ABBA

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ABBA with actor Robert Hughes in ABBA: The Movie. (From left-right: Andersson, Ulvaeus, Fältskog, Hughes, and Lyngstad.)
Background information
Origin	Stockholm, Sweden
Genre(s)	Pop Disco
Years active	1972 – 1982
Label(s)	Polar Music, Polydor, Atlantic, RCA, Universal, PolyGram
Associated acts	Hep Stars, Hootenanny Singers, Benny Anderssons Orkester, A*Teens, Björn Again
Website	www.abbasite.com
Former members
Anni-Frid Lyngstad (vocals) Agnetha Fältskog (vocals) Benny Andersson (keyboards, vocals) Björn Ulvaeus (guitar, vocals)

ABBA was a Swedish pop group active from 1972 until 1982. The quartet was formed through the friendship of Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and their respective girlfriends Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog, and together they topped charts worldwide from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. The name "ABBA" is an acronym formed from the first letters of each group member's given name.^[1]

They remain a fixture of radio playlists and have reportedly sold more than 370 million records.^[2][3] ABBA was also the first pop group from mainland Europe to enjoy consistent success in the charts of the English-speaking world (mainly the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand), and its enormous popularity subsequently opened the doors for other Continental European acts.^[4] The music of ABBA has been re-imagined into a blockbuster musical Mamma Mia! that has toured worldwide and is in production for a movie version to be released in 2008.

1969–1971: the formative years

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Benny Andersson was, from the age of 18, a member of The Hep Stars, a popular Swedish pop-rock group that mostly performed covers of international hits. Their live shows were often accompanied by mob scenes. Andersson played keyboards and eventually started writing original compositions for his band, many of which became major hits including "No Response" (#3 in 1965), "Sunny Girl", "Wedding", "Consolation" (all of which hit #1 in 1966), and "Speleman".

Björn Ulvaeus from the age of 18 fronted The Hootenanny Singers, a popular Swedish folk-skiffle group. Ulvaeus started writing material for his band, and also attempted a brief solo career alongside it.

His band and the Hep Stars sometimes crossed paths while touring, and on such an occasion in June 1966 Ulvaeus and Andersson decided to write a song together. This, their first attempt, was "Isn't It Easy to Say", later recorded by The Hep Stars. Stig Anderson, manager of the Hep Stars and founder of the Polar Music label, saw much potential in the collaboration, and encouraged them to compose more.

Both also began occasionally playing with the other's band on stage and on record, although it wasn't until 1969 that the pair wrote and produced some of their first real hits together: "Ljuva Sextiotal" ('Merry Sixties'), recorded by Brita Borg and The Hep Stars' 1969 hit "Speleman".

Andersson also had a fruitful songwriting collaboration with Lasse Berghagen, with whom he wrote and submitted the song "Hej, Clown" for the 1969 Melodifestivalen, the Swedish Eurovision Song Contest finals. The song tied for first, but re-voting relegated Andersson's song to #2.^[5]

As their bands began to break up, Andersson and Ulvaeus teamed up and eventually recorded their first album together in 1970, called Lycka ("Happiness" in Swedish), which comprised original compositions sung by the two men. Ulvaeus still occasionally recorded and performed with the Hootenanny Singers until the summer of 1974, alongside ABBA.

Agnetha Fältskog had a #1 record in Sweden when she was only 17 and was soon noted by the critics and songwriters as a talented composer, most of her songs being in the schlager style. Fältskog's main inspiration in her early years was singers in the style of Connie Francis. Along with her own compositions, she also recorded covers of foreign hits and performed them on tours in Swedish folkparks. She even submitted a self-written song for Melodifestivalen when only 17 ("Försonade"), which was rejected. Agnetha had briefly met Anni-Frid Lyngstad for the first time during a TV show in early 1968, and Björn Ulvaeus at a concert venue a few months later. During filming of a Swedish TV special in March 1969, she met Ulvaeus again, and they eventually became a couple and married in 1971. In 1973, Fältskog starred as Mary Magdalene in the original Swedish production of Jesus Christ Superstar and attracted favourable reviews. Between 1967 and 1975, Fältskog released five studio albums.^[6]

Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad sang from the age of 13 with various dance bands and worked mainly in a jazz-oriented cabaret style. She also formed her own band named Anni-Frid Four. In the summer of 1967, she won a national talent competition with the song En Ledig Dag. (included in double EMI CD Frida 1967-1972). The first price was to perform live in the most popular TV-show in Sweden. This show was broadcasting on the same day Sweden went from driving on the left side to the right so it was a very special day and almost the whole population would see Frida sing. This first and unic performance can be seen in "Frida the DVD". Also included in the price was a recording-contract signed with EMI. Lyngstad released several singles on EMI and had many hits in the Swedish charts. When Benny Andersson started to produce her recordings, 1971, she got her first Nr 1 single. On that single, Min Egen Stad (My Own Town) all the 4 Abba-members are singing the backup-vocals. Frida toured and performed regularly in the folkpark circuit and made appearances on radio and TV. She had met Björn Ulvaeus briefly in 1963 during a talent contest, and Agnetha Fältskog during a TV show in early 1968 and finally linked up with her future colleagues in 1969. On May 1, 1969, she participated in the Melodifestivalen, where she met Andersson for the first time. A few weeks later they met again during a concert tour in southern Sweden and they soon became a couple. Andersson also invited Lyngstad to sing backing vocals with Fältskog on the Björn & Benny debut album, Lycka (October 1970), and during this time he also started producing Lyngstad's debut album, Frida, which was released in March 1971 and praised by critics. Lyngstad also played in several revues and cabaret shows in Stockholm between 1969 and 1973. After ABBA formed, she recorded another successful album in 1975, Frida Ensam, which included the original Swedish rendition of "Fernando", which became a huge hit in Scandinavia before the English version was recorded.^[7]

First performance as foursome - and "Festfolk"

An attempt at combining their talents started 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 - the future ABBA stars' first ever performance. Björn & Benny were at this time recording their first album together: "Lycka" ('Happiness') which was to be released in September 1970. Their girlfriends added backing vocals on several tracks, and the idea of them all working together saw them launch their own stage act "Festfolk" (meaning in Swedish both 'Party People' and 'Engaged Couple') on November 1, 1970 in Gothenburg. The cabaret show attracted good reviews. Among the odd numbers, the foursome performed the B&B hit "Hej, Gamle Man" - and solo numbers from respective albums - but the foursome didn't feel like working together, and soon concentrated on individual projects again. ^[8]

1971–1973: From "Festfolk" to "Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid" to "ABBA"

After the 1970 release of Andersson & Ulvaeus' album "Lycka", two more B&B singles were released in Sweden: "Det Kan Ingen Doktor Hjälpa" and "Tänk Om Jorden Vore Ung", with more prominent vocals by Anni-Frid and Agnetha, and moderate chart success. Anni-Frid released her first studio album "Frida", and performed on her own; Agnetha released her fourth album and married Björn July 6th 1971. Benny, Björn and Agnetha started performing together on a regular basis this summer.

Stig Anderson, owner of Polar, was determined to break into the mainstream international market with music by Benny and Björn ("One day the pair of you will write a song that becomes a worldwide hit", he predicted)^[9]. Stig encouraged Ulvaeus and Andersson to write a song for the Swedish preliminary of the Eurovision Song Contest, Melodifestivalen, and after two rejected entries in 1971 ("Det kan Ingen Doktor Hjälpa" and "Välkommen Till Världen")^[10], Andersson & Ulvaeus submitted for the 1972 contest their new song "Säg Det Med En Sång" ("Say It with a Song"), and they chose newcomer Lena Anderson to perform. The song came third, convincing Stig he was on the right track. The song became a huge hit in Sweden. ^[11]

B&B Success in Japan

The first signs of foreign success came as a surprise, as the Björn & Benny single "She's My Kind Of Girl" was released by chance by Epic in Japan in March 1972, giving the duo a Top 10 hit. Two more B&B singles were released in Japan: "Merry-Go-Round" and "Love Has Its Ways". ^[12]

1972: "People Need Love": the first 'real' ABBA song

Ulvaeus and Andersson persevered with their songwriting and experimented with new sounds and vocal arrangements. One of the songs they came up with was "People Need Love", released in June 1972, featuring guest vocals by the women, who were now given much greater prominence. Everyone involved felt enthusiastic about the new sound and Stig Anderson released it as a single, credited to Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid. The song reached #17 in the Swedish combined single & album charts, enough to convince them they were on to something. ^[13] The single also became the first record to chart for the quartet in the United States, where it peaked at #114 on the Cashbox singles chart and #117 on Record World's singles chart. Billed as Björn & Benny (with Svenska Flicka), it was released there on Playboy Records. However, according to Stig Anderson, "People Need Love" could have been a much bigger American hit, but a small label like Playboy Records did not have the distribution resources to meet the demand for the single from retailers and radio programmers.^[14]

Anni-Frid and Agnetha's first take at ABBA harmonies

As 'People Need Love' did so well, the foursome decided to record their first album together. Recording sessions began September 26 1972, and by October, a handful of tracks were in the can. A particular track gave the two women the shared lead vocal: "Nina, Pretty Ballerina". The women's voices combined in harmonies for the first time gave them an idea of the qualities of their combined talents.

