ABOUT THE MUSIC
The trademark ABBA sound consists of two main ingredients: keyboard-based wall-of-sound arrangements, and the soprano and mezzosoprano voices of Agnetha and Frida respectively. As Benny has pointed out, the records would have sounded completely different if the lead vocalists had been any others than Agnetha and Frida.A strong melody was of course always at the core of ABBA's recordings. Experimentation with effects, often courtesy of their sound engineer Michael Tretow, added to the overall impression of state-of-the-art production values. The very earliest recordings from 1972 and 1973 were rather sparsely produced, however. The main exception - and the first indication of ABBA's future soundscape - was the song Ring Ring.By 1975, the group had pretty much arrived at the multi-layered sound that would carry them through the peak years of their popularity on albums such as ABBA, Arrival, ABBA - The Album and Voulez-Vous. The arrival of the 1980s saw a return to the slightly more bare production of their early days - with Benny's synthesizers very much to the fore - although with an added maturity that put its mark on their last album, The Visitors, in 1981.
ABOUT THE DISCOGRAPHY
This discography refers to the single and album releases as conceived and planned by ABBA and their Swedish record company Polar Music during the time of the group’s existence between 1972 and 1982. In other words: the singles and albums issued in Sweden and/or the Nordic countries. This means that certain songs, which may have been successful singles in other parts of the world, are not included in this discography. Also, in some territories, the hit A-side of certain singles may have featured a different B-side than the one selected by Polar Music. However, for those that are interested, there are plenty of web sites which details the ABBA discographies specific to other territories. Consult the Worldwide section of links in the menu.All records in this discography are credited to ABBA unless otherwise stated. Recording dates refer to the version released. Recording locations mentioned are all in Stockholm, Sweden unless otherwise indicated.Chart information is given for Top Ten positions on available charts, and comes courtesy of the following sources: Sweden: Kvällstoppen i P3 by Eric Hallberg.Topplistan by Wille Wendt. UK: British Hit Singles and British Hit Albums, both by Paul Gambaccini, Tim Rice and Jonathan Rice.US: Top Pop Singles and Top Pop Albums, both by Joel Whitburn.All other chart information from Trent Nickson's Internet site ABBA - The Worldwide Chart Lists, and from Richard van der Keur
