Moopy's Top 50 ABBA Songs - FULL RESULTS ON PAGE 14

I’m developing a terrible fear that Andante, Andante may not have made the Top 50. Don’t let me down, Moopy.
 
dmlaw said:
I’m developing a terrible fear that Andante, Andante may not have made the Top 50. Don’t let me down, Moopy.
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My best mate is obsessed with it. She knows her Abba, but this was pure Mamma Mia effect.
 
15. One Of Us
Single from The Visitors
Released: 1981
Score: 8.77

ABBA's final (for a while) top ten single in the UK was the obvious lead single from The Visitors. With its theme of relationships breaking down, it was like a continuation of the previous albums, but with its production firmly planted in the 80s, it felt like a development. There's a mish-mash of influences here, with the staccato verses almost being over a cod reggae backing, and the much slower choruses having an Italian feel. The track was originally called Mi Amore, so that's clearly the vibe they were going for with this. Also, while it became rarer for Bjorn to actually play on the tracks as ABBA's career went on, he does feature here as part of "The Three Boys" mandolin ensemble along with Lasse Wallander and Rutger Gunnarsson, two of the group's regular session musicians.

It was one last hurrah for the group as far as chart success was concerned, and the closest they ever got to a Christmas number one (longstanding speculation has been that had there been a chart produced over Christmas week, One Of Us would have topped it), but when lined up next to most of the other ABBA Gold tracks it seems to be slightly less remembered - you can totally see it being left off the ABBA Voyage setlist for instance. Perhaps there's only room for a finite amount of heartbreak tracks in the wider public's ABBA consciousness. It's fairly clear that those who do know it remember it pretty fondly, and it finishes here ahead of quite a few much bigger hits.

Highest scores: @Lockhart (10), @Ag (10), @Marilyn (10), @Christian (10), @BoysForSeles (10), @Tisch (10), @Ill Advised (10), @VoR (10), @Suomi (10)
Lowest scores: @ZenGiraffe (1)

 
I'm loath to pick on one person too much, but I have to say, coming next is a @ZenGiraffe score I find rather curious, so you might have to explain this one to the class as well.
 
14. Summer Night City
"Buzz single"
Released: 1978
Score: 8.93

Another slight anomaly in the back catalogue here in the shape of a proper hit (although it could be argued that "only" reaching #5 was a disappointment at this stage in their careers) that's nowhere near as well-remembered as it should be, partly because it didn't make the cut for ABBA Gold and was also a last-minute cut from Mamma Mia! but also never featured on an album in the first place. As a result, once the single stocks had gone, it wasn't until the 90s and the release of More Gold this was even readily available again. The sad truth is that the group was never really a fan of the song. They've always found it a bit disjointed and the recording itself was very problematic, with mix after mix created to try and get it to their satisfaction to no avail, with its single release ultimately occurring because they had to release something and it was all they had. By the time the Voulez-Vous album was completed, they were well over Summer Night City and left it off the tracklist.

While I can kind of hear that there's something a bit less slick about it than other Voulez-Vous-era tracks, it really feels like the group is being very very 'arsh on themselves with this one, as it's prime gay-drama-as-ABBA-hit-the-dancefloor fodder and has aged remarkably well. What makes it even more of a fan favourite is the extended ballad intro that serves to emphasise the drama even more, but was cut from the track in a last ditch attempt to make it work as a single. It was thankfully reinstated as part of the phenomenal live version, and who knows, maybe the track is about to get a long overdue rehabilitation as part of the ABBA Voyage project. Watch this space.

Highest scores: @Pingu (10), @Devil (10), @Sheena (10), @Lockhart (10), @Ag (10), @HerSereneHighnessAnniFrid (10), @Christian (10), @BoysForSeles (10), @Penelope (10), @Hak (10)
Lowest scores: @ZenGiraffe (4), @dUb (5)

 
Pingu said:
I'm loath to pick on one person too much, but I have to say, coming next is a @ZenGiraffe score I find rather curious, so you might have to explain this one to the class as well.
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Did you expect me to score it higher? BLAME THE RECAP.

Having listened to more of it just there, it's actually not too bad, but the title lyric bit is easily the worst part of the song, hence it's lowish score
 
ZenGiraffe said:
Did you expect me to score it higher? BLAME THE RECAP.

Having listened to more of it just there, it's actually not too bad, but the title lyric bit is easily the worst part of the song, hence it's lowish score
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You know songs have other parts?
 
ZenGiraffe said:
Did you expect me to score it higher? BLAME THE RECAP.

Having listened to more of it just there, it's actually not too bad, but the title lyric bit is easily the worst part of the song, hence it's lowish score
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I wasn't at all surprised at your scores for some of the older songs or the ballads or a couple that I know you're fairly lukewarm towards, but this one seemed a little bit out of character.

