Amazon.com essential recordingAnyone looking for the key to Abba's enduring appeal should look no further than "Voulez Vous" and "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" for their answer. There was an innocence to the Swedish quartet, even when they were singing about one-night stands and the invitations to them. Gold establishes that the band, while appreciated as campy, were actually multifaceted in their execution. "S.O.S." has a raw urgency in its chorus, and "Does Your Mother Know" draws its energy from classic '50s rock & roll. Likewise, you don't have to be Priscilla to swoon over "Mamma Mia" or "Dancing Queen." And when it comes to drama, those soaring vocals on "The Winner Takes It All" turn the song into a bitter anthem of every relationship that has ever fallen apart. The much-covered "Lay All Your Love on Me" is practically epic. --Steve Gdula
REVIEW
The 70's live again. I graduated from HS in 1977 and was in college through the early 1980s, and that means that I lived this music the first time around. It's upbeat and pretty good for dancing. With the release of the movie musical "Mama Mia!" ABBA's music is staging a mainstream comeback. Now my daughter (a HS senior) and my wife play this music on their own. I've been a below-the-radar ABBA listener for at least the past 20 years, with ABBA tracks finding their way onto exercise playlists on my iPod.
The collection on ABBA GOLD is probably the best single-disc collection of ABBA's greatest hits that has been released to date:
1. Dancing Queen
2. Knowing Me, Knowing You
3. Take a Chance on Me
4. Mamma Mia
5. Lay All Your Love on Me
6. Super Trouper
7. I Have a Dream
8. The Winner Takes It All
9. Money, Money, Money
10. S.O.S.
11. Chiquitita
12. Fernando
13. Voulez-Vous
14. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
15. Does Your Mother Know
16. One of Us
17. The Name of the Game
18. Thank You for the Music
19. Waterloo
Most of these tracks were international hits, many of them reaching high on the charts in the USA during ABBA's heyday.
I remember hearing and dancing to many of these tunes in discos (oooh, that's a happy and painful memory).
If you haven't listened to this music for a while, be prepared for a series of triggers to all kinds of memories.If you are just starting to listen to ABBA, get ready for memories in the making.
Album DescriptionImport pressing of their greatest hits collection originally released on vinyl only in the 70's. Features the original Swedish artwork. The album was originally released in Sweden in 1975 while most of the world saw it surface the following year. This particular greatest hits was the biggest selling album of 1976 in the UK, spending 11 weeks at #1. As such this albums holds a place in the heart's of Abba's very loyal fanbase. Universal. 2006.
REVIEW
Classic seventies album I was thrilled to hear that this album would finally be released on CD, because it is undoubtedly one of THE classic albums of the seventies and ABBA's definitive breakthrough in the albums market. It became the second biggest-selling album of the seventies in the UK, only beaten by 'Bridge over troubled water' by Simon & Garfunkel. This CD version was long overdue. Actually, in my country we got a slightly different compilation back in 1976. That one omitted 'He is your brother' and 'Another town, another train', had a different running order and also a different (not fold-out) cover. I remember playing that album to pieces.
The artwork of this CD release is exceptionally well done, staying as close as possible to the vinyl version. This was how the album was released in Sweden, with 'Fernando' as the first track (in the UK it was the last track).
At the time, the album title was rather puzzling, since several of the tracks were from ABBA's first, internationally unreleased, album 'Ring Ring' and therefor completely unknown to an international audience. That didn't prevent the album from becoming one of ABBA's biggest worldwide sellers.
This album may not have all of ABBA's biggest hits (you would have to resort to 'ABBA Gold' for that), but for nostalgic reasons it is an essential addition to any serious CD collection.
Fake ABBA This is not by the real ABBA. This is by a sound-alike group called "The Real ABBA Gold". These covers are not very good. If you want actual ABBA recordings, then buy an actual ABBA CD. There are ABBA CDs for every level of fandom. If you want the "Mamma Mia" soundtrack, then buy the actual "Mamma Mia" soundtrack. If you want poorly produced covers by talent-free nobodies, then buy this.
As much as I love ABBA, I cannot recommend this CD.
Fake ABBA Poorly produced CD consisting of sound-alike recordings. These recordings are NOT by the real ABBA. They are cheap imitations. ABBA fans like myself should avoid CDs like this.
Album DescriptionThe ultimate Abba hits collection featuring 'Gold' & the no-longer available 'More Gold' plus the exciting 'Gold' DVD (PAL/Region 0) which features 18 fantastic videos & two bonus tracks, 'Abba - The History' (documentary) & 'Dancing Queen' (1992 version)
Good overview of Abba for the price I just wanted to take a trip down memory lane. And for that Abba Gold is a lot of fun! It also has an interesting documentary of Abba's history as told by Bjorn and Michael Tretow their recording engineer. The DVD also adds a 1992 version of Dancing Queen. Though frankly I didn't see how the 1992 Dancing Queen was much different from the original one.
The video quality isn't that great, but it reminds me of how I saw it when I was a kid dancing in front of the tv. The costumes, tons of blue eyeshadow, the 70's hairstyles, the bad lip synching, the disco all bring me back. It's all before MTV and the production values by today's standards are very amateurish. I find it charming. And hey, my 3 year old daughter loves this DVD!
Okay, so maybe the Definitive Collection is a better DVD of Abba's videos, but it's twice the price and doesn't have a documentary. If you're a die-hard Abba fan and will buy multiple DVDs, then this isn't the DVD for you. But if you just want to buy one ABBA DVD, then this gives you a lot for your money.
29 Years Later It's Now Okay To LIke Abba!!!! This album was released back in 1976 when I was 16 and if I recall corectly NOBODY over the age of 15 would admit to liking this band let alone buying any of their albums. This is kind of like the Wine Industry where once upon a time NOBODY in the Anglo-Saxon Western World would admit to liking wine but the Sales Figures contradicted this. My, how times have changed. Now it is 29 years after this album was released and it seems like ABBA now has more fans today than it did way back in the 1970's. Somewhere along the line it became "cool" to like this band.Until then if you bought an ABBA album and were seen doing this you told everybody it was for your baby sister. As I said , Times sure have changed. This album contains catchy tunes and soaring vocals from Frida and Agnetha.ABBA ROCKS!!!Gee. I would have been laughed out of school in 1976 for saying that!!!
The Swedish quartet that conquered the WORLD! A recentPBS special made me dig this one out of the recesses of my music collection and, man, was I glad to rediscover the music. I had forgotten how popular the group was, how intricate were the compositions sung, and how sexy Agnetha and Frida were, even wearing their over-the-top fashions.
It's a shame that the album is not in stock for it features thirteen of the group's best and most memorable pop creations. Culled from the chartmaking years of 1975 - 1978, the 14 tracks are:
1. "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)"
2. "Knowing Me, Knowing YOu"
3. "Take a Chance on Me"
4. "Money, Money, Money"
5. "Rock Me"
6. "Eagle"
7. "Angeleyes"
8. "Dancing Queen" - The group's signature song
9. "Does Your Mother Know" - A really FUN tune
10. "Chiquita"
11. "Summer Night City"
12. "I Wonder (Departure)"
and these two personals favorites,
13. "The Name of the Game"
14. "Thank You for the Music"
The aforementioned special indicated that the group sold over 380,000,000 recordings in its tenure.
Amazon.com essential recordingAnyone looking for the key to Abba's enduring appeal should look no further than "Voulez Vous" and "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)"for their answer. There was an innocence to the Swedish quartet, even when they were singing about one-night stands and the invitations to them. Gold establishes that the band, while appreciated as campy, were actually multifaceted in their execution. "S.O.S." has a raw urgency in its chorus, and "Does Your Mother Know" draws its energy from classic '50s rock & roll. Likewise, you don't have to be Priscilla to swoon over "Mamma Mia" or "Dancing Queen." And when it comes to drama, those soaring vocals on "The Winner Takes It All" turn the song into a bitter anthem of every relationship that has ever fallen apart. The much-covered "Lay All Your Love on Me" is practically epic. --Steve Gdula
REVIEW
The 70's live again. I graduated from HS in 1977 and was in college through the early 1980s, and that means that I lived this music the first time around. It's upbeat and pretty good for dancing. With the release of the movie musical "Mama Mia!" ABBA's music is staging a mainstream comeback. Now my daughter (a HS senior) and my wife play this music on their own. I've been a below-the-radar ABBA listener for at least the past 20 years, with ABBA tracks finding their way onto exercise playlists on my iPod.
The collection on ABBA GOLD is probably the best single-disc collection of ABBA's greatest hits that has been released to date:
1. Dancing Queen
2. Knowing Me, Knowing You
3. Take a Chance on Me
4. Mamma Mia
5. Lay All Your Love on Me
6. Super Trouper
7. I Have a Dream
8. The Winner Takes It All
9. Money, Money, Money
10. S.O.S.
11. Chiquitita
12. Fernando
13. Voulez-Vous
14. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
15. Does Your Mother Know
16. One of Us
17. The Name of the Game
18. Thank You for the Music
19. Waterloo
Most of these tracks were international hits, many of them reaching high on the charts in the USA during ABBA's heyday.
I remember hearing and dancing to many of these tunes in discos (oooh, that's a happy and painful memory).
If you haven't listened to this music for a while, be prepared for a series of triggers to all kinds of memories. If you are just starting to listen to ABBA, get ready for memories in the making.
