Customer Reviews

The Best of ABBA: 20th Century Masters (Millennium Collection)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'm using the same criteria to rate this disc that I did in an earlier review for "ABBA-The Collection". The only good thing about albums of this nature is the possibility that a new generation might be exposed to some classic tracks, but that's where the praise ends. I'm a major ABBA fan, and I'm tired of seeing the same tracks re-released over and over and over again, just to line the pockets of the record company. I wonder just how much of a hand the members of ABBA really have in these projects? As I've stated before, Polygram (and ABBA) would better serve the legions of fans out here by finally releasing all those "missing" tracks that can only be found on poor quality bootlegs. (Including "Just Like That", "Every Good Man", "Under My Sun", "I'm Still Alive...(solo Agnetha track)", "Opus 10",etc...just to name a few) We've already got "The Collection", "ABBA Millenium", "Love Stories", "Love Songs", "Gold", "More Gold", "Forever Gold" (yikes!), etc, etc, etc...... How many more configurations can there possibly be for the same songs??

This is definitely a good CD for people who are casual fans of Abba and looking for the essentials. The hits are here *although the sound quality could be better.* Of course, you get the ever-so-famous "Dancing Queen." Everyone knows this song. You also get many of their other great songs including two of my personal favorites "Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "Take A Chance On Me." Plus one of the best songs of their career "The Winner Takes It All." My complaint would be that I would rather have seen them take off one of the lesser songs and put on "Lay All Your Love On Me" but oh well.

If you are looking for a little more, I recommend the "Gold" collection. Definitely worth a few extra bucks.

20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of ABBA purports to give us the "best of" ABBA in a single CD--with just eleven tracks yet! There's no way eleven tracks can be the entirety of ABBA's "best." However, as usual with this CD series, what we do get is very high quality control numbers with great sound. The front cover artwork is par for this series; but the "eco-friendly" packaging means that you'll have to go to a website to download or read any liner notes you may be interested in reading.

The CD starts with one of their biggest hits ever, "Waterloo." "Waterloo" compares the huge battle from ages ago to a love affair when one person finally gets roped down by the person who loves them! The electric guitars are excellent and ABBA sings this with a lot of enthusiasm and style. "S.O.S." begins with a brief piano solo and the rest of the keyboard work on "S.O.S." really sounds great. The minor keys of this tune are great and I think you'll enjoy this tune. Moreover, listen for "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do." This ballad has a beautiful melody and ABBA performs this without a hitch!

"Dancing Queen" certainly gets fine treatment from ABBA; they first played this song at the wedding of their country's princess to her special man. Apparently because she would one day be Queen, ABBA decided to call this number "Dancing Queen." It does sound better than `Dancing Princess" if you hear the song--the words "Dancing Princess" never would have fit the melody! "Dancing Queen" starts with a huge musical flourish and they never miss a beat. Even all these years later I really like "Dancing Queen."

"The Name of the Game" starts strong with music and when the ladies come in this number takes flight! They sing beautifully and they harmonize well on this number about a love that needs communication to stay alive. "Take a Chance On Me" also shines like gold; the beat is awesome and this upbeat, pop flavored number is also very good for dancing.

The album ends with "The Winner Takes It All." This features a great piano arrangement and as always ABBA performs this with style and grace. I love it!

Overall, this is a collection of eleven songs by ABBA that simply doesn't capture all of this group's best work. Indeed, I was never particularly enchanted with "Chiquitita" which makes it onto this album while very memorable hits including "Lay All Your Love On Me" are inexplicably absent. I give this CD three stars--or maybe even just two and ½ stars. There's just not enough material here, people. Sorry!

The casual fan will be most likely to enjoy this album if all they want is a sampling of ABBA's finer tunes. More serious fans like me will want CDs including ABBA: Gold and other discs by this group, too.

Many reviewers have given this CD an unsatisfactory review stating the fact that it's several songs short of ABBA Gold. These reviewers are completely missing the point. This CD was intended to showcase the bands American hits and not their International hits.

For the casual listener, this CD is highly recommended as it cuts right down to the chase (but then again, so does ABBA GOLD). For those of you out there who are impatient and can't sit through GOLD's 19 tracks then this CD is a blessing. The CD offers 11 out of ABBA's 20 US Chart entries. All of the 11 songs that are showcased peaked in the Top Forty of the Billboard singles charts. Ranging from their biggest- "Dancing Queen" (US# 1, CAN# 2), "Take a Chance on Me" (US# 3, CAN# 7), "Waterloo" (US# 6), "The Winner Takes It All" (US# 8, CAN #10), "Fernando" (US# 13, CAN# 2), "Knowing Me Knowing You (US# 14, CAN# 2), "SOS" (US# 15, CAN# 9), "I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do" (US# 15, CAN# 12), "The Name of the Game" (US# 12, CAN# 15) to their medium sized American hits- "Chiquitita" (US# 29, CAN# 17) and "Mamma Mia" (US# 32, CAN# 20).

