Abbamania

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
ABBA in 1974, two years before Abbamania

As Abbamania ( dt. "ABBA Mania , also") ABBA Fever is the euphoric enthusiasm for the Swedish pop group ABBA 1975-1977, particularly in Australia , but also in the UK called. The great media interest in the four Swedes began in late 1975 with the single Mamma Mia , which first became a number one hit in Australia and a little later in Great Britain . In the following year, 1976, several ABBA singles and albums were consistently placed in the respective charts and in some cases occupied the top position for weeks.

Abbamania experienced its climax in February and March 1977 with the ABBA world tour through Europe and Australia, which is also documented in ABBA - The Film . In Great Britain, the group's music remained very popular and commercially successful, in Australia, however, interest slackened noticeably and did not produce any number one hits until the end of the band's career. With the ABBA revival in the 1990s, a tribute album was released in 1999 , which bears the title ABBAmania , based on the group's most successful period . A tribute band of the same name has also appeared since 2000 .

prehistory

ABBA's victory in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo had made the band internationally known and meant an immediate career boost, especially in Western Europe, but also in North American countries. Thus Waterloo to her first number one hit in Germany and the UK , reached in Australia Place 4 and 6 in the US space Several promotional tours by Western Europe and the USA as well as the production of music videos should promote ABBA and their music. The attempts of the band and their manager Stig Anderson to build on the success of Waterloo proved difficult, especially in Great Britain. While ABBA remained popular in Scandinavia and Central Europe, there was hardly any interest in English-speaking countries . Both Honey, Honey and the new single So Long flopped there, as did the first tour through Central Europe, which strengthened the group's image as a one-hit wonder .

starting point

The band began recording their next album in August 1974. As on the two previous albums, the composers experimented with different musical directions, but found their own and innovative sound with SOS and especially Mamma Mia . After the album was released, the director Lasse Hallström was commissioned to shoot music videos for four selected songs from the album. In addition to SOS and Mamma Mia , these also included I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do and Bang-A-Boomerang , who were trusted to sell well as a single. With a budget of 50,000 kroner , the clips were produced in a few days in April 1975 and were primarily intended for Australia and New Zealand, as these countries were too far away for live appearances on television.

In July 1975, the single debuted I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do into the Australian charts with space 83 and attracted the attention of the 1,974 newly introduced music show Countdown that a counterpart to the British format Top of the Pops represented . The accompanying music video aired on August 3, 1975, and the one for Mamma Mia a week later . The latter in particular was so enthusiastically received by the audience that numerous calls were received by the television station ABC asking for it to be broadcast again. The fact that only a few color films were shown on Australian television at the time also contributed to the positive response to the two clips. Meanwhile, ABBA appeared on British television on August 16, 1975 with SOS to promote the recently released single. With their new appearance as a pop group, interest in ABBA and their music also grew in Great Britain and SOS entered the charts in September.

At this time, the Australian record label RCA Stig Anderson had already been able to persuade Mamma Mia to release a single , who initially spoke out against it. The album ABBA was also able to enter the Australian album charts in September 1975. On October 13, 1975, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do reached number 1 in the singles charts; three weeks later she was replaced by Mamma Mia , who held the top position for ten weeks until January 1976. Subsequently, SOS also reached number 1 for a week. Meanwhile, SOS had been number 6 in Great Britain for two weeks and in December Mamma Mia , which had been released as a single here and in other countries due to its great success in Australia, went into the British charts.

Course of the Abbamania

Australia

By the end of 1975, the group's record labels had received a large number of calls and fan mail . On December 8, 1975 the album ABBA reached number 1 and held that position for eleven weeks. It was sold 570,000 times and received 11 gold awards. The group's new best-of album, released here under The Best of ABBA , hit the charts in December 1975, as did a reissue of Waterloo and Ring Ring a month later . In January 1976 ABBA was represented with four albums in the top 100 of the album charts and three singles in the top 20 of the single charts. Despite the group's outstanding presence on radio, television and hit lists, popular Australian music magazines such as Juke or RAM initially reported only very cautiously about ABBA, which gave rise to a kind of myth . So the rumor arose that the four ABBA members were just actors who were supposed to replace the real musicians.

