Chart entered : 12 November 1983
Chart peak : 33
Given that their name is now synonymous with quality pop which still sells in vast quantities , it's sobering to realise just how long ago Abba ceased to operate.
After winning Eurovision with "Waterloo" Abba had an uncertain eighteen months when their singles either peaked in the thirties or didn't chart at all. Their real breakthrough single was the chillingly beautiful "S.O.S." which reached number 5 in the autumn of 1975. After that they hardly put a foot wrong for the next six years with a string of high quality singles that either reached number one or came pretty close. Their last five studio albums all reached number one as did three compilations. Alongside this phenomenal success came personal turmoil as both couples in the band split up and while the listener benefited as the music got deeper and darker , it became increasingly difficult for the band to function.
After the lead single from 1981's "The Visitors", the reggae-flavoured break-up song "One of Us", took the bronze medal in the 1981 Christmas chart race, their commercial fortunes began to head in the same direction as their personal relations. The next single , the Oriental plinky synth pop of "Head Over Heels " ( a poor choice ) became their first for seven years to peak outside the top 10 when it crawled to number 25. This decline took place at a time when the charts were filling up with groups either impersonating them ( Tight Fit, Bucks Fizz ) or lauding them as touchstones ( Human League, Pretenders ).
Abba got together in the spring of 1982 to start work on another album but only came up with three unsatisfactory songs. After a break they decided to release a compilation instead which would include two new tracks for use as singles. The first was "The Day Before You Came " , now regarded as a masterpiece but stalling at 32 in October 1982 and then the tinny sub-par "Under Attack" which peaked at 26 in the Christmas chart. The latter was promoted by an uncomfortable appearance on The Late Late Breakfast Show where the band seemed to have brought the Scandinavian winter in with them ; Anni-Frid Lyngstad in particular looked anxious to be off. It didn't help that these latter two singles were competing with Frida's own solo releases hinting at communication difficulties within the band. The album reached number one.
The band went off for "a break" which has gone on for thirty-three years now.
"Thank You For The Music" was released to promote another compilation ( under the same title ) a year later which concentrated on popular album tracks though there was some duplication with the previous compilation. The song originally appeared on Abba's 1977 album "Abba : The Album" and featured as part of a four song suite entitled "The Girl With Golden Hair" performed as a mini-musical on their 1977 tour. It had been released as a single in South Africa in 1978 where it reached number 2 and they performed it on The Mike Yarwood Christmas Show that year. They also performed a lo-fi version of it to close out that Late Late Breakfast Show appearance.
It's not my favourite of their songs, a venture into Barbara Streisand musical territory starting in semi-conversational mode and then building to a huge sing- a- long chorus. Bjorn Ulvaeus's lyric is wry and smart and Agnetha Faltskog , singing lower than usual, delivers it with conviction and the song itself has become a standard. It's just not the sort of song for which I love them. With no promotion from the group and many of their fans already having it on the album it peaked at 33 and the album at 17.
The four individual members had not been idle in the meantime. Anni-Frid 's solo album "Something's Going On" helmed by Phil Collins had been released alongside Abba's final singles in the autumn of 1982. The vacuous , bombastic title track where Anni-Frid sounds like she's coming through on a transistor while Phil batters away in the foreground was a big hit ( number 1 in France for five weeks ) everywhere except the UK where it stalled at 43 and subsequent singles from the album failed to chart at all.
Agnetha fared slightly better with her first post-Abba album "Wrap Your Arms Around Me " released in May 1983. All three singles from it were UK hits although only the Carribbean-flavoured "The Heat Is On " ( a huge hit in Europe ) made the Top 40. Strangely the best track "Once Bitten Twice Shy " ( not the Ian Hunter song ) wasn't chosen for single release.
Also in 1983 two French TV writers came up with Abbacadabra, a children's musical setting new fairy tale lyrics to Abba tunes. Bjorn and Benny Andersson gave it their blessing and threw in a song called "I Am The Seeker " which Abba had never recorded. Anni-Frid agreed to play the part of Sleeping Beauty when it was televised and sang "Belle" which was based on Abba's "Arrival". It reached number 15 in France. An English version was then recorded with lyrics by Don Black , Bjorn and Mike Batt and now known as "Time". It was recorded as a duet with B A Robertson and reached number 45 in December 1983, the last hit for either of them.
