ABBA GOLD and MORE ABBA GOLD and on and on and on ad finitem!!!!
ABBA GOLD released September 21, 1992 available Worldwide on CD
This is the biggest selling ABBA album. GOLD has been certified to have sold at least 20 million copies worldwide. And I have heard that as of 2004 this disc has sold as many as 30 million copies. Such figures make the record among the most successful record releases of all time. It is the only internationally available single CD collection of all the group's most successful hits. It was released after Polydor bought the worldwide rights to ABBA's music & Polar Music itself from Stig Anderson for 300 million Krona. Polydor got lucky since a second wave of interest in ABBA was occurring right when they released the collection.. Of course, considering how popular ABBA was originally, it would be surprising if they couldn't sell a lot of copies of a well marketed single disc greatest hits album. Even the USA has warmed to this CD to the tune of six million copies. GOLD received a belated release in the US in 1993.
ABBA GOLD had it's own second wave of sales during 1999's 25th year since Waterloo celebrations. Remarkably, in 1999 the album hit No 1 for second time in Britain and other territories seven years after its release. ABBA Gold continues to sell well, partly, perhaps due to the musical Mamma Mia, which has been a big sales tool for ABBA GOLD since almost all the songs in Mamma Mia can be found on ABBA Gold and visa versa....
Remarkably yet again, ABBA
Gold made it to number one on the British album charts in August
2008 when MAMMA MIA-The Movie was released. At sixteen years of
age it was the oldest album ever to hit number one on the British
charts. It sold well during 2008 in most other countries as well.
The observant will notice that on the original cover of this CD that the font size and placement of the letters in ABBA's trademark logo has been subtly altered.The use of the crown over the logo was a bit of added touch , that aimed to imply that ABBA was a classy, regal majestic band, and not a cheesy, tasteless, commercial band.
Oh, and by the way, how is this as an album? This is really a CD designed for the casual ABBA fan. It's a good but not very interesting compilation of all of ABBA worldwide number one songs and other top ten hits.., only "Thank You For The music" was not a major hit. With a total of 19 songs the collection is fairly generous .The emphasis on this CD is a bit overly much on the 1976 -1980 middle period, all but 4 of the 19 songs come from this time, The main objection to this album is it tends to further the misnomer that ABBA was solely a singles group. The casual fan is encouraged to buy this and a ticket to Mamma Mia and be done with it. ABBA experts also tended to not care much for the original John Tobler liner notes or the design .The recent remastered versions now feature more authoritative notes by Carl Magnus Palm.
It is interesting to note that originally in 1992 this album was actually also released on a 2LP set in some territories where LP's had not totally disappeared.
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Tracks listed with year and source album of earliest release... 1. Dancing Queen ,1976, ARRIVAL 2. Knowing Me, Knowing You ,1976, ARRIVAL 3. Take a Chance on Me 1977, THE ALBUM 4. Mamma Mia,1975, ABBA 5. Lay All Your Love on Me , 1980, SUPER TROUPER 6. Super Trouper, 1980, SUPER TROUPER 7. I Have a Dream,1979, VOULEZ-VOUS 8. The Winner Takes It All ,1980, SUPER TROUPER 9. Money, Money, Money, 1977, ARRIVAL |
10. S.O.S. , 1975, ABBA 11. Chiquitita , 1979, VOULEZ-VOUS 12. Fernando, 1976, GREATEST HITS 13. Voulez-Vous, 1979, VOULEZ-VOUS 14. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight), 1979 GREATEST HITS 2 15. Does Your Mother Know, 1979 VOULEZ-VOUS 16. One of Us, 1981 THE VISITORS 17. The Name of the Game , 1977, THE ALBUM 18. Thank You for the Music, 1977, THE ALBUM 19. Waterloo, 1974, WATERLOO |
| OTHER VIEWS an excerpt from a published review ...of ABBA GOLD |
| "ABBA GOLD was an compiled in 5 minutes, seemingly at random by a moron" -London's GAY TIMES. (this comment is actually from their review of ABBA-THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION...) |
the followup album to ABBA Gold...
MORE ABBA GOLD released May 24, 1993 worldwide Has been out of print from time to time...
This is a very listenable collection. Here are 13 of the hits that didn't fit on ABBA Gold, 4 interesting ABBA album tracks, two B-sides,and one never before released track .- "I Am the City "(recorded in 1982). Indeed ,This album has 4 of the 6 -1982 songs on it. 12 of the 20 tracks are from 1979-1982.
This album was originally going to be more of a rarities/fan request project,that would feature more B-sides and unreleased tracks such as"Just Like That'. But Polygram apparently decided to go instead with track lineup with more familiar tracks. )
The highlight of the album is the never before released track-"I Am the City "(recorded in 1982). Like many of ABBA's 1980's tracks-it features a lot of synthesizers, and good lyrics-unlike most of ABBA's 1980's work-Agnetha and Frida sing a unison lead. In theory,, "I am the City" was being saved for a possible post Chess ABBA album, ABBA's other unreleased 1982 track , "Just like That" was also considered for release on MORE ABBA GOLD, but Bjorn and Benny nixed that idea. But one does get a good sampling of ABBA's 1982 work with four of ABBA's six -1982 songs appear on ABBA, making this good place to hear these songs together...
