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Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th April 2020, 06:35 PM

Rules: No covers of Abba stuff, but anything else linked to the 4 members of Abba can be included. These are the 100 I like best, and you may not know them all......!

100. HE IS YOUR BROTHER - ABBA (1972 single)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th April 2020, 06:41 PM

99. THE ANGELS CRY - Agnetha Faltskog (1985) Eyes Of A Woman album track from Justin "Moody Blues" Hayward

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th April 2020, 06:46 PM

98. NINA PRETTY BALLERINA - ABBA (1973) RING RING album track

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th April 2020, 06:49 PM

97. THE LAST TIME - Agnetha Faltskog (1988 single)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th April 2020, 06:53 PM

96. ANOTHER TOWN ANOTHER TRAIN - ABBA (1973 Ring Ring album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th April 2020, 06:59 PM

95. PEOPLE NEED LOVE - ABBA (1972 single)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th April 2020, 07:02 PM

94. I WON'T LET YOU GO - Agnetha Faltskog (1985 single Eric "10CC" Stewart song)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th April 2020, 07:08 PM

93. TROPICAL LOVELAND - ABBA (1975 Abba reggae album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th April 2020, 07:12 PM

92. YOU OWE ME ONE - ABBA (1982 B side)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 11th April 2020, 07:17 PM

91. ROCK ME - ABBA (1975 ABBA album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 08:16 AM

90. WHEN YOU WALK IN THE ROOM - Agnetha Faltskog (2004 single Jackie De Shannon cover)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 08:19 AM

89. WATCH OUT - ABBA (1974 Waterloo rocking album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 08:28 AM

88. ROCK 'N' ROLL BAND - ABBA (1973 Ring Ring rocking album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 08:32 AM

87. I KEEP THEM ON THE FLOOR BESIDE MY BED - Agnetha Faltskog (2013 A album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 08:36 AM

86. THE HEAT IS ON - Agnetha Faltskog (1983 single)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 08:41 AM

85. MEDLEY: PICK A BALE OF COTTON/ON TOP OF OLD SMOKEY/MIDNIGHT SPECIAL - ABBA (1978 wacky charity album track & B side)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 08:58 AM

84. WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE ME - ABBA (1976 Arrival album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 09:07 AM

83. THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU NOW - Agnetha Faltskog (2013 single)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 09:13 AM

82. DANCE YOUR PAIN AWAY - Agnetha Faltskog (2013 single)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 09:15 AM

81. DANCE (WHILE THE MUSIC STILL GOES ON) - ABBA (1973 Waterloo album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 10:57 AM

80. ONE MAN ONE WOMAN - ABBA (1978 The Album album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 10:59 AM

79. I SHOULD HAVE FOLLOWED YOU HOME - Agnetha Faltskog and Gary Barlow (2013 single)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 11:02 AM

78. DOES YOUR MOTHER KNOW - ABBA (1979 single)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 11:09 AM

77. I AM THE CITY - ABBA (1982-era ABBA MORE GOLD album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 11:13 AM

76. PUT ON YOUR WHITE SOMBRERO - ABBA (1980-era THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 11:18 AM

75. HAPPY HAWAII - ABBA (1977 B side better version of Why Did It Have To Be Me)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 11:24 AM

74. I WONDER (DEPARTED) - ABBA (1978 The Album album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 11:27 AM

73. LOVERS (LIVE A LITTLE LONGER) - ABBA (1979 Voulez Vous album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 11:31 AM

72. MY MAMA SAID - ABBA (1974 Waterloo Album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 11:39 AM

71. DREAM WORLD - ABBA (1978-era THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC album track with the hook from Does Your Mother Know)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 04:46 PM

70. JUST LIKE THAT - ABBA (1982-era unreleased track, clip only on Thank You For The Music, full pirate version here)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 04:48 PM

69. INTERMEZZO NUMBER 1 - ABBA (1975 Abba instrumental album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 04:50 PM

68. I DO I DO I DO I DO I DO - ABBA (1975 single)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 06:24 PM

67. I KNOW HIM SO WELL - Elaine Paige & Barbara Dickson (1985 single from Bjorn & Benny's Chess Musical)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 06:26 PM

66. TIME - Frida & B. A. Robertson (1984 single, Abba's instrumental Arrival plus new lyrics)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 06:29 PM

65. LOVELIGHT - ABBA (1979 B side)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 06:32 PM

64. HEAD OVER HEELS - ABBA (1982 single)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 06:35 PM

63. HEY HEY HELEN - ABBA (1975 Abba album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 06:38 PM

62. THE KING HAS LOST HIS CROWN - ABBA (1979 Voulez-Vous album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 12th April 2020, 06:40 PM

61. THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC - ABBA (1978 The Album album track/1983 single)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 13th April 2020, 09:14 AM

60. SO LONG - ABBA (1974 single)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 13th April 2020, 09:16 AM

59. CASSANDRA - ABBA (1982 B side)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 13th April 2020, 09:18 AM

58. ANGEL EYES - ABBA (1979 single)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 13th April 2020, 09:21 AM

57. HASTA MANANA - ABBA (1974 Waterloo album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 13th April 2020, 09:23 AM

56. HONEY HONEY - ABBA (1974 Waterloo album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 13th April 2020, 09:49 AM

55. ANDANTE ANDANTE - ABBA (1980 Super Trouper album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 13th April 2020, 09:51 AM

54. ON AND ON AND ON - ABBA (1980 Super Trouper album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 13th April 2020, 10:32 AM

53. TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE - ABBA (1981 The Visitors album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 13th April 2020, 10:39 AM

52. OUR LAST SUMMER - ABBA (1980 Super Trouper album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 13th April 2020, 10:48 AM

51. ELAINE - ABBA (1980 B side)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 15th April 2020, 05:55 PM

50. AS GOOD AS NEW - ABBA (1979 Voulez-Vous album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 15th April 2020, 05:58 PM

49. I HAVE A DREAM - ABBA (1979 single)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 15th April 2020, 06:01 PM

48. WHEN I KISSED THE TEACHER - ABBA (1976 Arrival album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 15th April 2020, 06:04 PM

47. RING RING - ABBA (1973 single)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 15th April 2020, 06:07 PM

46. IF I THOUGHT YOU'D EVER CHANGE YOUR MIND - Agnetha Faltskog (2004 single cover of Cilla Black 1969 hit)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 15th April 2020, 06:10 PM

45. ARRIVAL - ABBA (1976 album largely instrumental title track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 15th April 2020, 06:13 PM

44. UNDER ATTACK - ABBA (1982 single)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 15th April 2020, 06:16 PM

43. ONE NIGHT IN BANGKOK - Murray Head (brother of Buffy's Anthony Head) (1984 Benny & Bjorn's Chess album musical single)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 15th April 2020, 06:19 PM

42. MY LOVE MY LIFE - ABBA (1976 Arrival album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 15th April 2020, 06:23 PM

41. DUM DUM DIDDLE - ABBA (1976 Arrival album track)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 15th April 2020, 07:01 PM

OK, I didn't do commentaries for all 100 or I'd never had got the list done. I genuinely love everything on the list increasingly as it goes on, but the top 40 is pretty much the cut-off what I especially A grade love to bits. Everyone knows the famous singles, but there's more to Abba than those, and I especially love the darker side of Abba - their image is Mamma Mia fun-but-sad-happy, but I once planned a very dark follow-up musical to Mamma Mia using the darker songs with a dark tragic plot I was hoping to get Abba to think about, and then after the film success they went and did Mamma Mia 2 which sort of put the chance of it happening close to zero, so I didn't bother working on the idea any more. Some of the songs that might work in a dark musical are in the top 40.

