Tales of Rock – Abba

Abba, the most popular group in the world in 1977, has a palindrome for a name. The group’s name was actually adapted from the first letters of the group’s members.

Agatha Ulvaeulus, Bjorn Ulvaeulus, Benny Andersson, Annifrid Andersson

When Abba first began singing English lyrics, they had to learn the words phonetically since none of them spoke English.

As of 1978 the group became the largest grossing export of Sweden. Volvo was number two!

ABBA’s record sales figure is uncertain and various estimates range from over 140 to over 500 million sold records. This makes them one of the best-selling music artists. ABBA were the first group from a non-English-speaking country to achieve consistent success in the charts of English-speaking countries, including the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and on a lesser scale, the US. They have a joint record eight consecutive number-one albums in the UK. The group also enjoyed significant success in Hispanic American markets, and recorded a collection of their hit songs in Spanish.


After ABBA disbanded in December 1982, Andersson and Ulvaeus achieved success writing music for the stage, while Lyngstad and Fältskog pursued solo careers with mixed success. ABBA’s music declined in popularity until the purchase of ABBA’s catalogue and record company Polar by Polygram in 1989 enabled the groundwork to be laid for an international re-issue of all their original material and a new Greatest Hits (ABBA Gold) collection in September 1992 which became a worldwide smash. Several films, notably Muriel’s Wedding (1994) and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), further revived public interest in the group and the spawning of several tribute bands. In 1999, ABBA’s music was adapted into the successful musical Mamma Mia! that toured worldwide. A film of the same name, released in 2008, became the highest-grossing film in the United Kingdom that year.

ABBA were honored at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005, when their hit “Waterloo” was chosen as the best song in the competition’s history. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2015, their song “Dancing Queen” was inducted into the Recording Academy‘s Grammy Hall of Fame.

In 2016, the members of ABBA announced an upcoming project in 2017.

I never really liked this group but my father loved them after seeing a woman he liked dancing to the song, Dancing Queen at a corporate party. He had the hots for her and ended up having an affair with her. The fucked up thing was he always told my older sister Janice that the song made him think of her because she liked to dance. (Bold faced lie) But I knew the dark truth behind his love of the band ABBA. Janice loved my dad and she was his favorite out of all of us because of her absolute blind adoration for him. So they bought their albums and listened to that shit all the time. But I know when my dad was loving the song, I Am The Tiger, he was thinking about his mad desire for this woman he worked with and sleeping with at the time in the wake of his last affair.

I never liked this group but I kind of liked Frida’s solo song here. Seems appropriate.



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