ABBA - Gold: Greatest Hits

ABBA

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 21, 1993)
• Original Release Date: August 9, 1993
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Polydor / Umgd
• ASIN: B000001DZO
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (360 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #106 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #1 in	Music > Dance & Electronic > Disco
  #1 in	Music > Pop > By Decade > 1970s
  #1 in	Music > Pop > Euro Pop > Swedish Pop

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

116 of 126 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 (Saint Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews

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.

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Pop, October 16, 2002

By	Lonnie E. Holder "The Review's the Thing" (Columbus, Indiana, United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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...

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ABBA Platinum, April 22, 2000

By	Michael Kyriagis (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

Gold is an impressive and valuable mineral. But the most impressive and enduring of all is platinum and for that reason alone, this album should be retitled for future editions.

It is almost superfluous trying to review a body of the "greatest" work from arguably the best pop-act the music world has ever known. How do you evaluate a collection of songs that has seeped into the consciousness of pretty much anyone who was around in the mid to late 70's and which continues to impress even the most cynical music listener today?

The best that you can do is merely to remember the exhiliration on first hearing the soaring strings and harmonies of "Dancing Queen" and not quite believing a song could sound so beautiful. Or to recall the moment you thought you might stop breathing as you listened to the aching resignation and almost gorgeous pain in "The Winner Takes it all". Or to decribe the marvel when you first recognised the maturity and balance contained in the mini-opus "The name of the game". Or maybe to smile at the day you knew you had died and gone to pop heaven whilst being serenaded with the delightful suggestiveness of "If you change your mind, I'm the first in line, Honey I'm still free, take a chance on me". And I could go on in similar vein with and each and every one of the remaining tracks.

"ABBA Gold" is a only a sample of music that has transcended time and genres and (now it can be said) generations. A souvenir if you like of the joy and fun and the sheer brilliance of being alive which was contained in just about all of ABBA's 3 to 4 minute pop gems.

Hyperbole and exaggeration? Maybe. But the fact remains that ABBA's music and genius continues to impress people and critics all over the world with its timeless simplicity and complexity, its technical brilliance and a mastery of that most essential element of all great songs - the "hook". Add to that the glorious sounds of Agnetha and Frida harmonising together (every time) and you know that ABBA will never be bettered.

The real point to buying this album is not to be reminded of the days when a pop song could be equally sublime and fun nor to confirm in one sitting that ABBA were (and are) the absolute masters of songwriting and singing the perfect tune. The real point of this collection should be to lead you to discover the wealth of treasures contained in ABBA's lesser known albums and album tracks.