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 ABBA Quickie Rate: The Results, Top 30 in reverse.. |
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 25th January 2015, 01:46 PM
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#1
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 BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,851 User: 17,376 
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Thank you to everyone who voted, almost 30 in total which happily gives 30 spots for Abba songs..
So, the tracks that just missed the top 30: I Am Just A Girl, I’m A Marionette, The Visitors, and I Am The City. For the rest, where there’s a tie, I’m breaking it with number of voters, and if that doesn’t work, the one with the highest UK chart position - it doesn’t affect many! 30. When I Kissed The Teacher (2 points, 1 voter) An album track from 1976’s Arrival, it was one of my many fave tracks on an album I played absolutely to death. As punk rock exploded onto the UK scene (well, actually, in sales terms, it’s impact was more of a sparkler than a banger) it was Abba who dominated the pop music world. It’s still pretty catchy, though not up there with their most well-known. |
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25th January 2015, 01:50 PM
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#2
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,851 User: 17,376
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29. Summer Night City (2 points, 1 voter) The “forgotten” single from their heyday, Summer Night City slipped out in the gap between albums and featured on neither The Album nor Voulez Vous, which is a shame as this 1978 stand-alone single was terrific, but it was generally their least successful single of the years when they could do no wrong. The band were not enthusiastic about it, seemingly borne out by it’s chart performances, but it’s one that has grown with time for me. It was quite dark, a driving dance homage to Stockholm, and I’m still not convinced they are singing “WALKING in the moonlight, love-making in a park”. It may be just me! I last heard it as it should be heard, loud in a club, in 2014 and it still has a menacing urgency that deserves re-assessment. |
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25th January 2015, 02:05 PM
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#3
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,851 User: 17,376
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28. Lovelight (3 points, 2 voters) One of the tracks of 1979‘s Voulez-Vous, their first album not to deliver a UK chart-topper since they won Eurovision, but still chock full of great tracks, including Lovelight. I always liked it a lot, but was never passionate about it, it almost sounds like it’s one that got held-over from a previous album rather than one of the increasingly ambitious, dance-oriented sound-productions of Voulez-Vous. Good enough for number 28, though... |
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25th January 2015, 02:17 PM
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#4
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,851 User: 17,376
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27. Angel Eyes (3 points, 2 voters, UK chart position 3) A double A side for the 3rd single off Voulez-Vous, making this the 4th track to be lifted (if Voulez-Vous is considered the superior side, which it is). Angel Eyes is infuriatingly catchy, but the lack of an official video or promotion for it shows it was more (I guess) a marketing exercise to boost sales of the single. To be honest, radio frequently chose to play Angel Eyes instead of Voulez-Vous as it was very radio-friendly and popular, though my deep love was for the other side. These days, that little riff going on in the background is a stand-out moment, and the melody of course. |
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25th January 2015, 02:32 PM
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#5
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,851 User: 17,376
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26. I Have A Dream (3 points, 2 voters, UK Chart peak 2) The 5th track off Voulez-Vous was more of a Christmas singalong bonus (following on from Gimme Gimme Gimme and Greatest Hits 2) and was only kept off the top by the mighty Another Brick In The Wall. Both had a kiddie choir helping out on backing vocals, and both appealed to kids and parents in big numbers. It’s a memorable tune, a positive message, and I feel I should love it more than I do. Maybe it’s the kids, maybe I just overdosed on it by the time it became a hit (I’d been playing it for 9 months already) but it’s not yet had a comeback in my affections to the same scale. |
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25th January 2015, 02:33 PM
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#6
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 Bitch of t seet
Joined: 2 April 2012
Posts: 27,396 User: 16,660
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Oh no
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25th January 2015, 02:46 PM
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#7
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❤️❤️➕🟦
Joined: 3 June 2012
Posts: 22,246 User: 17,160
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'I Have a Dream' just makes me think of Westlife unfortunately.
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25th January 2015, 02:50 PM
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#8
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,851 User: 17,376
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QUOTE(Uptown Froot @ Jan 25 2015, 02:46 PM)  'I Have a Dream' just makes me think of Westlife unfortunately. Oh, THAT'S the reason I got fed up with it, I forgot all about it! 