Not surprisingly, MORE ABBA GOLD didn't sell nearly as well as ABBA Gold... It has even gone out of print in some territories but has been reissued in 1999 in some territories ,with a different song lineup, new liner notes and some longer song edits. It has a white cover in contrast to ABBA GOLD 's black cover. The no longer available, Spanish album, MAS ORO has a similar color scheme to More ABBA Gold but obviously a very different song lineup .
The original version of MORE GOLD had liner notes by UK ABBA press officer John Tobler, but the recent remastered editions has liner notes by Carl Magnus Palm.On The recent Australian remaster edition the locals threw out "Cassandra" and "Lovelight"..
Like ABBA GOLD, this album was originally also made available in a 2lp set in some places. MORE ABBA GOLD has also been recompiled a couple times as part of the FOREVER ABBA 2 CD set and the recent SOUND & VISION DVD/2 CD combo...
Track listing:
| 1. Summer
Night City,1979 GREATEST HITS 2 2. Angeleyes, 1979 VOULEZ_VOUS 3. The Day Before You Came,1982 THE SINGLES 4. Eagle 1977, THE ALBUM 5. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, 1975, ABBA 6. So Long, 1975, ABBA 7. Honey, Honey, 1974, WATERLOO 8. The Visitors, 1979 , THE VISITORS 9. Our Last Summer, 1980, SUPER TROUPER 10. On and on and On, 1980, SUPER TROUPER |
11. Ring Ring, 1973 RING
RING 12. I Wonder (Departure) 1977 THE ALBUM 13. Lovelight 1979 ,B-side 14. Head over Heels, 1981 , THE VISITORS 15. When I Kissed the Teacher, 1976 16. I Am the City (previously unreleased), 1982 17. Cassandra 1982 , B-side 18. Under Attack, 1982 THE SINGLES 19. When All Is Said and Done, 1981, THE VISITORS 20. The Way Old Friends Do, 1980 SUPER TROUPER |
ABBA GOLD -reissues even in 2008!
There are been many reissiues of ABBA Gold -and sadly or mercifully, I have not kept track of them all. They all feature the same tracks except in the case of Australia or in those cases where ABBA gold has been coupled with MORE ABBA GOLD....
ABBA GOLD DVD version. Internationally released DVD.
A DVD version of this video was released in mid 2003. It features the nineteen songs found on the VHS version as well as three bonus clips
Complimation of official music videos of all of the songs found
on the ABBA GOLD CD. The songs are presented in the same order as they are on the CD.
1. Dancing Queen 2. Knowing Me, Knowing You 3. Take a Chance on Me 4. Mamma Mia 5. Lay All Your Love on Me 6. Super Trouper 7. I Have a Dream 8. The Winner Takes It All 9. Money, Money, Money 10. S.O.S. 11. Chiquitita 12. Fernando 13. Voulez-Vous 14. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) 15. Does Your Mother Know 16. One of Us 17. The Name of the Game 18. Thank You for the Music 19. Waterloo
ABBA Gold-SOUND AND VISION International release Fall 2003 -2CD/1DVD International release
This combines the new ABBA gold DVD with reissues of the audio ABBA GOLD and MORE ABBA GOLD CD's . This might be the one to get if you have to delve into the Gold mine.
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"The "Waterloo scene" from the movie Muriel's Wedding) encapsulates ABBA Gold. It epitomizes a transition from desperately uncool to popular, but it also affirms loudly and clearly that it's okay to be a dork,a geek , a queer,-you dont have to abide to commonly accepted defintions of hipnesss to be happy. There are worse ways to define a classic album" -Elisabeth Vincentelli ABBA GOLD-by Elisabeth Vincentelli Paperbook book Published by Continum in 2004 as part of the 33 1/3 series This is the only book written so far, soley about a single ABBA album...The author makes a convincing case for the importance of this particular album in the the ABBA canon, and as a pop album in general..The book is intelligently and insightly written, Sadly the the book has no graphics or photos aside from the cover. Gosh reminds me of this website. Oddly enough, Elizabeth is a rare fan who is not overly thrilled with either The Album or Voulez-Vous... Abba: Gold - The World's Greatest Albums DVD mid 2006 Quoted verbatim from the jacket-"The story behind Abba's Gold, one of the greatest pop albums ever made. Drawing on rare Abba performances from TV and film archives around the world, this is the first ever independent film review of Abba Gold. The film draws on the reflections of a team of leading critics, musicologists and working musicians to produce the most authoritative and comprehensive review of a landmark in popular music." Ok I like, ABBA too, but the ABBA Gold album just annoys me ... |
Montief's handy guide to ABBA the Albums
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| MONTIEF'S HANDY GUIDE TO ABBA THE ALBUMS!!! |
| ABBA THE ALBUMS -SITE INDEX -REVIEWS OF ALBUMS SORTED BY ARTIST |
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ABBA THE ALBUMS - GROUP & SOLO ALBUM REVIEWS LISTED IN ODER OF YEAR OF RELEASE Chart revised July 2006 by Montief OR SOMEONE WHO LOOKS LIKE HIM... |