Alla Mina Bästa År (Frida & Marie)
Album: Djupa Andetag, 1996 Info: All My Best Years is the translation of this Swedish song. It's a duett with Marie Frederikson, leadsinger of Roxette.
Älska Mig Alltid (Frida)
Album: Djupa Andetag, 1996 Andante, Andante
Album: Super Trouper, 1980 Angel Eyes
Album: Voulez-Vous, 1979 Another Town Another Train
Album: Honey Honey, 1974 Anthem (Chess)
Album: Chess, 1984 Are You Gonna Throw It All Away (Agnetha)
Album: I Stand Alone, 1987 Arrival
Album: Arrival, 1976 As Good As New
Album: Voulez-Vous, 1979 Quinton Clem, USA: Love the horns in this tune. A great little short pop number and a great way to kick off the album's first track. Agnetha's vocals soar in this one and is a song that will always put me in a good mood. Även En Blomma (Frida) Album: Djupa Andetag, 1996 Info: This song is on "Djupa Andetag", Frida's solo-album from 1996. It means: Even a flower (that grows on good ground needs food to grow...). It was a hitsingle in Sweden and marked her come-back after being away since Shine. Bang-A-Boomerang
1975 Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 Belle (Frida and Daniel Balavoine)
Album: -
Info: This song is Arrival with French texts. It was a B-side to one of Frida's solo-singles. Can't Shake Loose (Agnetha)
Album: Wrap Your Arms Around Me, 1983 Cassandra
Album: Thank You For The Music (4CD-box), 1994 Recorded 1982, B-side to The Day Before You Came. Chemistry Tonight (Frida)
Album: Shine, 1984 Chiquitita
Album: Voulez-Vous, 1979 Click Track (Agnetha)
Album: Eyes Of A Woman, 1985 Comfort Me (Frida)
Album: Shine, 1984 Crazy World
Album: Dance (While The Music Still Goes On)
Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 Dancing Queen
Album: Arrival, 1976 Comments: KC: Probably the biggest hit. In the Netherlands 6 weeks no.1 in 1976. Also a no.1 hit in the U.S.A. There's a special videoclip where ABBA performs this song on the Royal Wedding of King Carl Gustav and Queen Sylvia.
Steve Jasper, Australia: As if I could leave THIS song off a top-ten ABBA list, if for no other reason than it made it to #1 all around the world, even in deepest darkest America. Known by anyone who hasn't lived under a rock all their lives, it's the perfect pick-me-up when I'm feeling blue. Really, you just can't feel unhappy while listening to this track Disillusion
Album: Honey Honey, 1974 Does Your Mother Know
Album: Voulez-Vous, 1979 Doktorn (Agnetha)
Album: Tio År Med Agnetha, 1979 Don't Do It (Frida)
Album: Shine, 1984 Don't Fence Me In (from Dick Cavett Show)
Album: Down To The Sacred Wave
Album: Kristina från Duvemåla, 1996 Dreamworld
Album: Thank You For The Music (4CD-box), 1994 Recorded 1978, not released until 1994. Du Måste Finnas (Kristina)
Album: Kristina från Duvemåla, 1996 Dum Dum Diddle
Album: Arrival, 1976 Eagle
Album: The Album, 1977 Efter Regnet (Benny)
Album: Elaine
Album: Thank You For The Music (4CD-box), 1994 Recorded 1980, B-side to The Winner Takes It All. Originally intended for the Super Trouper album. En Sång Och En Saga (Agnetha)
Album: En Sång Om Sorg Och Glädje (Agnetha)
Album: Every Good Man (Chess)
Album: Fernando
Album: Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 Geh' Mit Gott (Agnetha)
Album: Get On The Caroussel
Album: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!
Album: Gonna Sing You My Lovesong
Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 Guldet Blev Till Sand (Kristina)
Album: Kristina från Duvemåla, 1996 Hamlet III
Album: Happy Hawaii
Album: Happy New Year
Album: Super Trouper, 1980 Hasta Manana
Album: Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 He Is Your Brother
Album: Honey Honey, 1974 Quinton Clem, USA: Again we hear shared vocal by all members of the group. If ABBA ever got close to a gospel record this one was it. It's also a great little bouncy pop number that stands very well on it's own. Head Over Heels
Album: The Visitors, 1981 Heart Of The Country (Frida)
Album: Shine, 1984 Heaven And Hell (Josefin Nillsson)
Album: Heaven Help My Heart (Chess)
Album: Chess, 1984 Hej Gamle Man
Album: Here We'll Stay (Frida)
Album: Something's Going On, 1982 Hey Hey Helen
Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 High Hopes and Heartaches (Josefin Nillsson)
Album: Hole In Your Soul
Album: The Album, 1977 Hon Fick Som Hon Ville (Frida)
Album: Djupa Andetag, 1996 Honey Honey
Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 Hovas Vittne
Album: I'm Just A Girl
Album: Honey Honey, 1974 Quinton Clem, USA: Boy oh boy would feminists have a problem with this one! The line about "It's an evil world, that has only made me a girl" shocks me everytime I hear it but I suppose at the time it was composed it was not so unusual. It's a great "torch" tune but I doubt it gets much play at ABBA parties!!!