"Ring Ring"

For 1973, the foursome and their 'manager' Stig Anderson decided to have another try at the Melodifestivalen, this time with the song "Ring Ring." The studio sessions were handled by Michael B. Tretow, who experimented with a "wall of sound" production technique that became the wholly new ABBA sound. Anderson arranged an English translation of the lyrics by Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody and they thought this would be a surefire winner, but in the Melodifestivalen, on February 10, 1973, it came third, and thus never reached the international contest. Nevertheless the proto-group put out their first album, called Ring Ring, still carrying the awkward name of Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Frida. The album did well and the "Ring Ring" single was a hit in many parts of Europe, but Stig Anderson felt the true breakthrough could only come with a UK or US hit.^[15]

ABBA name

In the spring of 1973, Stig Anderson, tired of unwieldy names, started to refer to the group privately and publicly as ABBA. At first this was as a joke, since Abba was also the name of a well-known fish-canning company in Sweden. However, since the fish canners were more or less unknown outside Sweden, Anderson came to believe the name would work in international markets. A competition to find a suitable name for the group was held in a Gothenburg newspaper. The group were impressed with the names Alibaba and Baba, but in the end all the entries were ignored and it was announced in the summer that the name "ABBA" was official. Later the group negotiated with the canners for the right to the name.^[16] "ABBA" is an acronym formed from the first letters of each group member's name: Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid (Frida).^[1] The first 'B' in the logo version of the name was reversed on the band's promotional material from 1976 onwards and became the group's registered trademark. The first time the name is found written on paper is on a recording session sheet from the Metronome Studio in Stockholm, dated October 16, 1973. It was first written as "Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Frida", but was subsequently crossed out with "ABBA" written in large letters on top.

1974: "Waterloo" and Eurovision victory

ABBA performing "Waterloo" at Melodifestivalen 1974.

Just as in 1972 and 1973, Ulvaeus, Andersson, and manager Stig Anderson believed in the possibilities of 'using' the Melodifestivalen and Eurovision tv contests as a way to get the music business aware of the band and Björn, Benny and Stig as composers. In late 1973, the composers were invited by Swedish television to contribute a song for the 1974 contest, and from a number of newly written compositions, the foursome chose the upbeat "Waterloo"; the group was now inspired by the growing glam rock scene in England. "Waterloo" was an unashamedly glam-style pop track produced with Michael B. Tretow's wall-of-sound approach.

ABBA won their national heats on Swedish TV on February 9, 1974, and with this third attempt were far more experienced and better prepared for the international contest. With an album's worth of material released when the show was held at the Brighton Dome in England on April 6, 1974, the song won and catapulted them into British consciousness for the first time—and to the top of the charts all over Europe.^[17]

Winning the ESC gave ABBA the chance to tour Europe and perform on major TV shows; thus the band saw the "Waterloo" single climb the charts in most countries. "Waterloo" was ABBA's first UK #1 single. In the US, it reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, paving the way for their first album there (their second album, Waterloo, but now billed as ABBA)—although it only peaked at #145 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

ABBA's follow-up single, "Honey, Honey", reached #27 in the US, and was a Top 3 hit in Germany. However, in the UK, a cover version of the song by the act Sweet Dreams made #10 on the chart. This was primarily because ABBA's British record company, Epic, decided to re-release "Ring Ring" (albeit in a remixed format) instead. It failed to reach the Top 30, increasing growing speculation that the group were simply Eurovision one-hit wonders.

1974 Tour

In November 1974, ABBA embarked on their first European tour, playing dates in Denmark, West Germany, and Austria. It wasn't as successful as the band had hoped, since most of the venues didn't sell out, and due to a lack of demand, they were even forced to cancel a few shows, including a sole scheduled concert in Switzerland. The second leg of the tour which took them through Scandinavia in January 1975 was entirely different: they played to full houses and finally got the reception they hoped for. For three weeks in the summer of 1975, ABBA compensated for the Swedish tour they had tentatively scheduled for the previous summer, but had to cancel after their Eurovision triumph. They played sixteen open-air dates in Sweden and Finland, attracting huge crowds. Their Stockholm show at the Gröna Lund amusement park was seen by an estimated audience of 19,200.^[18]

1975: "SOS" and "Mamma Mia"

The release of their third album, ABBA (known to fans as "The Limo Album"), and their single "SOS" finally brought back their presence in the UK, where the single hit #6 and the album reached #13. Huge success was further solidified with "Mamma Mia" reaching the #1 spot in the UK at the end of January 1976.

