Revisiting Abba

If there ever was an Abba  "novelty record", then this must be it. If there ever was "a song they must have been drunk when recording" it must be this. King Kong Song must be the most over the top and outrageous Abba recording there ever was, and to new fans that have soothed themselves with  Dancing Queen or The Winner Takes It All it must have been a shock the first time they listened to Waterloo album and heard this. A headbanger, maybe, a serious Abba recording, hell no. The second Abba album Waterloo was a mixed bag, an album of experiment and fun. Among the bona fide Abba tracks like the title track, Hasta Mañana and Honey Honey there are good and not that good tracks that are far from what is usually thought of what Abba sounds, or should sound. I bought Waterloo album sometime in the early 1980's after being immersed in their later catalogue. I remember being disappointed at first, when it didn't sound as I had expected. But then slowly I starte...

During their career Abba released 110 recordings commercially, of which I have now revisited ten. However, there are number of tracks that could be called Abba recordings in all but name, recordings that are written and produced by Abba members and that include audible participation of all four of them. Most of these were done before Abba was formed as the two couples participated in the making of each other's solo recordings. The quality of these recordings varies, but to me they are an interesting sideline of the official Abba canon. So I will review some of these as bonus entries to my blog. The first bonus track was released as a  Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus single in 1971, two years before Abba took off. The gentlemen of course wrote, produced and performed the duet, but Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog , their respective fiancées are clearly audible in the backing vocals. My first encounter with this jolly track was as late as 2006 when it was included (amon...