In mid-January 1976, representatives of " Reg Grundy Productions", an Australian film production company, negotiated with manager Stig Anderson about an ABBA television show. The company paid Australian dollars for a TV special on the pop show Bandstand , which was to be called "The Best of ABBA" based on the recently released LP. The group's upcoming stay in Australia was announced in almost every newspaper in the country, for example the Daily Mirror wrote in February 1976: "ABBA, the hottest pop group in the world, will do a one-hour Bandstand special in Australia next month" and another The newspaper called the country "ABBAustralia". When the group landed in Sydney on March 4, 1976 , a crowd of enthusiastic fans had gathered at the airport. From then on, ABBA was also of interest in many Australian music magazines, which tried to find out personal details about the four members and headed the group, while their arrival was reported on all news programs. According to newspaper reports, more journalists were present at the press conference on March 5, 1976 at the Sydney Hilton Hotel than at any other event in Australia before.

On March 8, 1976, the group arrived in Melbourne , where numerous fans were waiting with banners at the airport. The members were brought to the hotel under police protection, which was so besieged by fans that they had to be smuggled outside through the garage to get into the television studio. ABBA then traveled back to Sydney to appear on other TV shows and to record the TV special "The Best of ABBA". In addition, the music video for the new single Fernando has already been broadcast and repeated countless times. Two days after ABBA's departure on March 13, 1976, the single hit the charts. When the television special was broadcast on Channel 9 on March 20, 1976 , the station had an audience rating of 54 percent - a record that even exceeded the rate of the moon landing in 1969. As a result, "The Best of ABBA" was repeated a week later and even reached an audience rate of 58 percent. The license rights to the show were sold in 20 countries, including a. as the first color television broadcast to Italy.

In the weeks following the promotional trip, ABBA's popularity in Australia rose even further. The LP The Best of ABBA reached number 1 on the album charts on March 29, 1976 and lasted 16 weeks in a row. It achieved 20 times gold and was sold over 1.1 million times. Other sources give 1.25 million copies sold. In order to meet the immense demand, the pressing plants of almost all Australian record labels were commissioned. It was said that every fourth household in Australia owns a copy of this album. From April 5, 1976, Fernando was at the top of the chart for 14 weeks, breaking the record of the Beatles , who had held the top position for 13 weeks in 1968 with Hey Jude . Fernando became the most successful single of the year, received 25 gold awards and sold around 400,000 copies. Newspapers and magazines now reported permanently on the group, devoting cover stories and articles with photo series and interviews to it. According to reporters, every third track played on the radio at the time was from ABBA. “Reg Grundy Productions” acquired the merchandising rights for ABBA from Stig Anderson and issued 20 licenses to merchandising producers during the year.

In the wake of the wave of success, the singles Ring Ring reached No. 7, Hasta Mañana No. 16 and Rock Me No. 4. In April 1976, the Kent Music Report made comparisons between ABBA and Beatlemania from 1964, noting that no other since the Beatles Band had had such chart successes in Australia within a 12 month period. The TV Week headlined in one issue: "Abbamania bigger than Beatlemania." In June 1976, four albums and five singles by ABBA were in the charts, with the group simultaneously topping the singles and album charts for 14 weeks. In mid-1976 the group signed a contract with the electrical manufacturer National . ABBA was used as a testimonial for a number of commercials as well as a large number of other advertising media, and an advertising text was written to the melody by Fernando to accompany the commercials . With the generated income of around 1 million AUD , Stig Anderson planned to finance ABBA's upcoming concert tour. The new single Dancing Queen , released on August 16, 1976, was pre-ordered over 50,000 times and immediately hit the charts. She stayed at the top for eight weeks and earned 20 gold for more than 300,000 units sold.

