ABBA: The Album

ABBA: The Album
Studio album by ABBA
Released	December 12, 1977 (1977-12-12)
Recorded	May 31 – November 20, 1977 (1977-11-20) at Marcus, Metronome and Glen Studios, Stockholm and Bohus Studio, Kungalv
Genre	Pop, rock
Length	39:53 (Polar (LP 1977))
Label	Polar Atlantic (US original release)
Producer	Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus
ABBA chronology
Arrival (1976) ABBA: The Album (1977) Voulez-Vous (1979)
Original UK album cover

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
NME	[2]
Rolling Stone	(Favorable) [3]

ABBA: The Album is the fifth studio album by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released on 12 December 1977 through Polar Music.^{[citation needed]} The album was released in conjunction with ABBA: The Movie, with several of the songs featured in the film.

The album contained the singles "Take a Chance on Me", "The Name of the Game", "Eagle" and "Thank You for the Music" which has been called ABBA's "goodbye" song even though it was released five years before the band officially broke up. It also features the song "Hole In Your Soul", which was performed as the last song at many ABBA concerts, including their final 1979 tour, and two other songs, "One Man, One Woman" and "I'm a Marionette".

The album offers three songs from ABBA's mini-musical "The Girl With The Golden Hair". These songs are "Thank You for the Music", "I Wonder (Departure)" and "I'm a Marionette".

ABBA: The Album was first released on CD in 1984. The album has been reissued in digitally remastered form by PolyGram/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'.

The Cold War

Due to the Cold War, Western music was actively discouraged throughout Eastern Europe at the time. Despite this ABBA: The Album sold an unprecedented 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. However, demand within the USSR indicated they could have sold 40 million copies.^[4]

Cover artwork

Polar's official cover 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 CD format once, as part of a limited edition boxed set released by the Japanese arm of Universal Music in 2004.

Track listing (LP)

All songs written and composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. 

Side one
No.	Title	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.	Title	Length
1.	"Move On"	4:42
2.	"Hole in Your Soul"	3:41

The Girl with the Golden Hair: Three Scenes from a Mini-Musical
No.	Title	Length
3.	"Thank You for the Music"	3:48
4.	"I Wonder (Departure)"	4:33
5.	"I'm a Marionette"	3:54
Total length:		39:53

(P) 1977 Polar Music International AB, Stockholm, Sweden.

Stig Anderson helped us with the lyrics on "The Name of the Game", "Move On" and "I Wonder (Departure)".

CD re-issues, bonus tracks

The Album was remastered and reissued in 1997 with no bonus tracks.

The Album was remastered and reissued in 2001 with one bonus track:

10. "Thank You for the Music" (Doris Day version) (Andersson, Ulvaeus) – 4:03

The Album was remastered and reissued again in 2005 as part of the The Complete Studio Recordings box set with following bonus tracks:

10. "Al Andar" (Andersson, Anderson, Ulvaeus, Buddy McCluskey, Mary McCluskey) – 4:43
    • Spanish version of "Move On".
11. "Gracias Por La Música" (Andersson, Ulvaeus, B. McCluskey, M. McCluskey) – 3:49
    • Spanish version of "Thank You for the Music".

Tracks 10–11, vocals recorded January 1980. These two songs are from the album Gracias Por La Música (Septima SRLM 1, June 23, 1980).

The Album was reissued again in 2007 (October 15) as a 30th Anniversary of the original release, called the 'Deluxe Edition'. This features the same track listing as the 2005 release along with four additional tracks;

10. "Eagle" (Single edit) – 4:25
11. "Take a Chance on Me" (Live version; alternate mix) – 4:25
    • Originally released as B-side of 1979 single "I Have a Dream"
12. "Thank You for the Music" (Doris Day version) – 4:03
13. "Al Andar" – 4:43
14. "I Wonder (Departure)" (Live version) – 4:27
    • Originally released as B-side of 1977 single "The Name of the Game"
15. "Gracias Por La Música" – 3:49

The 'Deluxe Edition' reissue also came along with a bonus DVD with the following clips:

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

The Album was reissued once again in 2008 as part of the The Albums box set but without any bonus tracks.

