ABBA at 50

Product Information

And it only struck me this morning that we’ve also had Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again since we last spoke. I caught up with Carl Magnus, who has also co-produced a number of television programmes about the band, contributed to his beloved home city’s ABBA The Museum, and worked as a consultant to Polar Music in their ABBA reissues project, earlier this week, and he suggested life was pretty good on the other side of the North Sea. After winning 1974's Eurovision Song Contest with their song "Waterloo," ABBA catapulted to fame, capturing hearts across the globe with their melodic and ever-so-catchy pop songs.

ABBA at 50 by Carl Magnus Palm is a delightful history of the individuals as well as the group, complete with beautiful photographs. Beautifully illustrated with essential images, this book examines the group's enduring legacy and much-loved musical repertoire of perfectly crafted pop.Based in Lancashire since 1994, after a free transfer from Surrey following five years of 500-mile round-trips on the back of a Turkish holiday romance in 1989. After winning 1974’s Eurovision Song Contest with their song “Waterloo,” ABBA catapulted to fame, capturing hearts across the globe with their melodic and ever so catchy pop songs. A decade on, the ABBA Gold greatest hits compilation became a global bestseller, then in 1999 their music was adapted into successful musical Mamma Mia! I remember 30 years ago when people said to me, when I was working on my first book, ‘You better hurry up, before the ABBA revival dies down. It’s very detailed stories about how the album sleeves were put together, it’s about chart success, it’s about how the record company people in the UK and the US primarily promoted or tried to promote their music.

As a child of the 70's, I was very aware of ABBA right from the start of their popularity in the United States; my older brother had a 45 of "Waterloo". As a 50+ year ABBA fan, while I enjoyed the written portion as a career compilation recap, there was nothing new in the content to set it apart from other biographies written by individuals other than the subjects themselves. But I don’t think I’ve properly encountered a telephone attached that way since the days my Mum would take herself off to the hall, perching at the bottom of the stairs while chatting to friends and family.

From their humble beginnings in post-war Sweden to global superstardom, ABBA at 50 charts the remarkable story of this Swedish quartet. A People's History of Slade (Spenwood Books, 2023) and This Day in Music's Guide to The Clash (This Day in Music, 2018), currently writing, editing and collating Solid Bond in Your Heart: A People's History of The Jam (Spenwood Books, 2024). He presents them honestly as fallible people who have gone through extraordinary things in their lives. But of the bands that are around today, the ones that I’ve bought every album and everything are the Fleet Foxes. Emerging victorious from Eurovision in 1974 with winning tune “Waterloo,” ABBA catapulted to fame and captured hearts across the world with their melodic and ever-so catchy pop songs.

The other thing is that, because everybody else is so super-excited about it, and, ‘Ooh, it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen. Yeah, I have, I mean it’s mostly just a matter of typing it out and finding the right tone for that book. This was an interesting book and I learned a lot about a band I loved and found it so interesting especially the beginning.Even my teenage daughters love Abba and because I knew next to nothing about them I couldn’t wait to read this book.

That’s always a thrill, you know, when you have a new book out, and it’s, ‘Oh, wow, it actually exists! I interviewed people who used to work for CBS in the 1970s and who were involved with the ABBA catalogue, or putting together commercials, or running up to radio stations or whatever they had to do.Responsible for ABBA music reissue liner notes and several books including the exhaustively comprehensive "Bright Lights, Dark Shadows", this book comes at a perfect time. However, while technology, fashions, interior design decor and lay-outs change, ABBA remain a force to be reckoned with, half a century after their first English language recordings.