ABBA: The Album

ABBA: The Album (also known as simply The Album) is the fifth studio album by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released in Scandinavia on 12 December 1977 through Polar Music, but due to the massive pre-orders the UK pressing plants were not able to press sufficient copies before Christmas 1977 and so it was not released in the UK until January 1978. The album was released in conjunction with ABBA: The Movie, with several of the songs featured in the film. Altogether the album contains nine songs.

This article is about the 1977 album. It is not to be confused with the 1975 album ABBA (album).

ABBA: The Album
Studio album by
ABBA
Released12 December 1977 (1977-12-12)
Recorded31 May – November 1977
StudioMarcus, Metronome and Glen Studios, Stockholm and Bohus Studio, Kungälv
Genre
Length40:01 (Polar LP 1977)
LabelPolar
Epic (UK)
Atlantic (US original release)
Producer
ABBA chronology
Arrival
(1976)		 ABBA: The Album
(1977)		 Voulez-Vous
(1979)
Original UK album cover
Singles from ABBA: The Album
  1. "The Name of the Game"
    Released: 17 October 1977
  2. "Take a Chance on Me"
    Released: January 1978
  3. "Eagle"/"Thank You for the Music"
    Released: May 1978
  4. "Move On"

The album contained two UK number-one singles, "Take a Chance on Me" and "The Name of the Game", as well as European hits "Eagle" and "Thank You for the Music".[4]

Background and production

The album includes three songs from ABBA's 1977 tour mini-musical The Girl with the Golden Hair performed during each of their European and Australian shows in 1977. Andersson and Ulvaeus wanted to offer more than "a run through of their hits and assorted album tracks" for their concerts.[5] Although the songs received a "less-than-tumultuous" reception during the first performances of the mini-musical, three of the tracks ("Thank You for the Music", "I Wonder (Departure)" and "I'm a Marionette") were included on the new album. A fourth song written for the musical, "Get on the Carousel", was rewritten as the up-tempo track "Hole in Your Soul" with "a substantial part of the melody [being] incorporated into [its] middle eight". Parts of "Get on the Carousel" appeared in ABBA: The Movie.[6] The "25-minute opus" had storyline about a talented "small-town girl leaving her hometown" on her "quest for stardom",[5] with each song representing a different part of her personality. Fältskog and Lyngstad shared the lead-role and wore matching blonde wigs and costumes "for optimum dramatic effect".[6]

ABBA: The Album was first released on CD in 1984. The album has been reissued in the format by PolyGram (later Universal Music) four times; first in 1997, then in 2001, in 2005 as part of The Complete Studio Recordings box set and again in 2007 as a two disc 'Deluxe Edition'.

On 3 November 2017, the album was released as a double vinyl mastered at Abbey Road Studios using half speed mastering.

Cover artwork

Polar's official cover made by art director Rune Söderqvist featured an entirely white background, and is the basis for current CD versions. However, Epic Records' original UK release of the LP featured a blue background on the front cover, fading to white at the bottom. It also featured a gatefold sleeve. The back cover was altered, incorporating a similar photo of ABBA to that used elsewhere in the world for the inner sleeve, and referencing tracks included in ABBA: The Movie. The inner gatefold was designed to look like an air mail envelope, similar to the style later used for Gracias Por La Música and even had a photo of ABBA incorporated into a stamp in the corner.

This was the first and only time that Epic radically broke away from the standard Polar Music design for an ABBA album. The UK design for ABBA: The Album has only been re-issued on LP format once, in the 2008 European reissue.[7]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[9]
NME7/10[1]
Rolling Stonefavorable[10]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[11]