In September 1976 it was announced that the announced ABBA concert tour would take place in March 1977. Advance ticket sales began a month later, with over 25,000 tickets being reserved within a week in Sydney alone. When the new album Arrival was released on October 11, 1976 , RCA cooperated with six other record labels to meet the 600,000 pre-orders. Arrival became the only album of the 1970s that entered the charts at number 1 . It stayed at the top of the chart for eight weeks until January 1977 and achieved 21 times gold for over a million copies sold. At the same time, Money, Money, Money was number 1 in the single charts for six weeks and was sold around 200,000 times. In total, ABBA had topped the singles charts for 31 weeks and the album charts in Australia for 30 weeks in 1976, longer than all other music artists put together. Around AUD 100 million were sold in the course of Abbamania, which at that time corresponded to about half of the total turnover of the Australian music industry. Within just a year and a half, ABBA had sold over 3 million albums and more than a million singles in the country of around 14 million at the time.

Great Britain

On January 11 and 12, 1976, ABBA appeared with Mamma Mia on the British music show Top of the Pops to promote the single that was currently in the charts. On January 31st, Mamma Mia reached number 1 for two weeks, making it the first ABBA single since Waterloo . The album ABBA also hit the charts and reached number 13. In April 1976, ABBA appeared again with Fernando in "Top of the Pops". The single reached the top of the chart on May 2, 1976 and held it for four weeks. Fernando was sold 775,000 times and was awarded gold. At the same time, the album Greatest Hits reached number 1 and stayed there for a total of 11 weeks. It sold by the end of more than 1.25 million copies and became the most successful album in 1976. With a total of 2.6 million copies sold and eight platinum awards was Greatest Hits in addition to the best-selling album of 1970 in the UK to over Troubled Water Bridge by Simon & Cooking Sparkle .

Dancing Queen reached # 1 just two weeks after it was released and held it for six weeks. The single also achieved gold for over a million units sold and is still the best-selling ABBA single in the UK. In the course of promoting the album Arrival , which was released here on November 5, 1976, the band traveled to London shortly afterwards, where interest in ABBA was also at its peak. The group received a total of 32 silver, gold and platinum awards for their record sales. A competition in the Daily Express , in which a few copies of the new album were raffled off, received over 21,500 entries - most of the newspaper ever received. The single Money, Money, Money reached number 3 on the charts and sold over 500,000 times, while tickets for two announced London concerts in 1977 were sold out within an hour. Arrival topped the chart for ten weeks in 1977 and became the best-selling album of the year.

Chart overview

single United KingdomUnited Kingdom
UK
AustraliaAustralia
AU
Awards
SOS 6th 1 AU : 5 × gold
Mamma Mia 1 1 UK : silver, AU : 9 × gold
Fernando 1 1 UK : gold, AU : 25 × gold
Dancing Queen 1 1 UK : gold, AU : 20 × gold
Money, money, money 3 1 UK : gold, AU : 13 × gold
Knowing Me, Knowing You 1 9 UK : gold
album United KingdomUnited Kingdom
UK
AustraliaAustralia
AU
Awards
ABBA 13 1 AU : 11 × gold
Greatest Hits / The Best of ABBA 1 1 UK : 8 × platinum, AU : 20 × gold
Arrival 1 1 UK : platinum, AU : 21 × gold

Climax

Five concerts in Great Britain formed the final part of the European tour in February 1977. For the first in Birmingham on February 10, 1977 with 2,500 seats, there had already been 50,000 ticket inquiries. The climax were two performances in London , for which 3.5 million advance requests had been received with 12,000 tickets available, which would have corresponded to 625 sold-out concerts. Responsible for the decision to appear in smaller halls were the negative experiences on the European tour in 1974, during which numerous concerts were not sold out or were canceled. On the tour of Great Britain, the group was given four additional bodyguards, which the tour manager Thomas Johansson justified with the fact that the British audience is far more spirited than those in Scandinavia.