In 1984 Anni-Frid returned to the fray with the album "Shine" produced by Steve Lillywhite as Collins was too busy. The lead single was the title track , a powerful synth pop number that was a decent sized hit in Europe. The album is patchy. "The Face" , co-written by Kirsty MacColl and the closing "Comfort Me" are excellent. There's also a track "Slowly" written by Bjorn and Benny which doesn't immediately grab you but if Benny rather than Simon Climie had arranged it , might have polished up well. The follow-up single in the UK "Heart of the Country " written by Stuart Adamson ( who guests on guitar ) is a decent song but not really singles material. On the other hand the next single choice in other territories "Twist In The Dark " written by ex-Dexy Andee Leek is dreadful.
The album performed poorly compared to its predecessor , making number 67 in the UK and peaking at lower positions in Europe. None of the follow-up singles were hits. It would be 12 years before she recorded another album.
Also in 1984 Blancmange had a top 20 hit with a cover of "The Day Before You Came".
Bjorn and Benny's writing partnership remained intact after the split. They had been working on the musical Chess with lyricist Tim Rice since 1981. Some of Bjorn's dummy lyrics were retained as they were "embarrassingly good". Following previous practice with the Rice -Lloyd Webber musicals , an "original cast" album was released ahead of the opening of the show. This spawned two monster hits in "One Night in Bangkok" performed by Murray Head and "I Know Him So Well" a UK number one for Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson at the beginning of 1985.
That same year Agnetha released her next LP "Eyes of a Woman" with 10cc's Eric Stewart at the helm. Lead single " I Won't Let You Go " which Agnetha co-wrote with Stewart is a passable Laura Branigan Eurodisco track but the lyrics are awful and her voice isn't suited to the material. The accompanying video seemed to be an attempt to recreate the one for Olivia Newton-John's Physical with Agnetha looking pretty embarrassed to be pawing at the scantily-clad muscle men. It was a decent-sized hit in Europe but not the UK. The album played safe , positioning Agnetha in the pop mainstream with all the tracks falling into the pleasant but forgettable category. The follow up "One Way Love" a so-so Jeff Lynne song wasn't a hit anywhere and the album peaked at 38 in the UK.
At the start of 1986 the four members made their last public appearance together for over twenty years when they recorded a video for a TV show honouring their manager Stig Andersson which included an acoustic performance of one of his songs.
Bjorn and Benny's next venture in 1986 was producing and writing much of the material for Swedish sibling duo Gemini. Their first single was the Abba out-take "Just Like That". A dreary MOR power ballad it became the first single penned by the duo to fall short of the charts since "So Long " in 1974. The slightly sprightlier "Another You Another Me" ( much later recorded by H & Claire ) became the second. Gemini were moderately successful in central Europe but only really scored in Scandinavia.
Also in 1986 Agnetha teamed up with fellow Swede Ola Hakansson to record the undistinguished power ballad "The Way You Are" to promote Falun's unsuccessful bid to host the 1992 Winter Olympics. The song was number one in Sweden but didn't cross over internationally.
Bjorn and Benny's second album with Gemini "Geminism" was released in 1987. It wasn't even released in the UK but is notable for the song "I'm A Bitch When I See Red" the duo's first and hopefully last ( though it does seem tongue-in-cheek ) last attempt at a rap track. With its success restricted to Scandinavia Gemini became inactive as far as recording was concerned.
Benny was already preparing to move out of pop. Bjorn penned some lyrics for Benny's solo album "Klinga Mina Klockor" later that year which saw him returning to his roots in Swedish folk music and playing the accordion. Anni-Frid contributed some vocals to the album. It only charted, perhaps was only released, in Sweden. Anni-Frid also guested on a single by the Swedish group Ratata
Agnetha in the meantime had overcome her aerophobia and gone over to Malibu to record a new album with Chicago vocalist Peter Cetera and her then-boyfriend Bruce Gaitsch co-producing. Unsurprisingly it took her in a more American AOR direction. The lead single "The Last Time" is a decent stab at Belinda Carlisle pop rock which probably suffered from being directly up against the latter's Heaven ( Is A Place on Earth ). The video placed a short-haired Agnetha in very soft focus with a blonde toy boy . The follow-up "I Wasn't The One ( Who Said Goodbye ) was a duet with Cetera which gave her a last very minor US hit. The rest of the album is dreary; the songs are sound but the arrangements are suffocatingly bland. I've forgotten what third single "Let It Shine" sounded like and I only heard it a few moments ago. Also in 1987 she recorded a Swedish language children's album with her nine year old son Christian.