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25th January 2015, 06:53 PM
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#9
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It's a cruel summer.
Joined: 26 May 2014
Posts: 35,256 User: 20,947 
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I have a dream is beautiful so I wish it was higher
 This rate has got me so obsessed on abba and especially Mamma mia again
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25th January 2015, 07:08 PM
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#10
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,851 User: 17,376
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25. When All Is Said And Done (4 points, 1 voter) Album track from 1981’s The Visitors (in the UK) and a top 40 single in the USA, I very much believed at the time, and still do, that this should have been the follow-up to One Of Us rather than the inferior (if jolly) Head Over Heels. So do the lovely Buzzjack voters who didn’t vote for Head Over Heels at all, while this fab mature defiant statement of love for older people is classy enough to feature in the movie Mamma Mia, and even Pierce Brosnan hasn’t managed to ruin it’s charms. I often wanted to slap Epic Records for their choice of singles in the UK, usually preferring to go twee and safe when they should have gone sophisticated. Slap! |
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25th January 2015, 07:09 PM
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#11
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,851 User: 17,376
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QUOTE(Ultraviolence1989 @ Jan 25 2015, 06:53 PM) I have a dream is beautiful so I wish it was higher This rate has got me so obsessed on abba and especially Mamma mia again I can think nothing better than Abba love  Yay 
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25th January 2015, 07:17 PM
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#12
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It's a cruel summer.
Joined: 26 May 2014
Posts: 35,256 User: 20,947
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When all is said and done is very nice, I would rank it around there also
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25th January 2015, 07:34 PM
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#13
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,851 User: 17,376
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24. The Name Of The Game (4 points, 1 voter) I’m aghast at the low placing for this UK number one single! That said, world-wide it wasn’t as big as the previous few Abba singles. This lead single for The Album was rhythmically hypnotic, and was another of their great heart-break love songs, but they were by now willing to embrace subtlety of verse mixed with power of chorus. The groove was so great that the Fugees sampled it for their big hit in 1997, Rumble In The Jungle. I fondly recall getting slagged off by the boys in our college house (like an American frat, boys had their own first year house) as they were all intent on building a paper-machier pyramid for a Rag Parade float, while I was sat watching saturday morning kids TV (Swap Shop) waiting for them to debut the promised video. Sorry, Abba come before paper machier pyramids (they just DO!), and we didn’t have videorecorders or youtube then... |
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25th January 2015, 07:55 PM
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#14
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,851 User: 17,376
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23. Money Money Money (5 points, 3 voters) The one that came in between 3 hat-tricks of UK chart-toppers, hitting 3 in the charts, and peaking over the christmas 1976 period along with the parent-album Arrival. An ode to a woman struggling financially, and the desire for a man with a bit of cash to help things along? Possibly not PC these days, that, but it’s sort of an anthem for the poor, I like to think. Of course, it made Abba loadsamoney money money, and the tinkly-piano-driven hook gave it a 1920’s flavour, as showcased in the second of the 2 videos for this one. I preferred the original “Frida’s-hat-dashing-about” video though so that’s the one i’m going for. It’s great, of course, but like me Buzz Jack seems to also like it (3 voters) but not love it to bits when forced to choose. |
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25th January 2015, 08:08 PM
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#15
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,851 User: 17,376
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22. Honey Honey (7 points, 1 voter) The follow-up Top 10 UK hit to Waterloo in the UK - for Sweet Dreams! Such an obvious choice for the second single, Epic instead opted for Ring Ring (possibly for it’s similar Eurovision connections, and showing a lack of faith in the actual recorded product) which didn’t do nearly as well as Honey Honey. It’s sweet, of course, effortless-sounding, and a no-nonsense bubblegum harmony pop song. I didn’t get to hear the Abba version for another year or so after Sweet Dreams’ more soulful version had been and gone. I also like ex-Pickettywich Polly Brown’s vocals, and the male-female duet with Tony Jackson worked well, but of course Abba’s is the world-wide hit definitive version. Another slap for Epic UK! |
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25th January 2015, 08:27 PM
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#16
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,851 User: 17,376
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21. Our Last Summer (8 points, 2 voters) Super Trouper album track, a wistful, nostalgic ballad for past love (in Paris), and never a single, it has taken on a popular lease of life following it’s inclusion in the Mamma Mia musical - it certainly wasn’t well-known at the time, beyond Abba fans, and never struck me as a stand-out track, though as ever it’s Abba - of course I like it (as my belated personal chart position of 10 last week shows). It’s all about the chorus and I really should be commenting more on the individual vocal performances when it’s prominent - in this case Frida does a great job. Apparently Benny & Bjorn nicked a bit of it for their musical Chess. Can’t say as I noticed! next batch monday night as i'm off to watch The Voice on iplayer now... 
