ABBA: The Album

ABBA: The Album
Studio album by ABBA
Released	12 December 1977 (1977-12-12)
Recorded	31 May – 20 November 1977 (1977-11-20) at Marcus, Metronome and Glen Studios, Stockholm and Bohus Studio, Kungälv
Genre	Pop, rock
Length	39:53 (Polar (LP 1977))
Label	Polar Atlantic (US original release)
Producer	Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus
ABBA chronology
Arrival (1976) ABBA: The Album (1977) Voulez-Vous (1979)
Original UK album cover

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
NME	7/10[2]
Rolling Stone	favorable[3]

ABBA: The Album is the fifth studio album by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released on 12 December 1977 through Polar Music.^{[citation needed]} The album was released in conjunction with ABBA: The Movie, with several of the songs featured in the film.

The album contained the singles "Take a Chance on Me", "The Name of the Game", "Eagle" and "Thank You for the Music" which has been called ABBA's "goodbye" song even though it was released five years before the band officially broke up. It also features the song "Hole In Your Soul", which was performed as the last song at many ABBA concerts, including their final 1979 tour, and two other songs, "One Man, One Woman" and "I'm a Marionette".

The album offers three songs from ABBA's mini-musical "The Girl With The Golden Hair". These songs are "Thank You for the Music", "I Wonder (Departure)" and "I'm a Marionette".

ABBA: The Album was first released on CD in 1984. The album has been reissued in digitally remastered form by PolyGram/Universal Music four times; first in 1997, then in 2001, in 2005 as part of The Complete Studio Recordings box set and again in 2007 as a two disc 'Deluxe Edition'.

The Cold War

Due to the Cold War, Western music was actively discouraged throughout Eastern Europe at the time. Despite this ABBA: The Album sold an unprecedented million copies in Poland in 1977, exhausting the country's entire allocation of foreign currency. In Russia, only 200,000 copies were permitted to be pressed. However, demand within the USSR indicated they could have sold 40 million copies.^[4]

Cover artwork

Polar's official cover featured an entirely white background, and is the basis for current CD versions. However, Epic Records' original UK release of the LP featured a blue background on the front cover, fading to white at the bottom. It also featured a gatefold sleeve. The back cover was altered, incorporating a similar photo of ABBA to that used elsewhere in the world for the inner sleeve, and referencing tracks included in ABBA: The Movie. The inner gatefold was designed to look like an air mail envelope, similar to the style later used for Gracias Por La Música and even had a photo of ABBA incorporated into a stamp in the corner.

This was the first and only time that Epic radically broke away from the standard Polar Music design for an ABBA album. The UK design for ABBA: The Album has only been re-issued on CD format once, as part of a limited edition boxed set released by the Japanese arm of Universal Music in 2004.

Track listing (LP)

All songs written and composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, except where noted. 

CD re-issues, bonus tracks

The Album was remastered and reissued in 1997 with no bonus tracks.

The Album was remastered and reissued in 2001 with one bonus track:

10. "Thank You for the Music" (Doris Day version) (Andersson, Ulvaeus)  – 4:03

The Album was remastered and reissued again in 2005 as part of the The Complete Studio Recordings box set with following bonus tracks:

10. "Al Andar" (Andersson, Anderson, Ulvaeus, Buddy McCluskey, Mary McCluskey)  – 4:43
    • Spanish version of "Move On".
11. "Gracias Por La Música" (Andersson, Ulvaeus, B. McCluskey, M. McCluskey)  – 3:49
    • Spanish version of "Thank You for the Music".

Tracks 10–11, vocals recorded January 1980. These two songs are from the album Gracias Por La Música (Septima SRLM 1, 23 June 1980).

The Album was reissued again in 2007 (15 October) as a 30th Anniversary of the original release, called the 'Deluxe Edition'. This features the same track listing as the 2005 release along with four additional tracks;

10. "Eagle" (Single edit)  – 4:25
11. "Take a Chance on Me" (Live version; alternate mix)  – 4:25
    • Originally released as B-side of 1979 single "I Have a Dream"
12. "Thank You for the Music" (Doris Day version)  – 4:03
13. "Al Andar"  – 4:43
14. "I Wonder (Departure)" (Live version)  – 4:27
    • Originally released as B-side of 1977 single "The Name of the Game"
15. "Gracias Por La Música"  – 3:49

The 'Deluxe Edition' reissue also came along with a bonus DVD with the following clips:

1. "Eagle"/"Thank You for the Music" (Star Parade, ZDF)
2. "Take a Chance on Me" (Am Laufenden Band, Radio Bremen)
3. "The Name of the Game" (ABBA Special, TBS)
4. "Thank You for the Music" (Mike Yarwood's Christmas Show, BBC)
5. "Take a Chance on Me" (Star Parade, ZDF)
6. "ABBA on tour in 1977" (Rapport, SVT)
7. "Recording ABBA – The Album" (Gomorron Sverige, SVT)
8. "ABBA in London, February 1978" (Blue Peter, BBC)
9. "ABBA in America, May 1978" (Rapport, SVT)
10. "ABBA – The Album Television Commercial I" (UK)
11. "ABBA – The Album Television Commercial II" (Australia)
12. International Sleeve Gallery

The Album was reissued once again in 2008 as part of the The Albums box set but without any bonus tracks.

