abba
Do you remember the wistful trill of pipe music and a soft,
haunting voice asking "Can you hear the drums,
Fernando?" - If you were tuned into the radio in the
seventies you'd have to say I do (I do, I do, I do, I do).
The Swedish foursome ABBA beguiled the world pop scene and
everyone was taken with the lycra-loving couples from the moment
that their silver platform boots, crushed satin jumpsuits and a
cheesy pop number entitled Waterloo had thrust them into
the limelight at the Eurovision Song Contest in April 1974.
All
four members of ABBA had been individually successful in Sweden
before Ulvaeus' marriage to Faltskog and the long-term romance
between Andersson and Lyngstad led to their teaming up as ABBA in
1972.
Waterloo coasted to the top of the UK chart and even
managed to sneak into the American Top 10. (This was to be the
start of a difficult relationship with US record buyers; although
they never really cracked the market, they did manage ten Top 20
hits, including a Number 1 with Dancing Queen.)
After this initial burst of success came a fallow period, as
Andersson and Ulvaeus honed their song writing skills in a bid to
leave behind the Bang-a-Boomerang formula which had seen
them widely rubbished as another five-minute Eurovision wonder.
The song that ended the slump was SOS, which restored
ABBA to the Top 10 and set in motion ten years of success. The
song provided a blueprint for most of their future singles,
although an increasing use of multi-tracked harmonies and more
ambitious production techniques added further dimensions to their
later work.
There was something uniquely endearing about their occasionally
clumsy English ('Since many years I haven't seen a rifle in your
hand'), while the heavy Swedish accentuation of the vocals ('I can
see it in your ice') gave certain songs an added poignancy (and
sexiness). And, although personal relations between them were
often frosty, the combination of Faltskog's ice-cool vocals and
Lyngstad's more fluent, sultry delivery was often striking.
At their best, ABBA could create a moment of inspiration from
deceptively simple ingredients: the acappella introduction to Take
A Chance On Me and the lilting harmonies on Name Of The
Game among the most memorable. It was these touches of genius
that set them apart from the many boy/girl groups who later tried
to recreate the ABBA sound.
Another important facet of ABBA's success was their pioneering
use of the music video in the pre-MTV 70s. Each single was
accompanied by a 'promotional film', which exposed the group to
the widest possible market. The strategy culminated in the 1977
cinema release ABBA: The Movie, with Australian concert
footage and interviews around a wafer-thin
'hapless-hack-seeks-ABBA' plot. Simple and sentimental it might
have been, but alongside the companion ABBA: The Album
(1978), it kept the bandwagon in top gear.
The pressures of such a level of stardom took their inevitable
toll on the relationships within the band, and the announcement in
1978 that Ulvaeus and Faltskog were to divorce was followed two
years later by the end of the Andersson/Lyngstad marriage. From
such personal trauma came some of ABBA's finest work, as their
songs took on greater emotional depth, most successfully on the
1980 Number 1 The Winner Takes It All.
This was ABBA's tour
de force, a brilliantly structured melodrama which put Faltskog's
fragile, emotional vocal centre stage. Her appearance in the video
as a lonely, isolated figure heightened the effect, and the theme
was continued in later videos for One Of Us and The Day
Before You Came. The days of cheerful togetherness were long
gone.
 After one final studio album, the complex and coolly received The
Visitors (1981), ABBA briefly reunited a year later to promote
the lavish double-album set The Singles: The First Ten
Years (1982).
After that, although there was never an official split, all
four decided to concentrate on solo activities. Andersson and
Ulvaeus stayed together to co-write (with Tim Rice) the musical Chess,
while Faltskog and Lyngstad released solo albums with only
moderate success.
After ten years of inactivity, the ABBA legend was rejuvenated
in 1992, when a chart-topping tribute EP by Erasure and the
success of copyist bands such as Bjorn Again inspired Polydor to
launch a re-promotion of the group's work, led by the singles
compilation ABBA Gold (1992).
 Its worldwide success
was too great to be put down merely to the vogue for tacky 70s
nostalgia: Alvin Stardust may still draw a crowd, but he can't
sell seven million albums twenty years on!
In 1997, Polydor re-mastered and reissued the complete set of
albums, from Ring Ring to ABBA Live on
their mid-price list, while yet another compilation, Love Stories,
kept the tills ringing at the end of 1998.
And in March 1999, the
ABBA story took a new direction when Mama Mia, a
stage show featuring 27 of their best-loved songs, opened in
London's West End and looked certain to keep fans entertained well
into the 21st century.
Daft haircuts and camp costumes aside, ABBA's popularity has
endured and grown because of their musical legacy, a beautifully
crafted body of work which entitles Andersson and Ulvaeus to take
their places among the top songwriters of the modern era.
video clips
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