ABBA

I was on the plane en route to Taiwan and waiting for my lunch when I came across a documentary ABBA: Against the Odds on Kris World.

It’s an examination of their years between 1974 with their winning song Waterloo at the Eurovision Song Contest and ending with their final album Super Trooper. It focused on their rise to fame despite the fact that many people initially put them down for being a cheesey pop band, especially in their own home country Sweden. Their various albums and tours were covered showcasing their successful Australia tours and the final Wembley stadium sold out concerts.

ABBA was a group comprising 2 sets of young talented couples very much in love who produced great songs for the world to enjoy. The music was amazing and the lyrics, especially those of their later songs were thought provoking reflecting on what was happening in their own lives during that period. The 2 female voices were beautiful.

It is also a study of how their marriages came apart as a result of the stresses of fame, success and traveling. Since their split neither the 2 guys as songwriters or the 2 girls as singers achieved the same or any level of success. The 2 guys wrote a musical called Chess. It had some good songs but it was totally confusing as a musical and it didn’t do well at all. I cannot recall anything else they have done.

Even now,  after all these years,  the songs sound great. Truly evergreen and they have stood the test of time.

I never had the opportunity to see them perform live since they had disbanded in 1980. Fortunately someone put together the musical Mamma Mia which features many of their songs. I have seen this musical a few times and have always enjoyed the live show. It was subsequently made into a movie. The  movie was also good though the singing in the movie could have been better.

I will always remember listening to ABBA songs in the car which were on a cassette tape when my father used to drive me back to my army camp on Sunday night in 1981. There were very few English songs my father knew and liked. ABBA was one of the very few.

Wonderful memories!