I Am The City
Album: I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do
Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 I Have A Dream
Album: Voulez-Vous, 1979 Quinton Clem, USA: Frida in my opinion doesn't get her fair share of credit for some of the great ABBA records but this one was meant for her and she handles it beautifully. This song reminds me very much of the summer I visited my father who was living in Juneau Alaska. At that time I took the bus all over town while my dad worked days and this record was always played as background music while riding the bus. Sounds boring but it was one of the good memories I have of that city. I Know Him So Well (Chess)
Album: Chess, 1984 I Know There's Something Going On (Frida)
Album: Something's Going On, 1982 I Let The Music Speak
Album: The Visitors, 1981 I Saw It In The Mirror
Album: Quinton Clem, USA: I doubt if this one gets mentioned much as a favorite, but I could relate well to the lyrics since guys don't open up much when it comes to emotions.
I Stand Alone (Agnetha)
Album: I Stand Alone, 1987 I See Red (Frida)
Album: Something's Going On, 1982, I Wonder
Album: The Album, 1977 I Won't Let You Go (Agnetha)
Album: Eyes Of A Woman, 1985 Ida + Frida + Anne-Marie (?)
Album: If It Wasn't For The Nights
Album: Voulez-Vous, 1979 Quinton Clem, USA: Moving ahead six years later, we have ABBA experimenting with disco melodies (I'm sorry but I don't consider Dancing Queen disco in any way-it was made to be pure pop it just so happens you could dance to it) and what a great job they did with mixing the disco elements into their songs. This album cut actually got played on US radio stations and that I assure you was a first for ABBA. When I listened to Voulez-Vous through the first time after it was released in 1979, I kept coming back to this one and listening to it over and over again. This should have and certainly could have been a single selection, and I'm sure if there hadn't been so many other viable hit singles on the Voulez-Vous set it would have been released. Just a few years ago I read with interest this song was originally intended to be released after Chiquitita, but the group went with Does Your Mother Know instead, which was also a great choice. If You Need Somebody Tonight (Agnetha)
Album: I Stand Alone, 1987 I'm A Bitch When I See Red (Gemini)
Album: I'm A Marionette
Album: The Album, 1977 Steve Jasper, Australia: Benny and Björn's fondness for writing musicals can be traced way way back to "The Girl With The Golden Hair". While the vastly overrated "Thank You For The Music" has become a default anthem (notice the title of the medley of ABBA songs covered at the Brit awards?), in reality that song was the B-side of the third single of an album that didn't really set the world on fire. On the other hand, "I'm A Marionette" is brilliant: dark and bitter like fine chocolate and every bit as tasty. This song belongs to the dark side, preparing the ground for such gems as "The Visitors" and "Kristina från Duvemåla". I'm Still Alive (Agnetha)
Album: Intermezzo no.1
Album: It's So Nice To Be Rich (Agnetha)
Album: I've Been Waiting For You
Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 Jag Blir Galen När Jag Tänker På Dig (Frida)
Album: Jag Var Så Kär (Agnetha)
Album: Jag Vill Att Du Ska Bli Lycklig
Album: Just A Notion
Album: Thank You For The Music (4CD-box), 1994 Just A Notion is a snippet of Abba Undeleted. Just Like That
Album: Thank You For The Music (4CD-box), 1994 Just Like That is a snippet of Abba Undeleted, recorded 1982. Just One Heart (Agnetha)
Album: Eyes Of A Woman, 1995 Kamfer Och Lavendel (Kristina)
Album: Kristina från Duvemåla, 1996 King Kong Song
Album: Kisses Of Fire
Album: Voulez-Vous, 1979 Klinga Mina Klockor (Benny)
Album: Knowing Me, Knowing You
Album: Arrival, 1976 Steve Jasper, Australia: Another mondegreen. The REAL lyrics go: "In these old familiar rooms Children will play..." But ::I:: heard: "You'll be sold for a million roubles Children will play..." So this song and I got off to a very shaky start, with me thinking it was about Benny being sold to the Russians. Now that I know what the REAL lyrics are, I can appreciate it a whole lot more. And Agnetha is truly the queen of forlorn glances. She knows how to work the camera in this clip, and works it SO well. Wall-to-wall unhappiness works like a charm here Kom Och Sjung en Sång (Frida)
Album: Komm' Doch Zu Mir
Album: Lay All Your Love On Me
Album: Super Trouper, 1980 Like An Angel Passing Through My Room
Album: The Visitors, 1981 Lilla Skara (Kristina)
Album: Kristina från Duvemåla, 1996 Little White Secrets (Agnetha)
Album: I Stand Alone, 1987 Lottis Schottis (Benny)
Album: Love Isn't Easy (but it sure is hard enough)
1973 Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1975 Quinton Clem, USA: I can't pinpoint exactly why this song works for me but it does. When I first heard it I swore I'd heard the same beat before in a Fleetwood Mac song from the 70's but I can't remember which one it was. The vocals were shared equally by all the members in this tune while it's not a perfect fit the title is so true!
