those crappy Mama Mia movies, although when Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths do their act in the classic Australian film 'Muriel's Wedding' all is forgiven. "You're terrible, Muriel."
Australia was one of the countries that totally embraced ABBA to the point where the world's most successful ABBA tribute act, 'Björn Again' originated in Melbourne in 1988. They are so good that even Benny said of them "Björn Again are the closest you can get to seeing ABBA." Compare that with another tribute act, the London based 'Gabba' who do ABBA songs in the style of The Ramones and that gives you the two extremes!
Who remembers this song from 1984 -
"Bangkok, Oriental setting
And the city don't know that the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world in a
Show with everything but Yul Brynner"
- yep, Murray Head belting out a great tune. So why is it here? Well, it comes from a musical, "Chess" which ran for 3 years in London's West End, lyrics by Tim Rice (of Jesus Christ Superstar fame etc) and the music was by the BB of ABBA, Benny and Björn.
After they stopped touring and recording as a group, all the members of ABBA did various projects either as solo acts in the case of Anni-Fred and Agnetha or composing and production as with B & B. Despite saying on numerous occasions that they would never reunite, here we are, with a new album, 'Voyage', in the pipeline. When asked why they decided to do it now, Björn came up with the logical response - "We wanted to do it before we were dead."
Agnetha is 71, Benny is 74, Anni-Frid is 75 and Björn is 76. Like the timing for this post, now is as good a time as any.
Dig out your own personal collection or go to YouTube and find your favourites. Relive platform shoes and glittery onesies, sing along unashamedly and recall the days when the gap in Agnethas front teeth was the sexiest thing you ever saw.
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