| ABBA Live | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | August 18, 1986 | |||
| Recorded |
| |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Length | 62:42 | |||
| Label | Polar (original release) Universal Music | |||
| Producer | Michael B. Tretow (engineered & mixed) | |||
| ABBA chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [1] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [2] |
ABBA Live is an album of live recordings by Swedish pop group ABBA, released by Polar Music in 1986.
A live album was something that many ABBA fans had demanded for several years. ABBA themselves had toyed with the idea on a couple of occasions, but always decided against it. Finally, four years after the members went their separate ways, a live collection was released after all. The resultant album, ABBA Live, contained recordings from 1977, 1979 and 1981. The tracks were mostly taken from ABBA's concerts at Wembley Arena in London in November 1979, with a few additional songs taken from the tour of Australia in March 1977 and the Dick Cavett Meets ABBA television special, taped in April 1981. [3]
When this LP/CD was released, the band's popularity was at an all-time low and none of the members themselves were involved in the production of the album. Much to the dismay of both music critics and ABBA fans it also had 80's synth drums overdubbed on most tracks, taking away the true live feeling of the performances. Neither did it feature any of the tracks that the band had performed live on their tours but never included on any of their studio albums, such as "I Am an A", "Get on the Carousel", "I'm Still Alive", or the original live versions of the songs from the 1977 mini-musical The Girl with the Golden Hair : "Thank You for the Music", "I Wonder (Departure)" and "I'm a Marionette", all of which had slightly different lyrics and/or musical arrangements to the subsequent studio recordings included on ABBA: The Album . Several tracks had also been heavily edited, in the case of the 1979 live recording of "Does Your Mother Know" by as much as five minutes since it originally was performed on that tour as a medley with "Hole in Your Soul".
ABBA Live was the first ABBA album to be simultaneously released on LP and CD, the CD having three "extra tracks". The album did not perform very well, internationally or domestically, peaking at #49 in Sweden and only staying in the charts for two weeks. It was remastered and rereleased by Polydor/Polar in 1997, but is currently out of print.
All tracks written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus except where noted.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Dancing Queen" (Live at Wembley, November 1979) |
| 3:42 |
| 2. | "Take a Chance on Me" (Live at Wembley, November 1979) | 4:22 | |
| 3. | "I Have a Dream" (Live at Wembley, November 1979) | 4:23 | |
| 4. | "Does Your Mother Know" (Live at Wembley, November 1979) | 4:09 | |
| 5. | "Chiquitita" (Live at Wembley, November 1979) | 5:21 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Thank You for the Music" (Live at Wembley, November 1979) | 3:40 | |
| 2. | "Two for the Price of One" (Live on Dick Cavett Meets ABBA, April 1981) | 3:31 | |
| 3. | "Fernando" (Live in Australia, March 1977) |
| 5:22 |
| 4. | "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" (Live on Dick Cavett Meets ABBA, April 1981) | 3:17 | |
| 5. | "Super Trouper" (Live on Dick Cavett Meets ABBA, April 1981) | 4:23 | |
| 6. | "Waterloo" (Live at Wembley, November 1979) |
| 3:34 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12. | "Money, Money, Money" (Live in Australia, March 1977) | 3:20 | |
| 13. | "The Name of the Game"/"Eagle" (Live at Wembley, November 1979) |
| 9:37 |
| 14. | "On and On and On" (Live on Dick Cavett Meets ABBA, April 1981) | 4:01 |
| Chart (1986) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [4] | 47 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [5] | 49 |
ABBA were a Swedish pop supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group's name is an acronym of the first letters of their first names arranged as a palindrome. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the best-selling music acts in the history of popular music, topping the charts worldwide from 1974 to 1982, and again in 2021 following their reunion.
Waterloo is the second studio album by the Swedish pop group ABBA, and the first released internationally. It was originally released on 4 March 1974 in Sweden through Polar Music. The album's title track won ABBA the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest and became a global hit, launching the group's career.
Super Trouper is the seventh studio album by the Swedish pop group ABBA, released on 3 November 1980. It features the No.1 singles "The Winner Takes It All" and "Super Trouper". The album became the biggest-selling album of 1980 in the UK.
ABBA is the third studio album by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was originally released on 21 April 1975 through Polar Music and featured the hits "SOS", "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" and "Mamma Mia".
Ted Arnbjörn Gärdestad was a Swedish singer, songwriter, musician and actor known internationally as Ted. Gärdestad began his acting career in 1966 and began playing music in 1971, signing with Polar Music. Assigned with in-house producers Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, Gärdestad released his first single, "Hela världen runt," in late 1971 and worked closely with the four members of ABBA to create his debut album Undringar (1972). As Polar Music's best-selling solo artist, he continued to work with the group members throughout the 1970s, releasing three more albums Ted (1973), Upptåg (1974) and Franska Kort (1976), which were moderately successful. In 1978, Gärdestad released his first English-language album, Blue Virgin Isles, which did not have success internationally, as his predecessor albums had in his home country.
Ring Ring is the debut studio album by the Swedish group ABBA, initially credited as Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida. It was released in Scandinavia on 26 March 1973, and later in a limited number of other territories, including West Germany, Australia, South Africa and Mexico, through Polar Music. It was a chart-topping album in Belgium, and a big success in the Netherlands, Norway and South Africa.
Arrival is the fourth studio album by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was originally released in Sweden on 11 October 1976 by Polar Records. It became one of ABBA's most successful albums to date, producing three of their biggest hits: "Dancing Queen", "Money, Money, Money" and "Knowing Me, Knowing You". The track "Fernando", which had been recently released as a single in March 1976, was included on the Australian and New Zealand versions of the album. Arrival was the best-selling album of 1977 in the United Kingdom and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
ABBA: The Album is the fifth studio album by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released in Scandinavia on 12 December 1977 through Polar Music, but due to the massive pre-orders the UK pressing plants were not able to press sufficient copies before Christmas 1977 and so it was not released in the UK until January 1978. The album was released in conjunction with ABBA: The Movie, with several of the songs featured in the film. Altogether the album contains nine songs.
Voulez-Vous is the sixth studio album by the Swedish supergroup ABBA. Released on 23 April 1979, the album yielded five hits, all of them big 1979 singles in Britain – "Chiquitita", "Does Your Mother Know", "I Have a Dream" and the double A-side "Voulez-Vous"/"Angeleyes". The title track showed the group embracing disco music, which at the time was at its peak. The album topped the charts in a number of countries and ranked among Britain's five best-selling albums of the year.
Wrap Your Arms Around Me is the seventh solo studio album, and first English-language solo album, by Swedish singer and ABBA member Agnetha Fältskog. It was released by Polar Music on 31 May 1983 and was produced by Mike Chapman. "The Heat Is On", "Wrap Your Arms Around Me" and "Can't Shake Loose" were released as singles to promote the album. In 2005, the album was re-released in CD format with five bonus tracks.
Gracias Por La Música is a Spanish-language album by Swedish pop group ABBA, released in Spain on 5 April 1980 and Latin America on May 10. Gracias Por La Música was originally released due to the unexpected surge in popularity for the group in Latin American countries such as Mexico and Argentina after the release of the Spanish-language versions of "Chiquitita" and "I Have a Dream" in 1979. These tracks were both released as singles and went on to become big hits. Encouraged by this success, the band therefore decided to record another eight tracks in Spanish and release a full-length album especially for the Latin American market. The album was also released in ABBA's native Sweden on June 23, and in Japan on July 21 after ABBA played eleven successful concerts earlier in March.
"Voulez-Vous" is a 1979 song by the Swedish group ABBA, written and composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad shared the lead vocals. It is the second track on the group's 1979 album of the same name. In the UK and Ireland, "Voulez-Vous" was released as a double A-side, though nearly everywhere else, "Voulez-Vous" was a single A-side. The double A side single is, as of September 2021, ABBA's 13th-biggest song in the UK, including both pure sales and digital streams.
Tio år med Agnetha is a 1979 compilation album by Swedish pop singer Agnetha Fältskog, one of the members of ABBA. The album, released when ABBA's international career was at its peak, features the most successful Swedish solo recordings Fältskog made before and during her career with the band and it was her last album on the CBS-Cupol label.
"Thank You for the Music" is a song by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was originally featured on the group's fifth studio album, The Album (1977), and was released as a double-A sided single with "Eagle" in May 1978 in limited territories, namely Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland and Australia. In South Africa where it peaked at number 2 in August 1978 and became the eighteenth best-selling single of that year.
The Definitive Collection is a 2001 compilation album of all the singles released by Swedish pop group ABBA. It consisted of two discs: the first featuring the singles from 1972 to 1979, and the second including the singles from 1979 to 1982, with the tracks being listed in chronological order. The main exception is the track "Thank You for the Music", which, despite being written and recorded in 1977, was in fact released as a single in 1983 after the band had split up. It appears on disc two, along with two bonus tracks, "Ring Ring", and "Voulez-Vous". The Australian version of The Definitive Collection adds a further two bonus tracks: "Rock Me" and "Hasta Mañana". The 1974 remix of "Ring Ring" is the first appearance on CD of this version mastered from the original master tape, after the UK single master tapes had been returned to Polar Music by the former UK licensees, Epic Records. The track's previous appearance on CD, in a 1999 singles boxed set, was mastered from a vinyl single.
The Albums is a box set of recordings by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released on 11 November 2008 through Universal Music. The box set includes nine discs, the first eight are all of the original studio albums the way they were originally released between 1973 and 1981 while the ninth disc features all of the singles that were not released on the band's studio albums along with some of the B-sides. It includes a 40-page booklet on ABBA’s history. It does not include rarities or extras. The box set has charted in several countries.
In Through the Out Door is the eighth and final studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was recorded in three weeks in November and December 1978 at ABBA's Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, and released by their label Swan Song Records on 22 August 1979 in the US and 24 August 1979 in the UK. Unlike earlier Led Zeppelin albums, In Through the Out Door was dominated musically by bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones. It was the band's last release before they disbanded in December 1980 after the death of their drummer John Bonham three months earlier.
ABBA: The 1979 Tour, later also labelled ABBA in Concert and ABBA: North American and European Tour 1979, was the third concert tour by the Swedish pop group, ABBA. Primarily visiting North America, Europe and Asia during 1979–1980, the tour supported the group's sixth studio album, Voulez-Vous. The tour opened in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on September 13, 1979, and the tour closed in Tokyo, Japan on March 27, 1980, having performed 52 shows in 40 cities across 13 countries. As it was the group's final tour before unofficially disbanding in late 1982, it included the largest catalogue of hit songs performed on a tour.
Live at Wembley Arena is an album of live recordings by Swedish pop group ABBA, released by Polar Music on 26 September 2014, on 2 CD, 3 LP and digital format.
