ABBA 1975-1976 GREATEST HITS & BEST OF ABBA
"Can you hear the drums, Fernando?" OR ARE YOU DEAF?
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ABBA-Best of ABBA 1975 Australian Lp
Though not strictly part of the ABBA canon,
BEST OF (the first ABBA compilation album released outside of
Sweden) is an important record in the history of ABBA. BEST OF
was released in Australia and a few other territories.
According to the Guinness Book of World
Records BEST OF is the largest selling single disc album ever
released in Australia (at 1.2 milion copies). During it's intial
chart run in Australia this album sold 860,000 copies . Australia
had a population of 14 million at the time. This was an unprecedentated
rate of market penetration. ABBAmania struck Australia with a
vengeance and would not die down for two years. At one point ABBA
would have five songs in the Australian top ten. ABBA fervor was
never this extreme anywhere else, though ABBA had similarly high
market penetration in many territories. ABBA was so popular in
Australia that a backlash developed
and after 1977 ABBA would be less popular in Australia than in
many other territories.
The track listing for BEST OF was similar to, but not the same as the nearly concurrent GREATEST HITS album. GREATEST HITS would be released in late 1975 in Sweden, and thus was officially part of the ABBA canon! Greatest Hits was released in 1976 in much of the world (including the US and Great Britain).
Unlike GREATEST HITS , BEST OF had "Hasta
Manana'', but BEST OF didn't have "He Is Your Brother, Another
Town, Another Train,
or Fernando'. (The RING RING album was made available in Australia
so there was less of a advantage in the having the RING RING tracks
on THE BEST OF album. )
The "Fernando" single hadn't been released when BEST OF came out. So when, "Fernando' was released in 1976, it became ABBA 's biggest selling Australian single. ( It was #1 for sixteen weeks ! )
In Australia ,"Fernando" ended up being placed on the ARRIVAL album. But, most territories would see "Fernando' on the GREATEST HITS album.
TRACK LISTING
, Side 1: Waterloo; Ring Ring; Honey, Honey; Mamma Mia;
People Need Love; Nina, Pretty Ballerina
Side 2: I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do; SOS; Dance (While
The Music Still Goes On); Bang-A-Boomerang; Hasta Mañana;
So Long
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ABBAMANIA IN AUSTRALIA VISIT ABBA GURU"S IAN COLE"S ABBA SITE CALLED
THE ABBA PHENOMENA IN AUSTRALIA
ABBA-ABBA's Greatest Hits 1975/6 Released on Cd internationally but phased out
This album is where ABBA broke through worldwide
on the album charts. This album
would precede to go platinum seemingly everywhere it was released,
including America.
This was only ABBA's third album released in many parts of the world and it would come only 22 months after their Eurovision victory with "Waterloo".
Although a GREATEST HITS collection might have seemed premature, with "Fernando" ABBA was already releasing it's eleventh song that was a hit somewhere.(some songs were hits in different territories.)
In Sweden and a few other territories , the
cover featured a green/bluish drawing
of the members of ABBA as animal life.
In the rest of the world the cover would feature a now famous
photo
of the two ABBA couples. Benny and Frida-
the unmarried couple were kissing, Agnetha
and Björn ,the married couple ,were being
distant to each other.
GREATEST HITS featured five songs from
the RING RING album, three songs from the WATERLOO album
and five songs drawn from ABBA.
GREATEST HITS had only one new song
the legendary "Fernando" . "Fernando" was
ABBA's first successful ballad hit. It had been originally written
in Swedish for the FRIDA ENSAM album, but a English language version
with both Frida & Agnetha singing was prepared for release
by ABBA. The song seems both over exposed and fresh at the same
time. The intro and flute still can bring chills to the spine.
The special intro helped made this first ABBA
song to exceed four minutes in length.
During the songwriting process, "Fernando
"had emerged as a Swedish tango ,but had soon developed a
ersatz Mexican feel. The chorus to the song is probably
the ABBA hit that is easiest to sing along to.
The earliest versions of GREATEST HITS in Sweden
didn't have "Fernando" ,but
all the later pressings did. Sadly, with the release of ABBA Gold,
GREATEST HITS has been phased out.
| GREATEST HITS DETAILS | Track listing for GREATEST HITS (with source album) | ||
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* Swedish release November 1975 # 1
* UK release March 1976 # 1
* US release September 1976 # 48
* Produced by Andersson-UlvaeusSINGLES drawn from Fernando(not on ABBA album)/Tropical Loveland |
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To hear the drums somewhere else...
* ABBA's next studio album1976-Arrival
Montief's handy guide to ABBA the Albums
| ABBA THE ALBUMS -SITE INDEX -REVIEWS OF ALBUMS SORTED BY ARTIST |
|
ABBA THE ALBUMS - GROUP & SOLO ALBUM REVIEWS LISTED IN ODER OF YEAR OF RELEASE Chart revised October 2005 by Montief OR SOMEONE WHO LOOKS LIKE HIM... |
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