40. HAPPY NEW YEAR - ABBA (1980 Super Trouper album track and single in some territories)





This is classic Abba singalong and is still popular in some European countries each New Year, but sadly not in the UK as very annoyingly it wasn't chosen as a single from an album that was packed with potential singles. They'd just had 2 number ones in a row, and then John Lennon was shot and that took over the musical world for the rest of 1980, it was such a shock. I still wonder if maybe they'd have released it at Christmas if that hadn't happened ready for a New Year top 5 smash, which was virtually guaranteed at that phase of their career. Instead they delayed a 3rd single for months and missed the opportunity for another big hit. Abba's UK record label did this constantly to my ongoing annoyance. Still tuneful, wistful, and lovely, and the only New Year's song worth digging out each year that springs to my mind, unless you count U2's New Year's Day as a New Year track (which I don't).

Posted by: Popchartfreak 16th April 2020, 08:54 AM

39. SLIPPING THROUGH MY FINGERS - ABBA (1981 The Visitors album track)



Abba's final album was their saddest and most adult, quite downbeat over-all and my least-favourite since Abba at the time, but time has been kind and it's really rather fab. This, for example, was a song I liked but would never have singled-out particularly - not until I saw the Mamma Mia movie, and then it all clicked, it's lovely, bittersweet, gentle and moving all at once. Understated often is an advantage in the long run.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 16th April 2020, 09:03 AM

38. I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU - ABBA (1974 Abba album track and B side)



Back at christmas 1974 I was big into Abba, as the rest of the UK seemed to fall out of love with them I was mad keen on So Long, their latest flop glamrock single, and this was the B side. Mellow Abba was something I wasn't prepared for, I only could afford singles, usually from bargain baskets, and Abba's singles had all been upbeat pop or rock tracks to date. Consequently I played it a few times, called it "nice" and forgot about it until I got hold of the Abba album in 1976 - at which point I was more dazzled by the poppier tracks I was discovering to pay attention to it much. Skip forward 30 years or so, and I saw this video I think, which brought the charms of the melody into sharp focus, and it was a goose-bump moment - how on Earth had I not noticed how fab the song was!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 16th April 2020, 09:11 AM

37. I LET THE MUSIC PLAY - ABBA (1981 The Visitors album track)



Another low-key track on The Visitors that I wasn't at all fussed about at the time, more or less picking up where The Albums' Mini-Musical ambitions had left off. Benny & Bjorn were clearly gearing up for Chess, this song would be spot-on perfect in a musical, it has all the ingredients, a central vocal for a great female singer (Frida's honey-sweet warm vocals do it total justice), and it takes you on a 5-minute plus musical journey, swirling this way and that way along with the orchestra. Gorgeous.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 16th April 2020, 09:28 AM

36. WATERLOO - ABBA (1974 Eurovision-winning single)



Shock-low-placing moment! I've adored this record since the moment I first heard it: I was 16, I was earning pocket-money babysitting for quite a few RAF families with kids of all ages on Saturday Nights while their parents went out for darts evenings and dances with my parents, and on Eurovision night I'd got the kiddies in bed in time for me to settle down and watch Eurovision, the best contest to date, the best contest of the 20th century, and won by the track that was an instant "Oh my God I love this record, and I love Abba!" moment. I bought it full-price immediately as soon as I could, sod revising for my exams, and straight in at 1 on my charts it was. Still the definitive and most-popular Eurovision winner, it was even a big hit in the USA on it's own rights - they'd no idea about Eurovision there - and the story goes that launched them on to world stardom. Err, no it didn't. It gave them a foothold of familiarity and 18 months of hard work to overcome the stigma that winning Eurovision meant in those days, and still means. Honey Honey was a hit - but not for Abba - Ring Ring scraped into the charts, So Long flopped, I Do I Do I Do got into the 50 thanks to some Radio 2 support (Terry Wogan was a fan) but they were largely dismissed by critics as a flash in the pan act. The latter track put a chink in my love for Abba, it was sub-par for me, but it didn't last long...

So why so low? Over-familiarity, partly, I hear it without that nostalgic glow these days as it's always getting played somewhere, but also because errr there are 35 Abba tracks I love even more....

Posted by: Toilet Rollo 16th April 2020, 10:22 AM

Bjorn's hat in the top left hand corner of corner of the Waterloo thumbnail matches yours.

I only know Abba's singles really but it's good to see Under Attack and Head Over Heels quite high up. I hope One Of Us and The Day Before You Came are still to come. They stopped at the wrong time for me. I prefer their later singles to the earlier ones.

I didn't know Murray Head was Anthony Head's brother.

Posted by: Feel_The_Fever 16th April 2020, 12:10 PM

I only know their singles and I like waterloo but prefer many others to it.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 16th April 2020, 12:58 PM

QUOTE(Toilet Rollo @ Apr 16 2020, 11:22 AM)

Bjorn's hat in the top left hand corner of corner of the Waterloo thumbnail matches yours.

I only know Abba's singles really but it's good to see Under Attack and Head Over Heels quite high up. I hope One Of Us and The Day Before You Came are still to come. They stopped at the wrong time for me. I prefer their later singles to the earlier ones.

I didn't know Murray Head was Anthony Head's brother.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 16th April 2020, 01:00 PM

QUOTE(Feel_The_Fever @ Apr 16 2020, 01:10 PM)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 16th April 2020, 01:11 PM

35. I KNOW THERE'S SOMETHING GOING ON - Frida (featuring Phil Collins) (1983 single)



Frida's finest solo moment by some distance, and the best non-Abba track on the rundown - if it sounds a bit like Phil Collins' In The Air Tonight, that's because it's Phil Collins drumming, singing backing, and producing. As if ol' Phil didn't already have a very busy solo and band schedule, he thought he could also sling in a solo album with Frida while he was at it. The song is written by the fab songwriter and popstar Russ Ballard who'd teamed up with Zombies' Rod Argent to form the band Argent, who kick-started his hit songwriting career with God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You, a solo album, and songs galore gifted to hit-makers like Hot Chocolate (So You Win Again), Rainbow (Since You've Been Gone), America (You Can Do Magic) and Hello (New York Groove). A top 10 hit everywhere, virtually, except the UK, where it still remains largely obscure, but even the USA got it to 13 in the charts so the fault is entirely at the feet of the UK music industry (ie Radio and promotion) rather than this thumpingly good rock track not being hitworthy.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 16th April 2020, 01:24 PM

34. MONEY MONEY MONEY - ABBA (1976 single)



The one that interrupted what would have been a run of 7 number one's in a row if they'd gone for another track off the Arrival album - I mean it's great, loved the video (one of 2 they made) which got shown on Top Of The Pops, the ragtime-vibe suited the lyrics, and the lyrics will ever-remain pertinent and true for the masses living out their lives making ends meet - and yet it wasn't my choice for the next single after Dancing Queen (that's coming later), though it probably is a better actual song than my faves tracks on the album, and it's still pretty famous and popular so peaking at 3 can't have been too bad. I recall it competing with Queen's Somebody To Love for the top spot, but neither eternally popular band actually making it thanks to....err, Showaddywaddy's Under The Moon Of Love cover and Johnny Mathis' When A Child Is Born Christmas song. Ouch! That still hurts....

