Their hooks just keep on coming
ABBA has more songs to discover than 'Dancing Queen'
Everyone from free-spirited grannies to bookish bar mitzvah boys can gleefully recite the words to "Dancing Queen" and "Does Your Mother Know." These deliciously exuberant ABBA hits have embedded themselves into American culture the same way that unpronounceable bric-a-brac from IKEA fills college dorm rooms every fall. Now that "Mamma Mia!" has made the jump from stage to cineplex, these insidiously catchy songs are once again on the lips of fans.
But there is more to ABBA than "Waterloo" and a pair of failed marriages. From 1972 to 1982, the band released nine albums of cotton-candied pop. Because ABBA was a singles band, many of the album tracks and B-sides were stomped into obscurity by other platform-boot-wearing global mega-hits.
However, if you left "Mamma Mia!" singing "S.O.S.," despite Pierce Brosnan's voice, it's worth seeking out these chestnuts from the super Swedes - as well as a few covers just as tasty as the originals.
ANOTHER TOWN, ANOTHER TRAIN
A melancholy track from the band's 1972 debut - and a rare instance of Benny and Bjorn on lead vocal.
LOVE ISN'T EASY
Another track from the debut, "Love Isn't Easy" is a chipper back-and-forth about the perils of romance.
DANCE (WHILE THE MUSIC STILL GOES ON)
This track from the "Waterloo" album liberally borrows from Phil Spector's famed wall-of-sound girl group productions.
THAT'S ME
The B-side of "Dancing Queen," this dreamy disco number is notable for its slightly racy lyrics. Well, racy for ABBA, at least in such lines as "I'm clearly not the kind of girl you marry."
ANGEL EYES
The band at its addictive best. This soaring, operatic, and corny song was released as a double A-side with "Voulez-Vous," but was promptly ignored.
LOVELIGHT
This exercise in stacking harmonies to dangerous heights appeared as the B-side to the "Chiquitita" single, but is far superior to the syrupy flipside.
I AM THE CITY
ABBA goes new wave. A song intended for a planned (but never released) 10th album, it finally showed up in the 1990s on the "More ABBA Gold" collection.
TAKE A CHANCE ON ME (Erasure)
ABBA revivalism peaked in the 1990s with such films as "Muriel's Wedding" and "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," but it was the synthpop duo Erasure that truly added fuel to the fondue pot fire with its EP of covers dubbed "ABBA-esque." Shortly after its release, the ABBA cover band Bjorn Again countered with an "Erasure-ish" EP.
PEHLI PEHLI PREET (SUPER TROUPER) (Salma & Sabina)
In the early 1980s, a pair of Indian sisters recorded note-for-note remakes, but opted to sing the tunes in Hindi. The result? Songs that sound instantly familiar and beautifully exotic at the same time.
SOMETHING'S GOING ON (Frida)
Phil Collins can be blamed for a lot of the world's musical misery, but the diminutive Genesis drummer redeemed himself in the early 1980s when he helped launch ABBA vocalist Anni-Frid Lyngstad's short-lived international solo career with this accusatory tune wrapped in layers of tribal drums.
