ABBA (1972–1983) was the Swedish pop music group. It remain a virtually all successful Swedish music work & were one of a virtually all popular groups in the globe. Estimates of ABBA's sum worldwide sales alter from either 140 to 500 million (there seems to exist as there is no dependable source for this page) which may produce a two the 2nd virtually everthing successful band of all instance when The Beatles.

ABBA was formed in 1972 with Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Agnetha Fältskog, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad (nicknamed "Frida"). It became widely known when winning a 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with "Waterloo". A class action consisted of 2 couples, Björn & Agnetha along by having Benny & Frida. ABBA together decided to take a break at a beginning of 1983. It stand eventually to record together over again in the studio. ABBA is an acronym formed from a 1st letters of both class action member's title. These are normally written ABBA however is periodically written as a word, Abba. A foremost B in the logo version of the name was reversed on the band's promotional poop from either 1976 onwards.

Before ABBA
Andersson was the member of the Swedish rock/pop band Hep Stars who were very popular inside Sweden in a period of the 1960s. A b& was modeled fallowing varioUsa US and UK groups like Herman's Hermits, The Who and The Rolling Stones. the Hep Stars got a brobdingnagian as a consequence, especially among adolescent girls. Meanwhile Björn Ulvaeus was fronting the skiffle group called a Hootenanny Singers whose sound was real life & other easy-listening than a Hep Stars. A singers crossed paths another time & it decided to write songs together. One of these, "Isn't It Easy To Say," became a hit for the Hep Stars & Björn for instance guested using the band on the road. It was possibly suggested that them elastic merge however this never happened. Stig Anderson, manager of the Hootenanny Singers & founder of Polar Music, saw additional likely within Benny & Björn working together & encouraged the two to write supplementary songs and produce an album which was yet known as Lycka ("Happiness") whilst freed on the Polar label.

Agnetha Fältskog was ABBA's immature member & the popular phenomenon inside her have perfect world health organization wrote & performed Swedish hits patch inside her teens & got besides played Mary Magdalene in the Swedish production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Agnetha was noted by critics & ballad maker as an accomplished composer however she considered it stiff function, writing & performing lightly popular songs in the Schlager style, recording covers of hit songs and touring Swedish folkparks, the main "live circuit" at that instance. Inevitably she bumped into a Hootenanny Singers in their folkpark tours, meeting & yet falling enamored using Björn. Their marriage inside 1971 was the Swedish celebrity wedding of the month & drew lot publicity.

Housewife Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad was the the share-half-time cabaret singer world health organization decided to enter a talent competition & won. Sweden was changing over from driving on a left side of the road to the correct & the series of outstanding shows was existence aired to encourage humans to keep off the roads on the nighttime of the switchover. Invited to come out in TV that evening using her winning song, Frida's musical career took off. She met Benny Andersson on the habitual folkpark tour. It became lovers & Benny invited Anni-Frid to sing backing vocals sustaining Agnetha on the Lycka album (them women were uncredited for this function).

Early years

Per early 1970s although Björn and Agnetha were married it pursued their have separate musical careers. Nevertheless Stig was challenging & determined to break into A mainstream international market, a effort antecedently achieved by Swedish subservient guitar class action The Spotnicks (their better known hit was "Orange Blossom Special"). Following he encouraged Björn & Benny to write the song for the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest and it was performed by Lena Anderson. "Say It With a Song" won third around the contest choice cycles however was the brobdingnagian hit in many countries, convincing Stig he was on the perfect track.

Björn & Benny persevered by using their songwriting & experimented sustaining fresh sounds & vocal arrangements which brought a few profits inside Japan. One of a songs it come higher by using was "People Need Love," featuring guest vocals per girls world health organization were currently given good deal greater prominence than antecedently. Everyone included felt enthusiastic astir a newly healthy & Stig freed it as a only, credited to Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid. A record reached total Xvii in the Swedish stock and index charts, plenty to convince the children it were in to something.

A ensuing month it decided to keep close at hand an additional crack at Eurovision, this period sustaining a song "Ring, Ring." A studio act was handled by Michael B. Tretow who experimented with a Phil Spector-like "wall of sound" production technique that became the wholly new ABBA sound. Stig intended an English translation of the lyrics by Neil Sedaka and they thought this would become the sure-fire winner. However once more, it come around third. Still a proto-class action put out an album known as Ring Ring, still carrying a awkward appellative of Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Frida. A album did easily & a "Ring Ring" individual was the hit inside several arethe of Europe however Stig felt verity breakthrough can exclusively accompany a UK or even U.s. hit. In the area of this instance Stig, with tired of the unmanageable list, began to jokingly refer to the class action privately & publicly when ABBA, which was besides the title of a easily-known fish cannery inside Sweden. Still, since a fish canners were just about unknown outside Sweden, Stig come to suppose a title would act inside international markets & it stuck.

