Inside the Rock Era: ABBA, The #49 Artist of the Rock Era, Part One

Thursday, April 22, 2021

ABBA, The #49 Artist of the Rock Era, Part One

"ABBA was so awesome!"

"Brilliant music and arrangements."

"I don't believe there have ever been better melodies. That is what ABBA excelled at."

"Great songwriting and singing."

"Incredible how many great songs they did."

"ABBA recorded some of the best music ever."

"One of the great groups in history."

"They really are amazing."

"John Lennon said ABBA was one of the best groups ever. I agree!"

"Everything by ABBA is great."

"One of the best bands in history."

"They were magical."

"ABBA's music touched the heart."

Here we have quite possibly a group responsible the best melodies ever created by one artist. And, just as we analyzed album tracks by groups such as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd in addition to hit songs, as any serious ranking of The Top 100 Artists* would do, that requires one to also include album tracks by artists who have a distinguished record of hits. This supergroup not only chalked up hit after hit; they have scores of great album tracks, as you will hear. Some of them, in fact, are among their greatest songs.

This immensely popular Swedish group began when keyboardist Benny Andersson was in the Hep Stars and Björn Ulvaeus led the Hootenanny Singers. Both acts became familiar with one another as they played at the same venues. Anderson and Ulvaeus wrote a song which the Hep Stars recorded.

It wasn't a big hit, but Stig Anderson, owner of Polar Music Records and manager of the Hootenanny Singers, liked what he heard and encouraged the pair to write more.

In 1969, Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad both competed at Melodifestivalen, the Swedish festival which would select the country's entry to the prestigious Eurovision Song Contest.
Lyngstad, who was the only member of ABBA to have been born in Norway, began singing with dance bands at age 13 and formed her own band, the Anni-Frid Four. When she was 21, Anni-Frid won a national talent competition in Sweden to earn a recording contract with EMI Sweden.

Within a month, the two became romantically involved. In 1971, Andersson began producing her recordings, and Lyngstad scored the #1 Swedish song "Min egen stad" ("My Own Town"), which Benny also wrote and all future members of ABBA sang on.

Meanwhile, when the Hep Stars broke up, Andersson and Ulvaeus recorded their first album together, called Lycka, which means happiness, in 1970. Both Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog, Björn's girlfriend, were in the studio during the recording of the album and added backing vocals.

Ulvaeus continued to perform and record with the Hootenanny Singers through 1974. Fältskog also was an accomplished singer who already had recorded a #1 song in Sweden when she was 18. She wrote her own songs and had released four solo albums from 1968-71.

Fältskog and Ulvaeus married July 6, 1971 and sang backing vocals on albums of the other. In 1972, Fältskog starred as Mary Magdalene in the Swedish production of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Björn and Benny recorded "Hej, gamle man", which went to #1 for 15 weeks in Sweden. More and more, they aided each other in the studio, and in 1971, Fältskog, Andersson and Ulvaeus toured together.

Stig Anderson continued to be a driving force in spurring Andersson and Ulvaeus to combine their talents. With Stig's encouragement, the two wrote "Säg det med en sång" ("Say It With A Song") for the 1972 Melodifestivalen. The song finished third and became a Swedish hit.

Three Andersson/Ulvaeus songs caught on in Japan, with one becoming a Top 10 hit there.

In 1972, the duo wrote "People Need Love", with vocals by the women, credited to Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid. It was a minor hit in Sweden and also received airplay in the United States.

Now the four artists were as convinced as Anderson that they were on to something. They released their debut album Ring Ring in 1973 and competed again at Melodifestivalen with the title song. Once again, they finished third.

That year, the group worked on changing their name, finally combining the first letters of their four first names to come up with ABBA.

In 1974, ABBA persisted with their goal of getting into the Eurovision Song Contest, which would earn them great exposure. With "Waterloo", ABBA not only won the Meldifestivalen in Sweden but, in an historic performance, captured first place in the Eurovision Song Contest.

This led to a tour of Europe and performances on the continent's top television shows. ABBA traveled briefly to the United States to appear on The Mike Douglas Show and scored their first big hit in the U.S., as "Waterloo" rose to #6. The song topped charts in the U.K., West Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Norway.

ABBA was one of the first artists to regularly make videos of their songs. "Honey Honey" stalled at #27 in the United States, but hit #2 in Germany and #4 in Austria, more typical of where it should have been ranked.

