ABBA

ABBA was a pop music group, famously Scandinavian, that enjoyed significant success during its decade long career, becoming one of the iconic rock bands of the 1970s.

History

Three Swedish musicians, and one born in Norway, release a single, People Need Love as group in 1972 under a rather unwieldy group name setting out each of their four names: 'Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid'.

The four members of the band were Swedes Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Agnetha Fältskog and Norwegian-born Anni-Frid Lyngstad.

It was not until almost a year later in 1973 that the band's manager became annoyed with such an extended nomenclature to refer to the band, and began referring to the group using the first letters of each of their names to form an acronym, ABBA.

In 1974 ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton with a song that became their first number one hit, 'Waterloo'. This was the biggest international hit of any Eurovision winners, and was later voted the best song of the first 50 years of Eurovision.

ABBA became one of the most successful pop groups ever, and their music continues to remain commercially popular 25 years after the release of their last studio album, The Visitors.

At the height of their career, a movie was filmed of their 1977 Australian tour, and released as ABBA--The Movie, along with an accompanying album 'ABBA--The Album' in 1978.

The end of ABBA

By 1981 the band was clearly moving apart.

The band's final album The Visitors was released in 1981 to much lower sales than most of the group's earlier recordings. An often hoped for later album, Opus 10 which had been planned, has never materialized. Final studio recording sessions took place in 1982, with two final singles The Day Before You Came and Under Attack being the final ABBA records at that time.

The individual band members have continued to pursue careers in music, albeit sporadically in the case of the female members.

In 2004, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of their own Eurovision triumph, that year's Eurovision preliminary final broadcast included an homage to the group and ABBA surprised many as they collaborated, to a limited extent, on a new project.

The Last Video--a short film featuring puppets telling the ABBA story backed by a storyline--comprised a story about ABBA auditioning in Stockholm and used lyrics from their music to tell the narrative . One of the most amusing being the use of a lesser known lyric 'What's that noise? What's that dreadful rumble' from their lesser known Soldiers used by two other audition hopefuls at their recording studio to criticise the sound ABBA were making in their audition for the record producer, played by Rik Mayall of British TV comedy The Young Ones.

ABBA have never officially broken up, but have not performed together since a private function in 1986.

One of the most lasting impacts of their music has been the worldwide success of a musical theater production called Mamma Mia! --based on ABBA music, but not based on the story of ABBA the group.

Continuing influence

The band's influence continues to be felt in popular culture.

One of these influences is the pervasive presence of ABBA songs, even though, in some markets, for example the US, they had only a modest showing in terms of how many became Number One hits.

Australian movies The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Muriel's Wedding featured ABBA songs on the soundtrack.

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme was used as the title song to the British comedy series of the same name.

An unmistakable indicator of popularity is the extent to which something can be referred to and be instantly recognized, without the need for explanation. The spoofing of ABBA and ABBA songs is an example. BBC comedy Not the Nine o'clock News parodied ABBA in the musical sketch "Super Dooper", probably a play on the title song from the "Super Trooper" album.

In an episode of The Vicar of Dibley, a character called Jim, a perpetual ditherer who prefaces every answer by stuttering "N..n...no...no...no...." raised uproarious laughter in the live audience by attempting to say the title Knowing me, Knowing you.

The band has long had a following in the gay community.

In March 1987, when the band's popularity had definitely faded as an influence on popular culture, a Sydney, Australia gay bar--'The Unicorn Hotel' in the heart of what was then the city's Oxford Street gay precinct--held an inaugural 'ABBA night', on the night of the 10th anniversary of ABBAs 1977 Sydney shows. An enthusiastic crowd of several hundred mostly homosexual people celebrated many of the band's songs. ABBA's slow pop culture credibility rehabilitation was already underway by then, and several of the tracks played that night included illegal dance remixes of many lesser known ABBA songs by various disco DJs, for example the hard to find The Visitors (Crackin' Up) - Hot Tracks (remix), indicating that by at least 1987 ABBA's music was once again reasserting an influence on popular culture. This ABBA Night at The Unicorn was one of the first events in years where ABBA was celebrated at a public event with a form of adulation, as they had previously been seen as very 'uncool'. This occurred long before the release in the 1990s of the very commercially successful compilations albums ABBA Gold and More ABBA Gold.

New York City's "Gay ABBA Fest" prompted the tagline "Talk about your Dancing Queens".

Pop artist Madonna heavily sampled much of the music from Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (A Man After Midnight) for her hit single Hung Up in 2005.

The band have inspired many successful tribute bands, most of whom, like 'Bjorn Again', involve some form of bad pun in their name.

Discography

• Ring Ring - 1973
• Waterloo - 1974
• Greatest Hits - 1975
• ABBA - 1975
• Arrival - 1976
• ABBA, The Album - 1977
• Greatest Hits Volume II - 1979
• Voulez-Vous - 1979
• Super Trouper - 1980
• Gracias Por La Musica - 1980
• The Visitors - 1981
• The Singles - The First Ten Years - 1982
• ABBA Live - 1986
• ABBA Gold - 1992
• More ABBA Gold - 1993
• Oro - Grandes Exitos - 1999
• The Definitive Collection - 2001

Notes and links

Official (Record Company) ABBA Website The ABBA Story Website