ABBA - 50th Anniversary

Maru

I’ve just found Dancing Queen on YouTube, and watched it - a great (short) film

I've just watched it. As good as i remember. Don't they look young! Rik Mayall was good in so many things - he died too young.

Oh, and I meant to say I love ABBA now. I think I found an appreciation for them a bit later. I would love to be able to get to the ABBA Voyage show. I would bring my daughter with me, and she would love it as well.

I think Abba was a bit later on the scene in North America. I remember my older sister being a big fan, but for me I think they were radio starts with catchy tunes, but I never bought any albums or singles.

But I did love disco, and I think the BeeGees reigned supreme for me at the time. I think I had a pretty eclectic rock/disco/pop favourites, with some folk/pop as well, such as Carly Simon, Simon and Garfunkel.

Rock was very popular at my school though, so I was introduced to rock albums from friends, like ACDC, LedZeplin, Boston, etc. I still enjoy a good blast of rock from the stereo once in a while!

I’ve just found Dancing Queen on YouTube, and watched it - a great (short) film

I woke up in the night last night with "The Winner Takes it All" going through my brain on repeat!!

No, I still love the music I loved back then - from mid 70s to early 80s. Sometimes the start of a song can have me in tears. Also trying desperately to see all my favourites again whilst they’re still here.

I loved Saturday night`s Abba fest, but was disappointed that 2 of my favourite songs never came up during the whole 5 hours. I love Happy New Year, and adore Andante Andante.

As Sparkle and others have said, their lyrics are generally clever, and the music (which they find first) is mostly incredibly catchy.

I date from that era (I was in Brighton on Eurovision night - though not at the venue!) and I recall how sniffy the music 'experts' were. However, the public have voted with their wallets pretty much ever since -- and there have been several TV shows which have analysed their lyrics and pointed out that they are sometimes far deeper than the group's image.

Did someone mention Genesis? They did some good records, BUT -- sadly, when Phil Collins released his awful Motown covers, they went into the 'put them up against the wall' category!

I never thought of myself as an ABBA fan until I watched a tv countdown on favourite songs of theirs years ago and realised I knew the lyrics of every single one.

When I saw the film Mamma Mia, it was wonderful to come out into the car park with everyone, all singing and dancing ... a real feel-good movie.

Their music is multi-layered with clever lyrics, especially when you think that English is not their first language.

Some years ago, I played fiddle in a barn dance group. The other members of the band were all men aged between ten and fifteen years older than me and had all been big Beatles fans. I have always liked ABBA and they were the musical backdrop of my later childhood and early teens. The men were waxing lyrical about The Beatles and asserting that there had never been another group, before or since, who could touch them. I ventured my opinion that there was one other group of equal status and that was ABBA. The men initially pooh-poohed this notion until l explained that people all over the world knew and loved ABBA’s songs and could sing and dance to them. This was a few years before the explosion of the revival of ABBA when Mamma Mia came out. I still think that ABBA was one of, if not the best pop group ever. I know many here are The Beatles generation and they wrote brilliant, timeless songs but I actually prefer their songs when other artists are covering them as l don’t particularly like their voices.. ABBA had it all.

Dinahmo,
The film you speak about is on You Yube, I just put the title and Rik Mayall in and it came up, I think it says it is around 50 mins long.
Hope you find it and enjoy again x

I too went to Abba Voyage whilst thinking Abba was a bit 'old hat'. It was a Christmas gift from my son. It was totally wonderful. Their last song was 'Dancing Queen' and everyone jumped up and danced! I am still smiling to see so many happy people dancing and singing. It made my heart happy!

Yes I have....wasn't really into 'pop' music. I liked Pink Floyd,Led Zeppelin, Wings,Leonard Cohen, Cat Stevens etc

Callistemon21

No, you can't be!
My friend thoroughly disliked ABBA.
(Not sure what she did like!)

Oh my!

No, definitely not me. I just love them 💕

No, you can't be!
My friend thoroughly disliked ABBA.
(Not sure what she did like!)

Callistemon21, I might be your friend!

I've always disliked Dancing Queen
It's not a song to dance to. As Benny did say in an interview. So many other songs of theirs are brilliant to dance to.

But I adore ABBA. Going to the ABBA party at the O2 next month and I can't wait!

Perhaps as we get older the groups/songs we loved when we were younger become more important, more loved?

Mind you, I loved Elvis, then The Beatles. I quite like them now but not as much as later music I enjoyed.

We were several years married, had just been to Brussels with our daughters on holiday, climbed Waterloo hill -- loved the song. Happy memories.

My taste is more eclectic now. What wasn't my taste years ago I quite like now but still not keen on ABBA. I've been asked several times do I want to see the Voyager show? nope not me.

There was a short film called Dancing Queen many years ago. I taped it but lost it somehow. It starred Helena Bonham Carter and Rik Mayall and set mainly in Scarborough. It was great and I watched it several times.

I'm planning Dancing Queen for my funeral - just to remind everyone that I was young once.

ferry23

And who can resist the dance floor as soon as you hear the opening riff of Dancing Queen?

Well, I had a friend who did
(Rather snootily, the rest of us thought)

And who can resist the dance floor as soon as you hear the opening riff of Dancing Queen?

I can't listen to Phil Collins and have to reach for the off button, sorry, Genesis fans!

Mick do you still have that single? It might be worth a bit of money now!

Hellogirl1

Did anyone watch the 5 hours of Abba last night on BBC2? It was my best night`s viewing in a long time, loved it!

I saw some of it, Hellogirl, recorded some and need to watch some on catch-up.

It really was very good.
I can still remember them when they sang at Eurovision and thinking they were going to be around for some time!