In the US, "SOS" reached #10 on the Record World Top 100 singles chart and #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, picking up the BMI Award along the way as one of the most played songs on American radio in 1975.

Yet the success of the group in the United States remained uneven. While they managed to break into the US singles market where, by early 1976, they already had four Top 30 singles, the album market proved to be tough to crack. The eponymous ABBA album generated no fewer than three real American hits, and yet it only peaked at #165 on the Cashbox album chart and #174 on the Billboard 200 chart. Opinions were voiced, by Creem in particular, that in the US ABBA had endured "a very sloppy promotional campaign".

1976: Greatest Hits, "Fernando", Arrival, "Knowing Me Knowing You", "Money Money Money" and "Dancing Queen"

In March 1976, the band released the compilation Greatest Hits, despite having had only six Top 40 hits in the UK and the US. Nevertheless, it became their first UK #1 album, and also took ABBA into the Top 50 on the US album charts for the first time, eventually selling more than a million copies there. Also included on Greatest Hits was a new single, "Fernando". This song had first been written by Bjorn & Benny in Swedish for Frida's 1975 solo album Frida ensam (Frida alone). After the huge success Frida scored with the song in Scandinavia, the group decided to record an English version. It was a wise step, with "Fernando" hitting #1 in twelve countries worldwide, occuping the top position in Australia for 14 weeks, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time in that country. Also in 1976, the group received its first international prize, with "Fernando" being chosen as the "Best Studio Recording of 1975". In the US, "Fernando" reached the Top 10 of the Cashbox Top 100 singles chart and #13 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also topped the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, ABBA's first American number one single of any kind.

The group's next album, Arrival, represented a new level of accomplishment in both songwriting and studio work, prompting rave reviews from more rock-orientated UK music weeklies such as Melody Maker and New Musical Express, and mostly appreciative notices from American critics. In fact, hit after hit flowed from Arrival: "Money, Money, Money", "Knowing Me, Knowing You", and their most enduring and definitive hit, "Dancing Queen". In 1977, Arrival was nominated for the inaugural BRIT Award in the category "Best International Album of the Year". By this time ABBA were very popular in the UK, most of Western Europe and Australia.

Their popularity in the US would remain on a comparatively smaller scale, and "Dancing Queen" became the only Billboard Hot 100 #1 single ABBA ever had there (they did, however, get three more singles to the #1 position on other Billboard charts, including Billboard Adult Contemporary and Hot Dance Club Play). Nevertheless, Arrival finally became a true breakthrough release for ABBA on the US album market where it peaked at #20 on the Billboard album chart.

1977: Europe and Australian tour, The Movie and The Album

In January 1977, ABBA hit the road. By this time, the group's status had changed dramatically and they were clearly regarded as superstars. They opened their much anticipated tour in Oslo, Norway, on 28 January, and mounted a lavishly produced spectacle that included a few scenes from their self-penned mini-operetta. The concert attracted immense media attention from across Europe and Australia. They continued the tour through Western Europe and ended it with shows in the UK in Manchester, Birmingham and two sold-out concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall. Tickets for these two shows were available only by mail application and it was later revealed that the box-office received 3.5 million requests for tickets, enough to fill the venue some 580 times. There were, however, complaints about the group's performance lacking "personality" and being "too polished" and "sterile".^[19]

After the European part of the tour, in March 1977, ABBA played eleven dates in Australia. The trip was accompanied by mass hysteria and unprecedented media attention, and is vividly captured on film in ABBA: The Movie, directed by Lasse Hallström.

The Australian tour and its subsequent ABBA: The Movie produced some ABBA lore, as well. Agnetha Fältskog's blonde good looks had long made her the band's 'pin-up girl', a role she disdained. During the Australian tour, she performed in a skin-tight white jumpsuit, causing one Australian newspaper to use the headline "Agnetha's bottom tops dull show". When asked about this at a news conference, she replied: "Don't they have bottoms in Australia?"^[20]

In December 1977 (January 1978 in many territories), ABBA followed up Arrival with the more musically and lyrically ambitious fifth album The Album, which was released to coincide with ABBA: The Movie. Although the album was less well-received by the critics in the UK, it did spawn more worldwide hits: "The Name of the Game" and "Take a Chance on Me", both of which topped the UK charts, and reached #12 and #3, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US. (Although "Take a Chance on Me" did not top the American charts, it has actually proved to be ABBA's biggest hit single in the United States, selling more copies than "Dancing Queen"). ^[21] The Album also included the ABBA signature tune, "Thank You for the Music", released as a single in the UK in 1983, and had been the B-side of "Eagle" in countries where the latter had been released.

