ABBA came through at just the right age for me -12 or 13 –  before I was drawn to guitar solos and heavy bass lines of The Doors, Led Zep, Clapton et al. Between July ’75 and Oct ‘77 ABBA released  ‘I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do’, ‘SOS’, ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘Fernando’, ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Money Money Money, ‘Knowing Me Knowing You’, ‘Name Of The Game’– an incredible streak of mind bogglingly fantabulous music. Each song is a masterpiece and I have heard each of them at least a million times. A Date With You, Forces Request, In The Groove, Radio Australia….you couldn’t escape them. Not that we wanted to! Every party, every car ride…it was ABBA back to front!

After ‘Waterloo’ ABBA needed a hit to prove they weren’t One Hit Wonders (shudder!). And like Yuvraj taking on Broad, ABBA hit six sixes to firmly establish themselves as the Emperors of Pop. ‘I Do (x5)’ started ABBA-mania. ‘SOS’ with Agnetha’s soulful solo is such an amazing heartbreak song – in my books it ranks right up there with ‘Hum Bekhudi Mein Tumko Pukare’ (but that’s a whole different blog!). Mama Mia, came next and became their signature song – must admit, though, not my fav – I prefer ‘SOS’ or ‘Dancing Queen’

ABBA were fantastic story tellers – I think that is the secret to their music. Every song is like an episode of a novella. On ‘Dancing Queen’ you can easily picture this young girl who only comes alive when dancing with gay abandon! ‘Money Money Money’ is so perfect – easily in my top 5 ABBA songs. And so ironic, given they were really raking it in at that point! ‘Knowing Me Knowing You’ is lyrically brilliant – the first few lines are an entire novel of adult heartache – something of course 14 year old me had no clue about. And, then ‘The Name Of The Game’ which of course, I didn’t understand at all at that stage. But I knew every lyric from it and from every other ABBA song.