Today, ABBA are regarded as one of the all-time classic pop acts, acknowledged by their 2010 induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. The official website, ABBA – The Official Site, is an acclaimed resource for authoritative information about the group. Other DVD releases include ABBA In Japan (featuring a vintage television special) and the short film The Last Video, which featured cameo appearances from the ABBA members. The two live concert films ABBA – The Movie and ABBA In Concert have been restored and re-released on DVD, with bonus material.
There have also been further vinyl re-releases of ABBA’s music, such as the 45 RPM half-speed mastered double vinyl edition of Arrival, issued to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the album in 2016, and the similar release of ABBA – The Album in 2017, celebrating its 40th anniversary.ĪBBA’s legendary videos, most of which were helmed by renowned director Lasse Hallström, have been collected on the DVD version of The Essential Collection, featuring the cleaned-up and remastered original film clips.
A box set entitled ABBA – The Vinyl Collection, containing faithful vinyl reissues of ABBA’s eight original studio LPs, was released in December 2010. A comprehensive box set, The Complete Studio Recordings, was released in 2005, receiving spectacular press reviews. The compilation albums ABBA Gold and ABBA Oro have also been reissued with revised booklets and updated liner notes, while a double-CD entitled The Essential Collection compiles ABBA singles. Hits from the album included ‘The Name Of The Game’ and ‘Take A Chance On Me’. The premiere of the film in December 1977 coincided with the release of ABBA – The Album. When the tour reached Australia, work was also begun on the feature film ABBA – The Movie. The tour was a complete success with capacity houses everywhere. This was followed by a concert tour of Europe and Australia between January and March 1977. The album stormed up the charts and spawned hits such as ‘Money, Money, Money’ and ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’. In late 1976 ABBA’s fourth album, Arrival, was released. Classic single releases such as ‘Fernando’ and ‘Dancing Queen’ topped the charts all over the world, including the US (in 1977) – ‘Dancing Queen’ was ABBA’s only stateside Number One. The various hits compilations conquering the world during this period (entitled Greatest Hits or The Best Of ABBA depending on where you lived) became global blockbusters. In 1976 ABBA finally and firmly established themselves as one of the most popular groups in the world. Over the next couple of years, Australia would be caught up in a virtual ABBA fever, giving the group a total of six Number One hits. ‘Mamma Mia’ was Number One for ten weeks in Australia, which was the first territory to release it as a single. ‘Mamma Mia’, also from the ABBA album, returned the group to the UK Number One spot, which they occupied a total of nine times between 19. It wasn’t until some 18 months later that they got a major worldwide hit again with ‘SOS’, taken off their third album, simply entitled ABBA. However, the “stigma” of being winners of the Eurovision Song Contest made it difficult for ABBA to be taken seriously when they tried to follow this first success. The album of the same name was also a huge hit in Sweden. Soon after this triumph, ‘Waterloo’ was Number One on the charts all over Europe, even reaching the Top Ten in the US, where the Eurovision Song Contest had no impact. The Eurovision Song Contest on Apturned out to be the most famous moment in ABBA history, when the group won the international juries over with ‘Waterloo’.
ABBA was also the name of a Swedish canned fish company fortunately, they agreed to lending their name to a pop group. By this time they had changed their name to ABBA, an acronym of their first names. The group entered Melodifestivalen again in 1974, this time with ‘Waterloo’, which took them all the way to the Eurovision finals in Brighton, England.