What is your favourite ABBA compilation ?

I don’t really need ABBA compilations, but if I ever do, it’s the historical ones. Greatest Hits (ending with Fernando) and Greatest Hits Vol 2. The first one especially was the first time many people had bought those songs. The second one was less interesting as all songs were familiar. I have both albums on my phone and if I do listen (which is rare) it will be in the original running order from start to finish.

More Gold was OK as it did have a “new” track on (I Am The City) but I’ll generally avoid any compilation from the 1980s onwards.

I'm not a fan of compilations generally. Of those released by ABBA, The Definitive Collection is the one I always recommend for innocent bystanders. It has everything: all the hits from Gold, plus the gems that couldn't be included; everything is in chronological order, so that the band's growth can be appreciated; and the packaging is elegant.

I was doing a clear out some months ago and reacquainted myself with More ABBA Gold and i was far better and more enjoyable than I remembered. Yes, the random track sequencing is bonkers, but it's nice that some of the lesser-known songs get an airing.

Apart from Gold, I think it's fair to say that Greatest Hits (perk bench) is iconic. 

I always adored The Very Best of Abba double album. All those gorgeous glossy, colour photos. 

I'm not generally 'wowed' by compilation albums, to say the very least. Generally, I like to hear songs in their natural habitat (i.e. the original album), although compilations can be handy in terms of sweeping up standalone singles etc. In fact, I even held out from succumbing to ABBA Gold until 18 months ago, when an ill-timed adrenalin rush coincided with a visit to the Amazon website. I did once have the picture disc version of The First Ten Years, picked up for next to nothing from a bargain rack in Our Price (remember them?) in the mid-80s. That only reinforced my suspicion of compilations in general, as the first disc was a significantly better listen than the second and we all know that ABBA only got better as they went along, don't we?

Interesting to hear that, jchanabbafan. The version of Ring Ring that was a hit in Australia (though not until 1976) was the remix, whereas in Europe (not the UK) it was the original version.

Are you sure the 1974 remix is on the German "Best Of ABBA" LP? The Dutch pressing of the same LP has the album version which had also been a top 5 hit in 1973. I have the LP that includes Fernando. It was the first ABBA album my parents bought for me.

I have a CD of the Australian Best Of ABBA but unfortunately it's of an atrocious quality. Some intros are cut off and there are sudden volume changes. Don't know how this got through quality control.

Always loved the Thank You For The Music release from 1983, lovely flow of songs, loved the fade in/out of songs. I even loved the album cover, so 80’s and all four look amazing.

I like best The Singles and The Definitive Collections - songs are in chronoligical order. The latter does have somr classics - and a few duds too.

There are lots of artists I like bit only have compilations. I have neither the time nor inclination to go through all their studio albums.

Attists like Elvis Presley, Diana Ross, Bob Marley, Dolly Parton, Queen, Manic Street Preachers, Carpenters, Dusty Springfield.


There's of course many ABBA fans who only know or want to know the familiar hits and have Gold or any of the multitude of other compilations.

Back in the day, definitely Greatest Hits. The only one I play now is More Gold. I really like the selection and the track order. And of course, it has I Am The City, my favourite 1982 song.

The original Greatest Hits. At the time we (my brother bought the records but I listened as well!) didn’t have the ABBA or Waterloo albums so this was the first time we’d heard those songs (by ABBA anyway - we’d heard a cheapo soundalike album before then).

Even when we did finally have the other two albums there were still the four tracks from Ring Ring that remained exclusive. It was another couple of years or so until we got that one (prior to that it was a mystery as to where they’d come from).

Greatest Hits Vol 2 is OK but we’d got all the songs already, and only two of them not on an album. However, I still like it.

I have both albums on my phone now and if I’m going to listen to an ABBA compilation (very rare) it would definitely be one of those two (the first Greatest Hits ends with Fernando, not starts with it - that’s just wrong!). The historical context, having first heard them in the 1970s, means they’ll always be the go-to for me, whereas I never listen to Gold, More Gold or any of the others. The Singles I did play a lot when it came out, simply because it was mine (my brother didn’t want to get it) but not that keen on it now.

The UK compilation Thank You For The Music is one that I’d like to hear again, simply because the tracks segue or cross-fade into each other. I liked that at the time, it worked quite well. And again, it was mine!

Gracias Por La Musica is something of a hybrid, neither a compilation nor a studio album, but again I quite like that.

Mine has to be Greatest Hits Vol. 2, as that was the first one my family owned and I played it to death (and you never forget your first love). We didn't get the first 1976 Greatest Hits until 1980 and that was on cassette, so I didn't have the same joy of a gatefold sleeve and the iceberg inner sleeve as I got with Volume 2. By 1982 I was 12 so was buying my own music, so got (and loved) The Singles - The First Ten Years, and then the colourful Thank You For The Music 1983 compilation, but GHV2 will always be the compilation to evoke nostalgia and emotions (ABBA Gold is amazing but I have no emotional connection to the album itself).

The Singles The First 50 Years - I just ❤️ the fact that there's 4 tracks from Ring Ring and 5 from Voyage. Clearly ABBA's best albums

A brilliant way to mark this special year. We are so lucky!!!

I was just looking at the tracklisting of the Thank You For The Music set from 1994. The first three discs are effectively an expanded version of either Definitive or Essential (and most of The Singles 50).

Six tracks from Arrival are on it and five from The Album (though I Wonder is the live version and The Name of the Game is the edited one). For Ring Ring there are five tracks (the four usual suspects plus Another Town, Another Train, though also She’s My Kind of Girl - if we count that - is tucked away on disc 4).

That set would definitely rank, for me, as the best of the 1990s and beyond compilations. Easy to forget now, but prior to that the b-sides were very hard to come by (and I’d never even heard Merry-Go-Round or Santa Rosa before then, but I’d long known about them). It’s the set that got me fully back into ABBA after a decade. I’d got the Gold and More Gold VHS tapes but otherwise only had More Gold on CD (which I’d bought for I Am The City).

Good memories of that set. Still have it, and it’s on my phone, but never listen to it. But it was magical to have all those tracks, and some previously unreleased ones too. Aside from Voyage, no ABBA release since has been that exciting.