Customer Reviews

ABBA Unplugged

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Karl French has written a decent book about ABBA. He does analysize the tracks on each of ABBA's albums and has an overview of the plot to Mama Mia. However, this book has very little new information about ABBA. In fact, on his source page, he cites more than 20 websites. If you want a definite ABBA book, I would recommend Bright Lights, Dark Shadows.

This is a good read and not the sycophantic drivel one usually gets in pop biographies. It's really a review of the music (which, after all, is what's important) and quite informative for someone like myself who knows nothing about ABBA. Karl French writes well and with dry humour.

One research flaw is found on page 17. French writes that Benny's song "Sunny Girl" has "strong echoes of the Searchers, especially "I'll Never Find Another You..." WRONG! "I'll Never Find Another You" is by The Seekers.

[...]

ABBA, the two couples from Sweden, was the best music group of the disco era, 1972-1982. ABBA took its name from the first name initials of its members: Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The girls sang, and the guys wrote the tunes. Benny played keyboards. Bjorn played guitar. Their biggest hits were Dancing Queen, Take A Chance On Me and Waterloo. It was blonde Agnetha who was the eyecatcher even though Frida got her share of the hits. There were times when they sounded alike. When they harmonized, Agnetha went high and Frida went low. Agnetha had a better grip on the traditional pop song. Frida had a more husky, operatic quality. Both had talent.

The two blondes from ABBA were married, and the two brunettes were married. Both couples had divorced by the time of the group's breakup. Agnetha and Bjorn were married 7 years. They had two children.

Benny and Frida were parents by previous marriages. Benny was born, December 16, 1946. Frida was born in Narvik, Norway, November 15, 1945. Her mother was Norwegian. Her father was a German soldier. Relatives brought Frida to Sweden when she was two.

Benny and Bjorn met in 1966. Benny had started out with The Hep Stars. Bjorn was playing with The Hootenanny Singers. ABBA's career was launched when they won the Eurovision song contest in 1974 with Waterloo. They went on to sell more records than anyone except Elvis Presley and The Beatles. They were a worldwide phenomenon. They dominated record charts in England, Europe and Australia for years. In England, they had nine number one records with 20 in the Top Ten. They spent 31 weeks at the number one position. A movie was made of their Australian tour and released as ABBA The Movie in conjunction with ABBA The Album. They toured the States in 1979 and Japan in 1980.

ABBA did eight albums over a period of ten years and had enough B-sides and scattered songs to have compiled two more albums. Their eight titles are Ring Ring, Waterloo, ABBA, Arrival, The Album, Voulez-Vous, Super Trouper and The Visitors.

Some fine musicians played with ABBA. Lasse Wellander and Janne Schaffer laid down guitar tracks. Rutger Gunnarsson played bass. Ola Brunkert played drums.

The group was managed by Stig Anderson (no relation to Benny). Michael Tretow served as their perennial engineer. Later recording was done at Polar Studios, and the company formed to handle their business was known as Polar Music International. Their records were released by Atlantic, a Warner Communications Company.

Benny and Bjorn went on to collaborate on two musicals. They wrote Chess with Tim Rice. Chess is about a Russian chess player who defects. Its music is of a different caliber than ABBA's. It played on Broadway in 1988, and a second recording was made.

The follow up to Chess was Kristina fran Duvemala, a musicalization of the epic novels by Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg.

Agnetha and Frida added to their solo work.