ABBA single by single thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Haristar, Apr 7, 2018.

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  1. Colocally

    Colocally One Of The New Wave Boys

    Location:
    Surrey BC.
     
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  2. Colocally

    Colocally One Of The New Wave Boys

    Location:
    Surrey BC.
    That clip doesn't prove it but it does mention that Johnny Rotten wrote that it was inspired by it and on Wikipedia, Glen Mattlock said that the bass on PV was inspired by SOS.
     
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  3. John Adam

    John Adam An Introvert In Paradise

    Location:
    Hawaii
    The Ring Ring album wasn't released here until after the Thank You For The Music box set. The first two albums though are quite different from the rest of their catalog. But they started hitting their stride with ABBA (2nd album.) I had a harder time connecting to that period at first too. I refer to it as "fun" ABBA, and their later work as "adult" ABBA. But really it's all good fun and worth checking out from "Lycka" (1970) onward, as their song writing and production skills grew.
     
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  4. Colocally

    Colocally One Of The New Wave Boys

    Location:
    Surrey BC.
    Yeah, I remember when I first saw an article that mentioned Ring Ring, my mind was blown, cos I remember going through the album racks back in the UK in the 70s looking at the early albums that I didn't have and had no idea about it. I have them all on CD now, and also have from ABBA onwards on vinyl, still looking for the earlier ones but they are being elusive.
     
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  5. John Adam

    John Adam An Introvert In Paradise

    Location:
    Hawaii
    I knew of the album because of a vinyl import I had. But I didn't play it much. I actually thought it was kind of lame. At the time I didn't appreciate the band in the development stages. :)
     
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  6. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    "SOS" made it into the top 20, which for ABBA in the US was really good. We tend to think of them in the US as a "disco" act, but this was really pre-disco, pseudo-glam ABBA, and glam was never big in the US (although it had a big impact on a lot of subsequent acts). Oddly, "Fernando" was a bigger hit here than this or "Mamma Mia", which only scraped the lower reaches of the Top 40.
     
  7. HGN2001

    HGN2001 Mystery picture member

    A reminder of the US Chart positions

    [​IMG]
     
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  8. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Central VA
    What else can I say about "SOS"? I first heard it on the radio in 1975, and I couldn't get enough of it. What a phenomenal song! It also set the template for my favorite ABBA singles: love songs either tinged, or completely filled, with melancholy. It's very difficult to rank my top 5 ABBA songs beyond my #1, but "SOS" is a strong contender.

    It was asked earlier in tbe thread what the first U.S. single from the ABBA LP was; this was it. By the way, the Wikipedia release date is way off; not only was "SOS" already on the charts by September 8, it had been on them since early to mid August!

    Indeed, "SOS" was released around the same time in the States as it was in Sweden. The song was reviewed, sort of, in the June 21, 1975 Billboard; the song was listed among the "Recommended" singles, which the magazine's reviewer thought would attain a chart peak between 31 and 100 in the Hot 100. The reviewer turned out to be just a bit off.

    Immediately, a few radio stations began playing it, though not in every market at the same time. WBGN in Bowling Green, Kentucky, reported in the July 5 Billboard that it already had added "SOS." In Cash Box, the song entered the Looking Ahead chart, which included songs ranked from 101 to 120, on July 12, but it took five weeks for it to make the main chart; it debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 in its August 9, 1975 issue and in the top 100 of Cash Box and Record World on August 16. "SOS" didn't reach its peak until November, five months after its release. It was a slow burner, which is why it didn't peak higher; by 1975, a #1, or top 5, hit needed to be played pretty much everywhere at the same time.

    In the three U.S. trade magazines, "SOS" peaked lower in Billboard than the others; it stopped at #15 there, but got to #12 in Cash Box and #10 in Record World. The song also peaked at #19 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart in early December 1975. No doubt the song's slow rise was why Atlantic waited six months to release a follow-up.

    Atlantic gave "SOS"/"Man in the Middle" the catalog number 45-3265, which, based on number alone, should have indicated an April 1975 date rather than June. In an earlier post, I used master numbers to theorize that Atlantic planned to release "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" using that number, but changed its mind before any records could be pressed. Knowing it now had six new ABBA songs in house for a future album, Atlantic decided not to wait any longer to release "SOS"; indeed, the ABBA LP finally came out in the U.S. in September 1975. (It was reviewed in the September 13 Billboard and Cash Box.)

    The 45 was pressed by Specialty (SP), Plastic Products (PL) and Monarch (MO); the perimeter print had changed on the labels to add a W in a black rounded square and the words A WARNER COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY. An interesting variant exists on one of the labels; most copies of the 45, including all the promos, list the running time of "SOS" as 3:22, but a few copies (pressed by Specialty) have the time listed incorrectly as "3:33." Promo copies were mono/stereo and were pressed by, at least, SP and PL.
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2018
  9. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    This was the review of the single from Record Mirror in 1975.

    [​IMG]

    Understated, isn’t it?:D

    Don’t know what they mean about the intro sounding like Those Were The Days at all..
     