Eurovision and after

It tried Eurovision again in 1974, now elysian per growing glam rock scene in the UK and tracks like Wizzard's "See My Baby Jive." Working in "Waterloo", an shamelessly glam-style popular track produced by having Michael B. Tretow's wall of healthy approach. Today far additional experienced, it were better steel oneself against the contest & had an album's worth of poop freed after a indicate was held within Brighton, England. A song won mitts down & catapulted the two into British consciousness first. Today it got a catchy title, ABBA, & population can acquire the totally album (Waterloo) straight away.

"Waterloo" was ABBA's number 1 UK first. It was freed in the US, reaching #6. Macd was firm to maintain & their watch-higher singles (Bye-bye & Honey Honey) did non launder about too. A class action was overstretched & unable to promote a songs convincingly in any a single united states. What is more, virtually all of their poop was however heavy derivative. It wasn't until a release of their 2nd proper album ABBA & their only "SOS" that ABBA began to show a foremost signs that it were destined for large items. "SOS" consolidated ABBA's presence in the UK in which it was the Top 10 hit & it were there are no yearn look on a one-hit wonder.

Wide profits come inside 1975 with every release charting solidly & "Mamma Mia" reached the UK first spot inside January 1976.

the band potentially freed a somewhat hubristically coroneted Greatest Hits album despite getting experienced just 5 Top 40 hits in a UK & the Usa. This album involved "Fernando" (an earliest versiin got been the Swedish-language hit lone for Anni-Frid & involved on her 1975 Benny-produced solo LP Frida Ensam). Becoming one of ABBA's right-known tracks, "Fernando" did non pop up on the Swedish or even Australian releases of Greatest Hits.

Around Sweden a song would hold off until 1982's A Singles-A Foremost Ten Years to come out inside an English-language version credited to ABBA; a track was late involved in the Australian release of their 1976 album Arrival.

Arrival represented the recently level of accomplishment around two songwriting & studio act for ABBA. Hit fallowing hit flowed from either it: "Money, Money, Money", "Knowing Me, Knowing You" & "Dancing Queen", their most enduring & definitive hit.

By this instance ABBA were widely popular in the UK, virtually all of American Europe & Australia (who around how else near "adopted" ABBA when their have) however however experienced merely moderate recognition & airplay in the U.s.a. & "Dancing Queen" remains a just first ABBA ever achieved there.

By this period a ABBA healthy was synonymous by owning European popular & was widely copied by groups rather Brotherhood of Man and later, Bucks Fizz. Occasionally felt it was necessary to copy ABBA's healthy & deuce girl/two son approach to waround Eurovision & a notion seemed validated after Brotherhood of Human won within 1976 & Bucks Fizz took a prize in 1981.

Meanwhile around 1977 ABBA followed up Arrival using their further complex The Album which was released to coincide using ABBA: The Movie, a feature of their Australian tour.

This album was less easily-received per critics however it spawned many hits, "Take a Chance On Me" & "The Name of the Game", which two topped a UK stock and index charts. This album too carried a easily-known "Thank You for the Music" which was late freed in the UK as the lone (1983) & got been a B-side of "Eagle" inside territories in which that song was freed as a only.

Later years
By 1978 ABBA was a megagroup. It converted a obsolete cinema into the Polar Music Studio, a freshly state-of-the-art studio inside Stockholm which was used by many more successful elastic (Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door was recorded there, for example).

Their standalone only "Summer Night City", their last Swedish first, stopped good short of topping a UK stock and index charts however placed a stage for ABBA's raid disco with the album Voulez-Vous, which was released inside Spring 1979. This release marked the cold-shoulder decline within ABBA's popularity in the UK & Europe however gained the children supplementary attention in the United states of america. A hits however come: "Does Your Mother Know", "Voulez-Vous", "Chiquitita" & "I Have a Dream" completely following.

Late that season, the class action freed their 2nd greatest hits album, Greatest Hits Vol Two, which featured a brand newly track "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)", their better known disco hit.

Within 1979 ABBA toured a United states of america & Canada, swimming to immense audiences, however the breakthrough there was perchance as well little, as well late.

1980's Super Trouper reflected a vary around ABBA's style by owning other large synthesisers and more household lyrics. It placed the record for the virtually all preorders ever received for the UK album when One million copies were ordered prior to release. Anticipation for the release got been built higher by "The Winner Takes It All", a class action's eighth UK chart topper (their foremost since 1978). A next only from either a album, "Super Trouper" too hit first.