At the same time of her tour of Australia, the British Queen Elizabeth II was visiting, who received far less attention. The tour turned out to be the largest that had ever taken place in Australia. A total of 11 concerts in nine days in four different cities in front of over 145,000 spectators were on the program. The crew consisted of a total of 106 people, including the film crew who made the recordings for a planned feature film. When ABBA landed in Sydney in the evening on February 27, 1977 , over 1,500 fans were waiting at the airport, some of them trying to break through the police barriers, with a 12-year-old girl being trampled. The next day the Daily Mirror headlined a photo of the group “They're here!” (German: “You are here!”). The following 14 days were marked by exuberant enthusiasm and euphoric receptions for the group, but also by unpleasant and sometimes penetrating mass hysteria .

The Australian tour was originally supposed to have started with a concert in Sydney in front of 40,000 spectators, but it was split into two performances as there was no venue in the city that was suitable for a concert of this size. Although the first of the two concerts was accompanied by pouring rain on March 3, 1977, numerous fans were waiting at the entrances of the "Sydney Showgrounds" 24 hours before the show began. When the gates were opened in the afternoon, there was an immense rush to the front seats due to the free choice of seats. It was considered to postpone the concert for security reasons, which would not have been possible due to the tight schedule of the group, so that the show started almost without delay in the evening. A total of 20,000 spectators followed the performance, thousands more gathered outside the barriers. During the concert, water entered the sound system, causing some speakers to fail and the sound quality to deteriorate. In addition, numerous umbrellas blocked the rear rows from seeing the stage. The enthusiasm for ABBA remained unbroken, so that all group members later viewed this first concert in Australia as a highlight in their careers.

After the second concert in Sydney, ABBA flew on to Melbourne on March 5, 1977 , where the group was driven over the highway to a reception at City Hall. Four television stations tried to use helicopters to get pictures of the band members while numerous cars crowded around them. The streets along the way were also lined with crowds and the radio broadcast live as the group stepped onto the balcony of the town hall and waved to over 6,000 assembled fans. When the musicians were being driven through town in a limousine, a mother put her child in front of the car to stop and get an autograph. When the concert area opened that same evening, fans tore down the fences in two places. The first of three concerts saw 14,500 spectators and 16,000 other fans from outside the barriers. ABBA played in Melbourne in front of a total of 43,500 spectators with tickets, while about the same crowd watched the concerts from outside. Many fans tried to climb cars or other elevations to get a better view of the group. A teenager fell from a tree and had to be taken to the hospital. The hotel manager of the Old Melbourne Motor Inn, where the group was staying, cut up the sheets used by members and sold them as souvenirs, even though ABBA was still at the hotel.

On March 8, 1977, the group traveled on to Adelaide , where a large number of reporters were waiting on the way from the airport to the hotel to report live on the tour. Due to the large number of fans at the hotel, entire floors were closed to enable the band to use the pool undisturbed, among other things. At least two bodyguards were permanently on duty to shield the group. Agnetha Fältskog later said that some people tried to grope her and her colleague Anni-Frid Lyngstad . The Adelaide concert was seen by 21,000 paying spectators and 10,000 others. Here, too, the crowds waited hours before the opening of the site, while reporters reported on what was happening, sometimes by helicopter. During the tour, critics accused the band of singing playbacks because the sound "sounded too good to be real" - in fact, all of the performances were live.

The last five concerts of the tour took place in the entertainment center in Perth from March 10 to 12, 1977 in front of 8,000 people. Half an hour before the end of the first concert, however, an unknown woman informed the organizers about a bomb that was supposed to be detonated after the show. The hall had to be evacuated and searched by the police, ultimately the call turned out to be a joke. The audience mistakenly assumed that the interruption was part of the show. Andersson, who was playing the piano on stage, was overlooked during the evacuation and came out of the building late. The audience of the subsequent concert was already waiting in front of the hall, which could only begin after half an hour's delay. The tour finally ended on March 13, 1977 and grossed over A $ 2.5 million, more than any other tour in Australia before.