  10. LoveYourLife

    LoveYourLife Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    Forget what chart positions of their other hit singles may indicate, this is their absolute masterpiece.
     
  11. AudioEnz

    AudioEnz Senior Member

    SOS is one of the songs that gets everyone up dancing at the dance events I DJ. It's a brilliant - perfect - pop song. Abba's "coming of age".

    It was the second #1 in a town in New Zealand, withe the song staying on the charts from November 1975 through to June 1976.
     
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  12. John Adam

    John Adam An Introvert In Paradise

    Location:
    Hawaii
    Thanks again Tim for sharing all the information about SOS! I think I feel exactly as you about my favorite ABBA singles: (love songs either tinged, or completely filled, with melancholy.)

    Since I find the charts fascinating, I am thinking then that I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do was riding on the coattails of this song (in the US) and why it ultimately charted as high as it did, also #15. Or was Mama Mia next here on Atlantic? Then it would blow my theory! :)
     
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  13. motownboy

    motownboy Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington State
    [​IMG]

    S.O.S. is the song that "sealed the deal" for me with ABBA... I was in love (before that I was only infatuated)... Everything about this song was great. The arrangement, the vocals, the harmonies and the lyrics. Even the limo photo on the cover of the 1975 "ABBA" album was great! They made the rounds on TV in the US promoting the album and single. I remember seeing them on "American Bandstand", "Dinah", "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert"... I loved the "ABBA" album a lot and then went to buy the "Waterloo" LP. ABBA became my big "High School Crush!" This was their second masterpiece!!

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2018
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  14. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Central VA
    I Do x5 was indeed the next U.S. single. I figure I'll be one single behind the OP for a while, but we'll see what happens.
     
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  15. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    Man in the Middle is one of their best B sides. Glen Matlock says in the Classic Albums: Never Mind the Bollocks that he took the intro from SOS for Pretty Vacant and plays both intros just to prove it.
     
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  16. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    This was the UK chart for the week SOS peaked at #6 in the UK. 25th October 1975.

    [​IMG]
     
  17. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Half crap up above "SOS". No wonder a re-release of "Space Oddity" was able to chart so high. This really should have been a #1.
     
  18. duggan

    duggan Senior Member

    Location:
    sydney
    +1

    It is beyond my powers to describe how much I admire, enjoy and respect this single.

    Simply terrific, ranks alongside Be My Baby, Waterloo Sunset and God Only Knows.
     
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  19. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    It’s quite a poor chart in general. I say that as a connoisseur of slop and corn too. I like the Art Garfunkel and David Essex singles. Along with Bowie, of course. Still, the ABBA single should’ve been #1...
     
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  20. gomen ne

    gomen ne -

    Location:
    London
    "in Moonies, an upstairs bar in Charing Cross Road, across the street from the Cambridge Theatre. I was in there one lunchtime drinking my way through that week's dole money when ABBA's 'SOS' came on the jukebox. I heard the riff on it, one simple repeated octave pattern. All I did was take that pattern and alter it slightly—putting in the fifth, to be technical. Got it, I thought. What could be simpler? I'm the Marcel Duchamp of the fretboard, creating my ready-mades. The next stage was to fit that ABBA riff to the chord sequence for the chorus. That came straight from the Small Faces' 'Wham Bam, Thank You Ma'am' because it fitted so well."
    The Quietus | News | READ: I Was A Teenage Sex Pistol

    6m50s
    Classic Albums: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (2002) (V) Trailer - Dailymotion Video
     
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  21. cut to the chase

    cut to the chase Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    All countries where 'SOS' reached the top 10 (including peak position):

    Germany #1 (7 weeks), South Africa #1 (4 weeks), Belgium #1 (2 weeks), Australia #1 (1 week), Mexico #1 (1 week), New Zealand #1 (1 week), Austria #2,
    Italy #2 (their highest charting single ever), Netherlands #2, Norway #2 (for 18 weeks!!!), Zimbabwe #2, Switzerland #3, Ireland #4, UK #6

    All countries where 'I Do x5' reached the top 10 (including peak position):

    Switzerland #1 (5 weeks), Australia #1 (3 weeks), South Africa #1 (2 weeks), New Zealand #1 (1 week), Belgium #2, Norway #2, Netherlands #3, Austria #4, Zimbabwe #5, Germany #6
     
  22. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    While we’re around the era of SOS, this is the review of the ABBA album from Record Mirror. Like with the single, they don’t go overboard.:)

    [​IMG]

    I also had the Carpenters and Bee Gees albums from this week.
    [​IMG]
     
  23. filip_kbh

    filip_kbh Forum Resident

    What a great thread this is!
     
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  24. Paul Rymer

    Paul Rymer Forum Resident

    Confession time - the album below, besides the radio, was how I first got to know several ABBA songs, and specifically SOS, which I don't remember hearing on the radio at all. I haven't heard this album in decades but as a very young kid I enjoyed it immensely. My first actual ABBA item was Greatest Hits Vol 2 on cassette, a christmas present.


    [​IMG]
     
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  25. Haristar

    Haristar Apollo C. Vermouth Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hampshire, UK
    Not heard of the song "Mamamia". Is it good? ;)
     
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