The Album received positive reviews from music critics. Bruce Eder from AllMusic website gave the album four out of five stars and wrote that the album marked a "step forward for the group" since they "absorb and assimilate some of the influences around them, particularly the laid-back California sound of Fleetwood Mac (...) as well as some of the attributes of progressive rock" but "without compromising their essential virtues as a pop ensemble".[8] John Rockwell from the Rolling Stone magazine, gave the album a favorable review and wrote that The Album represents an interesting departure from their past formulas like "innocently superficial lyrics, bouncy Europop music, rock energy and amplification, soaring melodies" to a more mature and intelligent record.[10] NME wrote a short review to the album when it turned 30 years old, and wrote that the album "still sounds pleasantly nostalgic" and had "some delicious pop nuggets from their Swedish hatch".[1]

Commercial performance

ABBA: The Album reached No. 1 in many territories. In the UK it debuted at the top and remained there for seven weeks,[12] ending up as the third biggest selling album of the year (behind the movie soundtrack LPs of Saturday Night Fever and Grease). In the US it became their highest charting album during their original run, where during 1978 ABBA undertook a big promotional campaign.[4] Due to the Cold War, Western music was actively discouraged throughout Eastern Europe at the time. Despite this, ABBA: The Album sold an unprecedented one million copies in Poland in 1977, exhausting the country's entire allocation of foreign currency. In Russia, only 200,000 copies were permitted to be pressed.[13]

Track listing

All tracks written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus except where noted.[14]

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Eagle" 5:51
2."Take a Chance on Me" 4:05
3."One Man, One Woman" 4:25
4."The Name of the Game"
4:54
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Move On"
  • Andersson
  • Anderson
  • Ulvaeus
4:42
2."Hole in Your Soul" 3:41
The Girl with the Golden Hair: Three Scenes from a Mini-Musical
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
3."Thank You for the Music" 3:48
4."I Wonder (Departure)"
  • Andersson
  • Anderson
  • Ulvaeus
4:33
5."I'm a Marionette" 3:54
Total length:40:01
CD edition
No.TitleLength
1."Eagle"5:50
2."Take a Chance on Me"4:07
3."One Man, One Woman"4:34
4."The Name of the Game"4:54
5."Move On"4:43
6."Hole in Your Soul"3:41
7."Thank You for the Music"3:50
8."I Wonder (Departure)"4:34
9."I'm a Marionette"4:09
Total length:40:22
2001 CD edition bonus track
No.TitleLength
10."Thank You for the Music" (Doris Day version)4:03
The Complete Studio Recordings bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
10."Al Andar" (Spanish version of "Move On")
  • Andersson
  • Anderson
  • Ulvaeus
  • Buddy McCluskey
  • Mary McCluskey
4:43
11."Gracias por la música" (Spanish version of "Thank You for the Music")
  • Andersson
  • Ulvaeus
  • B. McCluskey
  • M. McCluskey
3:49
2007 deluxe edition (The Watershed Album) bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
10."Eagle" (single edit) 4:25
11."Take a Chance on Me" (live version; alternate mix) 4:25
12."Thank You for the Music" (Doris Day version) 4:03
13."Al Andar" (Spanish version of "Move On")
  • Andersson
  • Anderson
  • Ulvaeus
  • B. McCluskey
  • M. McCluskey
4:43
14."I Wonder (Departure)" (live version)
  • Andersson
  • Anderson
  • Ulvaeus
4:27
15."Gracias por la música" (Spanish version of "Thank You for the Music")
  • Andersson
  • Ulvaeus
  • B. McCluskey
  • M. McCluskey
3:49
2007 deluxe edition DVD
No.TitleLength
1."Eagle"/"Thank You for the Music" (Star Parade, ZDF) 
2."Take a Chance on Me" (Am Laufenden Band, Radio Bremen) 
3."The Name of the Game" (ABBA Special, TBS) 
4."Thank You for the Music" (Mike Yarwood's Christmas Show, BBC) 
5."Take a Chance on Me" (Star Parade, ZDF) 
6."ABBA on Tour in 1977" (Rapport, SVT) 
7."Recording ABBA – The Album" (Gomorron Sverige, SVT) 
8."ABBA in London, February 1978" (Blue Peter, BBC) 
9."ABBA in America, May 1978" (Rapport, SVT) 
10."ABBA – The Album Television Commercial I" (UK) 
11."ABBA – The Album Television Commercial II" (Australia) 
12."International sleeve gallery" 