The Visitors (1981), their final studio album, showed a songwriting maturity & depth of feeling distinctly lacking from either their earliest recordings however however however located a b& squarely in the popular genre, by having catchy tunes and harmonies. A Visitant' title track refers to secret meetings held against the approval of Communistic governments around Soviet satellite states & more tracks locatiin topics rather aging, loss of innocence, a parent watching her tike develop higher then on. Their melodies were however catchy however their vary of style was reflected per begin of the commercial decline when their final wonderful popular only "One of Us" which was the worldwide hit around December 1981.

Although today regarded en masse inside decline, ABBA however drew vast audiences, particularly around continental Europe & may own never to return in indefinitely in case it non for the band's personalized turmoils: them married couples were two divorced by this point. Songs rather "The Winner Takes It All" & "One Of Us" gave glimpses of individual issues ABBA's members were facing.

Within summertime 1982, the class action gathered to record the newly album however in the prevent, it settled for a double album compilation of completely their preceding successes by having deuce fresh songs. A double album A Singles-A Number 1 Ten Years topped the UK album chart & was a worldwide best seller. A freshly tracks were "Under Attack" &"The Day Before You Came", which was a survive song ABBA ever recorded together. A class action split within 1983 though there was no formal announcement.

Albums
01.Ring Ring 02.Waterloo 03.ABBA 04.Arrival 05.The Album 06.Voulez-Vous 07.Super Trouper 08.The Visitors

Fashion and videos
ABBA was widely noted as an epitome of 1970s fashion for the colourful costumes its members wore. A cd which accompanied occasionally of their large hits come typically cited when existence among a earliest examples of the genre. Virtually all of ABBA's streaming videos (& ABBA - A Pic) were directed by Lasse Hallström who would later direct a films My Life as a Dog, The Cider House Rules and Chocolat.

ABBA manufactured cds because their songs were hits around thus numbers of different countries & household appearances weren't universally conceivable. A bit of 1 streaming videos became classics because of the Seventies era costumes & early cd results (like overlapping one girl's profile by having a more's fully face) never mind a generous have of blue eyeshadow. Around 2005 virtually all of their online videos can be seen on the DVDs ABBA Gold & A Definitive Collection. Many ABBA training videos were spoofed by others: A streaming videos "Knowing Me, Knowing You" was satirised on the BBC comedy show ''Not the Nine O'Clock News as "Super Dooper." The title Knowing Me, Knowing You'' was also borrowed for a spoof chat show on BBC starring Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge who always entered the studio shouting "Aha!" (an exclamation in the lyrics). UK comedy duo French and Saunders parodied ABBA with their song "C'est La Vie", an court to "The Winner Takes it All."

After ABBA
Björn & Benny wrote a music for the West End show Chess (1984) with lyrist Tim Rice. Chess run iii years within London. A indicate as well opened in Broadway in the US (1988) but a song choose, lyrics & plot line experienced been tampered by having & a indicate closed inside weeks.

Björn & Benny, inspired per successes of Rice & his previous collaborator Andrew Lloyd-Webber, had hanker expressed their want to write the musical comedy. Their foremost attempt got been the "mini-musical", A Girl by having A Golden Hair, performed per class action in the period of their 1977 tour of Europe & Australia. Extract were involved inside ABBA - A Motion-picture show & ABBA - A Album. Björn & Benny followed Chess using Kristina från Duvemåla (1995), directed for the stage by Lars Rudolfsson and based on a Outgoer tetralogy by Swedish novelist Vilhelm Moberg. Mamma Mia!, a musical comedy built in the area of ABBA's songs, got its London premier within 1999. Within 2003 their first musical theater lean fresh life around the Swedish-language version, Chess På Svenska.

Agnetha & Frida apiece got occasionally moderate solo profits fallowing ABBA split. Inside 1982, Frida released her successful Phil Collins-produced album ''Something's Going On'' (with hit single "I Know There's Something Going On"), and Agnetha followed in 1983 with Wrap Your Arms Around Me. Each experienced farther releases when you took a Eighties however sooner or later out.

Fallowing I personally Have Alone inside 1987 Agnetha withdrew from public life & refused to give interviews. Around April 2004 she emerged to release a disc of cover known as "My Colouring Book" which got the mediocre reception however debuted at first around Sweden & benumb sextuplet inside Germany. the album went gold around Finl& and sold sufficiency within Neat Britain for a silver disc award.

