The story I’m about to tell you begins in a charming, wintry country known for its exquisite meatballs, for being the household of the world-famous IKEA and H&M, as well as for the famous rock duo Roxette!... And Pewdiepie too. Could you figure out which country I’m talking about? You should know what I’m talking about since the topic of this article begins there… or perhaps you don’t and that is the exact reason why you came here in the first place! Anyway, if you said France… you couldn’t be more wrong, but if you said Greece… you’re wrong again!
C’mon guys, it isn’t that hard! I’m talking about Sweden! Where both Spotify and Minecraft were created! Also, who hasn’t heard of dynamite and the Nobel Prize? If you Google it you’ll find out that the face sculptured in that said prize belongs to the famous Swedish businessman, chemist and engineer, Alfred Nobel.
Now back to the story… In June 1966, a very fancy man with a very fancy name, Björn Ulvaeus, met Benny Andersson, an also fancy man with a not so fancy name. Björn was a member of the Hootenanny Singers, a very popular folk music group, while Benny played keyboards in Sweden’s biggest pop group of the 1960s, The Hep Stars, also known as “The Swedish Beatles”.
And just a few weeks later, the pair wrote their first song together, and by the end of the decade they had established a regular partnership as composers. By that time, Benny had left The Hep Stars, while the Hootenanny Singers only existed in the recording studio.
Three years later, Björn and Benny met the two women who were to become, not only their fiancées, but also the other half of ABBA: Agnetha Fältskog had been a successful solo singer since releasing her first single in 1967, a true diamond in the rough! And soon enough, she and Björn got married in 1971; Anni-Frid Lyngstad, also known as Frida, started her recording career shortly before Agnetha. Frida was of Norwegian origin, but had moved to Sweden at a very early age. And to everyone’s surprise, she and Benny also got married! (Who would have thought?!) If it wasn’t a surprise! Everyone in this group got what they wanted, or didn’t they?...
In their first attempt of collaboration, although not very successful, they had the idea of putting together the cabaret act: Festfolk, which had the double meaning “engaged couples” and “party people”, but seeing the lack of success it had, they soon enough changed their minds.
In the spring of 1972 the group recorded a song called ‘People Need Love’, garnering a medium-sized hit in Sweden. At this time, they called themselves Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid. Encouraged by this success, they entered the 1973 Melodifestivalen, the Swedish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, with the song ‘Ring Ring’. They finished third, but the single and the album of the same name were the biggest hits of the year in Sweden. ‘Ring Ring’ also became a hit in several other European countries.
Not ready to give up yet, the group entered Melodifestivalen again in 1974, this time with ‘Waterloo’, which took them all the way to the Eurovision finals in Brighton, England. By this time they had already changed their name to ABBA, an acronym of their first names (fun fact: ABBA was also the name of a Swedish canned fish company, who would have thought?! Fortunately, they agreed to lending their name to a pop group). The 1974 Eurovision Song Contest turned out to be the most famous moment in ABBA history, when the group won the international juries’ and audience’s hearts over with ‘Waterloo’!
Soon after this triumph, ‘Waterloo’ was Number One on the charts all over Europe! Even reaching the Top Ten in the US, where the Eurovision Song Contest had no impact! The album of the same name was also a huge hit in Sweden. However, it was difficult for ABBA to follow this first success. Oh, but they did it! With a slice of dedication and a taste of stubbornness, the group finally got a major worldwide hit again (18 months later) with ‘SOS’, taken off their third album, simply entitled, ABBA.
‘Mamma Mia’, also from the ABBA album, returned the group to the UK Number One spot, which they occupied a total of nine times between 1974 and 1980. ‘Mamma Mia’ was Number One for ten weeks in Australia, which was the first territory to release it as a single. Over the next couple of years, Australia would be caught up in a virtual ABBA fever, giving the group a total of six Number One hits. Very impressive, huh?! In 1976, ABBA finally and firmly established themselves as one of the most popular groups in the world!
In late 1976 ABBA’s fourth album, Arrival, was released. The album stormed up the charts and spawned hits such as ‘Money, Money, Money’ and ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’. This was followed by a concert tour of Europe and Australia. The tour was a complete success with capacity houses everywhere.
Moving on, the spring of 1978 saw the group embarking on a major promotional campaign in the USA, leading to a Top Three single with ‘Take A Chance On Me’ and a Top Twenty entry for ABBA – The Album. Earlier next year, Björn and Agnetha announced their divorce... fortunately, it did not mean the end of ABBA, but it did overthrow their image of two happy, music-making couples. Nevertheless, their sixth album, Voulez-Vous, was released shortly afterwards.
ABBA’s single ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)’ was released in the autumn of 1979, coinciding with a major tour of Canada, the United States and Europe. Around the same time a second compilation album, Greatest Hits Vol. 2, became an international success. In March 1980, ABBA took their tour to Japan for what turned out to be their very last live concerts in front of a paying audience. The rest of the year was devoted to the recording of ABBA’s next album, Super Trouper, containing classic hits like ‘The Winner Takes It All’ and the title track.
And now we’re in February 1981, when the final blow was dealt to ABBA’s happy-couples image of the 1970s, when Benny and Frida announced their divorce. Although, again, this still didn’t stop the foursome from working together. At the end of the year, ABBA’s eighth album, The Visitors, was released, with ‘One Of Us’ as its biggest hit single.
