News

ABBA are set to release their latest – and as of a few years ago, truly – career-spanning compilation this fall.

Available October 25 on two CDs or four LPs, The Singles (The First Fifty Years) updates the concept of 1982’s The Singles (The First Ten Years), a double album which collected 23 of the group’s A-sides (including new tracks “The Day Before You Came” and “Under Attack,” effectively the final works from the group after members Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad as well as Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog divorced.

The First Fifty Years expands the offering to 38 tracks, including all the favorites you know and love: their breakthrough Eurovision Song Contest winner “Waterloo” (which turned 50 this year), “S.O.S.,” “Fernando,” “Mamma Mia,” the immortal disco classic “Dancing Queen,” “Take a Chance on Me,” “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight),” “The Winner Takes It All,” “Super Trouper” and so many more. The set features the band’s most complete presentation of A-sides yet, including ones that were released in other territories. And, for the first time on an ABBA compilation, The First Fifty Years also includes tracks from their surprise reunion album, 2021’s Voyage. Historian Carl Magnus Palm writes liner notes in an accompanying illustrated 28-page booklet.

Though ABBA have been apart longer than they were together in the ’70s and ’80s, it feels like they’ve never been more popular. 1992’s ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits remains a high watermark in CD compilations and a consistent seller throughout the years. Cult films like The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Muriel’s Wedding reintroduced new generations to their work, as did the unexpected popularity of a turn-of-the-millennium youth cover group called The A-Teens. Madonna sampled “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” in 2005’s “Hung Up” and got her 36th Top 10 hit for her trouble. The fan favorite musical Mamma Mia!, which weaved more than 20 ABBA tracks through a family wedding with three potential fathers of a young bride, was a smash hit on both the West End and Broadway and was adapted into a blockbuster film in 2008 that got its own improbable sequel a decade later.

Speaking of improbable, the Stockholm premiere of Mamma Mia! found Andersson, Ulvaeus, Lyngstad and Fältskog making their first public appearance together in nearly two decades. Though the group famously turned down as much as $1 billion to reunite on stage, ABBA did announce a planned virtual tour (performed by digital “ABBAtars” created with effects house Industrial Light & Magic) and the recording of a few new songs for a planned TV special. Though these plans laid in limbo during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, a year later, the group shocked the world with the announcement of Voyage, their final studio album (consisting of new performances and updated outtakes) and the accompanying virtual experience, housed in a custom-built arena in London.

It’s that incredible long tail that will be celebrated on The Singles (The First Fifty Years). It’s coming October 25, and can be ordered below. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

The Singles (The First Fifty Years) (Polar, 2024)

2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
4LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

CD 1/LP 1-2: 1972-1979

1. People Need Love
2. He is Your Brother
3. Ring Ring
4. Love Isn’t Easy (But It Sure is Hard Enough)
5. Waterloo
6. Honey Honey
7. Hasta Mañana
8. So Long
9. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do
10. SOS
11. Mamma Mia
12. Fernando
13. Dancing Queen
14. Money, Money Money
15. Knowing Me, Knowing You
16. The Name of the Game
17. Take a Chance on Me
18. Eagle
19. Summer Night City
20. Chiquitita
21. Does Your Mother Know

CD 2/LP 3-4: 1979-2022

1. Voulez-Vous
2. Angeleyes
3. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
4. I Have a Dream
5. The Winner Takes It All
6. Super Trouper
7. Lay All Your Love on Me
8. One of Us
9. Head Over Heels
10. When All is Said and Done
11. The Day Before You Came
12. Under Attack
13. I Still Have Faith In You
14. Don’t Shut Me Down
15. Just a Notion
16. Little Things
17. No Doubt About It

CD 1, Tracks 1-4 from Ring Ring (Polar, 1973)
CD 1, Tracks 5-7 from Waterloo (Polar, 1974)
CD 1, Tracks 8-11 from ABBA (Polar, 1975)
CD 1, Track 12 from Greatest Hits (Polar, 1976)
CD 1, Tracks 13-15 from Arrival (Polar, 1976)
CD 1, Tracks 16-18 from ABBA: The Album (Polar, 1977)
CD 1, Track 19 and CD 2, Track 3 from Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (Polar, 1979)
CD 1, Tracks 20-21 and CD 2, Tracks 1-2 and 4 from Voulez-Vous (Polar, 1979)
CD 2, Tracks 5-7 from Super Trouper (Polar, 1980)
CD 2, Tracks 8-10 from The Visitors (Polar, 1981)
CD 2, Tracks 11-12 from The Singles: The First Ten Years (Polar, 1982)
CD 2, Tracks 13-17 from Voyage (Polar, 2021)