One of us is great.

:heart:

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.

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

 

 

Fab news, fab taste :wub: - I wasn't sure how many of the lesser-known album tracks anyone knew, so it's quite heart-warming to hear they are loved too! Thanks :)

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.

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.

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.

 

 

Total highlights especially "The day before you came" :heart:

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

Total highlights especially "The day before you came" :heart:

 

Thanks Danny :)

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.....

Classic :heart:

 

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.....

 

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.

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.....

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....

 

 

A worthy Top 5 placing if not Top 3 for me

 

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....

 

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... :D

A worthy Top 5 placing if not Top 3 for me

 

Yes, totally worthy of top 3. I could have made several of them equal 3rd quite happily :D

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

 

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... :D

 

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. :P

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

 

I can't fault his taste then! :)

 

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! :P