ABBA - The Singles The First 10 Years Poll. Pick Your Favourites

I didn't know it was reversed.
I see a similar picture on the essential CD collection.

Which one is not reversed?
Darryl

 

It wasn’t a hit for ABBA in the UK. Sweet Dreams took it into the top 10 here in 1974.



The female singer here, Polly Brown of Picketty Witch fame, was ‘blacked up’ for this performance on Top Of The Pops. It was the 70s and often things were just wrong.

 

It's on Abba's Greatest Hits (the park bench cover).

 

Yes, as it should be. It's also on the K-Tel The Magic of Abba (my favorite Abba comp, except for the edits and early fade-outs). I just find it strange that a 2-disc comp called "THE Singles" would exclude "Honey Honey."

 

Well, the Greatest Hits releases came out in the 70s, so there are probably songs on The Singles that weren't released at the time of the earlier comps. Something has to give. And there aren't many comps that will satisfy everyone. I have both the Greatest Hits on CD and The Singles double LP. Abba's LPs will never set you back much. The early CDs are an entirely different proposition. I was lucky to find the first Greatest Hits as it wasn't released in Europe. Mine has an import sticker on it.

 

There was plenty of room for more on The Singles, but at least it has better sequencing than Abba Gold which lags in the middle due to too many consecutive slow songs, and placing "Fernando" and "Chiquitita" back to back. Those 2 songs are too similar to be consecutive.

 

Decent collection, but not quite comprehensive enough to be a GREAT collection. Terrible album artwork.

 

Maybe, but it seems like there are enough songs for a double LP. You could add them as bonus tracks on the CD, but the philosophy at the time was same content on both LP and CD. I've never owned Abba Gold.

 

If there is a forgotten ABBA single, I reckon it’s Under Attack. Yet, on this poll it’s doing far better than Chiquitita and I Have A Dream. Both of which were smash hits.

 

Where’s @Jarleboy? Thought he called himself an ABBA fan.

 

Nice to see the love for S.O.S

Never cared for Dancing Queen

 

Actually, those two mega hits are trailing in last position in this poll, behind even So Long and Ring Ring...

 

I voted for

1. "SOS" which is pretty much my all-time favorite song by anyone (!) and has been most of my life (I was born the year before it came out).

2. "Knowing Me, Knowing You" is a perfect track, on so many levels. That special Scando mix of sadness/gladness in the melody gets me every time.

3. "Summer Night City" just feels like a fun night on the town in the summertime. Pulsating with life and excitement and perhaps their happiest number other than the earlier, 'dumber' ones.

4. "Super Trouper" has a great lyric and a much better melody. Just brill.

5. "The Day Before You Came" mixes moody synth pop and day to day life/drama and comes up with one final ABBA classic, IMO.

And yes, I do like the cover. Agnetha was my first girlfriend. I was three

 

This is the correct one. The other looks odd.

 

Pleased to see my picks all scored so high, you guys have good taste... "SOS" is an absolute classic, ditto Dancing Queen. I remember we thought of them as just another Eurovision winning band of no value and then "SOS" came out and we went, "Oh wow... OK, there's something there after all". We weren't the only ones...



(Also influenced by Television's Venus De Milo, acknowledged, and I would say Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman but that's another thread).

 

Love this collection, my very first ABBA CD compilation and how I came to know them. Have this on the double gatefold vinyl album. [Atlantic promo] The Visitors was my first ABBA CD I had as a little kid. First, I love the 80's album cover, as retro as wonderful as some of the early 70's covers! The title was rather misleading, the 'first' ten years. I'm sure they knew the next ten years weren't coming at that point! [For ABBA.] This collection has great sound, one "oops" which I didn't know was an oops, the promo edit of "Name Of The Game" is on here and not intended. "Just Like That" should of been there.......someone had to say it!

This made me wan't to start collecting their actual US vinyl singles, and I worked backwards, from newest to oldest. Finding out their last vinyl single in the original (US) run was "One of Us" from the Visitors, and not 'The Day Before You Came." Odd. "Thank You For The Music" was the last one in the UK. Odd, sort of. But it's been fun piecing together a history of a band that was done before I could remember them being together. As I have mentioned before, I like later ABBA better, the mature songs suited this adult's taste more. It's hard to imagine that the same four people who sang "Ring Ring" also sing "The Winner Takes It All." But what a great piece of pop history this Swedish group has left us to enjoy. For me this collection holds many of those pieces.......and some missing ones! Nothing's perfect.

 

Of course you are right, nothings perfect.
But Abba are as close to pop perfection as you can get I would say...

 

They were. Such a shame they were eclipsed by the Dooleys in the late 70s. Who could compete with that?

 

In addition to buying all the ABBA albums when they came out, I also bought all of the hits compilations that came out too. I didn't care about the song repeats. I just wanted them. As I've mentioned many times on this forum, "Honey Honey" is my abbasolute favorite song so I always look to see if it's included on any ABBA compilation. I listen to it practically every day because it motivates me & puts me in a happy place emotionally. All of the elements (vocals, instrumentation, orchestra, & even the "ooh bop bop bop" homage to oldies) are layered perfectly on that song & I always ask everyone to check it out. Here you go!:

 

Do you know the UK Sweet Dreams version I posted earlier in the thread?

 

I do & I have it in my collection but I much favor the ABBA original.

 

It was a bit of a cheek Sweet Dreams rushing the single out before ABBA had a chance to release it here themselves.

 

Speaking of ABBA covers, UK act Brendon released this as the follow up to their (one) hit, Gimme Some, in 1977. It flopped. Not one of my favourite ABBA songs, but this version adds nothing to it.

 

And of course we can never forget Brotherhood Of Man, as much as we would like to...

 

Yeah, right. Because we all remember their hits as almost as good as The Nolans´. I had almost forgotten them.

Always rely on Bobby to find the correct pop connection...