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26th January 2015, 12:22 PM
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#17
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Yes, it's me.
Joined: 4 November 2009
Posts: 19,813 User: 9,885
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I Have a Dream should not be among those songs.
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26th January 2015, 05:21 PM
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#18
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 I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,420 User: 12,929           |
Our Last Summer does everything right for me, it's wistful, it's very beautiful, and out of all the songs in the film version of Mamma Mia, it's the one I think works the best - that's certainly where I first noticed it and the reason why it shot into my ABBA faves so hard.
Honeyx2, Moneyx3 and The Name Of The Game are all pretty flawless too, already. Honey Honey I think was one of the first ones that I really began to pick out from the rest (personally was confused for ages about it not being on Gold but rather on More Gold) so that's quite special for me. |
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26th January 2015, 06:17 PM
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#19
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,851 User: 17,376
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20. Under Attack (9 points, 3 voters) Well, here’s a surprise then! The last new Abba single to be released ever, a minor synthed-sounding pleasant pop 1982/3 hit, but a sad way to bow out of a classic career - not that it’s bad, it’s just very low-key wistfully sweet. It has a terrific melody borrowed from their own fab Just Like That, and also the moment I heard it I had this 60’s song going over and over in my head with the hooky “won’t somebody see and save a heart, come and rescue me now cos I’m falling apart” bit: Obscure trivia, it’s pretty much the same melody and tempo as a segment of Glen Campbell’s cover of Bobby Goldsboro’s The Straight Life. Not a lot of people, as Michael Caine might say, know that. I assume a lot of people have seen the stage version of Mamma Mia, as it’s not in the movie, and it’s the only thing I can think of for it to do this well. I do love that melody though.... |
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26th January 2015, 06:33 PM
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#20
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 18 July 2012
Posts: 22,851 User: 17,376
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19. Fernando (9 points, 4 voters) So, we’re off to Fernando’s surprisingly early - not the dating game paradise that is (usually) Tenerife, no, it’s that old pop song cliched subject matter of revolutionaries looking back on fighting for a good cause. It’s not clear where, but Bjorn says it’s the Mexican-Texas conflict. Given the subject matter (and I think it’s fair to say Abba could make any topic work for them!) it’s stunning that this spanish-flavoured gentle singalong ballad sold 10 million worldwide, and became the longest-running (and one of the biggest-selling) singles at number one in Australia (14, weeks, along with The Beatles Hey Jude - now that’s what I call good company!). In the UK it looked like it was going to peak at 2 behind (ironically) Eurovision winners Brotherhood Of Man - 3 weeks it held them off the top spot before they finally gave in, and quite rightly too, Abba’s class and the campfire video won out in the end. It certainly won me over - I was into black & white photography in 6th form Art at the time, and developed my own negatives - including, of course, sitting in front of Top Of The Pops waiting for the video so I could take snaps of the best moments in the video to savour more than just a passing memory of a great video promo. As I said before, we had no video recorders, HD or DVD or Blu-Ray in those days, once it was gone it was gone forever (so we thought). Ooh that makes me sound SO obsessive! If the obsessive shoe fits.....? 4 voters show it’s well-loved here too, but it didn’t quite get into the top slots of the top 5’s. Did you know...? It was originally recorded on a 1975 solo album by Frida, then revised and improved by Abba for a stand-alone single after the surprise Number One success of Mamma Mia. |
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