Moopy's Top 50 ABBA Songs - FULL RESULTS ON PAGE 14

Surprising. Does that mean that one of the very big name songs has missed the Top 50 entirely?
 
Pingu said:
6. If It Wasn't For The Nights
Album track from Voulez-Vous
Released: 1979
Score: 9.36

Well I'm absolutely thrilled about this! I instantly fell in love with this song when I heard about 15 seconds of it in an ABBA documentary back in 1999. With it being 1999 of course, it took me another three years or so to actually find out what it was and track it down, but boy was it worth it. I've often suspected that this is the ultimate ABBA hidden gem, with it not being included on ABBA Gold, or More Gold, or in the soundtrack for the Mamma Mia! stage show, film or sequel, and now that's been more or less confirmed as it becomes the highest placed album track on this countdown, just as @Devil predicted.

It could have been so different, as it was very nearly chosen as the first single from Voulez-Vous, with the group even having started promoting it and mentioning it in interviews. Then those damned starving children got in the way and Chiquitita was drafted in at the last minute. I suppose from a commercial perspective, Chiquitita did prove itself to be the right choice, and a part of me is happy that little piece of ABBA magic is reserved for those of us who are big fans or at the very least want to make the effort to delve into their more obscure works. Have they ever made a song that is more euphoric and joyous musically but so soul-crushingly bleak lyrically? I know that that was always their major selling point, at least for us gay chat lounge regulars, but this must be the best example of such a combination ever. A richly-deserved final placing for the song that always deserved more.

Highest scores: @HerSereneHighnessAnniFrid (11), @dUb (11)
Lowest scores: @dmlaw (5)

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I am SO THRILLED! Absolutely faultless in every way and my favourite example of the third voice in action. Also this is what it’s like for @Suomi after 8pm when my behaviour gets out of control: this song is basically my theme tune :disco:
 
Pingu said:
13. Super Trouper
Single from Super Trouper
Released: 1980
Score: 8.95

The title track to ABBA's Super Trouper album was a last-minute addition, and was one of the few songs in the group's history actually written in the recording studio. With the backing track complete and the album just having been christened, it was decided that this should be the title track, although Bjorn struggled for a while to come up with a set of lyrics "about some damned spotlight." However, the same man who write a full-length musical about a potato while mixing one of ABBA's albums was not about to shy away from a challenge, and the song was unlocked when he thought about the joy he got when his new Mrs came out to visit him while he was touring with the group, and decided to write it from the point of view of the performer in the spotlight.

I mean, like many of ABBA's post-divorce songs, it does feel slightly cruel when spelt out like that, but the song itself is such a wonderfully warm composition, and like much of the accompanying album, it feels like the group moving into new territory. Like their earlier material, it's still incredibly catchy, faultless pop, but there's something that little bit more mature about it, certainly helped by Frida's gentle vocal delivery. It was the group's final UK number one, and as the Official Charts Company revealed last year, is actually their 2nd biggest selling single ever behind Dancing Queen.

Highest scores: @dmlaw (11)
Lowest scores: @Suomi (5), @dUb (5)

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scandalously low! I would say this is my #2/#3 ABBA track. it's perfection and on balance I think it's quite a feel good song despite the sense of melancholy that's there.
 
Jark said:
scandalously low! I would say this is my #2/#3 ABBA track. it's perfection and on balance I think it's quite a feel good song despite the sense of melancholy that's there.
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I always think Soup Troupe suffers from being a little bit too restrained and contained. If I had the option to swap lead vocals, I’d always put Ag on this song to add drama and Frida on Chiquitita to add nobility. I think Soup Troupe is such a warm and cosy song that Agnetha would have added some ice and brittleness.
 
Pingu said:
6. If It Wasn't For The Nights
Album track from Voulez-Vous
Released: 1979
Score: 9.36

Well I'm absolutely thrilled about this! I instantly fell in love with this song when I heard about 15 seconds of it in an ABBA documentary back in 1999. With it being 1999 of course, it took me another three years or so to actually find out what it was and track it down, but boy was it worth it. I've often suspected that this is the ultimate ABBA hidden gem, with it not being included on ABBA Gold, or More Gold, or in the soundtrack for the Mamma Mia! stage show, film or sequel, and now that's been more or less confirmed as it becomes the highest placed album track on this countdown, just as @Devil predicted.

It could have been so different, as it was very nearly chosen as the first single from Voulez-Vous, with the group even having started promoting it and mentioning it in interviews. Then those damned starving children got in the way and Chiquitita was drafted in at the last minute. I suppose from a commercial perspective, Chiquitita did prove itself to be the right choice, and a part of me is happy that little piece of ABBA magic is reserved for those of us who are big fans or at the very least want to make the effort to delve into their more obscure works. Have they ever made a song that is more euphoric and joyous musically but so soul-crushingly bleak lyrically? I know that that was always their major selling point, at least for us gay chat lounge regulars, but this must be the best example of such a combination ever. A richly-deserved final placing for the song that always deserved more.

Highest scores: @HerSereneHighnessAnniFrid (11), @dUb (11)
Lowest scores: @dmlaw (5)

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The .. it’s bad… oooh so bad…bit in If it wasn’t for the nights is just so utterly heartbreakingly euphorically beautiful
 
Ag said:
In no particular order

Lay All Your Love On Me
Gimme Gimme Gimme
The Day Before You Came
The Winner Takes It All
Knowing Me Knowing You
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I believe this to be absolutely correct :disco:
 
I can’t believe we’ve voted King Kong Song top 5. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
 
I know this topic has exposed some true evil, but it's been a fabulous ride.
 