Aftermath

During the two weeks in Australia, all four ABBA members were exposed to massive pressure from the public and the media, which Fältskog in particular found difficult to bear. In her autobiography, published in 1996, she said that the fever, hysteria, and crowds were "sometimes terrible" and that she believed that "rapturous adoration and threat were closely related". Ulvaeus had also noted at a press conference that you lead “a somewhat anti-social life” on a tour, since you only “eat, sleep and go on stage”, which in his opinion would damage creativity. The experience in Australia contributed to the fact that he was reluctant to tour concert, which Andersson confirmed. Since the time he was in his previous band, he basically didn't like playing live on stage. Meanwhile, Lyngstad later described the Australian tour as her fondest memory of ABBA, but on the other hand stated that she had found the mass hysteria "bad".

After the tour ended, a period of several months followed, during which the group concentrated on their private life, the completion of the feature film ABBA - The Movie and the production of new songs. At the same time, there was a change in musical mood in Australia. The interest in ABBA had already died down, which u. a. at the chart placement of Knowing Me, Knowing You showed that it did not get beyond position 9. One possible reason for this development is that there would have been an “oversupply of ABBA” in the previous year and a half and the fact that the company was permanently “confronted with the same faces” inevitably led to a decline in interest. In addition, it was now seen as "uncool" by young people to like the band, not least because of the fact that many fans were children and adults.

RCA spoke in terms of a new single release for the new track Hole In Your Soul in October 1977 , as its broadcast was the most similar to the previous successful ABBA hits in Australia. Instead, The Name of the Game was published, which only reached number 6 about three months later. In addition to the unfavorable choice, the relatively long time span between the end of the tour and the new single contributed to this. Likewise, the film, which was originally supposed to be released in August 1977, only had its premiere in December and did not generate much income there, which is said to have had a detrimental effect on interest in the band. Although the new LP ABBA - The Album reached number 4 on the Australian album charts, this was viewed as a moderate success compared to the successful previous albums , which all broke sales records. The most successful ABBA single after Abbamania was Chiquitita in 1979 , which also reached number 4. Although the LP Super Trouper was able to reach 5th place in 1980, it was not until 1992 that the ABBA Gold compilation was another ABBA album that became a bestseller in Australia . To date, over 6 million ABBA records have been sold in Australia. Of the dozen albums that have sold over a million copies in Australia, three are from ABBA ( The Best of ABBA , Arrival and ABBA Gold ).

In contrast, the ABBA fever in Great Britain did not detract from the group's popularity. The Name of the Game already became another number one hit, as did the new album and the subsequent single Take a Chance on Me . ABBA became the most successful band in Great Britain in the 1970s. With seven number one singles and five number one albums taking the top spot for a total of 35 weeks, the group surpassed all other music artists of the decade. All studio albums and two other greatest hits albums reached the top of the British charts by the end of the band's career in 1982. In 1979 ABBA performed six times in a week at the sold-out Wembley Arena in London and in 1980 Super Trouper became the best-selling album of the year. The album ABBA Gold reached 1992, 1999 and 2008, the UK chart peak and is now over 5 million copies sold after the Greatest Hits album of Queen 's most successful album in Britain.

Declaration of Abbamania

In Australia, the group's music videos initially caused a sensation. The fact that they were among the first color films to be shown on Australian television, as well as the sequences of images that were tailored to the rhythm of the songs, contributed to the positive response, especially among younger audiences. The fact that the lead singers looked into the camera and thus established an indirect relationship with the audience made the group look very appealing. Then there were the arrangements of the songs, which, although very sophisticated, were quite simple and catchy in their basic pattern and therefore easy to sing along to. In addition, the time span in which the three hit singles appeared was relatively short. This gave the impression that ABBA would be able to produce new hits very quickly, even though the songs all came from the album ABBA , which had been released months earlier. Since the music videos were repeated permanently on television at the end of 1975, the group had a very high presence. At that time, little was known about ABBA in Australia, not least because of the lack of coverage, which made the group look more interesting and mysterious.

