ABBA - The Album

ABBA - The Album
ABBA studio album
Publication (s)	December 12, 1977
Label (s)	Polar , later Universal International
Format (s)	CD, LP, MC
Genre (s)	pop
Title (number)	9/10
running time	44 m 0 s
occupation	Singing : Agnetha Fältskog Singing : Anni-Frid Lyngstad Keyboard : Benny Andersson Guitar : Björn Ulvaeus Bass : Rutger Gunnarsson Drums : Ola Brunkert , Roger Palm Lead guitar : Lasse Wellander, Janne Schaffer Percussion : Malando Gassama Saxophone , flute : Lars O. Carlsson
production	Benny Andersson Bjorn Ulvaeus
Studio (s)	Marcus Studio Metronome Studio, Stockholm Glen Studios Bohus Studio, just the mix of The Name of the Game
chronology Arrival (1976) ABBA - The Album Voulez-Vous (1979)
Single releases October 14, 1977 The name of the game January 27, 1978 Take a chance on me May 1978 eagle

ABBA - The Album is the fifth studio album by the Swedish pop group ABBA . It was first published on December 12, 1977 in Sweden and Norway and was published internationally on January 13, 1978. The recordings took place from May to November 1977. In addition to the two single releases The Name of the Game and Take a Chance on Me , the album also contains Thank You for the Music , which is one of the most famous ABBA songs due to its title and theme.

History of origin

Beginnings in 1976 and official start of the recording sessions in 1977

The origins of this album go back to the end of 1976, when the group was already preparing for their concert tour through Europe and Australia. The two composers of the group, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson , first had the idea of ​​writing a musical to perform as a "special" at the concerts. The result was “ The Girl with the Golden Hair ”, which, with a length of around 20 minutes and four songs, fit well into a concert program. After the extremely successful tour ended in March 1977, Andersson and Ulvaeus began composing new songs in April 1977. The start of the recording was postponed to a later date, however, because the two composers and their sound engineer Michael B. Tretow went on a trip to Los Angeles at the beginning of May to look for suitable new sound equipment for their own recording -Studio should be used for future projects.

Inspired by the atmosphere on the " West Coast " of the USA, where the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac dominated the music scene at the time, Ulvaeus and Andersson developed the concepts for two new songs, the recording of which began on May 31, 1977. The Name of the Game was one of the first titles that was recorded under the working title "A Bit of Myself" and got its final title from ABBA manager Stig Anderson , although the text was written by Ulvaeus himself. A day later, the basic track for the second US-inspired song Eagle was recorded, which at that time was also only provisionally titled "High High". A first attempt to record Thank You for the Music also took place in early June 1977, but did not satisfy the four musicians. In this version of the song, the lead singer Agnetha Fältskog tried to imitate the American actress and singer Doris Day with her vocal performance , which is why the recording was also called the "Doris Day Version". It was first released in 1994 on a CD of the ABBA box set Thank You for the Music and has also been included as a bonus song on the remastered CD edition of the album since 2001 .

Completion of ABBA - The Movie and continuation of the recording sessions

At the beginning and middle of June 1977 the group was not only busy recording new songs for the upcoming album, but also shooting outstanding scenes for their concert film, which had not yet been named. Among other things, a hotel scene had to be filmed, as well as the music sequence with the new song The Name of the Game and the final scene in the elevator. All of this filming took up a lot of time, which is why Andersson and Ulvaeus didn't even get around to composing new songs before July 1977. They then distanced themselves from the recording studio for a while and spent some time developing new musical ideas in their holiday home on the island of Viggsö. On July 21, 1977, a second attempt was made to record Thank You for the Music , which succeeded and after a few revisions led to the final result. Also, one man, one woman was taken in mid / late July and presented according to Ulvaeus an allusion to the true marriage situation between him and Fältskog is, so to Knowing Me, Knowing You , another song was followed about difficulties in the relationship. However, this remained the only song on this subject on the album.

I'm a Marionette was also recorded in July, and by the following month ABBA was already working on the next tracks Take a Chance on Me , I Wonder (Departure) , Move On and Hole in Your Soul . The latter contained some elements from the play Get On The Carousel , which the group sang in the spring on their tour as part of the musical. Get On The Carousel itself was never recorded in the studio. The recording sessions were interrupted by the surprising fact that lead singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad found out about her birth father at the end of August 1977, who lived in Germany and who first visited and met her in Stockholm in September. Afterwards, all songs were reworked until the end of the sessions in November, while the first single for the album, The Name of the Game , was released in October .

Release of the album and further progress

The Name of the Game became a top ten hit in 14 countries and stayed at the top of the UK charts for four weeks. However, the single in Australia could not keep up with the success of the earlier singles and only reached number 6 there in March 1978. On December 12, 1977 the new LP was finally released with the title "ABBA - The Album", which has a reference to ABBA - The Movie should make. The film celebrated its world premiere on December 15, 1977 in Sydney and two weeks later in Stockholm. Originally it was even planned to release a double album with live recordings of the concerts. On January 13th, 1978 ABBA - The Album was also released internationally, after the distribution to the trade had initially been limited to Scandinavia. At the same time, the second single Take a Chance on Me was released , which became a hit in the USA in May 1978. The single Eagle was released in May, but it was a flop commercially.