Posted by: Popchartfreak 16th April 2020, 01:31 PM

33. ME AND I - ABBA (1980 Super Trouper album track)



Smooth and polished, sophisticated but still got the pop hooks, Abba's last huge commercial hurrah was around 1980, and the album was crowded with potential singles, so it was frustrating that they only released 2 old-fashioned 45's off the chock-a-block album. Tracks like this fab Frida-led goodie that could have filled a chart gap in early January or February 1981 while we waited for the 12"-only next track. And it's not even the best non-single track on Super Trouper....

Posted by: Popchartfreak 16th April 2020, 01:50 PM

32. THAT'S ME - ABBA (1976 B-side and Arrival album track)



B-side to Dancing Queen, and ahead of the album release I loved this track as much I'd loved some past Abba singles, which set me on course for doing something I never did - buying a current pop album at full price when it came out. They were pricey and I preferred singles, but I had to have those peak-Abba tracks anyway. Totally worth every penny. Abba even kept me buying the singles by putting B sides on that weren't available elsewhere - as all the best bands did in the days when you bought more than one track (and Pet Shop Boys still do).

Posted by: Popchartfreak 16th April 2020, 01:52 PM

31. IF IT WASN'T FOR THE NIGHTS - ABBA (1979 Voulez-Vous album track)



Such a fabulous lost single this one - Bjorn and Benny considered as single-material, even performing it on The Mike Yarwood Show, and instead Epic went for the way-inferior Does Your Mother Know and the throwaway poppy Angel Eyes - though in both cases they at least made up for that by having flips that were also better than the main radio hits - both of them still to come. There's a Dancing Queen vibe to this one, and the song is just achingly good, the girls vocals impeccable, the production flawless. I can only guess they didn't want to be accused of doing Dancing Queen part 2 after the stick they got for the temerity of releasing the previous single with a title that sounded like a previous Abba chart-topper - how very dare they!!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th April 2020, 09:22 AM

30. HOLE IN YOUR SOUL - ABBA (1978 The Album album track)



I love the banging intro to this one, and the uptempo girl-vocal hyperactive verse (which is really the main hook) while the low-key male-sung chorus is like it's from a different song. Bung in some key changes straight from the style of musicals (very much the theme of the album) and it's a right ol' odd one that always pushed my buttons even though I know it's a bit of a cheesy mish-mash.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th April 2020, 09:33 AM

29. BANG-A-BOOMERANG - ABBA (1975 Abba album track & European single)



Talking of cheesy - here's the moment when I started to realise the UK branch of Epic weren't on the same wavelength as me and my pop sensibilities. This was the obvious catchy, hooky single-that-never-was off Abba - timing was an issue (ideally it should have come out after I Do I Do I Do), as were the naff lyrics: Bjorn had not quite made the quantum leap in quality for English lyrics that he would display in later years - but I still love soaring guitar intro, the driving rhythm and as is often the case, the verse and the bridge links to the chorus. The chorus is the let-down, though there's no denying it gets stuck in your head. Frothy pop fun. Kiddies, please don't try banging a boomerang, it'll just come back to you afterwards as a bad idea....

Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th April 2020, 09:43 AM

28. TIGER - ABBA (1976 Arrival album track and single in some territories)



12 months on from Bang-A-Boomerang and the new Arrival album was massive leap in quality and sophistication, and this was my instant takeaway fave to be a single, and yet again I was disappointed. The growling guitar riffs, the prowling bridges after the soaring chorus, the pounding verse, the girls vocals fab, full of attitude and then gentle, this is a sort of early version of older women-as-jaguars looking for a good time (or else troublingly hyperactively stalking) and it's just fab. This would have been my choice for 2nd single, not Money Money Money, or failing that a 4th track (as it was in some countries) in the summer gap between number ones and the wait for the next release in the autumn of 1977. Just that in those days 4 singles off an album wasn't a thing anyone did...

Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th April 2020, 09:54 AM

27. TAKE A CHANCE ON ME - ABBA (1978 single)



Hook-laden chug-chugging train-rhythm intro and a huge catchy single, in the USA second only to Dancing Queen in chart success. At the time I loved the video, and sometimes annoyed my male-housemates in College digs with my Abba obsession (had the posters on the wall, had The Album), especially Pete and Alan who I shared a room with - I was prone to park myself downstairs in the TV lounge to maker sure I got to see the latest Abba video on Top Of The Pops or Saturday morning kids TV. At least till I brought my portable B&W from home to stop the moaning. One of our first year girls went walkabout before the latest TOTP one evening, so we were out patrolling the streets trying to find her - she'd been depressed about a relationship breakdown I think, and we were concerned - but all turned out well, she was found and I got to see this video in time. I don't love it as much as I did at the time, but it's still pop class.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th April 2020, 10:07 AM

26. GIMME GIMME GIMME (A MAN AFTER MIDNIGHT) - ABBA (1979 single)



Final year at College now, digs on campus, mixed-sex as we had our own rooms which was fab, own space, yay! Then this came out unexpectedly as a single-only release after Abba had done 3 singles off Voulez-Vous, with yet again blindingly obvious tracks still to be released as singles - in the event they waited until Christmas before pulling I Have A Dream off - but this was a more subtle-Abba, and not one of my top Abba singles given most of the releases of the past 4 years by late 1979 - but time has been kind, especially with that riff, so good that Madonna nicked it for Hung Up 27 years later. It topped my chart, of course, from Mamma Mia on everything they released topped my chart, it was just a question of how many weeks on top (2 weeks). So good a title that it was nicked for a camp sitcom, and if it wasn't really dance/disco it was a nice little diversion into funkpop.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th April 2020, 01:46 PM

25. SHOULD I LAUGH OR CRY - ABBA (1981 B side to One Of Us)



This should so have been on The Visitors album, it fits in beautifully with the sad mood, and 9 tracks was a bit short-changing. I'm guessing it was because Frida had a few showstopping solo vocals on the album and the lads liked to keep those roughly equal on singles and albums, but even so this is a real loss - it's both gently sad and beautiful. As almost all their key tracks by this point, the lyrics deal with break-up and being alone - both couples were now history - and benny's musical creations and arrangements are increasingly low-key sophisticated: but pay attention to the lyrics. No longer are there grammatical errors in a second language, what you have now is lyrical poetry, give or take, and marvel how Bjorn writes them from the woman's point of view, not the man's. Total gem.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th April 2020, 01:58 PM

24. THE PIPER - ABBA (1980 Super Trouper album track)



This has the feel of a traditional folk song, both in subject matter and choice of marching band instruments and flute. I assume it's a flute anyway! It's a great story song of the sort they used to tackle like Fernando, but a bit jollier, albeit with more lush synth arrangements. Synths were now very much on show on Abba tracks by 1980, which gave them a more full-bodied warmth - but overall I prefer the older less-obviously-synth arrangements, except on the dance tracks and the sparser arrangements. Short and sweet.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th April 2020, 02:03 PM

23. MOVE ON - ABBA (1978 The Album album track)



Another good song, I like the melody, back with the flutes (it must be a thing for me) and the semi-yodelling la-la-lala's. The spoken bits by Bjornn might be a bit to cheesy for some tastes, and now I'm playing again it prob should be a few places lower actually, but hey ho, my feelings about each song changes on a daily basis. This is just a snapshot with a general feel for where they rate....

Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th April 2020, 02:31 PM

22. KISSES OF FIRE - ABBA (1979 B side and Voulez-Vous album track)



Id ever a B side was better than the A side it's this one: WAY better than the OK Does Your Mother Know. It's rousing disco, a great hook, Agnetha & Frida on top vocal form, and I love the hush bits erupting into smouldering choruses. I still don't get Does Your Mother Know's wide appeal. It's fun, yes, it gives Bjorn a lead vocal on a single, yes, but most of Voulez-Vous was better. Hey ho.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 17th April 2020, 02:44 PM

21. SUMMER NIGHT CITY - ABBA (1978 single)



While this one, on the other hand, gave Bjorn something decent to get involved in - even if it DOES sound like he's singing "f***ing in the moonlight", and the bulk of the song is Agnetha & Frida in unison. OK, I may be wrong there, but that's how I heard it in late 1978 and I see no reason to change my mind now. Essentially their forgotten big hit, this one, not on an album proper, just compilations, and originally set up to be on Voulez-Vous - till they saw the not-a-chart-topper chart positions, I'm guessing, or it was just a bit dark n sleazy for Voulez-Vous. A theoretical dark musical of less-known Abba music would need this one as a centrepiece. I'd not heard it for ages (it tended not to get radio play in the decades afterwards) then one night a few years back in a Vauxhall cool-oldies club that rattling piano-fill intro came on, and the pounding, throbbing love came back loud and clear to me again. Under-rated. Play very loud, it'll make sense.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th April 2020, 10:02 AM

20. THE WAY OLD FRIENDS DO - ABBA (1980 Super Trouper album track)



Recorded live at Wembley in 1979 - and never a single! It's got the ultimate singalong feel-good message, bounding with optimism in a pessimistic world. No big production values, simple backing, just flawless singing, a great song, and the backing singers joining in. It pisses all over Thank You For The Music and I Have A Dream, lacking any trace of over-sentimentality, this one has a more vibrant Happy New Year positivity and hope. Why on Earth is this not better known!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th April 2020, 10:08 AM

19. I'M A MARIONETTE - ABBA (1978 The Album album track)



As featured on tour in Australia for the filming of Abba: The Movie, this was the anchor track of "The Girl With The Golden Hair" mini-musical trio of tracks on The Album - and it really would work in a musical proper. Not one bunged together from hits with a populist storyline (albeit great fun), but one with a strong dramatic storyline. Could still happen! Anyway, dramatic, loved the wigs on the girls and matching costumes, and a strong song.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th April 2020, 10:30 AM

18. THE NAME OF THE GAME - ABBA (1977 single)



Lead track off the forthcoming The Album, this dropped not long after I'd started College (or Uni as it is named now) in Lincoln, a teacher-training religious-leaning establishment geared around Primary school teaching, and with a boy-girl ratio of about 10 to 1, consequently the first year boys were all housed in an Animal House-type large house off the grounds and down the road where my love for this record and need to watch the video got me a "not one of the crowd" rep, hogging the house TV, as previously-mentioned. It eventually culminated in the vote for our entry for the Rag Parade charity float opting for building a paper-mache pyramid and prancing about in slave mini-skirt costumes in public cos it was easy to do. My two room-mates agreed it was a shit idea, but caved in to peer-group pressure. The thought of showing my skinny legs and arms in the cold streets of Lincoln outweighed my willingness to accept the pressurised group democracy, so I instead became the official photographer for the day which at least won me a bit of popularity back when they wanted copies doing afterwards. Things I do for Abba...

This song is fab, subtle and shuffling, the rhythms so good that Fugees nicked it for their good big hit Rumble In The Jungle, and clearly the more adult Abba of Knowing Me Knowing You was an established thing, using romantic problems in the imagery of a board game, Agnetha as the vocal and visual focus of domestic troubles a combo that never failed, and Frida and Benny's happy frollicking in the video (they were very much an item at the time) not going unnoticed as Bjorn and Agnetha started to drift apart under their global mega-success (Agnetha never liked the pressures of touring and fame). Quality single.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th April 2020, 10:39 AM

17. LIKE AN ANGEL PASSING THROUGH MY ROOM - ABBA (1981 The Visitors album track)



Understated and then some, a ticking clock is the backbone of this one, subtle orchestra, chiming gentle instrumentation, and beautifully touching vocal from Frida. No drums, no guitars, just sheer gorgeousness throughout. One that sounds better as you get older, it's mature and brilliant and the need for poppy hit singles had passed. There would be no more high quality catchy pop songs from this album forward, and I would have been very happy for them to have matured for another album or two - but that wasn't really what the public wanted and expected.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th April 2020, 10:49 AM

16. SUPER TROUPER - ABBA (1980 single)



Honey sweet and delicious, this glorious pop confection sung by Frida signalled the end of the road for Abba's touring days, the melancholy lyrics countering the upbeat arrangement and melody, and the video was just fab. The album was fab. Everything still seemed flawless in Abba World, but in the real world I was now unemployed along with 2 or 3 million others struggling for jobs anywhere, my grandma had a heart attack while visiting (she recovered) and then my world entered into another dimension when John Lennon was murdered, my hero. Abba's music took on my mood of the time and the sad songs seemed even sadder. It was also the end of an era for Abba - no more number ones, though that in part was probably due to record company choices, this album had plenty of singles on it, they just didn't release them.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th April 2020, 03:59 PM

15. SOLDIERS - ABBA (1981 The Visitors album track)



How much of an Abba fan was I? Day of release, 15 months on the dole with no money, I made sure I had enough cash and I trudged down the hills of frozen snowswept Mansfield streets to Revolver records to buy this album. It was slippery underfoot and bitter. By the time I got it back home the vinyl album had warped from the cold. Doh! This was one of the highlights on one play, the other tracks weren't generally immediate and it was clear it was very downbeat generally. The lyrics mentioned "In the grip of this cold December" and it was indeed. What's it about? It's not clear, but it may be referencing the arms race between The USSR and the USA, and the mutual distrust going on as we all got a bit worried about atomic war. Happy times! Terrific track anyway, regardless of lyrical clarity.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th April 2020, 04:07 PM

