Gold: Greatest Hits

ABBA | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 21, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Polydor
• ASIN: B000001DZO
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (538 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #638 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #1 in Music > Pop > Dance Pop > Euro Dance
  • #1 in Music > Pop > Euro Pop > Swedish Pop
  • #1 in Music > Pop > Euro Pop > General

Track Listings

1. Dancing Queen

2. Knowing Me, Knowing You

3. Take A Chance On Me

4. Mamma Mia

5. Lay All Your Love On Me

6. Super Trouper

7. I Have A Dream

8. The Winner Takes It All

9. Money, Money, Money

10. S.O.S.

11. Chiquitita

12. Fernando

13. Voulez Vous

14. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)

15. Does Your Mother Know

16. One Of Us

17. The Name Of The Game

18. Thank You For The Music

19. Waterloo

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Anyone looking for the key to Abba's enduring appeal should look no further than "Voulez Vous" and "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" for their answer. There was an innocence to the Swedish quartet, even when they were singing about one-night stands and the invitations to them. Gold establishes that the band, while appreciated as campy, were actually multifaceted in their execution. "S.O.S." has a raw urgency in its chorus, and "Does Your Mother Know" draws its energy from classic '50s rock & roll. Likewise, you don't have to be Priscilla to swoon over "Mamma Mia" or "Dancing Queen." And when it comes to drama, those soaring vocals on "The Winner Takes It All" turn the song into a bitter anthem of every relationship that has ever fallen apart. The much-covered "Lay All Your Love on Me" is practically epic. --Steve Gdula

Product Description

Sweden's biggest musical export! Included are a full 19 digitally remastered hits, most notably Dancing Queen; Take a Chance on Me; The Winner Takes It All; Waterloo; Fernando , and The Name of the Game . 76 minutes of AM bliss.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

155 of 169 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Songs You Didnt Know You Liked...The ABBA Enigma August 3, 2000

By Ted Ficklen

Format:Audio CD

I was in high school when most of ABBA's work was originally released. At that time, no one considered cool would have admitted to enjoying stuff like this. All the cool people I knew were listening to Lynyrd Skynrd and Bachman Turner Overdrive. Now, all these years later, it is at last safe for me to admit I love these songs.

There is a whole new generation of kids listening (or perhaps pretending not to listen) to ABBA's music as interpreted by the new Swedish group, the A-Teens. I must say, I'll have to stick with these originals. If you think you need only one silly seventies pop-dance album, this may be the one for you.

Most of ABBA's songs are syrupy sweet with a dance-able swaying thump in the background, ala Dancing Queen, Fernando, Knowing Me, Knowing You. I love them all. I can never quite decide whether these are smirky camp or absolutely serious, but perhaps that is part of the appeal. The enigma of ABBA.

What surprised me, revisiting some of the early songs, like SOS and Waterloo, is the almost rock and roll feel. The beat is harder and faster before the group went completely disco.

Still, I think if ABBA has a live-forever pop classic, it has to be Dancing Queen, which has pride of place here as the first track. This really sums up everything you need to know about Pop.

63 of 69 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Pop October 16, 2002

By Lonnie E. Holder HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

It would be easy for me to give any Abba CD less than 5 stars, if you consider their music in comparison to all rock music. However, if you consider their music in comparison to all pop, the rating must be different. Abba didn't create good pop, they created excellent pop. Bennie and Bjorn could churn out one catchy tune after another, and Agnetha and Frida could sing in harmony well enough that those of us that watched them on tv fell in love instantly and became immediate Abba fans.

This CD collects the majority of Abba's biggest hits, though they may have been hits in Germany or England or the United States. I know that when I bought this CD (which I purchased after "More Abba Gold" - which I'll talk about momentarily) I recognized nearly every song, which says that most of them did get good airplay.

Most of these songs are classic 70s pop songs, with very little if any disco influence. And while most of the songs are catchy and do little to press the boundaries of rock music, there are a few songs that transcend the genre. Most particularly "Lay All Your Love On Me", "I Have a Dream", "Fernando", "One of Us", and "Thank You for the Music", which in hindsight is the group's goodbye and thank you to fans.

I enjoy Abba's music. It's generally easy on the ears, you can sing or hum it, and pretty darn well written. However, Abba is much more than the music on this CD. If you like this CD you may want to try "More Abba Gold", which has miscellaneous hits of somewhat lower stature (less sales) than those on this CD. While the "More Abba Gold" CD songs sold less than these, I think the music is more complex in some cases, and often shows that Abba was more than just catchy tunes. One step further would be to buy the albums and catch Abba as they were originally released and appreciated by those of us who bought their albums.

Yes, it's a bit of nostalgia from the 70s and early 80s. It's music we heard so often on the radio, and perhaps even more often on our record players (that thing that plays those round black plastic thingies with the grooves on each side). It's takes us back to a fun time when maybe life was just a little less complicated. And yes, it's very listenable and among the best of pop music...go have fun listening...

129 of 150 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Re-Mix, not Greatest Hits December 1, 2003

By No Name

Format:Audio CD

I recently bought the ABBA Gold Greatest Hits CD and something just doesn't sound right! I have the original recordings on LP and 45, so I have a reference other than memory. Someone has done some serious re-mixing on this compilation. It almost sounds like they are singing in a living room with overstuffed chairs. The rhythm track sounds like someone beating on a plastic garbage can with a broom. The originals had heavy compression on the vocals and lush reverb which was an integral part of the ABBA sound. It sounds like in this version they are using some sort of noise gate on the vocals, because they tend to unnaturally disappear between syllables. I was amazed that of all the 173+ reviews only one shared my disappointment with this compilation from a technical standpont. I certainly agree with that review. that "the new (1993) version is extremely boring and in no way reproduces the musical excitement of the real ABBA from the 70s and 80s." The recordings, as originally released, were masterpieces that did not need to be "improved upon".The A-Teens recordings sound closer to the originals in terms of production technique than this collection does.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ONE YEAR LATER, November 26, 2004..... I wrote my original review of ABBA Gold back on December 2, 2003, and my opinion of it has not changed. It does not sound like the original ABBA recordings, even though Michael Tretow, the original recording engineer produced this CD. I have gained some insight into the magic Michael Tretow put into the original mixes. I recently purchased The Winner Takes it All (The ABBA Story) DVD. Michael talks about doubling up the instruments and the vocals to make the recordings sound bigger than life. The doubled instruments and voices were also changed in pitch slightly to enhance the sound. If you listen closely to the original ABBA vinyl recordings, you can hear this chorusing effect. The sound is sort of like a choir of angels singing along with the 4 ABBA vocalists. This effect is lacking on the ABBA Gold CD, where the vocals tend to get lost in the mix, particularly low listening levels. It has nothing to do with some special ethereal quality of phonograph records versus compact discs. ABBA Gold is a re-mix. It is nearly impossible to duplicate all of the aspects of the original mix, a decade and a half later. I wonder if the original 2-track mix tapes that were sent to the record pressing plant are still in a vault somewhere. It would be wonderful if they could be put on CD. You think ABBA Gold is good? The original mix on CD would blow you away!