Oh also I knew you were doing the Rita trademarked recap voting method but I figured this would have been one you'd know as a whole song already.
 
Pingu said:
I wasn't at all surprised at your scores for some of the older songs or the ballads or a couple that I know you're fairly lukewarm towards, but this one seemed a little bit out of character.
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Yeah, I'd revise it to an 8 having now heard the verse and pre-chrous would you call it?
 
Summer Night City was scoring VERY well in the early stages of the voting and for a while it looked like it would be a surprise top five, but the scores mellowed slightly as the process went on sadly.
 
Ag said:
There was a recap?
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Certainly NOT an official Pingu-endorsed one, but people voted how they wanted to vote, and at the end of the day the important factor was how each individual scored the songs relative to one other, not relative to the other voters, so I let it happen.
 
I don't think releasing Summer Night City until autumn helped it really.

It's not true to say that after single stocks ran out it wasn't readily available until More Gold though, as it was on GHV2 released about a year later and then The Singles: The First Ten Years in 1982.
 
lolly said:
I don't think releasing Summer Night City until autumn helped it really.

It's not true to say that after single stocks ran out it wasn't readily available until More Gold though, as it was on GHV2 released about a year later and then The Singles: The First Ten Years in 1982.
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I couldn't have bought either of those from Our Price.
 
I still don't own The First 10 Years.

I found a shitty CD copy of it once, which I rejected and have never seen it since.
 
lolly said:
I don't think releasing Summer Night City until autumn helped it really.

It's not true to say that after single stocks ran out it wasn't readily available until More Gold though, as it was on GHV2 released about a year later and then The Singles: The First Ten Years in 1982.
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My bad, sorry! I think I might have been confusing it with the extended version which hadn't been officially available anywhere until the 90s.
 
GHV2 was the first Abba CD I bought, although as a Nice Price release, a few months before Gold was released.
 
Ag said:
I mean neither were available in the late 80s/ early 90s. But I see both your points.
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GHV2 and The Singles were both released on CD in the UK in the late 80s/early 90s. GHV1 wasn't however, until the 30th (I think) anniversary.
 
OT: I cannot work out for the life of me which was the first ABBA song I knew. I knew Super Trouper very early as I could play it on my keyboard and had it on a compilation tape.

SOS was ultra familiar too, due to Edelweiss and my Dad had the GH which was an early favourite. But as a child I only got into the quite childish stuff like Nina and Another Train.

And then of course Take A Chance On Me, when Esque was released.

Abba Gold was bought for me with my first CD player, so naturally was overplayed and I became familiar with the big 19 very quickly. I had all the albums within 8 months.
 
One of us is about 13 places too low.

Summer night city i can take or leave.
 
And SNC was also on The Hits 2 released in 1988, and Absolute Abba released the same year.
 
Also my personal theory is that Kelis - In Public is set within the Summer Night City cinematic universe
 
13. Super Trouper
Single from Super Trouper
Released: 1980
Score: 8.95

The title track to ABBA's Super Trouper album was a last-minute addition, and was one of the few songs in the group's history actually written in the recording studio. With the backing track complete and the album just having been christened, it was decided that this should be the title track, although Bjorn struggled for a while to come up with a set of lyrics "about some damned spotlight." However, the same man who write a full-length musical about a potato while mixing one of ABBA's albums was not about to shy away from a challenge, and the song was unlocked when he thought about the joy he got when his new Mrs came out to visit him while he was touring with the group, and decided to write it from the point of view of the performer in the spotlight.

I mean, like many of ABBA's post-divorce songs, it does feel slightly cruel when spelt out like that, but the song itself is such a wonderfully warm composition, and like much of the accompanying album, it feels like the group moving into new territory. Like their earlier material, it's still incredibly catchy, faultless pop, but there's something that little bit more mature about it, certainly helped by Frida's gentle vocal delivery. It was the group's final UK number one, and as the Official Charts Company revealed last year, is actually their 2nd biggest selling single ever behind Dancing Queen.

Highest scores: @dmlaw (11)
Lowest scores: @Suomi (5), @dUb (5)

 
One slightly surprising element of ABBA's music is that they aren't big on middle-eights. The vast majority of their songs either go for a 3rd verse or just straight into another chorus. Super Trouper is a rare exception and as middle-eights go it's an absolute corker.
 
SNC has a lot of cinematic tension to it. When I listen to it, I imagine Frida’s having a sexy and edgy night out with a gang of Hot Goys enjoying the palpable danger. Conversely, renowned worrywort homebody Agnetha Fältskog is being all vocally sad wandering around beaches and parks trying not to get involved and reminding Frida what time the last bus is.
 
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