Product Description

This double CD retrospective of the Stockholm-formed disco pop act covers their career from the release of 'Ring Ring' in 1973, through to their disbandment in 1981. It includes their eight UK no.1 singles.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. People Need Love
2. He Is Your Brother
3. Ring Ring
4. Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure Is Hard Enough)
5. Waterloo
6. Honey, Honey
7. So Long
8. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do
9. SOS
10. Mamma Mia
11. Fernando
12. Dancing Queen
13. Money, Money, Money
14. Knowing Me, Knowing You
15. The Name Of The Game
16. Take A Chance On Me
17. Eagle
18. Summer Night City
19. Chiquitita
20. Does Your Mother Know

Disc 2:

1. Voulez-Vous
2. Angeleyes
3. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
4. I Have A Dream
5. The Winner Takes It All
6. Super Trouper
7. On And On And On
8. Lay All Your Love On Me
9. One Of Us
10. When All Is Said And Done
11. Head Over Heels
12. The Visitors (Crackin' Up)
13. The Day Before You Came
14. Under Attack
15. Thank You For The Music
16. Ring Ring (1974 Remix, Single Version) (Bonus Track)
17. Voulez-Vous (Extended Remix) (Bonus Track)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #355 in Music
• Released on: 2008-03-17
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Double CD, Extra tracks, Original recording remastered

Amazon.co.uk Review
Is there anything which screams the 1970s most indelible pop cultural clichés-more than the Swedish pop phenomena Abba and their Definitive Collection? While many a pundit snootily dismissed them during their prime as some sort of prefabricated aberration, their worldwide popularity peaked somewhere just south of Beatlemania. Indeed, Abba's music was as finely tooled and crafted as anything to come from a Volvo or Ikea factory --if occasionally more economically potent. This double-disc, 37-track anthology comes neatly on the heels of Mama Mia, the smash, if unlikely, stage show based on the band's hits, and documents every single released by the band's Polar label in their home country was as well as key tracks released as singles elsewhere internationally.

When you hear the term "Europop," this is the canon from whence the term sprang. With a continental sense of vocal neo-classicism, informed by just the right ethnic clichés (and oft wed to the era's insistent 4/4 disco beat) to make songs like "Mama Mia", "Fernando", "Chiquitita" and "Voulez-Vous" work on a global scale, the writing team of Bjorn Ulvaeus/Benny Anderson and their respective partners in music and life, Agnetha Faltskog and Frida Lyngstad, developed the seamless, wall-of-sound productions contained herein. Definitive Collection features a rare single remix of "Ring, Ring" and a 1979 promo-only extended mix of "Voulez-Vous" as bonus tracks, as well as a concise, illustrated history of the band and each track. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

The real deal
For all its world-conquering success, ABBA Gold didn't really "rehabilitate" ABBA. The casual track sequencing and the choice of only the biggest hits means that a lot of good stuff was missed. The kitsch that dogged the early part of ABBA's career seems to be reinforced.

With The Definitive Collection, however, you get (a) all of the tracks that appear on Gold, (b) plus the additional gems that couldn't be included on Gold, and (c) very elegant packaging.

Another great plus with this set is that the tracks are sequenced chronologically. This makes it easier to see how the group progressed from their somewhat "innocent" early days to their remarkably affecting early 80s output. The big hits are well known and have been discussed ad infinitum. But the second disc (1979 to 1982) is loaded with beauties that don't get the attention they deserve: for instance, skip straight to The Visitors, When All Is Said And Done and The Day Before You Came to see how brilliantly this band evolved as songwrters, as producers and as singers. With these diamonds added to the peachy pop hits that you know and love, The Definitive Collection is a far better bet - and ultimately more satisfying - than the instant sugar rush that is ABBA Gold. Get the Sound & Vision set with the matching DVD for the ultimate experience.

Mamma Mia!
Abba's best compilation so far if you're buying an abba album for the first time get this it's full of classics not one bad track on this cd this is a must buy! 10/10 now this is what i call music and not the mamma mia soundtrack!

ABBA IS THE BEST!!
La mejor recopilacion de uno de los mejores grupos de todos los tiempos, y todas las canciones ordenadas de forma cronologica, y un folleto donde se resume muy bien toda su historia, con muchas fotos de todas sus etapas de modo que uno puede ir siguiendo toda su trayectoria como grupo musical; las canciones, simplemente INCREIBLES, desde la sencilla "RING, RING" hasta canciones mas complicadas como "THE WINNER TAKES IT AT ALL"; sin faltar piezas inolvidables como "CHIQUITITA", "I DO I DO I DO", "WATERLOO", "DANCING QUEEN" y "TAKE A CHANCE ON ME"; incluso hay canciones que yo no conocia, como "HONEY HONEY", "ONE OF US" y "PEOPLE NEED LOVE", muy buenas tambien; SIMPLEMENTE LO MEJOR!!!