ABBA On The Web - June 2005
A little while ago, my friend Grant reminded me about a website that I hadn’t looked at for quite a while.That site was Elmar’s ABBA Site (or Elmari ABBA lehekülg, in webmaster Elmar’s native Estonian). Visiting it again, I was reminded at the amazing wealth of information to be found there, so I thought I’d share it with you all here.
The majority of the website is in Estonian. The introductory page is also in English, and promises that the other pages in the site will be translated to English in the future.However, you don’t need to understand the language to enjoy the site and find all that it has to offer. It’s easy to get around, with a navigation bar to the left listing the various different sections. Clicking to open a section will open a new browser window, but subsequent clicking will open new sections in that same window.
The site is essentially a gigantic discography. Though many other websites offer the same sort of thing, this is one with a difference.The first seven sections – ABBA, Agnetha, Frida, Hep Stars, Hootenanny Singers, and Björn & Benny (B&B is broken into two separate sections, pretty much pre- and post-ABBA) – are essentially similar. Each section’s first page has links to pages of biography and history down the left of the screen. Across the page are links to various discographies – original release albums and singles, then pages detailing other albums, singles, videos, DVDs, books, reissue series, and much more. All these pages are quite clearly marked in English.
The ABBA, Agnetha, Frida, Hep Stars and Hootenanny Singers sections all contain records released both during their active recording years, and in the years since. The Björn and Benny sections contain not only records released by the boys as a duo or as solo artists, and the musicals the two have created since ABBA disbanded, but also the many records they have written and/or produced for other artists over the years.Each of the various discography pages shows very good and clear images of the album and single sleeves, plus full track details and catalogue numbers.
You can also navigate from page to page within the site. The biography/history pages contain links to the relevant bits in the discography pages, and clicking on record sleeves on the discography pages takes you to the relevant part of the biography/history page. Though the narrative text is only in Estonian, it’s not hard to get the gist of the contents of each page.The next link down the navigation bar (ABBA & eesti) is a page on Estonian cover versions of ABBA songs, including lyrics to two translated versions. Sing along in Estonian!
But it’s the next section down that’s the one that contains my own personal highlight of Elmar’s site: ‘Stig Anderson & Polar Music AB’ starts off with a short biography of Stig Anderson and a history of Polar Music (yes, still in Estonian), but through links at the bottom of the page, is the complete Polar Music discography – every single album, single, and EP ever released by Polar Music from the beginning in 1963 with those first Hootenanny Singers singles, through to 1988, just before Sweden Music and Polar Music were sold off to PolyGram. Many of the singles and albums are illustrated with their sleeves. Truly, it’s an amazing tribute to the legacy of Polar Music.Also included through the navigation bar are links to some personal information, Elmar’s own ABBA collection (which is also linked through the other sections), plus external links to Elmar’s home town and country. Like most ABBA sites, there are also links to several other ABBA sites.
So, if you’d like to take a look at the many records ABBA and the individual members have released over the past four decades, and especially if you’re interested in the history of Polar Music AB, then I highly recommend that you visit Elmar’s ABBA Site.