Frida freed Effulgence (by Steve Lillywhite) in 1984 but it was not until 1996 that she released her go album up to now, a Swedish-language Djupa Andetag which experienced smashing profits within Sweden however went unknown internationally. Around September 2004 Frida recorded "The Sun Will Shine Again" using previous Deep Purple member Jon Lord for his latest album, making some uncommin appearances on German television.

Fallowing existence largely forgotten throughout virtually all of the Eighties ABBthe had a revivification. A attention was typically ironic, along a lines of "they were so naff they were good," eventually others recognised that when ABBA was typically panned by critics & sneered at by punk and New Wave musicians they were masters of their art, a terzetto microscopic popular song. Björn & Benny were eventually recognised within 2001 with an Ivor Novello Award for their songwriting. Numerous previous punk & Future Wave artistes afterwards admitted to levels of fondness & respect for ABBA it were unwilling to fess up to in their early years.

When you took a 1990s many ABBA tracks were rediscovered and covered by more creative person, like Erasure, Ash and the A-Teens, among others. A avant-garde band Blancmange had also covered A Day Prior to Professional people Come in a mid-1980s, one of the 1st elastic to handle an ABBA track.

In April 6th 2004 three former ABBA members (Björn, Benny & Frida) showed higher together withwithin Londin for a Thirtieth day of remembrance of their Eurovison Song Contest win in 1974, appearing on stage fallowing the fifth day of remembrance performance of Mamma Mia!. Inside a November 2004 locate by using the German magazine Bunte Björn said a reunion would non satisfy ABBA's several fans, potentially though there are legions of the babies around the world typically clamouring for 1. Within February 2005 all four members of ABBA appeared together publically first since 1986 at a jamboree opening of Mamma Mia! within Stockholm.

ABBA Trivia

Songwriters Benny & Björn were unable to write music down in paper. Lone Agneththe can (every bit revealed within a Dick Cavett interview with a class action).

Abba develop been spoofed by numbers of TV shows, including French & Saunders, ''Not The Nine O'Clock News and Fast Forward''.

At a height of their profits ABBA was Sweden's large exportation, exceeding potentially Volvo cars.

While selling their music into Russia when you took a late 1970s ABBA was paid inside oil good because of an embargo on the rouble.

All a royalties from either a song Chiquitita were donated to the toddlers's charity UNICEF, and the track featured in a compilation album of the "Music for UNICEF" concert, at which ABBA experienced performed a song survive.

Synth-pop duo Erasure had success around 1992 using an EP of ABBA covers, "Abba-esque". A music video for their cover of "Take A Chance On Me" featured the class action members dressed inside drag as Agnetha and Anni-Frid.

The healthy track of the successful Australian film ''Muriel's Wedding (1994) prominently featured ABBA songs: The two female leads lip sync "Waterloo" and the wedding scene is scored to an orchestral rendition of "Dancing Queen". A motion picture likewise features "Money Money Money, "Fernando" and "We Run, I personally personally personally Clean, I Run, I Clean".

Another 1994 Australian fillm The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert features a performance of Mamma Mia!'' by two drag queens, furthering ABBA's status as a gay icon.

The ABBA tribute band Björn Again became so successful that as of 2004 there were five casts of Björn Again performing in various parts of the world. The original Björn Again had been touring for 15 years, longer than the original group.

A Swedish band, the A-Teens, started their career in pop music as ABBA Teens, borrowing ABBA's arrangement of two men and two women. These Swedish teenagers launched their careers with an album containing only ABBA covers.

Techno and house remakes of many original ABBA hits were released under the name Abbacadabra.

Mamma Mia! was nominated for a Broadway Tony Award as Best Musical in 2002.

In 2000 ABBA were reported to have turned down an offer of approximately one billion dollars (US) to do a reunion tour.

Estimates of ABBA's total worldwide sales vary from 140 to 500 million (there seems to be no reliable source for this information). ABBA's US sales were 20 million, with UK sales estimated at 25 million.

In 2005 ABBA's 1976 hit single "Fernando" still held the record for the most weeks spent at number one in Australia (along with The Beatles' "Hey Jude").

In addition to being an acronym, the name "ABBA" is also a palindrome. In 1975, ABBA's "SOS" became the first song with a palindromic title recorded by a group with a palindromic name to hit the pop charts.

ABBA was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2002.

To date, ABBA has only permitted two artists to sample its music: The Fugees, who sampled "A Title Of The Game" for their 1996 track "The Rumble In The Jungle", and Madonna, who sampled "Gimme Gimme Gimme (The Human Fallowing Midnight)" for her 2005 single "Hung Up".

Tribute Artists & Bands
Richard Clayderman - Plays The Hits Of ABBA Björn Again Erasure released ABBA-ESQUE