ABBA Album: “Ring Ring”

When ABBA arrived in the US via Atlantic Records in the early/mid 70's; the earliest work you could get of them was the "Waterloo" album. Although some tracks from "Ring Ring" did show up on their "Greatest Hits" LP in '76, most of us had never heard the rest of the tracks from this, their first album. I am delighted to finally be able to add this first album to my ABBA collection. Although some people find the tracks on this album to be inferior to their later releases, I find this album to reflect their "roots" if you will. Most of the tracks reflect a happy upbeat time in the groups career; a far cry from some of their later releases which reflected sadder times in the members personal lives. The best tracks on the disc include "Ring Ring," "Another Town, Another Train," "He Is Your Brother," and "Rock 'N Roll Band." And yes, while it is easy to tell that this album was the beginning of what would become a phenominal sensation all over the world, the mood of this album is more true to life of what the group was all about. If you're a fan of the group as a whole, you will want this album. If you're only a fan of their biggest hits, you might want to skip it.

I originally purchased this album on vinyl (anyone remember that format?) from a Swedish record dealer during the late 1970s. At that time an ABBA obsessive, I was rather confused as to why "Ring, Ring" had never been released in the U.S. After hearing the tracks on this album, I understood why Atlantic had chosen against issuing it stateside. While some of the songs, particularly "Ring, Ring" itself, Agnetha's compilation "Disillusion" and "I'm Just a Girl" are pleasant enough, others, such as "Rock 'n' Roll Band" and "Me and Bobby's..." are shockingly bad. To be fair, every ABBA LP contained at least one song that should have remained in the vaults, and this effort was issued very early in their collective career. The preponderence of awful songs on this album, however, makes it one to skip for all but the most die-hard fans.

Madonna and Britney Spears had great first albums. However, this isn't one of them. While I enjoy ABBA's later albums, this one never quite rises above silly with a bunch of fillers. One example is "Me and Bobby and Bobby's Brither." Gosh, it's annoying now!!! I used to like it. After ABBA evolved into more mature artists (by next years 'Waterloo,' they were already MUCH better) they are more enjoyable. Far more than this ... piece of immature ....

ABBA entered the song Ring Ring in the 1973 Eurovision contest and lost. Agnetha was glad they lost because she was pregnant. They won the contest the following year in Brighton, England. Ring Ring was the title track on this first album. Their four names were on the cover. Manager Stig had coined the acronym, ABBA, but first had to negotiate with a fish canning company of the same name. "ABBA" is a word for father in the Bible, appearing three times in the New Testament. Ring Ring was re-released following the Eurovision victory. Neil Sedaka wrote the English lyrics. Listen to Benny run his finger down the keyboard. It is called glissando.

I am a 36 year old male and always haveand always like ABBA. It's one group that I really unwind to and also havegrown up with them in a sense. No collection is complete without atleast one CD from this group. Harold Conner