When "Honey Honey" in the U.S. and a re-released "Ring Ring" in Europe failed to generate enthusiasm, there was discussion that ABBA was a one-hit wonder. The group had to cancel some dates of a 1974 tour of West Germany, Denmark and Austria, but Scandinavian audiences loved them when ABBA played there later in the year.

ABBA released "So Long", #3 in Australia and #7 in Sweden, but mysteriously ignored elsewhere. The man in the song tries to lure females with his money, but the women in the group aren't buying it.

In 1975, the single "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" with its sublime chorus had more success. It went straight to #1 in Australia and New Zealand. Still, with a peak of #15 in the United States, it is one of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*.

In 1975, ABBA released their self-titled album and the perfectly constructed and infectious "SOS" reached #1 in West Germany, Australia and New Zealand, #2 in Austria, the Netherlands and Norway, #3 in Ireland and #6 in the U.K. It was another underrated song in the U.S. at #15, but did receive a BMI Award for airplay.

This is the last song that was recorded for their album. Bjorn recalls the he and Benny wrote the song in the library of Bjorn and Agnetha's home in Lidingo, a suburb of Stockholm. Bjorn was chiefly responsible for the lyrics, but Anderson contributed catchy song titles from time to time, "Mamma Mia" being a good example.

In addition to their superbly-crafted harmonies and arrangements, Andersson liked to weave in unusual sounds into their songs. One such "whim" was the use of a marimba, the tick-tocking that you hear at the start of the song. Anderson fills us in:

That came about because the marimba was

sitting there in this little corner of the Metronome

Studio. So when the song was going, and

everybody was playing, we thought, "Well that's

OK, but it's not really a record is it?" I started

playing on the marimba. I just wanted to see

what it sounded like...And it changed the course

of the song.

"Mamma Mia" rocketed to #1 on the U.K., West Germany, Australia and Ireland and #2 in New Zealand and Norway, but stopped far short at #32 in the U.S. It is another highly underrated song.

ABBA was beginning to win fans throughout the world, which radio stations did not fully understand, especially in the United States. The group released a Greatest Hits album in 1976, even though they hadn't yet enjoyed big success in either the U.S. or the U.K., the two biggest popular music markets.

To many radio professionals, the success of the compilation was a huge surprise. It sold over one million copies in the United States and went to #1 on the U.K. Album chart. The album contained the new song "Fernando", not about a real person but a Mexican partisan who reminisces with a friend about the Mexican-American War, resulting in the expansion of the southern border of the U.S. to include the Rio Grande river.

"Fernando" exploded into a worldwide sensation, reaching #1 in 13 countries, including the U.K., Australia and West Germany. In Australia, it held down #1 for 14 weeks, tying the Beatles' "Hey Jude" for the longest-running #1 song. "Fernando" was either #1 or #2 in every country in the world except the United States, where the bad ears of music directors kept it down at #12. The song continues to rank as one of the best-selling singles in history in Australia.

ABBA have always been huge megastars down under. A 1976 television special in Australia was viewed by more people than the 1969 landing on the moon. Always astute businesspeople, the members of ABBA dressed in wild costumes to take advantage of a Swedish law that allowed them to deduct clothing if they could prove they were not used everyday and, as they were unable to accept rubles in the Soviet bloc countries as payment, they signed up for royalty payments in oil commodities.

"Fernando" proved to be the springboard for even bigger things to come. By 1980, only two other artists in the U.K. had scored more #1 songs--Elvis Presley and the Beatles. In 1974, ABBA released their worldwide breakthrough album, Arrival. "Dancing Queen" was the song that finally beat those music directors in the U.S. over the head--the country finally heard what millions around the world already knew--this group was amazing. "Dancing Queen" was nearly a universal #1 song and sold over one million singles in the United States.

Arrival still did far better in Europe, but it was certified Gold in the U.S. On Arrival, ABBA honed their considerable songwriting talents for the first time and they began to almost exclusively feature Agnetha and Frida, the biggest and best weapons in their arsenal. The album went to #1 everywhere in the world except Austria, France and the United States. On "Money, Money, Money", radio stations in the U.S. went back into denial. While the song hit the Top 3 in every other country in the world, it stalled there at #56.

Even the great song "Knowing Me, Knowing You" peaked at #14 in the United States, despite #1 rankings in the U.K., West Germany and Ireland and Top 10 showings everywhere else in the world.

By this time, ABBA were superstars in Europe and Australia and the press followed them constantly. For their last two sold-out shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London, tickets were available only by mail applications. The box office received 3.5 million requests for the two shows, enough to fill the Hall to capacity 580 times.