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Abba Gold [CD] By: Boris |
One of Pop/Rock's greatest success stories is ABBA. Spawned in Sweden, ABBA was formed by two "already" rock stars......Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. The two added Bjorn's wife, Agnetha Faltskog and Benny's girlfriend, Anni-Frid Lyngstad to complete the group. The group was invited to enter the "Song For Europe" contest in which the winner would represent Sweden in the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest. They did not place, but started planning and writing for the 1974 contest. And when the time came ABBA took "Waterloo" as their contest song. The rest is a pop/rock fairytale. The band enjoyed major international success, every excess imaginable, rigorous touring, television appearances and released a total of 9 albums in 10 years. And, of course, there was turmoil. The success wore on the two couples over time and caused both couples to split and when your winning formula is compromised, so is your output and level of success.
Gold is one of the best greatest hits compilations ever put together. There's not too much that could be considered filler. Songs included are "Dancing Queen," "Knowing Me, Knowing You," "Take A Chance On Me," "Mamma Mia," "Super Trouper," "S.O.S.", "Fernando", "Voulez Vous" and many more. You may not remember the titles right off, but you know all of the songs and there's nineteen of them! I consider Ulveus and Andersson one of the best writing teams for their time period. Their writing ranged from poppy and upbeat to ballad and soft to haunting and dark. Dark? Yes! ABBA had a quality to them that was sad, gloomy and dark. Add to this the multi-layers of female voices in perfect pitch harmony and there's no wonder that the group enjoyed so much success. The songs are amazing and completely catchy. It's not disco, it's not pop, it's not rock and it's not music for sensitive people. It's ABBA and it's brilliant. This compilation was released in 1992 and like all of ABBA's releases, was a top selling album. So it won't be hard for you to go to any store that sells CD's and pick this one up. I highly recommend it. |
| c.2004-2005 Black Angel Promotions | |