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This week marks the 25th anniversary of ABBA’s win at the Eurovision Song
Contest, with the song
The impact on the musical world was as historic as the title. Quite simply, ABBA are to pop music what The Beatles were to rock music.
They may not have the same credibility, their songs may not be radio staples, but they remain firmly entrenched as a soundtrack to this century.
If anything, ABBA are more popular since their 1982 split.
ABBA Gold, the best-of collection released in 1992, has sold more than 13 million copies, and has been repackaged to commemorate the Eurovision win.
The band, who have sold more than 350 million albums, still sell 1.2 million a year.
Behind the bad clothes (which even the band grimace at now), the production on ABBA hits was so ahead of its time their songs still stand up in today’s hi-tech market.
The band were so prolific that their back catalogue is endlessly (and lucratively) plundered.
ABBA songs also continue to be covered, Kylie Minogue performed Dancing Queen during her intimate and live tour last year.
Kurt Cobain loved ABBA so much he invited cover band Björn Again to support Nirvana, and there’s even a band Abbacadabra, who just release dance versions of ABBA hits.
As well as Björn Again, who now make a tidy living touring the world
re-creating ABBA from the costumes up,
This week sees the release of Thank ABBA For The Music, a medley of ABBA hits (Take A Chance On Me, Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia, Thank You For The Music) first performed at the recent Brit Awards by UK pop-stars Cleopatra, B*witched, Billie, Tina Cousins and Steps.
Steps, in particular, are shameless in their adoption of ABBA harmonies, songwriting tricks and imagery – and they also have a boys/girls mix.
The video to their hit Last Thing On My Mind features steps re-creating the classic ABBA move of a camera shot with one vocalist side-on, the other in the background, their faces side-to-side. “When we recorded Last Thing On My Mind it was obvious we had that ABBA sound, “Steps’ Faye Tozer said this year.
“People like us sounding like that and our producers are using that theme more.”
ABBA first made their musical mark with Ring, Ring, which came third in the 1973 Swedish preliminary Eurovision Song Contest.
The band members were husband and wife Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog, plus Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad (who married in 1978).
Despite winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 with
“Everyone thought ‘This is the Eurovision group, they are supposed to be dead, what are they still doing here?” Ulvaeus said recently. “It was such an uphill struggle.”
They pushed themselves to write better songs. A year latter came
S.O.S., then
Mamma Mia, which returned them to
number one in the
The first place the song reached number one internationally was
They would go on to achieve six Australian number one hits, and a film
ABBA-The Movie was mostly filmed in
Even today it’s hard to imagine any band being able to bring a city to a standstill like ABBA did during their visit. The hits came quick and fast: Fernando (originally a Swedish song intended for a solo album by Frida), Dancing Queen (their only American number one), Money, Money, Money, Knowing Me, Knowing You, The Name Of The Game, Chiquitita, Voulez-Vous, Does Your Mother Know, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!, Thank You For The Music (Fältskog recorded her vocals flat on her back while pregnant) and The Winner Takes It All.
The latter (The Winner Takes It All), a heartbreaking document of the divorce of Ulvaeus and Fältskog in 1979, is still voted as one of the saddest songs of all time.
Fältskog still holds it as their finest moment.
Andersson and Lyngstad would divorce in 1981.
As to why their music has lasted so long, Ulvaeus once noted: “As a writer I have to believe part of the secret is the songs. I think the unique quality of the two girls singing together, giving it that very distinct sound, is also a factor, and the production. What can I say?”
While they were one of the biggest bands in the world, they rarely toured.
“I certainly didn’t look upon it as a live band,” Ulvaeus said.
“It was nice every now and then to meet the fans, meet the audience and all of that, but other than that it took away the time from creating new songs. Writing on the road didn’t work for us.” Fältskog touched on the pressures of being in ABBA. “It was just hard, hard work, high temperaments and a strain on the nerves.” Since the band split, the four members of ABBA have only performed together once, in 1984, at manager Stig Anderson’s 50th birthday.
Fältskog did not even attend his funeral several years ago after being
hounded by the press in
Fältskog and Lyngstad both embarked on solo careers, with mixed success. Andersson and Ulvaeus moved into musicals.
Their first, Chess, spawned
several hits during the 1980s and was later unsuccessfully brought to
The new musical, Mamma Mia!, opens
this week in
The pair are also working on a new musical.
An ABBA book is being written, with a forward by Tim Rice, while a Singles Collection Box will house their 28 singles, many of the B-sides on CD for the first time.
The only thing missing is an actual ABBA reunion.
“We’ll never have a formal comeback, “said Ulvaeus who admits the members are “too old” and a reunion would be “pathetic.”
Fältskog, however, leaves the door slightly open.
“I feel each thing has its day. ABBA needs a rest.” Transcribed for ABBA World
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