The impression that ABBA made in contrast to other bands of the time was also decisive. While rock bands put on daring shows in their performances and thus won over the younger generation, ABBA relied solely on the music and costumes and thus became a band for almost all age groups. The two couples were seen as “nice and tidy”, especially by the older audience, as they gave a “friendly and intact picture of the family” (Palm, 2006). Up until her first promotion visit to Australia in March 1976, the audience only knew ABBA from television and newspapers, which initially made them perceived as rather surreal. The overwhelming presence of the group in all media, including advertising, contributed to its high popularity in the course of 1976.

A remarkable fact was that with ABBA a band emerged in which the “creative minds” were not also the stars of the group. The greatest interest was in the two lead singers Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad , whose difference was not only in their hair color but also in their charisma. A lot of attention was paid to Fältskog in particular. With her blonde hair and reserved manner, she gave a rather innocent and childlike image, but on the other hand , with the sex appeal attributed to her, was at the same time a representation of the "Swedish sin". Meanwhile, with Lyngstad as an adult and more mature-looking woman, a fitting contrast was created. The Daily Telegraph wrote in a 1976 issue: "These two girls are some of the sexiest women in show business."

In the UK, ABBA had virtually no competition producing similar music by the mid-1970s. Most of the stars of the 1960s were out of date or had gone into other genres. With the band Wings, founded by Paul McCartney , and the solo artist Elton John , there were only two famous pop musicians here whose music was roughly comparable to that of ABBA. In contrast to most of the bands of the 1960s and early 1970s, ABBA was also a group here that was widely accepted by the older generations and therefore comprised a large age group of fans. Because ABBA did not allow political messages to flow into their music, as was common in popular music fields in the 1960s, but instead primarily wanted to entertain, the group was also exposed to numerous criticisms in Great Britain. Nonetheless, at the time when rebellion and political lyrics were being pursued in the punk scene , catchy and polished productions with light-hearted lyrics by ABBA dominated the British charts.

Web links

literature

  • Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow . ABBA - The real story. Bosworth, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86543-679-5 (new edition).
  • Carl Magnus Palm: Abba. Story & songs compact . Bosworth, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-86543-227-8 .
  • Jan Gradvall, Petter Karlsson, Bengt Wanselius, Jeppe Wikström: ABBA. The whole story in 600 pictures . The Official Photobook. National Geographic, 2014, ISBN 978-3-86690-404-0 .
  • Ingmarie Halling, Carl Magnus Palm: ABBA Backstage . Heel, 2014, ISBN 978-3-86852-878-7 .

Documentation

  • Matti Croker, Rebecca Mcelroy: ABBA: Bang-A-Boomerang. Australia, 2013, deals with the phenomenon “Abbamania” from an Australian perspective and a. Fan club members, journalists and TV presenters of the time have their say (including John Paul Young )