1978: Polar Music Studio opens, US visit and "Summer Night City"

By 1978, ABBA were a megagroup. They converted a disused cinema into the Polar Music Studio, a new state-of-the-art studio in Stockholm which was used by several other bands (for example, Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door and Genesis' Duke were recorded there).

During May, the group went to the US for a huge promotional campaign, being guests on Olivia Newton-John's TV show among other things. However, a lot of effort was put into the new recording studio in Stockholm. The recording sessions for "Summer Night City" were an uphill struggle, but upon release the song became another significant hit for the group. The track would also set the stage for ABBA's foray into disco with their upcoming album. ^[22]

1979: Agnetha and Björn's divorce, Voulez-Vous and the US/Europe tour

On January 9, 1979, the group performed Chiquitita at the Music for UNICEF Concert held at the United Nations General Assembly. ABBA donated the copyright of this worldwide hit to the UNICEF; see Music for UNICEF Concert. The single was released the following week, and reached #1 in ten countries.

In mid-January, Björn and Agnetha announced they were getting divorced. The news caused a massive interest from the media, and led to discussion about ABBA's future: were they going to split up? The foursome ensured the press and their fanbase they were continuing their work as a group, and that the divorce would not affect them. Nonetheless, the media continued to confront them with this in interviews.

The group's sixth album, Voulez-Vous, was released in April 1979, with two background tracks recorded in the famous Criteria Studios in Miami, U.S. with the assistance, among others, of the recording engineer Tom Dowd. The album topped the charts across Europe and in Japan and Mexico, hit the Top 10 in Canada and Australia and the Top 20 in the US. None of the singles from the album reached #1 on the UK charts, but "Chiquitita", "Does Your Mother Know", "Angeleyes" (Double A-side in UK for the single "Voulez-Vous") and "I Have a Dream" all charted no lower than #4. In Canada, "I Have a Dream" became ABBA's second #1 on the RPM Adult Contemporary chart (the first being "Fernando").

Later that year, the group released their second compilation album, Greatest Hits Vol. 2, which featured a brand new track: "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)", their best known disco hit in Europe. In Russia during the late 1970s, they were paid in oil commodities because of an embargo on the ruble.^[23]

On September 13, 1979, ABBA began their first (and only) North American Tour at the Northlands Coliseum, in Edmonton, Canada, with a full house of 14,000. During the next four weeks, they played a total of seventeen sold-out dates, thirteen in the U.S. and four in Canada.

The last scheduled ABBA concert on U.S. soil, in Washington, DC, was cancelled due to Agnetha Fältskog's emotional distress suffered during the flight from New York to Boston, when the private plane she was on was subjected to extreme weather conditions (see Windsor Locks, Connecticut Tornado) and could not land for a long time. The tour ended with a show in Toronto, Canada at Maple Leaf Gardens before a capacity crowd of 18,000. The shows also generated the same type of complaints that were expressed during the group's 1977 tour: many fans regarded ABBA as more of a studio group than a live band.

On October 19, 1979, the tour resumed in Western Europe where the band played 23 sold-out gigs, including an unprecedented six sold-out nights at London's Wembley Arena.

1980: Japan tour and Super Trouper

In March 1980, ABBA travelled to Japan where upon their arrival at Narita International Airport, they were besieged by thousands of fans. The group played eleven concerts to full houses, including six shows at Tokyo's Budokan. This tour was the last "on the road" adventure of their career.

The year 1980 saw the release of ABBA's seventh album Super Trouper, which reflected a certain change in ABBA's style with more prominent use of synthesisers and increasingly more personal lyrics. It set a record for the most pre-orders ever received for a UK album after one million copies were ordered before release. Anticipation for the album had been built up by "The Winner Takes It All", the group's eighth UK chart topper (and their first since 1978). In the US, the single reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and became ABBA's second Billboard Adult Contemporary #1. The song was allegedly written about Ulvaeus and Fältskog's marital tribulations. The next single from the album, "Super Trouper", also hit #1 in the UK, the group's ninth and final UK chart-topper. Another track from Super Trouper, "Lay All Your Love on Me", released in 1981 as a 12-inch single only in selected territories, managed to top the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart and peaked at #7 on the UK singles chart becoming at the time the highest ever charting 12-inch release in UK chart history.

Also in 1980, ABBA recorded a compilation of Spanish-language versions of their hits called