ABBA Album: “Number Ones [DVD]”

It seems everyone took credit for the first rock video. It was ABBA who created the form. The Ring Ring, Waterloo and SOS clips are definitely recognizable as rock videos. ABBA fully defined the musical format which would prevail into the 21st century. If this is not understood in the States, it is because their videos had no forum. In the 1970s, rock video had not yet taken over television. This happened with the rise of cable. The early clips display the raw energy which characterized ABBA in the '70s. Later ones are situational, more a product of the format itself. As with the albums, the videos capture a maturing process.

1 People Need Love - The beginning.

2 Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure Is Hard Enough) - They are walking toward us. They will walk away in Under Attack.

3 Waterloo - ABBA began their onslaught right after Eurovision. A bust of Napoleon is flashed. Agnetha wears her blue cap and pantaloons. Frida has on her cowboy shirt. Benny is on the upright piano. Bjorn plays his Star Wars guitar. All are young and eager. There is a museum in Stockholm which houses these costumes. Swedish Waterloo is performed in a bandshell.

4 Ring Ring - ABBA used the peacock fashion of the disco years to an advantage. The wide lapels and platform shoes did not distract from the music. Agnetha's two-piece showcases her assets well.

5 SOS - Shots of the group looking up. They are dressed for cold weather. Blurred double images.

6 Mamma Mia - Agnetha's white outfit laces up. She and Frida turn back to back. I like the shot of them looking perpendicular to one another, a profile against a full face. They used this technique often. The video accents the staccato effect of Benny's keyboard.

7 I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do - Benny and Bjorn play saxophones, the ladies with glossy sex appeal.

8 Bang-A-Boomerang - Going for a comic book effect. The impact of lovers coming together is compared to the wallop packed by super heroes.

9 So Long - Rare clip in cat costumes.

10 Fernando - Around a campfire. The setting sun and the stars keep props to a minimum.

11 Dancing Queen - Note Benny's keyboard introduction. The girls wear dark jumpsuits in a disco. They sing "see that girl" and point to the dancers. Frida bobs, and Agnetha uses her eyes.

12 Knowing Me, Knowing You - Winter scenes. Both couples hugging and kissing. An alternate clip uses boating scenes. Sailing is a favorite sport among Stockholmers and a pastime enjoyed by the quartet. Stockholm is on the Baltic Sea.

13 Money Money Money - Frida's lead in a wide-brimmed hat. Benny drives the car. Swedish crowns, U.S. dollars.

14 When I Kissed The Teacher - Agnetha kisses him twice, once at the skeleton and again over her geometry.

15 My Love, My Life - Agnetha's reflections close up. Where is Frida?

16 Tiger - Agnetha drives.

17 That's Me - In our face. We get to know them. Seven clips came out of Arrival.

18 Eagle - The girls, wind-blown with scenes of a soaring eagle. Swirling colors and Agnetha's searching eyes! The alternate was in The Movie.

19 Take A Chance On Me - The girls dance around the guys, who sit moping. They roll their eyes and wink seductively. Agnetha is a knockout. The long curve of her back is incredibly sexy. She wears a red flower in her hair. An alternate aired on The Midnight Special in the States.

20 One Man, One Woman - Frida looking great. Overlapping faces.

21 The Name Of The Game - Swedish parcheesi. The alternate is part of The Movie. That ABBA was able to make two clips of several songs during this period is evidence of their strength.

22 Thank You For The Music - Agnetha in her rabbit outfit. Tongue, eye and hand movements. The girl with the golden hair.

23 SummerNight City - The girls stroll through images of night. Frida jives, and they sing back to back. Dawn appears, and they crawl home. We glimpse the Royal Palace and Af Chapman in Skeppsholmen.

24 Voulez-Vous - Discotheque atmosphere with dancers. Agnetha shakes it in tight pants. She smiles and lights up the world.

25 Chiquitita - In front of a snowman.

26 Does Your Mother Know - Bjorn's lead.

27 Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! - In the studio. We get our first look at Michael B. Tretow. This was done the day they left for the U.S. tour. The instrumental interlude is absent.

28 Super Trouper - ABBA stands in the midst of a circus troop. The Super Trouper is the spotlight, and Agnetha points to it during the song.

29 Happy New Year - Agnetha sings after the party. She is a living doll, the flower of womanhood. She joins a depressed Bjorn at the window. The circus people again.