Individual evidence

literature

  • Carl Magnus Palm: Light and Shadow. ABBA - The real story. Bosworth Edition, 2006, ISBN 3-86543-100-3 .
  1. p. 284.
  2. p. 300.
  3. p. 305.
  4. a b c pp. 310-311.
  5. a b c d p. 312.
  6. a b c p. 330.
  7. a b p. 314.
  8. a b p. 313.
  9. a b p. 332.
  10. p. 333.
  11. p. 334.
  12. a b c d pp. 335-336.
  13. p. 383.
  14. a b p. 349.
  15. a b p. 374.
  16. p. 360.
  17. p. 378.
  18. p. 376.
  19. a b p. 386
  20. a b p. 384.
  21. p. 381.
  22. p. 388.
  23. a b p. 389.
  24. a b p. 390.
  25. a b p. 391.
  26. pp. 393-394.
  27. p. 395
  28. a b p. 396
  29. p. 420
  30. a b p. 421
  31. a b p. 422
  32. p. 427
  33. p. 428f.
  34. a b p. 331.
  35. p. 350.
  36. p. 351.
  37. pp. 352-353.
  • Jan Gradvall, Petter Karlsson: ABBA - The whole story in 600 pictures. G + J NG Buchgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-86690-404-0
  1. p. 184.
  2. pp. 232-233.
  3. a b p. 237.
  4. a b p. 252.
  5. p. 247.
  6. p. 238.
  7. p. 254
  8. p. 196
  • Ingmarie Halling, Carl Magnus Palm: ABBA Backstage - Approved by ABBA. HEEL Verlag GmbH, Königswinter 2014, ISBN 978-3-86852-878-7
  1. p. 18.

Other

  1. a b c d e f g h i j k l Australia - Additional Information ( Memento of the original from April 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 1, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / home.zipworld.com.au
  2. a b c d e f g h i United Kingdom - Additional Information ( Memento of the original dated March 10, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 1, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / home.zipworld.com.au
  3. abbamania.com The Show, accessed April 4, 2016.
  4. ABBA Charts - The Worldwide Chart Lists ( Memento of the original from April 6, 2012 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Overview, accessed April 1, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / home.zipworld.com.au
  5. ^ Carl Magnus Palm: Really Doing Something - The Making of the ABBA Album , Polar Music International AB 2012, text accompanying the Deluxe Edition, 23 pages.
  6. Official Charts Mamma Mia, accessed April 1, 2016.
  7. a b c d e Australia - Sales Figures ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2012 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 2, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / home.zipworld.com.au
  8. a b c d e f g h i j k Peter Charley: THE ABBA ALBUM Horowitz Publications, January 1977 (?) Retrieved April 2, 2016.
  9. a b c d e f g Billboard Magazine September 8, 1979 issue, accessed April 2, 2016.
  10. ^ The ABBA Phenomenon Introduction, accessed April 2, 2016.
  11. Ian Meldrum: ABBAMANIA BIGGER THAN BEATLEMANIA Article in TV Week, April 17, 1976, accessed April 4, 2016.
  12. ^ The Making of the National Commercial.Retrieved April 2, 2016.
  13. ^ Memories of ABBA'S 1977 Australian Tour. Accessed April 2, 2016.
  14. ABBA Annual 1976 1976-11-15 [...] Here ABBA receive 32 golden, platinum and silver records out of the hands of BBC-deejay Simon Bates , accessed on September 7, 2016
  15. Billboard Magazine - Sept 8, 1979 UNITED KINGDOM by Peter Jones, accessed September 28, 2016
  16. ^ Daily Mirror front cover, February 28. Retrieved April 2, 2016.
  17. Agnetha's Recollections of the Australian Tour on ABBA Phenomenon (English) Excerpt from As I Am: ABBA Before & Beyond by Agnetha Fältskog in collaboration with Brita Åhman (UK; Virgin Publishing 1997), accessed on September 9, 2016
  18. ABBA Australia Sales ( Memento from January 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  19. see List of best-selling albums in Australia and ABBA-Sales Homepage ( Memento from May 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) - section Australian Sales
  20. see list in the English language Wikipedia: List of UK Singles Chart number ones of the 1970s and List of UK Albums Chart number ones of the 1970s .
  21. icethesite.com “ABBA Gold - Greatest Hits” becomes the UK's second biggest selling album of all time , English article from May 20, 2013, accessed on September 9, 2016
  22. ABBA Phenomenon Mamma Mia it's ABBA! : Bandstand's special is world of pop coup ABBA. The Daily Telegraph, March 19, 1976, accessed April 4, 2016.
  23. Internet Movie Database ABBA: Bang a Boomerang (2013), accessed April 5, 2016.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on May 21, 2016 .