14. THE VISITORS - ABBA (1981 The Visitors title album track)



Now this should have been the 3rd single off the album, the only track that has any beats for dancing, and it's a downbeat, haunting almost 6-minute building corker. It's a study of paranoia I think, cos if it's not it's a very disturbing lyric! "Crackin' Up" is the key moment. It's mainly verse with a brief chorus, and once again it's the verse that grips my attention more.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th April 2020, 04:18 PM

13. WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE - ABBA (1981 The Visitors album track and worldwide single outside the UK)



As I continue to mine The Visitors, here's the perfect example of how useless the UK branch of Epic Records was: they went for Head Over Heels, one of two bits of fluff on the album, and were rewarded with Abba's first failure to go top 20 in 7 years. The rest of the world largely went for the best track on the album outside the first single, even the USA got a minor hit out of it. Upbeat and positive amongst the overall gloom, this one pushed the sentiment that it would all work out, despite a break-up, no blame and that knocking on a bit didn't mean you were too old for sex and the possibility of another relationship. Mature, pounding, life-affirming. Would SO have gone top 10 as long as Pierce Brosnan hadn't killed it publicly with a karaoke effort....

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th April 2020, 04:22 PM

12. FERNANDO - ABBA (1976 single)



Coming off the back of 2 top 10's this gave Abba a 3rd UK chart-topper after hanging around at 2 for weeks. It was the long, hot summer of 1976, when anything yellow got covered in swarms of ladybirds, including the school bus and my school bag, grass was parched, and the video for this just fit in, strumming around a fire at night with a latin-sounding song, and me perched in front of the TV with my camera taking snaps of the best bits so I could develop the black & white images at school (I was into photography) and have my own souvenir of the video. In those days there was no home recording, no internet, no visual music outlets, and the assumption was that once it had started dropping down the charts that was that, if you were lucky you'd get to see it once more on the Christmas Top Of The Pops, and then never ever again for the rest of your life. So catching Abba's fab videos when I could was a huge thing for me. They stood head and shoulders over everything else in 1976, musically and visually. There was NO competition that came close. Glam had died, punk hadn't been born, disco was building, and there was only Abba. They were so big that they invented a new thing: A Greatest Hits album which contained 6 hits only, and one new huge single to promote it: Fernando. It sold in bucketloads.

Posted by: Dannyboy 18th April 2020, 04:35 PM

Really ? these would have easily been in my Top 40

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 12 2020, 12:24 PM)

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 12 2020, 07:32 PM)

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 13 2020, 10:18 AM)

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 13 2020, 10:49 AM)

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 13 2020, 11:39 AM)

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 15 2020, 07:13 PM)

Posted by: AH Gold 18th April 2020, 04:45 PM

Amazing list and a great idea! Hoping for a Pet Shop Boys list next

ABBA had so many incredible songs, I'd find it very hard to do a Top 100 though my Top Ten would probably be like this:

1. Knowing Me Knowing You
2. The Day Before You Came
3. Eagle
4. One Of Us
5. Take A Chance On Me
6. Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight)
7. Under Attack
8. When All Is Said And Done
9. That's Me
10. S.O.S

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th April 2020, 04:46 PM

11. ONE OF US - ABBA (1981 single)



The final track off The Visitors on the list, the final big Abba hit, the final Agnetha-does-heartbreak single and a video that shows her packing up and moving on, art imitating life, and a lovely sad track. I stupidly turned down a picture disc version of the single when I bought it from Revolver record shop in Mansfield - the previous day the young girl assistant had accidentally stuck some brand new singles in the bag of back catalogue gems I was buying up at cheap rates - and I mean gems going back a decade as the independent shop had been bought up by the new owner Revolver, as I recall it, and they were shifting old stock, a total boom time for me as classic singles I was after beckoned to me from the racks and I was caught in their spell. Anyways, got home, realised her mistake, played and recorded them all and went back next day with them to buy the new Abba single, this one. I waited until her boss disappeared, browsing, then took them back - she was SO grateful that I got embarrassed, and when I asked for One Of Us she asked me if I wanted the Picture Disc version, which was so unexpected I was too surprised to think about whether or not it was the same price (it was I later found out) and just said "no thanks". Being shy is such a pain in the arse.

Posted by: Feel_The_Fever 18th April 2020, 04:47 PM

One of us is great.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th April 2020, 04:54 PM

QUOTE(Dannyboy @ Apr 18 2020, 05:35 PM)

Really ? these would have easily been in my Top 40

Posted by: Dannyboy 18th April 2020, 04:58 PM

Huge highlights for me

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 16 2020, 09:54 AM)

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 16 2020, 02:31 PM)

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 17 2020, 02:58 PM)

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 17 2020, 03:44 PM)

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 18 2020, 11:02 AM)

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 18 2020, 11:30 AM)

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 18 2020, 11:39 AM)

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 18 2020, 11:49 AM)

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 18 2020, 05:07 PM)

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 18 2020, 05:46 PM)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th April 2020, 04:58 PM

QUOTE(AH Gold @ Apr 18 2020, 05:45 PM)

Amazing list and a great idea! Hoping for a Pet Shop Boys list next

ABBA had so many incredible songs, I'd find it very hard to do a Top 100 though my Top Ten would probably be like this:

1. Knowing Me Knowing You
2. The Day Before You Came
3. Eagle
4. One Of Us
5. Take A Chance On Me
6. Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight)
7. Under Attack
8. When All Is Said And Done
9. That's Me
10. S.O.S

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th April 2020, 05:01 PM

QUOTE(Feel_The_Fever @ Apr 18 2020, 05:47 PM)

Posted by: Dannyboy 18th April 2020, 05:03 PM

I would find it so hard to do a Top 100 as I find all their albums since "Abba" to be so strong, I genuinely think most of the albums tracks could have been singles.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 18th April 2020, 05:03 PM

QUOTE(Dannyboy @ Apr 18 2020, 05:58 PM)

Huge highlights for me

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th April 2020, 11:05 AM

10. THE DAY BEFORE YOU CAME - ABBA (1982 single)



This subtle, extended, hook-free gem of a story-song came in for stick when it came out for being a bit boring, and Abba fans ignored it in their tens of thousands. What!? Yes, it's low-key sad and wistful, but that's the point - generating a feeling of the mundane in the daily repetition of life that you didn't even realise was mundane - until you met the one that changed everything. It's actually beautifully romantic and hopeful. As I was into 2 years of unemployment, and another 2 years of factory work by this time, the day-to-day descriptions hit home strongly with me. Sadly, things didn't pick up for years, but that's not Abba's fault. I suspect this was the moment that Abba realised the game was up (at least for now) if they wanted to go this direction and the public weren't so keen.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th April 2020, 11:11 AM

9. CHIQUITITA - ABBA (1979 single)



A video that never got aired at the time, that I recall at any rate, and a single with band profits donated to UNICEF, and featured on a special UNICEF album which I have, as well as Voulez-Vous single 2. The theme and mood suited the charity perfectly, but the song got criticised for being like Fernando. It's nothing like Fernando. They both have Mediterranean name titles, and that's about it. Hey ho. Touching, and a great melody, and the extended instrumental is so good that it appeals to the odd non-Abba fans as a little riff on it's own.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th April 2020, 11:22 AM

8. LAY ALL YOUR LOVE ON ME - ABBA (1981 12" single)



After months of waiting Epic eventually released a 3rd track from the fab Super Trouper album - and it was this cool dance track. Sadly they released it on 12" only, which was quite pricey for someone on the dole so I had to skip buying it like many other fans - and it peaked suitably lower in the chart (though sold very well for a 12" record that year). A picture disc 45 would have got it top 3 for sure. It's a shame, as it's turned out to be a helluva popular track - not least as the lead track on the Abbaesque covers by Erasure in 1992 which topped the charts - FAR more appropriate a chart placing, even if it was nowhere near as good. The affectionate amusing video pastiches of classic Abba videos didn't hurt, mind you, just as the lack of a video (for some bizarre reason no doubt) did hurt the chart chances of the Abba original.