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5. The Winner Takes It All
Single from Super Trouper
Released: 1980
Score: 9.39

The transition from 70s ABBA to 80s ABBA was pretty stark. Out went the figure-hugging outfits and platform boots, in came the wooly jumpers. They would never do a live tour again (except for the conclusion of their 79-80 tour in Japan) and gone were the days of travelling here, there and everywhere to do promo on the endless international Swap Shop equivalents. The most striking change for the casual listener was the shift from two happily married couples to four colleagues, and the shift in songwriting to more mature themes that came with it. Of course, those of us who were paying attention know that the group had been singing some pretty emotionally devastating stuff for a while at this point, but no ABBA song had provided quite as much of a punch to the heart for so many people before or since The Winner Takes It All.

Known as Agnetha and Bjorn's divorce song, it's so deceptively simple musically, and for Bjorn some of the most intuitive lyrics he has ever written. He insists to this day that the specifics in the song are pure fiction, but considering he'd just been through a very public divorce and downed a bottle of whiskey before writing them, the feelings at its core must have been real. And then we have Agnetha's performance. The likes of My Love, My Life and Hasta Mañana had just been practice runs for this, the tragic heroine vocal for which she was destined to be most remembered. Many casual observers see it as the ultimate act of sadism getting Agnetha to sing this song, but she saw it as a challenge to rise to, and sites it as the single thing she's most proud of in her career. Just when the group were starting to get tired, and the public risked getting tired of them, this gave them a new lease of life, earned them the critical respect that was long overdue, and forever confirmed the group (and indirectly, Swedish songwriters more broadly) as the grand masters of the happy-sad pop song.

Highest scores: @Pingu (11)
Lowest scores: @ZenGiraffe (4)

 
Well, I'd have put a cheeky fiver on that as #1 so it's just as well I don't gamble.
 
It was number 1 the day I was born, which makes me not only very old, but privileged to have a truly classic song at the top at my arrival.

Such is the depth of their production, it took me about 25 years to realise it was a disco ballad.
 
octophone said:
Well, I'd have put a cheeky fiver on that as #1 so it's just as well I don't gamble.
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Have you been following along? I'd have been more surprised if it was, given some of the results so far.
 
lolly said:
Have you been following along? I'd have been more surprised if it was, given some of the results so far.
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Well, this is true...at the beginning I thought it would be this or "The Day Before You Came"
 
4. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
Single from Greatest Hits Vol. 2
Released: 1979
Score: 9.45

Now let's rewind a year or so to the last song that the group would record in the 70s, and as such I like to think of it as the moment where they said "Pop music? Completed it mate." Because really, when it comes to the artform of making perfect pop music, it's almost impossible to do it better than this. A standalone single that they recorded to have a new song to perform on tour and to act as lead single for the accompanying greatest hits compilation, spiritually it's a part of the Voulez-Vous era in terms of the time period and the style. But to use a slightly more recent analogy, they basically did what Lady Gaga did when she took everything that worked with The Fame formula and ramped it up on Bad Romance. They took the Euro-tinged disco they had honed on the Voulez-Vous album and came back with the ultimate song of the genre.

This has it all when it comes to making a gay classic - the relentless disco beats, the dramatic strings, the sexually charged lyrics sung by Agnetha who has scarcely sounded more distressed in song, and the hooks, so many hooks! All the elements combine to make one of the most satisfying pop songs out there - there's so much to get lost in here. It manages to sound so very of its time, but shiny and fresh at the same time. It's the true culmination of 70s ABBA and paved the way to go in new and exciting directions for the remainder of their career. Of course we all know what became of the instrumental riff in the 21st Century, meaning we managed to get two fantastic pop songs out of it, with Bjorn and Benny clearly very taken with Hung Up as well, considering how protective they are over samples and remixes. It does have the slight downside of Gimme! being seen by some as "the old version" but as you can probably tell from this write-up, I don't care about those people.

Highest scores: @Pingu (10), @Ag (10), @Marilyn (10), @Devil (10), @Christian (10), @BoysForSeles (10), @Sheena (10), @Iguana (10), @VoR (10), @Penelope (10), @Madison (10), @dmlaw (10), @Jark (10), @ZenGiraffe (10)
Lowest scores: @dUb (6)

 
GGG is peak ABBA drama. The sheer despair echoes down the years. Lyrically it still resonates. Musically it thrills.
 
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Let's take a break from the classics to bring you some of your anti-faves - the songs that would make up some of the tracklisting on "ABBA Wood" as Bjorn would christen it. Here are your top ten least favourite ABBA tracks:

10th - 4th from bottom:
103. He Is Your Brother (3.96) (Highest score: 7.5 from Pingu)
104. Watch Out (3.81) (Highest score: An ill-advised 7 from Ill Advised)
105. Little Things (3.64) (Highest score: 7 from Jark)
106. Me and Bobby and Bobby's Brother (3.46) (Highest score: 7 from HerSereneHighnessAnniFrid)
107. Rock'n'Roll Band (3.38) (Highest score: 6.5 from Penelope)
108. She's My Kind Of Girl (3.31) (Highest score: 7 from Penelope)
109. Santa Rosa (3.26) (Highest score: 6 from Tisch)
 
2nd from bottom:
111. What About Livingstone (3.13)
Highest score: 6 from @Pingu (oops)
By far the lowest scoring song performed by the girls, the Waterloo track is perhaps an example of them trying to be a bit too smart too soon, still it's reasonably catchy and inoffensive really.

 
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