Singles

1. "The Name of the Game"/"I Wonder" (live) (October 1977)
2. "Take a Chance on Me"/"I'm a Marionette" (January 1978)
3. "One Man, One Woman"/"Eagle" (Edited version) (1978) (Taiwan only)
4. "Eagle" (single edit)/"Thank You for the Music" (May 1978)
5. "Thank You for the Music" / "Eagle" (Edited Version) (1978 (Chile))
6. "Move On"/"Mamma Mia" (1978) (Chile)
7. "Thank You for the Music" / "Our Last Summer" (1983)

Non Album Tracks

• "Billy Boy"

An early version of "Take a Chance on Me". A brief excerpt of the track was released in the box set Thank You for the Music.

• "I Am an A"

A song written for the 1977 Tour with lyrics written by all four, jokingly depicting themselves as A, B, B and A. The song was never considered for a studio version, but parts of the chorus were later reused in "Free as a Bumblebee", and as that song never progressed beyond the demo, the chorus surfaced during the songwriting sessions for the stage musical Chess, as the UK number 1 hit single "I Know Him So Well".

• "Get On the Carousel"

Another song from the 1977 Tour, written for the mini-musical The Girl with the Golden Hair. The song was considered too weak to progress as a studio recording, but the chorus surfaced as a melody line in "Hole in Your Soul" (the part "...ahaa-, the songs you sing are too romantic..."). "Get On the Carousel" appears in ABBA: The Movie.

• "Love for Me Is Love Forever"

An early version of "Move On".

• "Scaramouche"

A demo instrumental recorded during The Album sessions. Some parts surfaced in the recording sessions for Chess and resulted in a melody line in the track "Merano". A brief excerpt of this song was released in the box set Thank You for the Music.

Personnel

• Benny Andersson – keyboards, vocals, backing vocals
• Agnetha Fältskog – vocals, backing vocals
• Anni-Frid Lyngstad – vocals, backing vocals
• Björn Ulvaeus – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals, backing vocals

Additional musicians

• Ola Brunkert – drums
• Lars O. Carlsson – flute, saxophone
• Malando Gassama – percussion
• Rutger Gunnarsson – bass
• Roger Palm – drums
• Janne Schaffer – lead guitar
• Lasse Wellander – lead guitar

Production

• Benny Andersson; Björn Ulvaeus  – producers, arrangers
• Michael B. Tretow – engineer
• Rutger Gunnarsson – string arrangements
• Rune Söderqvist – design
• Barry Levine – photography
• Björn Andersson; Rune Söderqvist – illustrations
• Jon Astley; Tim Young; Michael B. Tretow – remastering for the 1997 Remasters
• Jon Astley; Michael B. Tretow – remastering for the 2001 Remasters
• Henrik Jonsson – remastering for The Complete Studio Recordings box set

Charts

Album

UK Chart Position by Week

According to The Official Charts Company, the album spent 39 consecutive weeks (and total weeks) in the Top 40 from 4 February 1978 to 21 October 1978. It was also the first Abba album to chart straight at Number One.

Weekly chart positions from 4 February 1978 to 21 October 1978. 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-2-2-2-3-5-5-5-6-5-5-4-5-2-4-5-7-6-9-14-14-15-18-22-27-20-20-20-20-24-38-36

For the first 14 weeks the album charted along with Greatest Hits and Arrival. All three were in the Top 15 at the start of March 1978.

Singles – UK

Singles – Norway

Singles – USA and Canada

References

v t e ABBA Agnetha Fältskog Björn Ulvaeus Benny Andersson Anni-Frid Lyngstad Studio albums Ring Ring Waterloo ABBA Arrival The Album Voulez-Vous Super Trouper The Visitors Compilations Greatest Hits Greatest Hits Vol. 2 Gracias Por La Música The Singles: The First Ten Years Thank You for the Music Gold: Greatest Hits More Gold: More Hits Oro: Grandes Éxitos Thank You for the Music The Definitive Collection 18 Hits The Complete Studio Recordings Number Ones The Albums Live albums ABBA Live Singles "People Need Love" "He Is Your Brother" "Ring Ring" "Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure Is Hard Enough)" "Waterloo" "Honey, Honey" "Hasta Mañana" "So Long" "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" "SOS" "Mamma Mia" "Fernando" "Dancing Queen" "Money, Money, Money" "Knowing Me, Knowing You" "The Name of the Game" "Take a Chance on Me" "Eagle" "Summer Night City" "Chiquitita" "Does Your Mother Know" "Voulez-Vous" "Angeleyes" "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" "I Have a Dream" "The Winner Takes It All" "On and On and On" "Super Trouper" "Lay All Your Love on Me" "One of Us" "When All Is Said and Done" "Head Over Heels" "The Visitors" "The Day Before You Came" "Under Attack" "Thank You for the Music" Other songs "She's My Kind of Girl" "En Karusell" "Another Town, Another Train" "Nina, Pretty Ballerina" "Rock'n Roll Band" "King Kong Song" "Bang-A-Boomerang" "Rock Me" "I've Been Waiting for You" "My Love, My Life" "That's Me" "Arrival" "As Good as New" "Happy New Year" "Our Last Summer" "Slipping Through My Fingers" "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room" "Put On Your White Sombrero" Video games SingStar ABBA ABBA: You Can Dance Related articles Discography Songs Unreleased songs Dick Cavett Meets ABBA Eurovision Song Contest 1974 Mamma Mia! Mamma Mia! (film) (soundtrack) ABBA: The Movie Congratulations Music of Sweden Stig Anderson "Thank ABBA for the Music" A-Teens ABBA: The Tour Book:ABBA