ABBA - Early years

By the early 1970s although Björn and Agnetha were married they pursued their own separate musical careers. However Stig was ambitious and determined to break into the mainstream international market, not something that Swedish acts were usually known for, though previously achieved by Swedish instrumental guitar group The Spotnicks (their best known hit was "Orange Blossom Special"). As a result he encouraged Björn and Benny to write a song for the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest and it was performed by Lena Anderson. "Say It With a Song" won third in the contest selection rounds but was a huge hit in several countries, convin ...

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ABBA, ABBA - Before ABBA, ABBA - Early years, ABBA - Eurovision and after, ABBA - Later years, ABBA - Fashion and videos, ABBA - After ABBA, ABBA - ABBA trivia

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ABBA (1972–1983) was a Swedish pop music group. They remain the most successful Swedish music act and were one of the most popular groups in the world. The group dominated charts worldwide during the mid-to-late 1970s and early 1980s, selling many hit singles and albums. Estimates of ABBA's total worldwide sales vary from 100 to 500 million (there seems to be no reliable source for this information) which could make them the second most successful band of all time after The Beatles. They were the first act from the European mainland ...

Including:

• ABBA - Before ABBA
• ABBA - Early years
• ABBA - Eurovision and after
• ABBA - Later years
• ABBA - Fashion and videos
• ABBA - After ABBA
• ABBA - ABBA trivia

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Andersson was a member of the Swedish rock/pop band Hep Stars who were very popular in Sweden during the 1960s. The band was modeled after various US and UK groups such as Herman's Hermits, The Who and The Rolling Stones. The Hep Stars had a huge following, especially among teenage girls. Meanwhile Björn Ulvaeus was fronting a skiffle group called the Hootenanny Singers whose sound was softer and more easy-listening than the Hep Stars. The singers crossed paths sometimes and they decided to write songs together. One of these, "Isn't It Easy ...

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ABBA, ABBA - Before ABBA, ABBA - Early years, ABBA - Eurovision and after, ABBA - Later years, ABBA - Fashion and videos, ABBA - After ABBA, ABBA - ABBA trivia

Read more here: » ABBA: Encyclopedia II - ABBA - Before ABBA

Björn and Benny wrote the music for the West End show Chess (1984) with lyricist Tim Rice. Chess ran for three years in London. The show also opened on Broadway in the US (1988) but the song order, lyrics and storyline had been tampered with and the show closed within weeks. Björn and Benny, inspired by the successes of Rice and his former collaborator Andrew Lloyd-Webber, had long expressed their desire to write a musical. Their first attempt had been a "mini-musical", The Girl with The Golden Hair, performed b ...

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ABBA, ABBA - Before ABBA, ABBA - Early years, ABBA - Eurovision and after, ABBA - Later years, ABBA - Fashion and videos, ABBA - After ABBA, ABBA - ABBA trivia

Read more here: » ABBA: Encyclopedia II - ABBA - After ABBA

ABBA was widely noted as an epitome of 1970s fashion for the colourful costumes its members wore. The videos which accompanied some of their biggest hits are often cited as being among the earliest examples of the genre. Though The Beatles and the Rolling Stones had shot the occasional video clip, making promotional videos still hadn't become the industry standard by the early-to-mid 1970s. Most of ABBA's videos (and ABBA - The Movie) were directed by Lasse Hallström who would later direct the films My Life as a Dog, The ...

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ABBA, ABBA - Before ABBA, ABBA - Early years, ABBA - Eurovision and after, ABBA - Later years, ABBA - Fashion and videos, ABBA - After ABBA, ABBA - ABBA trivia

Read more here: » ABBA: Encyclopedia II - ABBA - Fashion and videos

They tried Eurovision again in 1974, now inspired by the growing glam rock scene in the UK and tracks like Wizzard's "See My Baby Jive". "Waterloo" was an unashamedly glam-style pop track produced with Michael B. Tretow's wall of sound approach. Now far more experienced, they were better prepared for the contest and had an album's worth of material released when the show was held in Brighton, England. The song won hands down and catapulted them into British consciousness for the first time. Now they had a catchy name, ABBA, and people could buy the ...

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ABBA, ABBA - Before ABBA, ABBA - Early years, ABBA - Eurovision and after, ABBA - Later years, ABBA - Fashion and videos, ABBA - After ABBA, ABBA - ABBA trivia

Read more here: » ABBA: Encyclopedia II - ABBA - Eurovision and after

By 1978 ABBA was a megagroup. They converted a disused cinema into the Polar Music Studio, a new state-of-the-art studio in Stockholm which was used by several other successful bands (Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door was recorded there, for example). Their standalone single "Summer Night City", their last Swedish number one, stopped just short of topping the UK charts but set the stage for ABBA's foray into disco with the album Voulez-Vous, which was released in Spring 1979. This release marked a slight decline in ...

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ABBA, ABBA - Before ABBA, ABBA - Early years, ABBA - Eurovision and after, ABBA - Later years, ABBA - Fashion and videos, ABBA - After ABBA, ABBA - ABBA trivia

Read more here: » ABBA: Encyclopedia II - ABBA - Later years