Posted by: Dannyboy 19th April 2020, 01:27 PM

Total highlights especially "The day before you came"

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 19 2020, 12:05 PM)

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 19 2020, 12:22 PM)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th April 2020, 02:37 PM

QUOTE(Dannyboy @ Apr 19 2020, 02:27 PM)

Total highlights especially "The day before you came"

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th April 2020, 02:53 PM

7. S.O.S. - ABBA (1975 single)



Right then, the only classic Abba single to fail to top my chart at the time (it has done it since, but was the last of a run of 4 singles to fail to do it) - and it didn't quite even make my top 10. Why didn't I appreciate their breakthrough as bonafide talents in their own right fully? I think it was down to a few factors: my Singapore hi fi was faulty and I'd had to record stuff off a portable radio with a hand-microphone so everything sounded less good, but some pop songs were affected more than others by that; I was used to upbeat glamrock pop Abba, didn't rate I Do I Do I Do that highly and having a ballad was a bit of a change; I didn't get to see the video (that would have made a difference); Top Of The Pops kept screening a live performance Abba did on Summertime Special and the sound just wasn't right. Of course it's genius, and I eventually came to my senses. This is a great creation by any standard, and a key record from 1975, a brilliant song, so good that The Sex Pistols nicked the riff for Pretty Vacant. So there you have it, Glen Matlock confirms Abba inspired the first radio hit of the ultimate punk band. That's a thing.....

Posted by: Dannyboy 19th April 2020, 02:58 PM

Classic

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 19 2020, 03:53 PM)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th April 2020, 03:05 PM

6. MAMMA MIA - ABBA (1975 single)



So. The moment my Abba love became an obsession. This video was just fabulous, and it was obvious they were the first band to master the promo video properly and have it count towards their ongoing success. I don't mean as a means of promotion (The Beatles were doing that a decade before), or the first mega-video that everyone remembers (Queen's Bo Rap beat them to it, the one they knocked off the top of the UK charts), but as a means of tackling all the world markets, and putting real thought and creativity into them, Abba were the first to master the artform and conquer the world using it. Yes, even the USA - they might not have been the biggest acts of each year, but they had hits throughout. Mamma Mia was probably my consistent 3rd fave Abba record until the movie put it back on the Abba map bigtime, and it became almost as radio-played as Waterloo and Dancing Queen. Over-familiarity is often a problem for the major classics - see Bo Rap, which I can't bear to hear anymore, despite topping my charts for ages in the 70's and 90's and being a masterpiece of note. Jangly piano/guitar fade in/fade out, hooks galore, and a deserved second chart-topper that just romps along. Fab.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th April 2020, 03:14 PM

5. VOULEZ-VOUS - ABBA (1979 single)



The highest-rated out-and-out frantic dance track, love the rhythm and the guitar riffs, love the driving beat more, love the melody, love the girls giving it oomph vocally, love the sexy naughtiness suggested in the title, love the disco horns, love the extended groove for the disco that reigned supreme at the time. Disco was huge, this record is huge-sounding. The main puzzle was why they felt it couldn't have stood as a single in it's own right - pairing it with Angel Eyes took away a lot of radio play, and I certainly got annoyed when they decided to play the wrong track (as I saw it) on the chart rundown. These things matter! They both topped my chart, of course, as a double A Side, but there's a distinct possibility Angel Eyes might not have had it not been paired with Voulez-Vous.....

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th April 2020, 03:28 PM

4. THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL - ABBA (1980 single)



Heartbreaking. It just is. Taking up the theme toyed with on The Name Of The Game of love as a game of win or lose, but Agnetha was never more convincingly sad than on this, her favourite Abba recording. Benny & Bjorn also rate it as one of their greatest songs, and so do I - there's no abrupt changes of pace, chords, the melody instead ebbs and flows seamlessly into one complete work. They were the best pop songwriters in the world bar none, at this stage. The video was also fabulously sad, focusing on Agnetha's face and performance, and I just missed getting it recorded for posterity on a new-fangled fad-gadget called Phillips Video 2000 - I'd egged my dad on to buy one, as he'd quite fancied one, mum less keen as they weren't cheap and the tapes were £20 each for 2 hours or so at a time when twenty quid was a big chunk of cash and 3 generations of males in my family were suddenly unemployed: granddad retired, dad out the RAF, and me finished College. The quality was fab, the tragedy was it was expensive so less bulky formats betamax and VHS competed to drive it out of business pretty quickly. But I bought my first tape just too late to copy this video, doh! My first recording was instead Ashes To Ashes, David Bowie's influential New Romantic chart-topper. Swings & Roundabouts....

Posted by: Dannyboy 19th April 2020, 03:40 PM

A worthy Top 5 placing if not Top 3 for me

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 19 2020, 04:28 PM)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th April 2020, 03:43 PM

3. EAGLE - ABBA (1978 The Album album track and single in some territories)



The highest-placed non-UK single, I mean what were Epic playing at in the summer of 1978!? They had 2 classic tracks on The Album, they had Abba: The Movie out promoting this track and The Album and Abba, and Grease songs were topping the chart all summer, there was plenty of space to knock them off the top with a swift double A side of Eagle and Thank You For The Music, as places like Australia did - and they just didn't bother with a 3rd single. I mean, c'mon..... Eagle is brilliant, it soars, not just thanks to the state-of-the-art promo for the movie, and the lyrics - the soaring guitars, the lush production, the haunting mood and melody, and that hook is just to die for. My fave track on The Album no question, and I played it and the album a lot in digs with my two room-mates Pete & Alan listening on (it was Pete's record player). They both liked it - but not enough to buy it themselves. Nor enough to go with me to see the film so that I wasn't the only lad amongst a bunch of girl-mates - we all hung out together socially, so it was just me n the girls Jane, Sue, Julie who went. Pretty sure that was the first time I was "one of the girls" on a night out. Only Abba could have persuaded me to. I was in The North, more or less, after all...

