The Biography Channel - ABBA Biography

After ABBA triumphed at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, their brand of pop stormed the charts. The dancing queens split in 1983 and have so far resisted a billion-dollar offer to reform.

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ABBA

ABBA Biography
1972 – 1983

The Swedish pop music group formed in Stockholm in 1972. The band name was comprised of the first letters of the member’s names: Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid (better known as Frida).

Stig Anderson, manager of The Hootenay Singers and founder of Polar Music, had encouraged Bjorn and Benny to write a song for the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest. Their contribution was “Say It with a Song”, which was performed by Lena Anderson. It won third prize in the selection rounds and was a hit in several countries. Stig was onto something here.

A single they wrote, called “People Need Love”, featured backing vocals by Agnetha and Frida and brought them some success in Japan. Stig released it as single “Bjorn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid”. It reached number 17 in the Swedish charts. The seeds of ABBA had been sown.

A year later, the group entered the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, with the song “Ring Ring”, once again coming third. In the studio, producer Michael B. Tretow, had been experimenting with new production techniques, called ‘wall of sound’, which was to become the whole new ABBA sound. The proto-group, still clumsily called “Bjorn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid” released the album “Ring Ring” (1973), which did well, with the title single, a hit in many parts of Europe.

Stig was hungry to break into the UK and US markets. He was becoming tired of the lengthy band name, so using an acronym of the first letters of their names, started referring to the band as ABBA. It was actually a bit of a joke, as at the time, there was a fish-canning company in Sweden of the same name. Stig decided though, that as the fish-canners were unknown outside of Sweden, they would keep the short and far catchier name of ABBA. The band had to later negotiate with the fish-canners for the right to use the name.

On 6 April 1974, the group finally won the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton, hands down, with “Waterloo”. It was a glam-rock inspired song, once again produced by Michael B. Tretow, and put them firmly on the musical map. Britain was now fully aware of the distinctive ABBA group and “Waterloo” became ABBA’s first UK number one. It reached number six in the US.

It was with the release of their second album “ABBA” (1975) with the single “SOS”, a top ten hit, that they had truly made their presence felt in the UK. They were no longer considered ‘one-hit-wonders’. So pleased were they with their success, that ABBA released a “Greatest Hits” (1975) album, even although they had only had five Top 40 hits in the UK and US by that time. In January 1976, “Mamma Mia” made number one in the UK.

From 1976 onwards, the first ‘B’ in their logo version of the band name, was reversed on all their promotional material. The 1976 album “Arrival” not only showed a new height of achievement in terms of song writing and studio work, but produced three huge hits, “Money, Money, Money”, “Knowing Me, Knowing You”, and “Dancing Queen” (the latter arguably being both their most definitive and most enduring song).