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There was an interesting thread on ABBAMAIL’s mailing list recently concerning why ‘ABBA GOLD’ seems to have been the main ABBA compilation album that the public have preference in acquiring and adding to their collection.

It most certainly is not the most defining compilation album of ABBA’s career, it’s anything but that, but the manner in which it was put together deserves to be lauded. ‘ABBA GOLD’ came at a time when the world was beginning to take an interest in ABBA again and despite not being that extensive a compilation, it contained what the audience it was targeted for wanted, the hits ABBA were remembered by, and judging by it’s sales, quite fondly remembered.

Definitely a safe bet at the time in 1992, so much so, that today the album still sells. It was the best of ABBA, not too little, not too much, just enough, 19 of their best known and in some cases biggest hits all on one CD. There was no picture on the cover so it was not dated, no tracks were in their order of release, no chart placings accompanied each song and the CD booklet was an interesting read, full of facts and figures that really would not mean much to Joe Soap in the street other than the success story of a pop band.

I’ve found in the last few years, the majority of compilation albums are not necessarily geared towards the fans, but more towards the general public where the old hits are plugged over and over in a bid to sell the product. One song from a few years ago heard in an advertisement can more often than not jar your memory and the next time you walk into a record store, it’s voila! There is this greatest hits CD or compilation album staring at you and this song you heard over the radio or on a television commercial is right there in your face and off you go ending up with a new CD of material that is in fact not new.

The fans that buy these compilations do so for different reasons, it may be sound quality, the booklet in an effort to glean more information that they may not already know or merely wanting to see some never seen before pictures, and then there are those that simply buy it for the sake of supporting the artists that they adore. I know I fit into each one of these categories and I’m sure there are many others who do as well.

I also have no doubt that there are quite a few who have also noticed that different versions of a compilation album are released, one for the general man in the street and then one for the die-hard fan who will purchase the ‘little’ extra due to it being available as a limited edition or as a ‘new’ release. I’ve fallen into that trap not only with ABBA but also with other favourite artists that I’ve enjoyed and followed for years.

The one instance was a classic greatest hits compilation, all the best hits, and then another edition of the same CD with a second disc, more songs from the same artist, some lesser hits and some in formats not initially released, a couple of live tracks, but nothing new from this artist. I ended up with both after not realizing there was a second CD with more on it on offer initially. There were no new recordings on this compilation set, but yet, there were some things that a real hardcore fan would want simply to satisfy their own need and once these had been satisfied, the CD is put away and rarely gets used. These artists, they’re pretty clever when they want to be.

I don’t mind compilations, as long as it has something new on it, I don’t want to buy the same old same old all the time, which is maybe why some parts of the ABBA releases from the last few years are becoming a little tiresome, it’s the same old same old the whole time. I bought a compilation from another favourite artist of mine recently, with songs in my collection already, but on this compilation two tracks were live performances, one was a re-mix and then there was an accompanying DVD of the songs on the CD that I did not have as there has never been an official collection of videos released, so I really did not mind buying the same old same old because I was getting something that I wanted from this artist that I did not have in my collection.

I can remember the days when a compilation CD or record would include a couple of new songs or non-album tracks that had been released in an intermediary period between the next album, as a lure to get people like us to buy the records. ABBA did it, at least three times in their career as ABBA, 1976 with ‘Greatest Hits’, 1979 with ‘Greatest Hits Volume 2’ and in 1982 with ‘The Singles – The First Ten Years’, and on each occasion the resulting compilation was a success, and in some instances a big one.

But, where ABBA are concerned it did not stop there, 1993 brought ‘MORE ABBA GOLD’ with a ‘brand new’ track on it, this compilation was targeted at fans, the general public would not have gone doolallytap over ‘MORE ABBA GOLD’, ‘ABBA GOLD’ was and as has been proven, been enough for them and then the same happened in 1994 with the ‘Thank You For The Music’ box-set, more unreleased ‘new songs’, definitely only for the fans that one. There was too much on that set for the general public who wanted a bit of ABBA in their collection to take in.

And, I’ll say this with conviction. A couple of years ago, my Dad was seated in my lounge browsing the CD’s and could not believe how many copies of ‘ABBA GOLD’ there were, my explanations as to why there were so many he just simply could not justify. He took a copy out and turned the cover over to peruse the tracks and stated that he thought this to be a good compilation of ABBA’s work, so I told him to take one and he did. I nearly fell over backwards, this was my Dad who has despised ABBA for years and now taking one of my CD's to listen to in his car. I offered him ‘The Definitive Collection’ instead which in my opinion is far more comprehensive, but he declined, ‘ABBA GOLD’ was enough ABBA where he was concerned.

To me ‘ABBA GOLD’ is not the best retrospective of ABBA’s career, yes it has it’s place in recording history as a great selling album that has charted for many weeks over the last 15 years and yes, it’s been at number 1 in quite a few countries on a couple of occasions in this time, but to me it is not a proper compilation album. ABBA’s hits are not entirely correctly reflected on ‘ABBA GOLD’, a more thorough compilation would have been ‘The Definitive Collection’, simply the best of ABBA’s single releases from start to finish, but, it would have been too much for the general public who simply want what is on ‘ABBA GOLD’ as opposed to having songs like ‘People Need Love’, ‘Head Over Heels’, ‘The Day Before You Came’, ‘Honey, Honey’, ‘Hasta Manana’, ‘Angeleyes’ ‘When All Is Said and Done’, ‘The Visitors’, ‘Ring, Ring’ and ‘He Is Your Brother’ thrown in on a compilation. The lesser-known hits are not an option where the general public is concerned. Classics to fans, but to the general public, it’s too much.

Unfortunately, like so many other compilation albums, ‘ABBA GOLD’ is here to stay, as much as it irritates us hard-core ABBA fans, this compilation has actually served a purpose, it has helped put ABBA back on the music map, re-ignited our passion for their music and given us so much more ABBA that could actually have remained where it all ended at the end of 1982, in the vaults.

Neil