Revisiting Abba

  Although we are still at number 101 in my ranking of Abba songs we have crossed the threshold between songs that I don't really like to the songs that are either good or very good. Crazy World , an Abba gem hidden on the b-side of Money, Money, Money  single, was one of the last Abba songs I heard. During my visit to the UK in 1986 I found a stack of Abba singles at a flea market including several single b-sides that I had not heard before. After being a major Abba fan for seven years it was a revelation to hear three new songs by my favourite group for the very first time. Of those three Crazy World was my favourite. Since adding this rare track to my Abba collection I first played the hell out of it, but soon got tired. It is not a perfect Abba recording by any stretch, and as this song does not pop up when listening to regular Abba albums I soon forgot it. Now listening to it again as if for the first time I hear the things that fascinated me back then and still sound gr...

My first ever encounter with this song was in 1979 when my sister and I got The Greatest Hits Volume 2 album for Christmas. I knew most of the songs on the album (the reason I wanted it for Christmas was the inclusion of  Gimme Gimme Gimme , the song that made me an Abba fan), but Rock Me was the oddball track that didn't fit in. I still don't understand, even when thinking objectively, how it was considered one of the group's "Greatest Hits". My reaction to this song now is very much the same as 46 years ago. Who is singing, and why is he/she/they singing the way they do? We know how sublime the combination of the voices of Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog can be, but in this song (and another song coming later) the unison in the opening chorus by Frida, Agnetha and Björn Ulvaeus (or at least that's what it sounds) is far from that. The contrast of that sound against the usually beautiful harmonies by the Abba members (even including the male v...

  Unlike the songs from the earlier albums I clearly remember listening for the first time the tracks on Voyage . I woke up at about 5am. Usually I would have gone back to bed to sleep one or two more hours, but the excitement of the possibility to hear seven new Abba songs made it impossible for me to do that (the first three songs had been released earlier). The experience was not the bliss and joy I had prepared myself for but a mix of mild satisfaction and disappointment. I was least impressed by this song. I don’t think my expectations for the new songs were unreasonably high. I wasn't waiting for the perfection of Dancing Queen (although Don't Shut Me Down came very close) or Winner Takes It All . However, having followed particularly Benny Andersson 's post Abba career I knew what a songwriting and producing powerhouse he still was. Songs he wrote for Josefin Nilsson , Gemini , his own Benny Anderssons Orkester , Ainbusk Singers and three different musicals showed...

Some readers might raise an eyebrow at seeing one of the most well known Abba songs appear so low in my ranking. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do was an important step for the group from presumed Eurovision one-hit wonders to a group to be taken seriously. It was the first single after Waterloo to have a reasonable international chart success topping the singles charts in, for example, Australia and Belgium, and reaching 15th place in the Billboard singles chart, which was by no means a small achievement. But the in the UK, record buyers and critics were less impressed. The Melody Maker reviewer deemed the song "so bad it hurts" and I am inclined to agree. There is nothing wrong with the song itself. The melody is well crafted and catchy, but as with So Long the production lets it down. Most Abba recordings give space to different details and separate instruments and vocals to shine, but in this case the sound is compressed and different elements melt together making it mudd...

Although it only placed third in the Swedish pre-selection for the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, Ring Ring became a huge hit in Sweden, easily outselling all the other competing songs. To capitalize on its success the quartet  known as Björn, Benny & Agnetha, Frida hurried to complete their first album. To fill the album they scraped the bottom of the barrel and resurrected couple of songs Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus had produced for other artists.  I Saw It In the Mirror was originally recorded by raspy-voiced Billy G:Son but it failed to achieve commercial success. The new, hastily recorded version by the group soon to be known as Abba didn't fare much better. By many this is judged as the absolute worst Abba track of them all. I wouldn't say that this is the worst Abba song, but it really has nothing special about it to make it memorable. There is a nice soul tinged electric piano played by Benny and pleasant reply vocals by Agnetha and Frida answering t...