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: #2884 in Music
• Released on: 2008-03-17
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Double CD, Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 145 minutes

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

CD 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.

Customer Reviews

If you only ever buy one Abba album, this is it.
Believe it or not, there are some of us who have never bought an Abba album. Well, not until this week, anyway. I was certainly around during the 70s, but fell into the category of being far too serious about Deep Purple etc to be seen dead with an Abba LP. I was certainly aware of Abba -- it was one of the many contradictions in the teenage bloke psyche that we watched 'Top of the Pops' whenever we could. And anyway, my Dad fancied the blonde one -- Agnetha, not Benny. So buying this marvellous compilation is part nostalgia, and part demonstration for my own children.

This 2CD set takes us chronologically through Abba's history. There are four tracks which precede the historic 'Waterloo' Eurovision winner. You can sense that the group are still feeling their way towards a defining formula even after that 1974 victory. To my ear, it's only when they created 'SOS' (track #9 here) that they found the correct gear, and from then on they never looked back. Abba stood for very high production values, attractive videos, middle-of-the-road pop and wholly inoffensive lyrics. (As revealed in the sleevenotes, Bjorn was always more concerned with the sound of a word than its meaning.) From that point, the lead vocals on all the singles would always be performed by the girls. Abba absorbed disco, but never pretended to be creating black music.

My favourite Abba song is one of the last, 'One of Us', which has many flaws but a gorgeously plaintive chorus. Agnetha really meant those words as she sang them on the video. It was 1981, the band was nearing the end, and even I fancied her now.

To people who haven't already purchased an Abba CD, I cannot recommend this highly enough. The remastered sound is excellent, bringing out the acoustic guitar particularly well. And the accompanying booklet is informative and contains some pretty photos, without ever saying which is of Bjorn and which is of Benny. Newcomers like me can get confused, but I guess it doesn't ultimately matter.

still a good excuse to have this...
some fans might think this is overkill - another compilation? we already have "gold", "more gold", "thank you for the music" and "the singles collection" what do we need another one for?
"the definitive collection" puts abba's singles in an international perspective - some tracks released exclusively to one or two territories(ie: honey honey - which was released in the u.s. after waterloo and peaked at 30 and was released as a single as well in germany). the cd also contains liner notes by carl magnus palm - the single most authoritative "abba historian" todate.
to sweeten the pot: 2 bonus tracks: the us remix of "ring ring" appearing originally in the us version of waterloo and the extended dance version of voulez-vous. while there's no certainty that this would be the last compilation released of the group's hits, it's still worthwhile having - until another one comes along...who knows there might be one featuring "just like that" a few years from now?

This is the real "Abba Gold"!
Although there are rich pickings on the massive selling "Abba Gold" there are greater treasures here - basically all the singles they ever released anywhere in the world! What better option for the individual keen to purchase the very best of Abba?