I don’t think there are too many who haven’t heard of this musical quartet that burst out of Sweden 50 years ago.
If you weren’t familiar with them back then, you likely have heard their songs on the radio in years since or, very possibly, seen the production named Mamma Mia, which was created around their musical sound and came into being 25 years ago.
What’s become big nowadays are Tribute shows, created by current-day musical groups which sing the songs of famous pop musical artists who are now pretty much retired. Currently, there are at least two different performing groups presenting a tribute show featuring ABBA’s catalog of songs. I say at least two, as within the past year, I attended two different ABBA tribute performances performed by two different groups at two different theaters here in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where I now live.
The first one I really enjoyed, as they pretty much performed original ABBA arrangements, whereas the second show was by a group who felt they needed to create their own arrangements of ABBA’s songs. I should have surveyed some of my fellow concert attendees to see what the reaction was to this alternate styling . . . I likely would have gotten a segment of this sell-out audience who were happy hearing this different approach, but I feel that a greater percentage would have sided with me.
Here’s what I wrote on this page about ABBA and their music going back six years:
The year was 1972, the location was Sweden, and the group was made up of four individuals … Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, and Anni-Frida … hence the origin of the group name: the first letter of each of their names, ABBA!
In real life, the group consisted of two couples, Agnetha and Bjorn and Benny and Anni-Frida. Unfortunately, as ABBA’s worldwide popularity grew, the strain took a toll on their personal lives, and eventually, both marriages disintegrated. So, by their 10th anniversary of performing as a group, performances came to an end in the latter part of 1982.
What I personally find so unique about the music of ABBA is its nearly universal appeal across the generations, from the quite young through the Greatest Generation crowd, the category in which I find myself. And Mamma Mia! … the stage production created around the group’s music, which had its debut in London in 1999, has achieved the status of being one of the longest-running shows in the history of both London’s West End and Broadway.
Not nearly all of ABBA’s arrangements were suitable for inclusion in the Beautiful Music/Easy Listening format; however, there are four that would become staples: Fernando, Chiquitita, Thank You For the Music, and I Have A Dream.
Neither of the latter two gained much acclaim on the pop music charts here in the United States; however, for me and with the Beautiful Music/Easy Listening format audience … each was a giant hit.
In the big picture, Thank You For the Music is considered a farewell message from the ABBA foursome, as it came just prior to their final appearance together as a group. For me, just the title alone says what I feel and sense every day that I’m here on earth — as is evident from reading my memoir, my attachment and connection to music began at a very young age and continues to this day.
And, as I wrote in RADIO … My Love, My Passion about ABBA’s music:
However, the one that most captured our listeners’ interest is I Have A Dream. I don’t remember it as being a hit in the pop world, but it certainly was for us. Listeners would normally call their local station with their music questions. If those station folks could not come up with an answer, they’d often give out the 800 number for our Tenafly, New Jersey, headquarters. For this song, for some reason, listeners did not pick up on the title line; rather, they’d catch a line that repeated in the song several times, which is I believe in angels. This stumped the local air staff, so our receptionist Marge received numerous calls most every time it played on the stations. It became so frequent that, almost before the caller could utter I believe in angels, Marge would give them the song title, the artist and the record album name and number.
Some weeks back, I wrote about the James Last tune, which featured panpipest Zamfir, The Lonely Shepherd, and the number of telephone calls received from listeners to the dozens of radio stations across the nation that aired our programming inquiring about the recording. At this time, I cannot tell you which one logged the most calls, Lonely Shepherd or I Have A Dream … the totals were pretty close, and both greatly out-ranked anything else we ever played.“
To have your own CD, not just of these four superb ABBA tunes but to have all of their great songs at your fingertips, get a copy of this album!
