One Of Us is so underrated, such a lovely song.

I hope We Write The Story is in your revised top 100 too *.*

 

Oh, without a doubt, it really is tremendous.

Agreed, such a majestic dance song, it would probably be in my top five songs of this decade or thereabouts.

#05 - ABBA - Under Attack

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c6/ABBA_-_Under_Attack.jpg

 

 

Moving into the top 5 we have ABBA's penultimate single and a song which for a number of years was my absolute ABBA favourite. As with most of the 1982 era output it's the sound of ABBA moving on, at least in terms of musical output from the break ups and the bleakness of The Visitors. Tracks like You Owe Me One (the b-side to this) and I Am The City showed a seeming regaining of the passion for music too. Sadly, of course, that was not actually the case but I think that had they continued we could have had another cracking album. The video for this is also a ''we've made it through the dark times'' affair, with the band all starting at separate points in a warehouse, only to meet up and walk away into the freeze frame sunset at the end of the video. It would have worked brilliantly as their final video, but then that would have robbed us of an even greater musical joy.

#04 - ABBA - Summer Night City

 

http://images.45cat.com/abba-summer-night-city-pepita.jpg

 

 

Also known as the one where ABBA say 'f***ing', sorry LOVE-MAKING. This is a song B&B were never quite happy with and there are apparently many demo versions in the archives, but we do have 2 different versions released. The single version (in the video above) eschews the dramatic string laiden into which they would use in all the live performances of the song. That is very definitely the definitive version for me, it lulls you into a false sense of security with the strings and then BAM the synths kick in and it's a totally different beast. It's about the long, hot, summer nights in Stockholm and the video shows a relatively carefree ABBA messing around the city late at night.

Summer Night City *.*

#03 - ABBA - Lay All Your Love On Me

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/fi/4/4c/Lay_All_Your_Love_on_Me.jpg

 

 

Narrowly missing out on a spot in the top 2 is Lay All Your Love On Me. Indeed this and the #2 song are basically neck and neck, so let's call them equal second. THAT synth line, surely one of the greatest things in musical history. Especially in the last 30 seconds or so when it all goes CRAZY. This also deploys one of my favourite 80's musical tricks, the ever-extending chorus. First it's 2 lines, then 4, then 8, then it's REPEATED. Amazing. I have nothing less than glowing praise and superlatives for this song.

Lay All Your Love On Me is the only ABBA track that I can say I truly love.

 

(I listened to the one you suggested by the way, it was okay but kinda confirmed ABBA just aren't very D*)

#02 - ABBA - The Winner Takes It All

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/27/Winner_Takes_It_All.jpg

 

 

So just missing out on the top spot, in equal second (sort of) is ABBA's last UK #1, The Winner Takes It All. WHAT a song, yet oddly it's one which took a number of years to grow on me. I've been a big ABBA fan all my life really (my mum played them to death when I was a child, being 2 when Gold came out it worked out well for me), but it took until the last 5/6 years for me to really ADORE this. Much like Dancing Queen I always knew it was a true pop gem, but like DQ the overplay had always put me off it. However, unlike DQ I managed to get over that (probably through this actually having some kind of resonance with me). Anyway, it is of course a song about the divorce of Agnetha and Bjorn, but f*** me they knew how to make heartbreak into one hell of a tune. That it's so simple musically as well makes it even more remarkable that the song sounds so huge. The last minute or so (as always) when Ag lets rip vocally and the backing vocals kick in and the piano gets raised in the mix is yet another example of why ABBA are so damn incredible.

So, I'm off out for a bit but I shall reveal the WINNER before I go to bed. It should be quite obvious what it is at this point.

Or now, seeing as I'm not leaving for a bit

#01 - ABBA - The Day Before You Came

 

http://moole.ru/uploads/posts/2011-10/1320090164_26.jpg

 

 

What else, really. In many ways this song is quite un-ABBA. There's no huge spangly pop chorus lurking after the next verse, it clocks in at almost 6 minutes long and lyrically it tells more of a story than usual. However, it is in my opinion not just the best ABBA song, but also one of the very best pieces of music ever recorded. Residing firmly in my all time top 3. The synth line is just as present as ever, although it's far from joyous this time. It's more reflective of the general mundane life that this women is leading, almost trudging along. That is, of course, until a stranger in the night comes into her life (via a particularly GREY looking train) and things get that little bit brighter, less mundane and more bearable. It all comes to a head in the final minute with almost ethereal, operatic, vocals from Frida (some of her very best). By this point the public interest for ABBA had long since died and this limped in at #32, their lowest charting single in over 8 years, but is a firm fan fave and it's so easy to see/hear why.

Amaze top 3. LAYLOM is lush, even moreso when Dominic Cooper sings it.

Oh, this entire top 10 is near perfect. Well worth the wait, and I've really been getting into/discovering the beauty of Under Attack/Summer Night City in the last year or so from the more niche ones here.

Oh you have the same top 3 as me! Well, sort of. Sometimes One Of Us competes too.

Oh, this entire top 10 is near perfect. Well worth the wait, and I've really been getting into/discovering the beauty of Under Attack/Summer Night City in the last year or so from the more niche ones here.

 

YAY

 

I hope this goes to show that although the big hits are bonafide POP GOLD, they really do have a huge array of truly great pop songs outside of that too.

 

Thanks for all the comments and thanks to Rich for his ceaseless pushing of me to finish this, it finally paid off and helped me to a couple of days of rediscovering ABBA (insofar as I can, of course).

Oh you have the same top 3 as me! Well, sort of. Sometimes One Of Us competes too.

 

Well then you have even more excellent musical taste than I previously thought!

Amazing top three, all of these would be in my top four along with When All Is Said And Done.

 

I was astonished, but very pleased, when The Day Before You Came polled third in that ITV best ABBA songs show, I was surprised so many people were even aware of the track!

 

Great countdown, thank you for finishing it <3

Very different with my ranking.

"The Winner Takes It All" is ultimate pop song, should be # 1 in every mainstream chart of ABBA songs.

Very interesting read J▼hnkm! Agree with a good 90% of the top ten especially the choice of number one!

 

As a kid my least favourite song was 'The Day Before You Came' and least favourite album was 'The Visitors', but now, the tracks surrounding that era are the ones that I keep coming back to, particularly TDBYC. I used to dismiss the lyrics to The Day Before You Came as silly for being so boring, like they were just writing the first things that sprung to mind. While now, fully understanding the context of the song, I consider it possibly the best lyric and one of the best vocals of their entire career and it's now the lyrics of tracks I used to love as a child that I dismiss as silly.