Singles

1. "The Name of the Game"/"I Wonder" (live) (October 1977)
2. "Take a Chance on Me"/"I'm a Marionette" (January 1978)
3. "One Man, One Woman"/"Eagle" (Edited version) (1978) (Taiwan only)
4. "Eagle" (single edit)/"Thank You for the Music" (May 1978)
5. "Thank You for the Music" / "Eagle" (Edited Version) (1978 (Chile))
6. "Move On"/"Mamma Mia" (1978) (Chile)
7. "Thank You for the Music" / "Our Last Summer" (1983)

Personnel

• Benny Andersson – keyboards, vocals, backing vocals
• Agnetha Fältskog – vocals, backing vocals
• Anni-Frid Lyngstad – vocals, backing vocals
• Björn Ulvaeus – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals, backing vocals

Additional musicians

• Ola Brunkert – drums
• Lars O. Carlsson – flute, saxophone
• Malando Gassama – percussion
• Rutger Gunnarsson – bass
• Roger Palm – drums
• Janne Schaffer – lead guitar
• Lasse Wellander – lead guitar

Production

• Benny Andersson; Björn Ulvaeus  - producers, arrangers
• Michael B. Tretow – engineer
• Rutger Gunnarsson – string arrangements
• Rune Söderqvist – design
• Barry Levine – photography
• Björn Andersson; Rune Söderqvist – illustrations
• Jon Astley; Tim Young; Michael B. Tretow – remastering for the 1997 Remasters
• Jon Astley; Michael B. Tretow – remastering for the 2001 Remasters
• Henrik Jonsson – remastering for The Complete Studio Recordings box set

Charts

Album

Year	Country/Chart	Position
1978	UK/Albums Chart	1[5]
	USA/Billboard 200	14
	Canada/RPM Chart	8
	Canada/CRIA Chart	7
	New Zealand	1
	Belgium	1
	Finland	2
	Japan	9
	Switzerland	1
	The Netherlands	1
	Germany	2
	Zimbabwe	2
	Australia	4
	Austria	2 [6]
	Mexico/International Albums Chart	1
1977/1978	Norway	1 [7]
1978	Sweden	1 [8]

UK Chart Position by Week

According to The Official Charts Company, the album spent 39 consecutive weeks (and total weeks) in the Top 40 from 4 February 1978 to 21 October 1978. It was also the first Abba album to chart straight at Number One.

Weekly chart positions from 4 February 1978 to 21 October 1978. 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-2-2-2-3-5-5-5-6-5-5-4-5-2-4-5-7-6-9-14-14-15-18-22-27-20-20-20-20-24-38-36

For the first 14 weeks the album charted along with Greatest Hits and Arrival. All three were in the Top 15 at the start of March 1978.

Singles – UK

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1977	"The Name of the Game"	UK Singles Chart	1
1978	"Take a Chance on Me"		1

Singles – Norway

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1977	"The Name of the Game"	Norway's Singles Chart	3
1978	"Take a Chance on Me"		8

Singles – USA and Canada

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1977	"The Name of the Game"	Billboard Hot 100 – USA	12
1978		Billboard Adult Contemporary – USA	9
	"Take a Chance on Me"	Billboard Hot 100	3
		Adult Contemporary	9
1977	"The Name of the Game"	RPM Singles – Canada	14
		RPM Adult Contemporary – Canada	12
		CRIA Singles – Canada	15
		RPM Singles – Canada	3
		RPM Adult Contemporary – Canada	7
		CRIA Singles – Canada	7

References

1. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r37
2. ^ http://www.nme.com/reviews/abba/9281
3. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/abba/albums/album/189776/review/5947056/the_album
4. ^ Oldham, A, Calder, T & Irvin, C: "ABBA: The Name of the Game", page 201. Sidgwick & Jackson, 1995
5. ^ "Number 1 Albums – 1970s". The Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 9 February 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080209095720/http://www.theofficialcharts.com/all_the_no1_albums.php?show=3. Retrieved 24 June 2011. 
6. ^ "swedishcharts.com". http://swedishcharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=ABBA&titel=The+Album&cat=a. Retrieved 7 July 2009. 
7. ^ "swedishcharts.com". http://swedishcharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=ABBA&titel=The+Album&cat=a. Retrieved 7 July 2009. 
8. ^ "swedishcharts.com". http://swedishcharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=ABBA&titel=The+Album&cat=a. Retrieved 7 July 2009. 

Preceded by Rumours by Fleetwood Mac

UK Albums Chart number one album 4 February 1978 – 18 March 1978

Succeeded by 20 Golden Greats by Buddy Holly and The Crickets