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Showing posts with label abba. Show all posts
Showing posts with label abba. Show all posts

Sunday, August 30, 2020

GREATEST HITS : 1976 vol 1

The greatest hits of 1976 (Volume 1) featuring hits by ABBA, Brotherhood of Man, Tavares, Boney M. Rod Stewart, Queen, Eric Carmen, John Miles, Leo Sayer, Donna Summer, Tina Charles, Bay City Rollers ... and many more!

Saturday, August 22, 2020

GREATEST HITS : 1979 vol 1

The greatest hits of 1979 (Volume 1) featuring hits by Gary Numan, Blondie, Sister Sledge, Cliff Richard, Squeeze, ABBA, Roxy Music, M, B.A. Robertston, Janet Kay, Anita Ward, The Specials, ELO, The Beat, The Police, Michael Jackson ... and many more!

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

In The 1970s ABBA 1976 to 1979

We continue the story of the super group Abba through the 1970s.In the first part we followed the group from 1970 to 1975. See the article here.

This was the year that they released their greatest hits. But of course it was only part one as so many more hits would pour into the UK charts over the next few years. 1976 saw a No.1 single from that greatest hit album called Fernando which had already been a best selling album in Switzerland by Anni Frid herself. Now she was singing it within a group. The lyrics were by manager Stig and was about love, but Bjorn changed the lyrics to be about two guys talking about a battle.

 

The best selling album produced  the next No.1 classic. A song that now feels the floor at all parties and weddings. It was originally calle Boogaloo but was changed to...Dancing Queen.
ABBA performed this song on June 18, 1976 at a televised tribute to Queen Silvia and King Gustaf XVI of Sweden, who were married the next day.




From the same album came the No. 3 hit Money Money Money and the same album produced their next No. 1 hit too in 1977. Not only was it a fantastic song but it was one of the best videos of the 1970s. The song was Knowing Me Knowing You. This came at a time when the group were undertaking major concerts throughout the world and the stress and strains of their marriages and relationships were under enormous stress.





This was another worldwide hit for the group and meant they were being called to  undertake impossible schedules of performances and TV shows.  Abba the Album produced yet another UK single No. 1 in 1977 called  The Name Of The Game .

"The Name of the Game", first called "A Bit of Myself", was the first song to be recorded for ABBA's fifth studio album, following the band's European and Australian tour. 
The opening riff on bass and synthesizer is inspired by Stevie Wonder's "I Wish" from the 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life, and both Andersson and Ulvaeus have acknowledged being inspired by Wonder's music during this part of ABBA's career.
A preliminary version of "The Name of the Game" was worked into the 1977 feature film ABBA: The Movie, for which it was written. When it was eventually finished, it was released as the lead single from ABBA: The Album in October 1977. 
Same album and yet another No.1 with Take A Chance On Me in 1978. That same year the group scored No. 5 hit with a more disco style hit called Summer Night City. 



Now the group were having real problems between themselves and the lyrics of some of other songs were reflecting those problems. Enter 1979 and a new album called Voulez Vous which contained the No. 2 hit Chiquitita which means in Spanish little one.

The group went uptempo on the next hit called Does Your Mother Know. The next three singles of that year all got as high as No.3 in the British charts and ended the 70s domination of Abba.
Those three singles were Voulez Vous the title track from the album,. The second from the same album was Angel Eyes. Their final hit single of the 70s was a another high tempo style hit. Gimme Gimme A Man After Midnight.



Sunday, August 16, 2020

Monday, June 1, 2020

Saturday, May 2, 2020

Never A Hit in the 1970s

There are songs that we hear and are convinced that they were massive hits in the 1970s. However, as you will see this is just not the case. Here are some classic that never charted in the TOP 30 in the UK charts during the 1970s.

Carpenters
1974
I wont Last A Day Without You
1975
Solitaire


Bonnie Tyler
1979
Married men

Steely Dan
1975
Do It Again
1978
FM No Static At All
1979
Rikki Dont Lose That Number
Fleetwood Mac
1977
Go Your Own Way
Dont Stop
You Make Loving Fun
1978
Rhiannon
1979
Sara

ABBA
1974
Ring Ring
1975
I Do I Do I Do I Do

Diana Ross
1970
Reach Out And Touch Somebody's Hand
1974
Love Me
1976
I'm Still Waiting
1979
It's My House

Eagles
1978
Heartache Tonight
Dire Straits
1979
Lady Writer

Bay City Rollers
1977
You Made Me Believe In Magic

Elton John
1972
Honky Cat
1976
Bennie And The Jets

Marvin Gaye
1973
Let's Get It On

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Talking to Alvin Stardust and some NINE OCLOCK NEWS

Alvin Stardust in conversation with Johnnie Walker
More about Alvin Stardust https://hits-of-the-70s.blogspot.com/2011/03/artist-watchalvin-stardust.html
Not The Nine O'Clock News Sketch which was a BBC sketch show that launched Rowan Atkinson in the late 1970s.
70s montage including ABBA,, ABC NEWS about Vietnam,Harold Wilson talking to David Dimbleby,Fatty Bum Bum by Carl Malcom, bbc news theme, Upstairs Downstairs theme,. President Carter talking. Shaft by Issac Hayes and BBC1 closedown