Although "I Stand Alone" only got to number 72 in the UK , elsewhere its performance held up against its predecessors. Despite this, when the promotional chores were over Agnetha decided to retreat into private life on an island in the Stockholm archipelago. By the turn of the millennium she was said to have lost her fluency in English.
Both of the girls ultimately faced the same problem. Having made your name giving voice to the work of a genius songwriting partnership how to you avoid your subsequent material sounding disappointing ? It 's a question to which neither of them found an answer.
1988 is also significant as the year the first and pre-eminent Abba tribute act Bjorn Again formed in Australia.
By the end of the decade only Benny was still musically active and released his second mainly instrumental solo album "November 1989 " ( guess when it was released ) . Bjorn only contributed lyrics to one song, the orchestral number "The Conducator" an eerily prescient satire on Romania's President Ceaucescu who was overthrown and murdered just a month later. In 1990 Benny wrote the music for a couple of big Swedish hits for the female vocal quartet Airbusk one of which " Lassie "was the Christmas number one in 1990. In 1992 he wrote some music for the TV coverage of the European Championships in Sweden.
At the start of the nineties Anni-Frid became involved in environmental work fronting two Swedish charities. In 1992 she released a charity cover of Julian Lennon's "Saltwater " as a single. That same year she became a princess when she married long-time boyfriend Heinrich Ruzzo , sovereign of the minor but genuine principality of Reuss in Germany .
1992 was also the year the Abba revival began in earnest. Erasure went to number one with their Abba-esque EP in the summer provoking a tongue-in-cheek response from Bjorn Again with "Erasure-ish" , a single comprising Abba-ised renditions of two Erasure hits ( itself a number 25 hit ) . Then PolyGram released "Gold" a compilation of all their greatest hits . With previous compilations out of print, the album went straight to number one and has sold steadily ever since becoming one of the biggest selling LPs of all time. "Dancing Queen" was a hit again reaching number 16.
Bjorn and Benny must have had high hopes for their next venture , an English language solo album "Shapes" by Ainbusk singer Josefin Nilsson with ten new Bjorn and Benny compositions. It's the nearest thing to a new Abba album we'll ever get but was anyone interested ? Nope . We preferred to either re-buy the old stuff or new copyists Ace of Base instead so the album remains an undiscovered gem.
Bjorn and Benny retreated to write a new Swedish language musical " Kristina fran Duvemala" based on the best-selling Swedish novel set The Emigrants . It ran for four years in Sweden and there have been one off English language performances in New York and London.
In 1996 Anni-Frid went back into the studio to record a Swedish language album "Djupa Andetag" which reflected her environmental concerns. It reached number one in Sweden but Anni-Frid had no desire to make a big return to the business and resisted the idea of recording an English version.
Agnetha also broke her silence that year with the release of her autobiography though she didn't come out of seclusion to promote it. She also issued a previously unreleased demo "The Queen of Hearts " to go on a compilation LP but it dated back to 1981 and was only released in Sweden.
The late nineties were a rough time for Anni-Frid . One of her daughters was killed in a motor accident in the U.S, in 1998 and the following year she was left widowed when the prince died of lymphoma.
While this was happening Bjorn and Benny were involved with English playwright Catherine Johnson in bringing the jukebox musical Mamma Mia to the stage. Despite her tragedies Anni-Frid also purchased a stake in the venture. It was premiered in 1999.
Interest in Abba now went through the roof . "Gold" went back to number one and the musical was performed around the world. As the most affable and accessible member the bulk of the promotional chores fell on Bjorn and he doesn't seem to have been off the telly since.