30 The Winner Takes It All - Agnetha's sad face is reflected in Benny's piano. Red heels and blue eye shadow. Black and white photos recall the past.

31 Lay All Your Love On Me - Terry Byrne did this for club promotions in Chicago. He packed action shots into the framework of The Day Before You Came, a condensation of ABBA's career.

32 On And On And On - Stills before a concert audience. The ladies are butterflies. An extra verse is tacked on. Humpty Dumpty.

33 Head Over Heels - Frida is Agnetha's friend. She primps and goes shopping. Bjorn is her henpecked husband.

34 When All Is Said And Done - Frida in green looking out to sea from a rocky coast. Looking over their shoulders while walking away foreshadows a breakup.

35 One Of Us - Agnetha moves into her new flat after leaving Bjorn. She paints and hangs wallpaper. Among her things is a book called The Divine Garbo. When the Swedish press wants to irritate Agnetha, it calls her the new Garbo. Greta Garbo was Sweden's great movie star during who became known for her reclusiveness. Youth and beauty are fleeting. There is this idea of becoming different people at different times. It derives from the failure of art to capture life. No sooner is the picture taken or the ink dried on the line than we have outgrown it.

36 The Day Before You Came - Agnetha makes eyes and has an affair with a man she meets on a train.

37 Under Attack - Flashing red light. Warehouse setting. They converge and exit through the front door. Droidlike demeanors forecast techno.

All of Abba's #1 hits all over the world!!! I love this DVD!!! The only great songs that are missing are: "Angel Eyes" and "Eagle" and "Lay All Your Love on Me". Guess those never made it to #1!!!

I have "The Definitive Collection" (TDC) DVD and had used to wonder, "Why do we need this 'ABBA: Number Ones' DVD?" But recently (many years after having watched TDC) I realized this newest video collection (2006) was actually an excellent and important release for ABBA fans. Here are a few reasons why you need this DVD even though you already own "The Definitive Collection" (2002) and/or "ABBA Gold" (2003) video albums:

- Audio Quality: While the two other DVDs feature a lossy audio of Dolby Digital stereo, this album has PCM stereo, which is "uncompressed" audio like that of CD. So the sound is a lot more powerful and natural with deep bass and clear treble. The difference is like night and day! If you have a good A/V system, you can fully enjoy the great sound.

- Vision Quality: When I ordered this DVD, I assumed the video quality might be the same as TDC. I was wrong! Compare to TDC, the improvement is easily noticeable. One obvious example is "Chiquitita". You will see much more detail in the video. With the enhanced resolution together with PCM stereo sound, my watching experience of the music videos becomes more "real". Sometimes I feel like I'm watching a whole new video.

- Waterloo (Corrected Version): On the TDC version, there's a serious out-of-sync problem at around 1:00 where Agnetha & Frida lip-sync while the music is an instrumental bridge. Now it's corrected with the right film!

- Ring Ring (Corrected Version): It is known that the US 1974 remix was used as soundtrack on the TDC version. On this DVD, the original UK 1974 remix was used. So, now the version is totally original.

- Unique Extras: As the other reviewer mentioned, the DVD includes a live version of "Waterloo", two other live performances and a Number One scrapbook which lists all the countries the each single topped the charts in. My favorite is the live version of "Waterloo", where ABBA actually perform instead of lip-syncing.

Overall, this DVD is a great buy if you want a more and better ABBA. Even though the DVD contains only 19 songs plus extras (TDC has 30 plus extras), you will be surely happy with its quality, technical accuracy and new extras. I just hope a blu-ray that includes all the video clips in even higher quality is released any time soon.

My daughters fell in love with the movie Mama Mia, thus the music from ABBA, so we ordered some ABBA dvd's and they are great! It is fun to watch them giggle at what I used to think was SO cool! My only complaint is that Amazon sure does take their time shipping. I ordered other items from other distributors through Amazon, and received them at least a week before my Amazon items showed up. They like to take their time getting items to the customer.

I received the ABBA: Number Ones disc and enjoy it very much. I have viewed it a couple times, now I play it like a CD and listen to it while working around the house. I also bought the ABBA: Gold DVD. I think both of them are very similar. If you buy one and money is a factor, you may not want the other. But I like having them both. The music is great and the girls are beautiful. And they have such a great sound.