Widely considered the Swedish foursome's first classic album - and historically important as the first to use the now-famous mirror-B logo - 1976's Arrival contains three huge hit singles, the dramatic "Money Money Money," the downcast "Knowing Me, Knowing You," and quite possibly the band's finest four minutes, the absolutely perfect pop classic "Dancing Queen," a combination of Spector-ian grandeur, McCartney-esque melody, and the indescribable vocals of Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The rest of ABBA's fourth album is strikingly consistent and accomplished, from the sly, bouncy "When I Kissed the Teacher" to the atmospheric title track, making room in between for the three excellent singles and five other substantial pop tunes. Although three LPs and a greatest-hits compilation preceded it, Arrival is aptly titled, as this album announces the band's move beyond bubblegum.
ABBA Arrival (2006 issue Deluxe Edition 2-disc [CD/DVD] set comprising a 16-track CD album features the classic hits Dancing Queen, Knowing Me Knowing You & Money Money Money alongside 5 Bonus Recordings including Fernando and 3 Spanish Versions; plus Bonus DVD containing a collection of some of the rarest interviews and most sought-after vintage television performances [previously unreleased on DVD] including the legendary 1976 special ABBA-dabba-dooo!! a cartoon version of Happy Hawaii footage from the Dancing Queen recording session and much more.
ABBA‘s fourth studio album, 1976’s Arrival, is 40 this year, and so Polar Music (via Universal) are issuing a 45 RPM half-speed mastered double vinyl edition to celebrate, along with some other goodies: a seven-inch box set and some picture discs! It may not be their best album (that’s The Visitors) but Arrival boasts both the iconic ‘helicopter’ cover and some of ABBA’s biggest and best-known hits, Dancing Queen, Knowing Me, Knowing You, and Money, Money, Money.
The 2008 nine-disc box Albums is neither the first ABBA multi-disc set nor the first time the pop group's albums have been collected and housed in a box set, but it is the first time a set of their complete recordings has been widely disseminated (such are the perks of being a companion to an international blockbuster) and it's the best of the lot, containing all eight of the group's albums (for the record: Ring Ring, Waterloo, ABBA, Arrival, The Album, Voulez-Vous, Super Trouper, The Visitors), plus a 17-track rarities disc that rounds up non-LP singles (including "Fernando" and "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)"), songs sung in Swedish, and plain oddities like a medley of the American folk songs "Pick a Bale of Cotton," "On Top of Old Smokey," and "Midnight Special."
ABBA (/ˈæbə/ AB-ə, Swedish: [ˈâbːa]) are a Swedish pop group 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. They became one of the most commercially successful acts in the history of popular music, topping the charts worldwide from 1974 to 1983. In 1974 ABBA were Sweden's first winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, with the song "Waterloo", which in 2005 was chosen as the best song in the competition's history as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the contest…