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th April 2020, 03:44 PM

QUOTE(Dannyboy @ Apr 19 2020, 04:40 PM)

Posted by: Dannyboy 19th April 2020, 03:45 PM

This reminds me of my dad as it is his favourite Abba song, I also really like it, maybe not Top 5 but would certainly be high up

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 19 2020, 04:43 PM)

3. EAGLE - ABBA (1978 The Album album track and single in some territories)



The highest-placed non-UK single, I mean what were Epic playing at in the summer of 1978!? They had 2 classic tracks on The Album, they had Abba: The Movie out promoting this track and The Album and Abba, and Grease songs were topping the chart all summer, there was plenty of space to knock them off the top with a swift double A side of Eagle and Thank You For The Music, as places like Australia did - and they just didn't bother with a 3rd single. I mean, c'mon..... Eagle is brilliant, it soars, not just thanks to the state-of-the-art promo for the movie, and the lyrics - the soaring guitars, the lush production, the haunting mood and melody, and that hook is just to die for. My fave track on The Album no question, and I played it and the album a lot in digs with my two room-mates Pete & Alan listening on (it was Pete's record player). They both liked it - but not enough to buy it themselves. Nor enough to go with me to see the film so that I wasn't the only lad amongst a bunch of girl-mates - we all hung out together socially, so it was just me n the girls Jane, Sue, Julie who went. Pretty sure that was the first time I was "one of the girls" on a night out. Only Abba could have persuaded me to. I was in The North, more or less, after all...

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th April 2020, 03:57 PM

2. DANCING QUEEN - ABBA (1976 single)



Peak Abba, no question. Topped the US charts and everywhere else. Everyone knows it. It was the moment Abba became a thing, 3 number ones in quick succession, 2 number one albums in the same year, and creatively on pop-fire. Not really a dance record at all, of course, in the disco sense, it's more of a waltzy-shuffle set to soaring harmonised vocals and orchestral backing, with the tinkly piano filling out frills here and there. Abba were so big and widely-popular that I was surprised to find out some of my teachers had bought Arrival, who knew! My abiding memory of the fab video - we got to see it week after week on Top Of The Pops, and the record had hit me with instant love from the moment I heard it first, and from that moment on - was of The Lake District geography field trip, and watching it on Top Of The Pops in the Keswick lodgings downstairs lounge with others from school. My other memory of that day was being woken up in the middle of the night by Martin McCarthy and mates who thought it would be funny to move my bed to the middle of the bedroom while I was still in it thanks to room-mate Sean letting them in. Oh how I saw the funny side and laughed....not! Interrupt my sleep, guaranteed grumpy.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th April 2020, 03:58 PM

QUOTE(Dannyboy @ Apr 19 2020, 04:45 PM)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 19th April 2020, 04:13 PM

1. KNOWING ME KNOWING YOU - ABBA (1977 single)



My favourite Abba video (love the snow scenes and freeze-frames), the saddest song of all given it was sort of predicting their romantic futures, and the harmonies were all-inclusive this time, even Bjorn was joining in, and more - there were multiple harmonies and hooks going on simultaneously, it's like getting 3 songs for the price of one - the Lost Art of counterpoint singing 2 tunes at the same time is much-missed by me, 60's bands like The Mamas & The Papas & before that DooWop could bung 'em out with ease, and then it went out of fashion. And then melody went out of fashion to boot, by the 90's you could take a few notes, repeat them for 4 minutes under a high bpm and call it a "song". Those sort of songs might have instant impact but they also get boring quickly too, give me a song with a more intricate melodic structure anyday, it bears repeat listening, which is probably why this has held Dancing Queen off the top spot. That and it's not played quite so often. This was the song that I started to notice fellow pop musicians praising in the music rags, as the table had finally turned on the fight to win peer-group-approval as well as popular success. In the end even the rock journo's had to grudgingly admit they weren't just fluffy Eurovision cheesy pop. I could have told them that years earlier. I did say that, actually, to anybody unfortunate enough to raise the topic of Abba in a negative fashion, cos I never believed they wouldn't be regarded as one of the greatest pop acts of all-time. Take THAT music critics!

Posted by: Dannyboy 19th April 2020, 05:23 PM

Wouldn't be this high for me (maybe low top 10/high top 20) but still a good song overall

Posted by: Feel_The_Fever 19th April 2020, 06:38 PM

I enjoy dancing queen but its there most used or covered song so I go through phases for it. I enjoy knowing me knowing you it would be among my faves.

Posted by: Toilet Rollo 19th April 2020, 11:22 PM

Knowing Me Knowing You is one of their best,no doubt. For me,The Day Before You Came would be 1st followed by One Of Us in 2nd place. They are both songs I appreciate more now than I did at the time they were out.

I've enjoyed reading through the thread.

Posted by: Crazy Chris 20th April 2020, 07:16 AM

Great thread Popchartfreak. Must admit I'd not heard of some of Agnetha's solo songs but they're rather good.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 20th April 2020, 07:19 AM

QUOTE(Dannyboy @ Apr 19 2020, 06:23 PM)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 20th April 2020, 07:21 AM

QUOTE(Feel_The_Fever @ Apr 19 2020, 07:38 PM)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 20th April 2020, 07:24 AM

QUOTE(Toilet Rollo @ Apr 20 2020, 12:22 AM)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 20th April 2020, 07:25 AM

QUOTE(Crazy Chris @ Apr 20 2020, 08:16 AM)

Posted by: dandy* 20th April 2020, 03:26 PM

Lay All Your Love On Me is comfortably my favourite ABBA song - possibly down to the fact that I liked Erasure before I'd ever heard ABBA.

Posted by: Crazy Chris 20th April 2020, 04:35 PM

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 20 2020, 08:25 AM)

Thanks Chris, glad you liked them, I was hoping to promote some of the lesser-known stuff

Posted by: Popchartfreak 21st April 2020, 07:07 AM

QUOTE(dandy* @ Apr 20 2020, 04:26 PM)

Posted by: Popchartfreak 21st April 2020, 07:10 AM

QUOTE(Crazy Chris @ Apr 20 2020, 05:35 PM)

Posted by: dandy* 21st April 2020, 10:57 AM

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 21 2020, 08:07 AM)

Oh you youngsters.... It is a great song though....

Posted by: Popchartfreak 21st April 2020, 04:05 PM

QUOTE(dandy* @ Apr 21 2020, 11:57 AM)

I'm afraid I still prefer the Erasure version even now - I am very much aware that I'll be alone in that view though!

And YAY it's not often I get called a youngster!!!

Posted by: AH Gold 29th April 2020, 01:32 AM

Ah, we have the same No.1 and No.3!

Knowing Me Knowing You is faultless as far as I'm concerned. There's nothing you could add to it or remove to improve it.

Why Eagle was never a UK single is beyond me. As much as I love Summer Night City (which would be in the low teens in my fave Abba list), I think Eagle would have been a much bigger UK hit if they released that in its place.

Dancing Queen would have been in my Top 10 once upon a time, but over familiarity and overplay has pushed it down. Still a classic though obviously.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 2nd May 2020, 09:09 AM

QUOTE(AH Gold @ Apr 29 2020, 02:32 AM)

Ah, we have the same No.1 and No.3!

Knowing Me Knowing You is faultless as far as I'm concerned. There's nothing you could add to it or remove to improve it.