Benny by contrast formed the Benny Andersson Orkester in 2001 a part time band who record both traditional and newly composed Swedish folk tunes with occasional forays into big band jazz and rock and roll. They record at a leisurely pace - five studio albums in 15 years - and play a dozen or so gigs in season, becoming a feature of the Swedish summer. Bjorn isn't a member but has contributed lyrics to some of Benny's tunes on all but the first.
In 2004 both of the girls made come backs. Anni-Frid's was short , a collaboration with former Deep Purple man Jon Lord on his song "The Sun Will Shine Again" . Though she appeared with him on German TV to perform the rather soporific song it remained an album track only. She's made a couple of appearances on others' records since but has no intention of returning to the music business in any significant way.
Agnetha's was more substantial and surprising as she was in the middle of a legal battle to free herself from the attentions of a stalker. "My Colouring Book " was a somewhat under-produced collection of sixties covers of varying degrees of familiarity. As an exercise in proving her voice was still intact it certainly works but you question what else she brought to the table particuarly with The Shangri-las' post-rape classic "Past Present and Future" which can't be improved, period. With Abba-mania in full swing though the album was warmly received and the lead single , a version of the fairly obscure Cilla Black hit "If I Ever Thought You'd Change Your Mind" instantly became her biggest hit here, 21 years after the last , when it reached number 11. The follow up "When You Walk In The Room" got to number 34. The album itself got to number 12. It would probably have done even better had not Agnetha set strict limits on the amount of promotion she was willing to do i.e little more than a few newspaper interviews, making a couple of promos and appearing on a Swedish-language TV show.
2008 saw the band's profile ratcheted up even further with the release of the film version of Mamma Mia. Its premiere in Sweden saw all four members appearing in public together for the first time in 22 years .The DVD is currently the all time best seller.
The following year it was Benny's return to come in from the cold with the international release of a compilation of the more accessible moments from the previous BAO albums entitled "Story of a Heart". The "Orkester" in their name got temporarily changed to "Band". Radio Two got behind it in a big way; I know because I was off work with swine flu ( perhaps ) at the time. Benny came over to the UK to play a one-off concert on Hampstead Heath and appeared on The One Show where Adrian Chiles posed the inevitable reunion question. Benny gave a firm no saying it wouldn't be as good as before. But the title track of the album contradicts that. "Story of a Heart " was a new track with lyrics by Bjorn , a typically poignant tale of lost love well sung by usual BAO vocalist Helen Sjoholm with a barnstorming chorus. It's so instantly recognisable as classic Abba that it's almost a taunt - this is what we could do if we wanted to. As a single it didn't make the Top 75 proving that Radio Two and the singles chart now have no relationship whatsoever but the album made a respectable showing at number 29. Then he was gone, back to BAO, possibly never to return.
In May 2013 Agnetha did return with the album "A" helmed by Jorgen Elofson from the Cheiron stable who's written for Britney Spears, Westlife, Il Divo and Leona Lewis to name a few. Unlike "My Colouring Book" the album had 10 new songs, all at least co-written by Elofson. It's a tasteful adult pop album ,a little soporific in places but Elofson does know how to write a catchy chorus and does it regularly enough to stop your interest flagging. Agnetha remains in good voice although it does sound like its been Autotuned on a couple of tracks ( "Back On Your Radio" and the S Club 7 disco of "Dance Your Pain Away " ).
The standout track is the Gary Barlow co-write and duet "I Should've Followed You Home". Agnetha was a bit more active promoting "A" and consented to a BBC documentary on the making of the album . It climbed back up to its peak position of six after the broadcast. I caught some of it, including the bit where Barlow was trying to bully her into performing it live with him. My reaction was "You f**king presumptuous mediocrity, you're not fit to lace her boots !" I didn't realise until yesterday that he'd actually been successful in persuading her to make her first live performance in 25 years at the Children in Need event in November 2013. Despite this the song didn't chart when released as a single in the wake of the performance which just shows what a different world we're in now when even exposure on a major TV event doesn't guarantee a chart placing.
The group reunited just over a week ago for the opening of a Mamma Mia-themed restaurant in Stockholm. Though he's obviously dying his hair Bjorn looked in particularly good nick for 70. Will they ever record together again ? I think it's unlikely but you never know.
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