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.

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....

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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....

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.

Really ? these would have easily been in my Top 40 :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart:

 

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

 

 

 

64. HEAD OVER HEELS - ABBA (1982 single)

 

 

 

58. ANGEL EYES - ABBA (1979 single)

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

44. UNDER ATTACK - ABBA (1982 single)

 

 

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

 

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

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.

One of us is great.

Really ? these would have easily been in my Top 40 :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart:

 

Hiya! :) Yes, I've had many conversations with Abba fans about the merits or not of Angel Eyes and some of their other more poppy tracks, and I do love them - just not as much as the others :D I think you're right spot on about the relative popularity of Our Last Summer and Andante Andante, for album tracks (and thanks to Mamma Mia's) they would probably do quite well in an Abba top 40 if the general public voted for them. If I ran this in a year's times, in a different mood, the positions would all change though (except the top 3).

Huge highlights for me :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart:

 

 

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.

 

 

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....

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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!

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

Edited April 18, 20205 yr by Dannyboy

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

 

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

 

 

Thanks AH, be careful what you wish for - Beatles and Pet Shop Boys are the other two acts I could easily do a Top 100 for :D

 

Great top 10 faves there, good to see That's Me and When All Is Said And Done so high. Your top 3 is very interesting....I can say no more except that they and SOS are in my top 10 along with the rest of the famous ones that havent turned up yet.... :)