Monday Music "ABBA...Dancing Queen and S.O.S"

This is another installment of Monday Music.  I decided to go with ABBA, I was an Army dependent(I was 10 years old) living in Frankfurt Germany because my Dad was stationed there.  Well anyway there was this group in Europe that was on fire, there was ABBA pandemonium all over Europe, they were on the radio, on TV on magazines, on corner billboards...everywhere.  And I liked the music.   Even now when I hear it, it has a lot of depth, they called it " wall of sound" and it even now sounds good all these years later.

ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972, comprising Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. ABBA is an acronym of the first letters of the band members' first names (Agnetha, Benny, Bjorn and Anni-Frid) and is sometimes stylized as the registered trademark ᗅᗺᗷᗅ. They became one of the most commercially successful acts in the history of pop music, topping the charts worldwide from 1972 to 1982. They are also known for winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, giving Sweden its first victory in the history of the contest and being the most successful group ever to take part in the contest.
ABBA had sold over 370 million albums and singles worldwide and still sell millions of records a year,^[1][2] which makes them one of the best-selling music artists of all time. ABBA was the first pop group to come from a non-English-speaking country that enjoyed consistent success in the charts of English-speaking countries, including the UK, Ireland, the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines and South Africa. The group also enjoyed significant success in Latin American markets, and recorded a collection of their hit songs in Spanish.
During the band's active years, Fältskog and Ulvaeus were a married couple, as were Lyngstad and Andersson, although both couples later divorced. At the height of their popularity, both relationships were suffering strain which ultimately resulted in the collapse of the Ulvaeus-Fältskog marriage in 1979 and the Andersson-Lyngstad marriage in 1981. These relationship changes were reflected in the group's music^{[citation needed]}, with later compositions including more introspective lyrics.
After ABBA broke up in late 1982, Andersson and Ulvaeus achieved success writing music for the stage while Lyngstad and Fältskog pursued solo careers with mixed success. ABBA's music declined in popularity until several films, notably Muriel's Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, revived interest in the group, spawning several tribute bands. In 1999, ABBA's music was adapted into the successful musical Mamma Mia! that toured worldwide. A film of the same name released in 2008 became the highest-grossing film in the United Kingdom that year. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 15 March 2010.^[3]

<sup>Dancing Queen, their only American #1 hit

And S.O.S  I like this song also</sup>

^{Also When they broke up in the early 80's Freda went on to have a solo career with a popular song called"I know that something is going on"}
  
Recording began in ABBA's Polar Music Studio, Stockholm, in February 1982. As ABBA were unofficially on a break, Lyngstad spent time on her solo project. At the time of recording this song/album, Frida wanted to distance herself from "the typical ABBA pop sound". "I Know There's Something Going On" was written by Russ Ballard and produced by Genesis drummer & singer Phil Collins, who also played drums on the song. The backing vocals are sung by Lyngstad herself & Collins.
The song and video were released in Autumn 1982 and became a massive hit. It hit No. 1 in France (spending five weeks on top), Belgium, Switzerland and Costa Rica and was a Top 10 hit throughout the whole of Europe, as well as in Australia and South Africa. In the United States, the track reached No. 13.^[1] In the UK, the song peaked at No. 43 in September 1982 and spent seven weeks inside the Top 75.
The single sold 3.5 million copies worldwide.
A one hour TV documentary about the making of the album and this song, is included in Frida - The DVD. The whole recording process, from day one in the studio to the release party, was filmed by Swedish TV SVT. This documentary includes interviews with Frida and Phil, Björn and Benny from ABBA, as well as all the musicians playing on the album.

Music video

The music video was directed by Stuart Orme and filmed at several locations in London, England in early July 1982. The video, which received heavy promotion on MTV due to the worldwide success of the song, shows Frida as a young woman in a struggling relationship. She then discovers through photos taken at a fashion shoot that her husband or lover is seeing another woman.
The video is included in Frida - The DVD.

     In October 1984, Ulvaeus and Andersson together with lyricist Tim Rice released the musical concept double album Chess. The singles "One Night in Bangkok" (with vocals by Murray Head and Anders Glenmark ) and "I Know Him So Well" (a duet by Barbara Dickson and Elaine Paige, and later also recorded by both Barbra Streisand and Whitney Houston) were both hugely successful. The former reached number 1 in Australia, Germany, Spain and Switzerland; number 2 in Austria, France and New Zealand; number 3 in Canada, Norway, Sweden and the US, as well as reaching the top 10 in a few other countries.