Lovelight
Album: Lovers (Live A Little Longer)
Album: Voulez-Vous, 1979 Mamma Mia
Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 Man (Agnetha)
Album: Wrap Your Arms Around Me, 1983 Maybe It Was Magic (Agnetha)
Album: I Stand Alone, 1987 Me And Bobby And Bobby's Brother
Album: Honey Honey, 1974 Me And I
Album: Super Trouper, 1980 Medley
Album: Mein Schönster Tag (Agnetha)
Album: Merry Go Round
Album: Thank You For The Music Box Min Astrakan (Kristina)
Album: Kristina från Duvemåla, 1996 Min Egen Stad (Frida)
Album: Min Lust Till Dej (Kristina)
Album: Kristina från Duvemåla, 1996 Money Money Money
Album: Arrival, 1976 Move On
Album: The Album, 1977 Mr. Persuasion (Agnetha)
Album: Wrap Your Arms Around Me, 1983 My Love, My Life
Album: Arrival, 1976 My Mamma Said
Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 När Du Tar Mej I Din Famn (Agnetha)
Album: Never Again (Agnetha & Tomas Ledin)
1982 Album: My Love My Life, 1996 Nina Pretty Ballerina
Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 Nobody's Side (Chess)
Album: Chess, 1984 Ögonen (Frida)
Album: Djupa Andetag, 1996 On And On And On
Album: Super Trouper, 1980 Once Burned, Twice Shy (Agnetha)
Album: Wrap Your Arms Around Me, 1983 One Man, One Woman
Album: The Album, 1977 One Night In Bangkok (Chess)
Album: Chess, 1984 One Of Us
Album: The Visitors, 1981 One Way Love (Agnetha)
Album: Eyes Of A Woman, 1985 Our Last Summer
Album: Super Trouper, 1980 Överheten (Kristina)
Album: Kristina från Duvemåla, 1996 People Need Love
Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 Pity The Child (Chess)
Album: Chess, 1984 Put On Your White Sombrero
Album: Thank You For The Music (4CD-box), 1994 Recorded 1980, not released until 1994. Quartet (Chess)
Album: Chess, 1984 Queen Of Hearts (Agnetha)
Album: Ring Ring
Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 Rock And Roll Band
Album: Honey Honey, 1974 Rock Me
Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 Rubber Ball Man
Album: Thank You For The Music (4CD-box), 1994 Rubber Ball Man is a snippet of Abba Undeleted, recorded 1979. Steve Jasper, Australia Ever heard of a mondegreen? That's when the lyrics you hear are completely wrong, but you sing them anyway, and wonder why the song is so silly. The REAL lyrics for Rubberball Man are: "The poster on the wall Of a dear friend..." But instead, I heard (or more accurately, MIS-heard): "The toaster's on the wall I feel different..." Well, I suppose you ::WOULD:: feel different if you had a toaster nailed to the wall. However, the tune is totally brilliant. (If you haven't heard Rubberball Man, it's a very short snippet -- about one minute and forty seconds -- on the "ABBA Undeleted" -- the fourth CD on the "Thank You For The Music" box set released in 1993). If there is just ::one:: thing I could say to the former members of ABBA, it would be: please please release this song!!! S.O.S.
Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 Så Glad Som Dina Ögon (Agnetha)
Album: Så här börjar kärlek (Agnetha & Björn)
Album: Så Milt Lyser Stjärnan
Album: Santa Rosa
Album: Thank You For The Music (4CD-set) She's My Kind Of Girl
Album: Honey Honey, 1974 Quinton Clem, USA: Had this gotten the proper exposure, it would have been a big hit everywhere. It could have been a Monkey's tune or a Hermits Hermits tune. I understand it was a big smash in Japan of all places. The mind boggles. This is a fun simple record which showed the boys could handle things on their own without the girls involved.
Shine (Frida)
Album: Shine, 1984 Should I Laugh Or Cry
Album: Thank You For The Music (4CD-box), 1994 Recorded 1981, B-side to One Of Us. Sista Valsen Med Dig (Frida)
Album: Djupa Andetag, 1996
Slipping Through My Fingers
Album: The Visitors, 1981 Slowly (Frida)
Album: Shine, 1984 There is also a version by Gemini. So Long
Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 Soldiers
Album: The Visitors, 1981 Someone Else's Story (Chess)
Album: Chess, Original Broadway Cast Recording, 1988 Stand By My Side (Agnetha)
Album: Wrap Your Arms Around Me, 1983 Stockholm By Night (Benny)
Album: Summer Night City
Album: Comments:
Steve Jasper, Australia When I submitted my very first top ten for this list, #1 through to #10 inclusive were all Summer Night City. Kees wasn't having any of this though, so I had to settle for making this #1 on every list I have ever submitted since. True to form, it's making #1 on this one, and I'll be mighty annoyed at anyone I hear voting for their ABBA Top Ten without including this song, preferably at the top spot. And I know where you all live... I was a teenager when this song was released, in my final years of high school. I used to look up the overseas charts in the local newspapers (I used to be obsessive then, funny how some things just don't change) and that week, the paper had the Amsterdam top ten. There was this new ABBA song in there called "Summer Night City" and suddenly I had goosebumps, I was soooo excited that at long last, there was going to be a new ABBA release. Several weeks later, I heard it for the first time on the radio, and I was totally smitten. This song was -- and is -- ABBA's best. Period. Judge's decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into. I remember going down to the record store and buying the single (I think it was really expensive, costing me about $1.50 or something) and I carried home nervously, worried that it wouldn't sound as good when I got it on my record player at home. I needn't have feared: it sounded EVEN BETTER on my stereo at home. Don't quite know why I love this song so much: maybe it's the rapid pace, maybe it's about the nightlife that I love, maybe... I just don't know. But if I could, believe me, I'd list this song every place on my list from #1 right through to #10. Super Trouper
Album: Super Trouper, 1980 Ta Det Bara Med Ro (Agnetha)
Album: Tack För En Underbar, Vanlig Dag (Agnetha)
Album: Take A Chance On Me
Album: The Album, 1977 Tango I Det Gröna (Frida)
Album: Tell Me It's Over (Frida)
Album: Something's Going On, 1982, Thank You For The Music
Album: The Album, 1977 That's Me
Album: Arrival, 1976 That's Tough (Frida)
Album: The Angels Cry (Agnetha)
Album: Eyes Of A Woman, 1985 The Day Before You Came
Album: Steve Jasper, Australia: Melancholy genius, a maturity that was ahead of it's time. A fairly commonplace thing happens when you ask an ABBA fan their favourite ABBA song is for the answer to go along the lines of "I don't have a favourite song, I have about five or six". And on that list of five or six songs, this one ALWAYS makes it. What more can I say? Haunting, atmospheric, and Agnetha looks totally gorgeous (as she did in every clip, with the outstanding exception of "Super Trouper". What WAS she thinking with that dress???). The Film I'd Like To See (Josefin Nillsson)
Album: The Heat Is On (Agnetha)
Album: Wrap Your Arms Around Me, 1983 The King Has Lost His Crown
Album: Voulez-Vous, 1979 The Name Of The Game
Album: The Album, 1977 The Piper
Album: Super Trouper, 1980 The Queen Of Hearts (Agnetha)
Album: The Sun Is Shining In The Middle Of The Night (girls singing back up)
Album: The Visitors
Album: The Visitors, 1981 Steve Jasper, Australia: More of what we've come to expect from ABBA. A song about Russian dissidents being dragged off by the KGB to be tortured. Happy, happy, joy, joy. Mamma Mia this ain't, and aren't I just so grateful? (By the way, if I was to compile a "Top Ten ABBA songs that get on my nerves list", Mamma Mia would make it). What do I love about this song? It's musically mature and complex, lyrically intriguing (and let's face it, lyrics were never really ABBA's selling point. Feel the beat from the tambourine? I don't think so!) and the vocals are some of their best. Frida ::finally:: gets a lead vocal in on this album (they were at the "let Agnetha sing lead on just about everything" stage of their career, which alienates even the most diehard Agnetha fans like myself) and Frida sings it for all it's worth. The voice has the precision and warmth of cut glass, which fits this song like a glove. And the way she builds in this song... ohhhh... The Way Old Friends Do
Album: Super Trouper, 1980 The Way You Are (Agnetha & Ola)
Album: The Way You Do (Frida)
Album: Something's Going On, 1982 The Winner Takes It All
Album: Super Trouper, 1980 Comments Quinton Clem, USA: Definitely one of my all time ABBA favorites for many different reasons. Agnetha's vocal is one of them. Another is the fact that this song really does not have a lot of repeat lyrics to it, like most pop records do. And yet another is the way Benny and Bjorn built the song as it progresses. The arrangement slowly builds through each new verse of this song until the climactic finish. This may sound exaggerated but if you listen to it with that in mind you will understand what I'm saying. I cannot remember another ABBA record that takes that approach.