However, even as a North American hits showcase, this CD is incomplete. Missing are the Top Forty Hits "Does Your Mother Know" (US# 19, CAN# 8), "Honey Honey" (US# 27) and "When All Is Said and Done" (US# 27). In my opinion, it should have also included their minor US hits such as "Super Trouper", "Money Money Money", "The Visitors", "Angeleyes", "Voulez-vous" and "On and On and On". But then again, THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION covers all the above and more.

It's very hard for me to give an ABBA greatest hits collection anything less than 5 stars considering all of their hit singles are extraordinary pieces of work with strong singing and excellent vocal harmonies. All of ABBA's hardcore fans probably already own the more condensed (and highly recommended) ABBA GOLD or THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION so this review is obviously not geared towards them. For the casual listener who may just want a sample of those four Swedes who conquered the International music charts bewteen 1974-1982, this CD is the perfect buy. Be warned however, that there is a high percentage that it will leave you wanting more.

It's not that the songs on this collection are bad, it's just that this album is very weak for a "Best Of" collection. Both "Abba Gold" and "ABBA More Gold" are similarly affordable, and both are much more complete than this Millennium collection.

Just off the top of my head, "Gold" has "Lay All Your Love On Me," "Money, Money, Money," and "Voulez Vous." If you're going to choose between a greatest hits compilation, this "Millennium" collection is sadly lacking!

I was thrilled to hear the music, but for some reason not everything was as clear as I had hoped it would be. For some reason I remember a better sound quality to their songs.

I love this CD. I only like a few of the Abba's songs, and this has all my favriotes. I think it is hard to find an Abba CD on a budget. This is the soulotion!!!!!

This was a great gift for my dad for Christmas. He listen to this music all the time so I thought it would be a good idea to buy the CD for him

Owning some 70 to 75% of the Pop hits to have come out in recording history, the so-called Big Four of music distributors (Universal, Sony/BMG, Warner and EMI) held the attitude, with the advent of the CD Age a couple of decades back, that all they had to do was toss out 10- to 12-track CDs, often with the same tracks over and over and, with the right promotion, the public would rush out to buy them, even at the inflated prices (for what you got) being asked.

Such was the case with the 20th Century Masters Millenium Collection that seemed to be everywhere in 2000. Often sub-titled "The Best Of" whichever artist was being presented, they would give you 11 or 12 tracks (there never seemed to be any consistency in that regard) which, more often than not, included cuts that were nowhere near as big hits as some left out of the volume. Accompanying each disc was an insert containing a couple of pages of liner notes (in this case written by Joseph F. Laredo), but never a proper discography of the contents.

Every now and then, however, you'd come across one that did indeed give you the best of the artist concerned, especially if there were just around a dozen hits to begin with. As is the case with Abba, the Swedish group that burst onto the North American scene in 1974 with Waterloo (billed to "Abba [Bjorn, Benny, Anna & Frida]" by the Atlantic label), a # 6 on the Billboard Pop Hot 100 that summer. By the time of their last hit here in 1983 (One Of Us), they had chalked up 21 hits in all, and here, with two exceptions, you get the best 11 (six of their hits never made it into the Hot 100 Top 50).

One of the exceptions is Honey, Honey, their second North American hit, which scored at # 27 on both the Adult Contemporary (AC) and Hot 100 in the fall of 1974, while the other is Does Your Mother Know, a # 19 Hot 100/# 41 AC in June 1979. Either one of those as a 12th track (thereby becoming consistent with many of the others in the series containing an even dozen), would have been appreciated.

The # 1 hits here are: Dancing Queen (# 1 Hot 100/# 6 AC in late 1976/early 1977); Fernando (# 1 AC/# 13 Hot 100 in the fall of 1976); and The Winner Takes It All (# 1 AC/# 8 Hot 100 in late 1980). As for the remainder, Take A Chance on Me finished at # 3 Hot 100/# 9 AC in May/June 1978, Knowing Me, Knowing You at # 7 AC/# 14 Hot 100 in June 1977, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do ended up at # 8 AC/# 15 Hot 100 in spring 1976, SOS peaked at # 15 Hot 100/# 19 AC in late 1975, Mamma Mia topped out at # 12 AC/# 32 Hot 100 in summer 1976, and Chiquitita scored at # 15 AC/# 29 Hot 100 in late 1979/early 1980.

An oddity is that SOS is the only charted hit where both the song title and the artist are palindromes (even taking into account the reverse "B" which, by the way, only appeared with the release of their 8th hit here, Knowing Me, Knowing You, and remained thereafter).

Like just about all in the series, they have long since been eclipsed by volumes produced in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe which not only contain upwards of 30 tracks, but also copious liner notes and complete contents discographies and even sessionographies in many cases. And for not all that much more than you were expected to pay for these when they first emerged.

SOS and the rare Dancing Queen are worth purchasing this disc for alone, Swedish disco music.