ABBA - why did they split up?

Listening now to "Voulez-Vous" and the question just popped into my head...I don't recall much coverage back in the day about why they called it quits. (Sometimes you hear a song from a long-ago group and you realize how much you miss their sound!)

 

First, Bjorn and Agnetha split up in 1979.
They tried to stay together after that. Benny and Anna-frid (Frida) split up in 1981.
Here's Agnetha talking about it in 1983:

This article from 2008 tells more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...lly-ready-forgive-bandmates-years-misery.html

 

They split up so that Agnetha could marry me.

 

How'd that work out for you?

 

Just imagine those relatives of yours you dread seeing once a year.

Now imagine cutting an album and going on tour with them.

 

This is from a US perspective, where the band considered themselves a failure compared to their success in the rest of the world: I've always felt ABBA had the most pathetic ending of the upper top selling bands. Whether cut short due to death, like Zeppelin or Queen, or just calling it quits, like The Beatles and Pink Floyd, these other bands went out with #1 albums. [An argument could be made regarding The Final Cut.] My memories of Abba in the early 80s are seeing their most recent album The Visitors in the cut-out bins forever (and constantly checking to see if I recognized any songs), believing their music was cheapened when the first US compilation combining early and late period hits was released on K-Tel and finally having no clue until after Chess whether they had broken up or not.

 

I remember that K-Tel collection, had it on 8 Track...and it did signal the end; like for you, the Visitors just sailed by me, nobody seemed to care anymore

 

Nirvana has got to be up there. Sly Family Stone too. I just read the CCR book last month....

 

I believe the story is that they really didn't have an official "break-up". They just sort of finished some tracks, went their separate ways, and just never got back together again to officially record anything. The two marriages had broken up, which obviously added to the strained relationships. Agnetha's fears of flying got steadily worse, so touring was virtually impossible. Benny and Björn continued their songwriting, adapting them for musicals and such.

It just sort of...happened.

I was never an ABBA album buyer. To this day, I own zero ABBA albums on vinyl. I always seemed to be able to find a copy of their singles in the throwaway pile at the radio station. I must have near 20 of them, all of the promotional variety from Atlantic, so since they were really a singles band, albums just didn't seem necessary to me. My first attenpt at getting any of their albums was the 2004 blue box set.

Harry

 

They never officially "split up". They wisely put ABBA on hold - even as a recording entity - when their singles didn't immediately go into the Top 10 in their major markets. Considering the pain of touring and the increasing difficulties creating albums, they realized the writing was on the wall when Abba-inspired soundalikes like Bucks Fizz were cruising to the top of the charts. Their own attempts at an 80s sound didn't resound with their fan base or the wider public.

Some aspects of their empire were legally concluded in 1983 when they sold off their shares with AIR Frida doing considerably better due to a wiser reinvestment strategy away from oil tankers and storage.

 

Reader's Digest version....they didn't like each other.

 

An excellent book on the subject is ABBA: BRIGHT LIGHTS, DARK SHADOWS by Carl Magnus Palm.

http://www.amazon.com/Abba-Bright-Lights-Dark-Shadows/dp/1847724191/

Harry

 

I remember really pulling for "When All Is Said & Done" to become a big hit in the US. It was a remarkably "mature" & more sophisticated song for them - and it did well, peaking just inside the Top 30 - but that's not big enough to get power rotation & really get into the memories of the listeners long term.

 

Love it!!

 

They didnt intend to break up....they all simply moved on after The Visitors. Both Agnetha and Frida released very strong solo albums after the break up, Fridas produced by Phil Collins and Agnethas by Mike Chapman. Both worth picking up if you are an ABBA fan imo. Both great sounding vinyl recordings!

