ABBA’s namesake cops it from the public

The Daily Telegraph 23 April 1976

A Sydney man who doesn’t listen to pop music is bearing the full brunt of ABBAmania which has swept across Australia in the past twelve months.

Mr David Abba, the liaison officer for the Red Cross Blood Bank in Sydney, is getting wisecracks, jokes and even people singing to him because his name is the same as the Swedish pop group’s.

Mr Abba said yesterday that he didn’t realise there was a pop group with the name until people started singing tunes to him when he introduced himself.

“It’s got to the stage where I can’t lift up the phone without people singing songs like Mamma Mia to me,” he said.

“I don’t know much about the group – I just know they’ve taken Australia by storm.

“I haven’t got much time to listen to pop music so I’ve just only heard of ABBA.”

Mr Abba said more and more people seemed to be catching on to ABBA – and his name-every-day.

“I work with people all the time and everyone seems to have heard of ABBA, the group, now,” he said.

“I’m even getting songs played on the radio which are dedicated to me.

“Malcolm T. Elliot played one song for me this week and I guess if ABBAmania keeps up I’ll have to buy one of the group’s records myself.”

ABBA are still proving to be the most popular group to have hit Australia since The Beatles.

This week they have five songs on the 2UE Top 40 Chart.

They are Fernando (No.1), Ring, Ring (No.4), Rock Me (No.5), Mamma Mia (No.20) and SOS (No.22).

Their albums include The Best Of ABBA (No.1), ABBA (No.3), Ring, Ring (No.5) and Waterloo, which was released two years ago (No.20).