Steve Jasper, Australia: Zoom forward a few years, and we go from Agnetha acting miserable in "Knowing Me, Knowing You" to Agnetha BEING misery in this clip. Here we have a relationship shattered, it's pieces lying on the ground for us all to see. Agnetha is puddle of agony, raw honesty, and blue eyeshadow. Pure brilliance. If you're in a painful, messy relationship breakup, a large block of really good dark chocolate and TWTIA on single track repeat is just the tonic. It won't help you get over your misery, but you'll have fun wallowing in it. At least, we did in the days before we invented Prozac. Threnody (Frida)
Album: Tiger
Album: Arrival, 1976 Time (Frida & B.A. Roberson)
Album: To Love (Agnetha)
Album: Wrap Your Arms Around Me, 1983 To Turn The Stone (Frida)
Album: Something's Going On, 1982 Tre Kvart Från Nu (Frida)
1971 Album: På Egen Hand, 1991 Tropical Loveland
Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 Two For The Price Of One
Album: The Visitors, 1981 Under Attack
Album: Under My Sun
Album: Steve Jasper, Australia: "Under My Sun" is the full-length version of "Rubberball Man" found on many bootlegs, but with the identical tune -- just like "Happy Hawaii" and "Why Did It Have To Be Me". But because it has different lyrics, I'm putting it on the list. So there. :-þ Upp Till Kamp
Album: Ut Mot Ett Hav (Kristina)
Album: Kristina från Duvemåla, 1996 Vem Kommer Såra Vem Ikväll (Frida)
Album: Djupa Andetag, 1996 Vi Har Hunnit Fram Till Refrangen
Album: Vildgräs (Kristina)
Album: Kristina från Duvemåla, 1996 Voulez-Vous
Album: Voulez-Vous, 1979 Quinton Clem, USA: The title track and one of the strongest on the album. I really thought when this was released in the US as a single it would firmly establish ABBA in the US as superstar status. So much for my predictions, it charted at # 80 and that is all the higher it got. After three weeks it was gone. Having since viewed various charts around the world, I've noticed this track never really did take the world by storm like their other singles did. Steve Jasper, Australia: Jaded. Bitter. Cynical. Sleazy. Just what you expect from ABBA. It was a step in a new direction, an exciting step. When this album was released, I remember telling my friends in school that this was the "ABBA hits puberty" album, and looking back, that was a fair comment. This song should have a 30-year-old age limit: no one below the age of 30 (oh, all right, 25) should ::attempt:: a cover of this song. While the A*Teens have done some brilliant covers, their cover of Voulez Vous is not among them. However, Culture Club's cover of this song is pure brilliance -- you can ::tell:: that Boy George has lived this song. Then again, you get the feeling that Boy George started picking up men at nightclubs at about the age of three... Watch Out
Album: Waterloo
Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 We Move As One (Agnetha)
Album: Eyes Of A Woman, 1985 What About Livingstone
Album: The Very Best Of ABBA, 1976 When All Is Said And Done
Album: The Visitors, 1981 When I Kissed The Teacher
Album: Arrival, 1976 Where The Wales Have Ceased To Sing (Josefin Nillsson)
Album: Why Did It Have To Be Me
Album: Arrival, 1976 Wrap Your Arms Around Me (Agnetha)
Album: Wrap Your Arms Around Me, 1983 You Owe Me One
Album: You Know What I Mean (Frida)
Album: Something's Going On, 1982, You're There (Agnetha)
Album: