ABBA

ABBA (1972?1983) was a Swedish pop music group. They remain the most successful Swedish music act and were one of the most popular groups in the world. Estimates of ABBA's total worldwide sales vary from 140 to 500 million (there seems to be no reliable source for this information) which could make them the second most successful band of all time after The Beatles.

ABBA Trivia

• Songwriters Benny and Björn were unable to write music down on paper. Only Agnetha could (as revealed in a Dick Cavett interview with the group).
• Abba have been spoofed by many TV shows, including French & Saunders, Not The Nine O'Clock News and Fast Forward.
• At the height of their success ABBA was Sweden's biggest export, exceeding even Volvo cars.
• While selling their music into Russia during the late 1970s ABBA was paid in oil commodities because of an embargo on the rouble.
• All the royalties from the song Chiquitita were donated to the children's charity UNICEF, and the track featured on a compilation album of the "Music for UNICEF" concert, at which ABBA had performed the song live.
• Synth-pop duo Erasure had success in 1992 with an EP of ABBA covers, "Abba-esque". The music video for their cover of "Take A Chance On Me" featured the group members dressed in drag as Agnetha and Anni-Frid.
• The sound track of the successful Australian film Muriel's Wedding (1994) prominently featured ABBA songs: The two female leads lip sync "Waterloo" and the wedding scene is scored to an orchestral rendition of "Dancing Queen". The movie also features "Money Money Money, "Fernando" and "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do".
• Another 1994 Australian fillm The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert features a performance of Mamma Mia! by two drag queens, furthering ABBA's status as a gay icon.
• The ABBA tribute band Björn Again became so successful that as of 2004 there were five casts of Björn Again performing in various parts of the world. The original Björn Again had been touring for 15 years, longer than the original group.
• A Swedish band, the A-Teens, started their career in pop music as ABBA Teens, borrowing ABBA's arrangement of two men and two women. These Swedish teenagers launched their careers with an album containing only ABBA covers.
• Techno and house remakes of many original ABBA hits were released under the name Abbacadabra.
• Mamma Mia! was nominated for a Broadway Tony Award as Best Musical in 2002.
• In 2000 ABBA were reported to have turned down an offer of approximately one billion dollars (US) to do a reunion tour.
• Estimates of ABBA's total worldwide sales vary from 140 to 500 million (there seems to be no reliable source for this information). ABBA's US sales were 20 million, with UK sales estimated at 25 million.
• In 2005 ABBA's 1976 hit single "Fernando" still held the record for the most weeks spent at number one in Australia (along with The Beatles' "Hey Jude").
• In addition to being an acronym, the name "ABBA" is also a palindrome. In 1975, ABBA's "SOS" became the first song with a palindromic title recorded by a group with a palindromic name to hit the pop charts.
• ABBA was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2002.