Chart successes

album

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	SE
1977	The album	DE2 (41 weeks) DE	AT2 (40 weeks) AT	-	UK1 (61 weeks) UK	US14 (41 weeks) US	SE1 (18 weeks) SE

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

The album was in the top ten of the charts in a total of 15 countries and reached number 1 in Norway , Sweden , the Netherlands , Great Britain , New Zealand , Portugal and Mexico. In Sweden alone, 760,000 copies were made and over 750,000 sold. In Norway, the album broke the record for most pre-orders and sold over 200,000 copies. In Great Britain it was released on January 13, 1978 and received the circuit board record just two weeks later. It stayed at the top of the UK chart for seven weeks, selling 1,125,000 times. In August 1978 , The Album received a platinum award in the United States for 1.3 million copies. To this day it has remained the highest-ranked ABBA album in the US sales charts. In addition, the LP achieved double platinum in Canada for 200,000 units sold.

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	SE
1977	The Name of the Game I Wonder (Departure)	DE7 (20 weeks) DE	AT12 (12 weeks) AT	CH6 (10 weeks) CH	UK1 (12 weeks) UK	US12 (16 weeks) US	SE2 (18 weeks) SE
1978	Take a Chance on Me I'm A Marionette	DE3 (25 weeks) DE	AT1 (20 weeks) AT	CH3 (16 weeks) CH	UK1 (10 weeks) UK	US3 (18 weeks) US	-
	Eagle Thank You for the Music	DE6 (19 weeks) DE	AT17 (12 weeks) AT	CH7 (11 weeks) CH	-	-	-

Track list

page 1

1. Eagle (Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus)
2. Take a Chance on Me (Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus)
3. One Man, One Woman (Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus)
4. The Name of the Game (Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Stig Anderson)

Page 2

1. Move On (Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Stig Anderson)
2. Hole in Your Soul (Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus)
3. Thank You for the Music (Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus)
4. I Wonder (Departure) (Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Stig Anderson)
5. I'm a Marionette (Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus)

Bonus title on the Deluxe Edition (2007)

• Eagle (Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus) (shortened version)
• Take a Chance on Me (Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus) (Live version)
• Thank You for the Music (Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus) ( Doris Day version)
• Al Andar (Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Buddy McCluskey, Mary McCluskey, Stig Anderson) (Spanish version of Move On)
• I Wonder (Departure) (Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Stig Anderson) (live version)
• Gracias por la Música (Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Buddy McCluskey, Mary McCluskey) (Spanish version of Thank You for the Music)

Sources and literature

• Carl Magnus Palm: Abba. Story and songs compact. Bosworth Edition, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-86543-227-8 (German translation: Cecilia Senge).
• Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow. ABBA - The real story. Bosworth Edition, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-86543-100-4 (German translation: Helmut Müller).
• Carl Magnus Palm: ABBA - The Album. Golden Girls and Boys. Text accompanying the CD, 2001 Polar Music International AB.
• Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Judy Craymer: Mamma Mia! How can I resist you? The story of Mamma Mia! and the songs of Abba. Krüger, Frankfurt 2006, ISBN 3-8105-0185-9 .
• Robert Scott: ABBA - Thank You for the Music. The story for all songs. Edel Verlag Germany, 1st edition 2011, ISBN 978-3-84190-105-7 .

Web links

• ABBA - The Album - pushing boundaries . Accessed July 23, 2018
• release date "Eagle"
• ABBA Annual (see link below "The Album")
• abba-world.net (see 2nd link "Discs")
• The album on ABBA Plaza

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Carl Magnus Palm: Abba - Story & Songs compact. Bosworth Edition, 2007, p. 52
2. ↑ Carl Magnus Palm: ABBA - story and songs compact. P. 58 f.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Carl Magnus Palm: ABBA - story and songs compact. Pp. 52-61.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} light and shadow. ABBA - The real story. Pp. 404-429.
5. ↑ Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow. ABBA - The real story. Bosworth Edition 2006, p. 423
6. ↑ ^{a b} ABBA - The Worldwide Chart Lists ( Memento April 6, 2012 on WebCite )
7. ↑ ABBA Charts: Portugal ( Memento from May 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). Accessed May 4, 2016
8. ↑ ABBA Charts: Mexico ( Memento of March 10, 2017 in the Internet Archive ). Accessed May 4, 2016
9. ↑ Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow. ABBA - The real story. Bosworth Edition, 2006, paperback edition, 638 pages, p. 423 ff.
10. ↑ Billboard Magazine Leif Schuman: ABBA 5 YEARS , September 8, 1979 issue, accessed May 4, 2016
11. ↑ Billboard Magazine Randi Hultin: ABBA 5 YEARS , September 8, 1979 issue, accessed May 4, 2016
12. ^ British Phonographic Industry Search "ABBA" in Certified Awards
13. ↑ ABBA Sales: UK Sales ( memento of October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on September 13, 2014
14. ↑ riaa.com Search for ABBA certifications in the RIAA's Gold & Platinum database
15. ^ Roman Kozak: Abba US Sales No Fluke; Lots Of Atlantic Expertise in Picture / Atlantic's Efforts Boost Abba's US Disk Success Billboard Magazine , issue August 26, 1978, p. 78 f.
16. ^ Canada section in Billboard Magazine, September 8, 1979