Personnel

Cited from liner notes.[15]

ABBA

Additional musicians

  • Lasse Wellander – lead guitar (except “Eagle”), acoustic and electric rhythm guitars
  • Janne Schaffer – lead guitar on "Eagle"
  • Rutger Gunnarsson – bass, string arrangements
  • Ola Brunkert – drums (except “Take A Chance on Me,” “One Man, One Woman,”, and “Thank You For The Music”)
  • Roger Palm – drums (on "Take a Chance on Me",[16] "One Man, One Woman", and "Thank You for the Music")
  • Lars O. Carlsson – flute, saxophone
  • Malando Gassama – percussion

Production

  • Benny Andersson – producer, arranger
  • Björn Ulvaeus – producer, arranger
  • Michael B. Tretow – engineer
  • Rune Söderqvist – design
  • Barry Levine – photography
  • Björn Andersson – illustrations
  • Rune Söderqvist – illustrations
  • Jon Astley – remastering (1997 re-issue, 2001 re-issue)
  • Tim Young – remastering (1997 re-issue)
  • Michael B. Tretow – remastering (1997 re-issue, 2001 re-issue)
  • Henrik Jonsson – remastering (The Complete Studio Recordings box set)

Charts

Certifications and sales
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[38] Platinum 50,000^
Canada (Music Canada)[39] 2× Platinum 200,000^
Czechoslovakia — 100,000[40]
Denmark — 225,000[41]
Finland (Musiikkituottajat)[42] Platinum 57,618[42]
France — 150,000[43]
Germany (BVMI)[44] Platinum 500,000^
Hong Kong (IFPI Hong Kong)[45] Platinum 20,000*
Japan — 300,000[46]
Netherlands (NVPI)[47] Platinum 100,000^
Norway — 200,840[48]
Sweden — 753,420[49]
United Kingdom (BPI)[50] Platinum 1,000,000[51]
United States (RIAA)[52] Platinum 1,300,000[53]

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References
  1. "NME Album Reviews – Abba". NME. UK. 23 November 2007. Retrieved 19 November 2011.
  2. Sheffield, Rob (11 August 2018). "The 25 Best ABBA Songs, Ranked". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  3. Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). Spin Alternative Record Guide. New York: Vintage Books. p. 4. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  4. Rees, Dafydd; Crampton, Luke (1991). Guinness Book of Rock Stars. Enfield: Guinness Publishing Ltd. p. 1. ISBN 0-85112-971-4.
  5. Palm, Carl Magnus (1 September 2008). Bright Lights Dark Shadows: The Real Story of Abba. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9781847724199.
  6. Tesch, Christopher Patrick (2008). ABBA : let the music speak : an armchair guide to the musical soundscape of the Swedish supergroup (1st ed.). Fairfield Gardens, Qld.: Christopher J N Patrick. pp. 43–45. ISBN 9780646496764.
  7. "ABBA – The Album (2008, 180g, Gatefold,, Vinyl)". Discogs.com. Retrieved 20 December 2021.
  8. Eder, Bruce. "The Album - ABBA | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  9. Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th Concise ed.). United Kingdom: Omnibus Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-84609-856-7.
  10. Rockwell, John (23 March 1978). "ABBA: The Album : Music Reviews". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 19 November 2011.
  11. Cross, Charles R. (2004). "ABBA". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 1. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  12. "Official Charts Company". www.officialcharts.com. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  13. Oldham, A, Calder, T & Irvin, C: "ABBA: The Name of the Game", page 201. Sidgwick & Jackson, 1995
  14. "Album the-album « ABBA – The Album | Albums | ABBA". Archived from the original on 21 May 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
  15. ABBA: The Album (booklet). ABBA. New York: Atlantic Records. 1977.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
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  17. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970-1992. St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 10. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
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