So now you’re asking… When does it end? If not even divorce and the damage taken by their happy-group image made them disband, why aren’t they together anymore? Well, be patient my dear readers, cause you’re about to find out! Shall we?
Where was I?... Oh, yes! Through the course of 1982 the energy was gradually running out of the group, as Björn and Benny set their sights on writing the musical Chess, and Agnetha and Frida were reviving their solo careers. The only ABBA LP release this year was a compilation double album of their hit singles, entitled The Singles – The First Ten Years, including only two new songs. Although the single ‘The Day Before You Came’ was one of the group’s most accomplished recordings, it failed to become a worldwide hit on the scale they had been used to. And inevitably, at the end of 1982, ABBA decided to take a break… if they wanted to, they reasoned, they could always get back together after a few years. Sadly, it took almost four decades for the group to reunite again.
Oh, didn’t I tell you? That wasn’t the end! Although they did take a long time to come back to the active, their official statement was never a permanent breakup, but rather a 38 years vacation with no preceding warning! Actually, they’re working on their most recent EP as we speak! Which is said to be released in 2021.
Still, regardless of them reuniting again or not, the group’s music lives on: the 1990s saw the beginning of a major revival, with successful cover versions and high-profile movies using ABBA songs on their soundtracks attracting a great deal of attention. The compilation CD ABBA Gold, released in 1992, has sold more than 31 million copies to date, and already passed its 900th week on the UK Official Albums Chart, making it the longest-running Top 100 album of all time. The 1993 companion album, More ABBA Gold, went on to sell 3 million copies.
And then, the hugely successful musical "Mamma Mia!". Based on the songs of ABBA, premiered in London in 1999. The musical opened on Broadway two years later, and quickly spread across the globe. To date, it’s been seen by more than 60 million people in over 440 cities. The premiere in ABBA’s home country of Sweden in February 2005 was attended by Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Frida. A hugely successful movie version of Mamma Mia!, starring Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan, opened in July 2008 (and later on, a sequel). The Stockholm opening of the movie was also attended by the four ABBA members. Hmph! For musicals and movies they have time, but when talking about getting back together they only have space on their agenda 38 years later! Totally unfair…
And now we’re back to the beginning of this story… Sweden, such a beautiful country with a gorgeous long coastline, extensive forests and numerous lakes, and, perhaps Sweden’s most famous export, ABBA, the Stockholm pop group that dominated the world in the 70s, acknowledged by their 2010 induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. One of the world’s best-selling artists of all time and the first group from a non-English-speaking nation to reach success in the English-speaking world. And again! So glorious that the group continues to sell 1 million albums a year! How’s that! And they even have their own museum in Stockholm - ABBA: The Museum - which has had more than 1.5 million visitors since opening back in 2013.
Can you guess who's who?!
Here's some extra curiosities for you:
- A competition to find a suitable name for the group was held in a Gothenburg newspaper. The group was impressed with the names “Alibaba”, “FABB”, and “Baba”, but in the end all the entries were ignored and it was officially announced in the summer that the group were to be known as “ABBA”.
- An attempt at combining their talents occurred in April 1970 when the two couples went on holiday together to the island of Cyprus. What started as singing for fun on the beach ended up as an improvised live performance in front of the United Nations soldiers stationed on the island.
- In 1973, ABBA agreed to promote baby food company Semper, and Björn and Agnetha’s baby daughter Linda made her modelling debut in the adverts.
- Those outrageous stage outfits were an easy way to save money on their tax bill. ABBA exploited a Swedish law, which meant clothes were tax deductible if their owners could prove they were not used for daily wear.
- Led Zeppelin recorded their last album In Through the Out Door at ABBA’s Polar Music Studios, in Stockholm. During a TV interview, Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin's main vocalist) confessed he went out one night in late 1978 with Björn Ulveaus and Benny Andersson, who all ended up in a local sex club to get away from Agnetha and Frida (this happened around the time when Björn and Agnetha got divorced).
- ABBA were massive in Australia! A 1976 TV Special for the Australian market got more views than the 1969 moon landing, “The Best of ABBA,” was screened four times to record-setting ratings.
- During the Cold War, currencies from behind the Iron Curtain were embargoed. However, ABBA was quite popular in the Soviet states. As they could not accept rubles, the band instead received royalty payments from the Soviet Union in oil commodities.
- In 2005 Madonna revealed that she wrote a letter to the members of ABBA begging to use their music on one of her tracks. The star wanted permission to sample the Swedish pop titans’ massive 1979 disco hit “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (A Man After Midnight)” for her latest single “Hung Up”. ABBA gave her permission.
- 3.5 million people applied for tickets for two dates to see ABBA at London’s Royal Albert Hall, enough to fill the venue an astonishing 580 times.
- ABBA have sold over 300 million albums and singles worldwide.
- The group has pledged not to reunite. “We will never appear on stage again. There is simply no motivation to re-group”, Björn Ulvaeus has said (but now you have it, don't you?!).
If you scrolled to the end of the post to see the extent of the post (too long? Sorry!), or maybe because you got bored with so much reading and these big letters caught your attention, this next video is for you! It's more or less like an overview of what I previously told. You'll like it!
If you reaching the end of this post had nothing to do with anything I said earlier then congratulations! And thank you for reading until the end! I hope it was enjoyable and fruitful!
“See You Later Alligator.” – Bill Haley and the Comets
For more detailed information go to: https://abbasite.com/story/