Why Eagle was never a UK single is beyond me. As much as I love Summer Night City (which would be in the low teens in my fave Abba list), I think Eagle would have been a much bigger UK hit if they released that in its place.

Dancing Queen would have been in my Top 10 once upon a time, but over familiarity and overplay has pushed it down. Still a classic though obviously.

Posted by: Last Dreamer 24th October 2020, 03:57 PM

John, "I'm Marionette" got very deserved high position in your list.
This song grew up very much for me after this "The Girl with the Golden Hair" performance.



My full ranking here :
1. That's Me
2. Honey Honey
3. When All Is Said And Done
4. I Am Just A Girl
5. When I Kissed The Teacher
6. Disillusion
7. Angeleyes
8. Knowing Me, Knowing You
9. The Winner Takes It All
10. Ring Ring
11. Waterloo
12. Hasta Manana
13. Head Over Heels
14. Nina, Pretty Ballerina
15. Thank You For The Music
16. I'm A Marionette
17. Dream World
18. I Have A Dream
19. Two For The Price Of One
20. Kisses Of Fire
21. Slipping Through My Fingers
22. Happy New Year
23. Me and I
24. You Owe Me One
25. One Of Us
26. Me & Bobby & Bobby's Brother
27. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do
28. Dancing Queen
29. Another Town, Another Train
30. I Wonder (Departure)
31. I Let The Music Speak
32. Andante, Andante
33. Money, Money, Money
34. Like An Angel Passing Through My Room
35. I've Been Waiting For You
36. My Love, My Life
37. Super Trouper
38. Elaine
39. Dum Dum Diddle
40. Gonna Sing You My Love Song
41. If It Wasn't For The Nights
42. As Good As New
43. Should I Laugh Or Cry
44. Dance (While The Music Still Goes On)
45. I Am The City
46. Why Did It Have To Be Me ?
47. Tiger
48. Bang-A-Boomerang
49. Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure Is Hard Enough)
50. On And On And On
51. Medley (Pick A Bale Of Cotton / On Top Of Old Smokey / Midnight Special)
52. Summer Night City
53. Crazy World
54. Lovelight
55. Take A Chance On Me
56. One Man, One Woman
57. S.O.S.
58. Our Last Summer
59. Suzy-Hang-Around
60. Mamma Mia
61. Rock 'N' Roll Band
62. Merry-Go-Round
63. She's My Kind Of Girl
64. The King Has Lost His Crown
65. What About Livingstone
66. The Name Of The Game
67. So Long
68. Rock Me
69. The Day Before You Came
70. Happy Hawaii
71. Under Attack
72. Does Your Mother Know
73. Hey, Hey Helen
74. He Is Your Brother
75. Tropical Loveland
76. Voulez-Vous
77. I Saw It In The Mirror
78. People Need Love
79. Sitting In The Palmtree
80. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
81. The Piper
82. Cassandra
83. The Way Old Friends Do
84. Lovers (Live A Little Longer)
85. Soldiers
86. The Visitors
87. Santa Rosa
88. My Mama Said
89. Lay All Your Love On Me
90. Hole In Your Soul
91. Move On
92. Man In The Middle
93. Eagle
94. Chiquitita
95. Put On Your White Sombrero
96. Watch Out
97. King Kong Song
98. Intermezzo No.1
99. Arrival
100. Fernando

Posted by: Poptarttreat 25th October 2020, 09:20 AM

QUOTE(Last Dreamer @ Oct 24 2020, 03:57 PM)

John, "I'm Marionette" got very deserved high position in your list.
This song grew up very much for me after this "The Girl with the Golden Hair" performance.



My full ranking here :
1. That's Me
2. Honey Honey
3. When All Is Said And Done
4. I Am Just A Girl
5. When I Kissed The Teacher
6. Disillusion
7. Angeleyes
8. Knowing Me, Knowing You
9. The Winner Takes It All
10. Ring Ring
11. Waterloo
12. Hasta Manana
13. Head Over Heels
14. Nina, Pretty Ballerina
15. Thank You For The Music
16. I'm A Marionette
17. Dream World
18. I Have A Dream
19. Two For The Price Of One
20. Kisses Of Fire
21. Slipping Through My Fingers
22. Happy New Year
23. Me and I
24. You Owe Me One
25. One Of Us
26. Me & Bobby & Bobby's Brother
27. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do
28. Dancing Queen
29. Another Town, Another Train
30. I Wonder (Departure)
31. I Let The Music Speak
32. Andante, Andante
33. Money, Money, Money
34. Like An Angel Passing Through My Room
35. I've Been Waiting For You
36. My Love, My Life
37. Super Trouper
38. Elaine
39. Dum Dum Diddle
40. Gonna Sing You My Love Song
41. If It Wasn't For The Nights
42. As Good As New
43. Should I Laugh Or Cry
44. Dance (While The Music Still Goes On)
45. I Am The City
46. Why Did It Have To Be Me ?
47. Tiger
48. Bang-A-Boomerang
49. Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure Is Hard Enough)
50. On And On And On
51. Medley (Pick A Bale Of Cotton / On Top Of Old Smokey / Midnight Special)
52. Summer Night City
53. Crazy World
54. Lovelight
55. Take A Chance On Me
56. One Man, One Woman
57. S.O.S.
58. Our Last Summer
59. Suzy-Hang-Around
60. Mamma Mia
61. Rock 'N' Roll Band
62. Merry-Go-Round
63. She's My Kind Of Girl
64. The King Has Lost His Crown
65. What About Livingstone
66. The Name Of The Game
67. So Long
68. Rock Me
69. The Day Before You Came
70. Happy Hawaii
71. Under Attack
72. Does Your Mother Know
73. Hey, Hey Helen
74. He Is Your Brother
75. Tropical Loveland
76. Voulez-Vous
77. I Saw It In The Mirror
78. People Need Love
79. Sitting In The Palmtree
80. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
81. The Piper
82. Cassandra
83. The Way Old Friends Do
84. Lovers (Live A Little Longer)
85. Soldiers
86. The Visitors
87. Santa Rosa
88. My Mama Said
89. Lay All Your Love On Me
90. Hole In Your Soul
91. Move On
92. Man In The Middle
93. Eagle
94. Chiquitita
95. Put On Your White Sombrero
96. Watch Out
97. King Kong Song
98. Intermezzo No.1
99. Arrival
100. Fernando

Posted by: Scene 25th October 2020, 10:05 AM

QUOTE(Popchartfreak @ Apr 19 2020, 12:11 PM)

Posted by: Poptarttreat 25th October 2020, 12:49 PM

QUOTE(Scene @ Oct 25 2020, 10:05 AM)

My favourite ABBA song. It has grown on me over time... when I first heard it I didn't take much notice. But slowly and steadily it has risen in my affections to the point I play it more than any other song at the moment. Truly stunning.

Posted by: Scene 28th October 2020, 01:14 PM

QUOTE(Poptarttreat @ Oct 25 2020, 01:49 PM)

I agree I think it ages well, as it was never really "of it's time" when it came out, so it hasn't really dated, and the circus-style outro is also timeless