 

Most long lasting acts have a weaker period in their career, so if you still believe in yourself you may get out of that. ABBA had the same experience already before. After their initial success at the "Eurovision Song contest" with "Waterloo" they seemed to be the typical "one hit wonder", singles and albums didn't sell, also concerts had to be cancelled because of poor ticket sales. Considering the fact, that most successful acts in hindsight only have three or four really great years, ABBA may have come to the conclusion that their time was over. And with bad vibes between them there was no reason to carry on. Also they also had their individual careers beginning in the 60s. So in a way they simply returned to the life they had before.
Looking back it's quite strange that in the 80s ABBA seemed to be completely outdated, their songs appeared on low budget labels like Pickwick. No one would have expected the big rediscovering of their music in the 90s. And by then both women had completely retired into a private life.

 

I read in a book about ABBA that after 1981 Agnetha discovered that the men got more share of the money then her and Frida.

 

Well they wrote the songs so I would expect them to make far more money through royalties!

The actual end of the band is a bit of a mystery. In musical terms the Vistors is a triumph and signaled a new more sophisticated direction. They actualy started work on a follow up album and recorded I think 4 tracks 2 of which appeared on the 'The Singles' compilation. After promoting that they seemed to drift apart announcing the break some time later. Must have been difficult working all the time with ex partners in any case. Some of the new material Benny and Bjorn wrote for the aborted album was reworked into the Chess score.

 

It took a long time for Abba to be appreciated in the UK
They were Euro Fluff
Even longer or never in the US
The beauty of their harmonies and slightly fey non parallel swedish lyrics in english made a delicious mix.
They seemed more popular here after the split than during their tours
Strange career path.
Brilliant music.

 

Wouldn't there have been some sort of listing of assets during their respective divorces, and a division of those assets made during their marriages?

Let's pretend that there was no marriage bonds here - there were four performers in the band so monies from that revenue stream should be divided four ways. One could argue that the lead singers "were the image of the band" and deserved more, but the other two performers contributed immensely to the groups sound as both musicians and producers. Songwriting was a different stream - the monies from that should have been divided only two ways, and songs could be performed by other performers so the vocalists should have no access to those monies. The songwriting team also put forth much more effort in subsequent years to market the music, and were key in the resurgence of their popularity.

There also seems to be a "I have more money than I could ever spend, but I want even more" attitude among the affluent that I find bizarre.

 

I don't know exactly the story anymore but it seems that Agnetha and Frida were more or less considered to be just the singers, nothing more. While Agentha enjoyed some success before as a solo singer who also wrote her own songs. And when Agnetha was making her first solo album the producer of that album was surprised how Agnetha was treated by the 2 men and Stig Andersson and said to her that she shouldn't accept that treatment.

 

The Visitors is one of my favorites to listen to. It makes a nice closing statement.

 

"Dancing Queen" topped the US charts, and they had nine other top 20 singles. I wouldn't call that "never being appreciated".

 

ABBA did manage to transcend their original cheesy US reputation thanks to 70's nostalgia in the nineties then Mamma Mia the musical and the film finally finishing the job so people could enjoy them openly. I get because none of the albums were stateside multi-platinum blockbusters and the singles weren't the constant string of top 5's they enjoyed overseas that they feel they failed in the US but look at some of the other huge acts overseas who were one hit or no hit wonders here like Take That, Girls Aloud, Westlife, Sugababes, and Robbie Williams.

 

ABBA US Chart data in ascending order of popularity:

Code:

DATE        POS  WKS Title
06/19/1976    32  04  Mamma Mia
12/08/1979    29  06  Chiquitita
02/06/1982    27  08  When All Is Said And Done
10/12/1974    27  04  Honey, Honey
06/09/1979    19  10  Does Your Mother Know
03/27/1976    15  08  I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do
10/11/1975    15  08  SOS
06/04/1977    14  10  Knowing Me, Knowing You
09/25/1976    13  11  Fernando
01/28/1978    12  09  The Name Of The Game
12/27/1980    08  16  The Winner Takes It All
06/22/1974    06  12  Waterloo
05/06/1978    03  14  Take A Chance On Me
01/22/1977    01  15  Dancing Queen

Harry