|
|
Post by chron on Nov 4, 2019 1:11:30 GMT
OMG, I couldn't disagree more with No. 95's assassination of The Winner Takes It All. What histrionics? Agnetha's actually very restrained (except when she hits the high notes). I'm allergic to schmaltz myself and this is anything but. It's actually rather touching and has a simple, beautiful, touching melody with achingly true to life lyrics which most people can identify with. Agnetha believes it to be a small masterpiece and I agree with her. The millions of fans (and non-ABBA fans) that love the song aren't all wrong. I like your posts a lot but this kind of thing baffles me, it doesn't seem real. I might diss a Van Gogh. Anyway, it's all good- we can't all agree all the time. It's a very sad song and I like to hear my feelings echoed in art and music sometimes. A track like When All Is Said And Done is the other side of the coin but they're both valid, universal experiences. Many people HAVE experienced emotional desolation after a break up- this song simply expresses that. Most of us do pick ourselves up and 'move on'. You've actually gone quite easy on me - I was quaking a bit after I submitted my marks when I read how you said you wouldn't be able to take seriously anyone who gave TWTIA a zero! As for the song itself, there's never been a time when I derived any pleasure or comfort from listening to it, or identified much with the way its sentiments are expressed; my dislike of it has never been replaced by or evolved into enjoyment or appreciation over the many years I've been subjected to it. And it really is everywhere; a few years ago, ABBA were represented on popular radio by a core of about five or six songs - Waterloo, MM, SOS, DQ, KMKY and TWTIA - but these days TWTIA seems to elbow the others out of the way most of the time, and we face the prospect of it winding up as their representative capsule pop statement. I had to make some small stand! Thanks for elaborating. I think I gave Intermezzo No. 1 a zero so I'm a bit of a hypocrite really. It's good to see I share some of my likes with others. If KMKY reaches the top spot, it'll be great as it's a cracking track. As I've said before I think, there are so many excellent ABBA songs that I feel quite a few deserve joint top billing. I wish The Visitors had reached top ten. Still, this is a bit of fun.
4. "SOS" from ABBA
"When you're gone, how can I even try to go on?"     average: 9.214286 points (highest score: 10 = Ginger Spice, Cerulean, Gary, Chelseacharger, Johnny, No.95, Smugasacat, TheDayBeforeYouCame, lowest score: 7 = Flitwick) No.95 said, "Their first masterpiece. A pop song that hits harder than many rock songs; addictive as a whole, and with a chorus hook from the gods. After SOS only a fool could continue to dismiss ABBA as a novelty Eurovision flash-in-the-pan." |
|
|
|
Post by chron on Nov 4, 2019 16:29:09 GMT
3. "The Name of the Game" from The Album
"I was an impossible case. No one ever could reach me."  average: 9.5 (highest score: 11 = Chelseacharger, lowest score: 8 = Ginger Spice, Flitwick, Smugasacat, Foreverfan) Hometime said, "A beautifully elegant take on someone with low self-esteem not being quite able to believe that this new relationship might be going somewhere. I like that Agnetha and Frida seem to play two sides of the same woman, like they do on the mini musical. Agnetha gets the slightly more optimistic role, and Frida is assigned more vulnerability than usual." No.95 said, "Although KMKY is their greatest track and deserves the top mark, this is my favourite. Mellow, mature, thoughtful, and so evocative. It calls to mind memories of European cities I've lived in or visited, as well as building pictures in my mind of ones I haven't, like Stockholm (and always evokes these places as they look and feel during the same, specific time of day: dusk), and you can't beat a bit of European cosmopolitan nostalgia. It always feels as though I'm about to meet an old friend again whenever I hear this start up." |
|
|
|
Post by chron on Nov 4, 2019 16:33:52 GMT
So Arrival takes the summit.... but which song?  |
|
|
|
Post by chron on Nov 4, 2019 17:03:03 GMT
 2. "Knowing Me, Knowing You" from Arrival"Here is where the story ends, this is goodbye."    average: 9.85714 points (highest score: 11 = Johnny, No.95, lowest score: 9 = Alan, Noctum, Foreverfan, Shoshin) Hometime said, "Such a beautifully knowing (no pun intended) and mature break-up song. It’s just as poignantly “true” as TWTIA and just as deserving of the accolades." TheDayBeforeYouCame said, "It was this song that cemented my love for ABBA." No.95 said, "Their finest track, and one of the best pop tracks ever, full stop; it sits comfortably in the pantheon alongside the likes of Strawberry Fields Forever and Good Vibrations. The way the chorus spirals and unwinds never fails to lift my spirits - I swear I can pick out an almost Bach-like descending line in it that isn't actually sung by any one member, just suggested somehow by the way the voices combine, like that op art picture of one triangle laid over another, where the form of the upper one is suggested by wedges cut out of a set of circles. Magnificent." |
|
|
|
Post by chron on Nov 4, 2019 17:14:24 GMT
Originally posted: Wed Apr 27, 2016 4:51 pm 
1. "Dancing Queen" from Arrival"Night is young and the music's high."     average: 9.92587 points (highest score: 11 = Gary, Foreverfan, lowest score: 8 = Chelseacharger) Ginger Spice said, "it's kind of hard to deny how brilliant the song is. Something so beloved has to be perfect, right? It's just a wonderful tune and totally deserving of being the 'signature song' in ABBA's catalogue, if there even is such a thing. I love that it's so undeniable that it even went #1 in the U.S.!" Hometime said, "I still find it hard to believe this was recorded more than 40 years ago. The production has withstood the test of time quite beautifully. The real star of the show is the vocal performance. Just listen to it under headphones. Incredible stuff." TheDayBeforeYouCame said, "It's still young and sweet, after nearly 40 years later." No.95 said, "A glittering, glamorous yet guileless world-within-a-world. One of those tracks that uplifts but also induces a pang of regret - we're looking on rather than participating, and the uplift we feel is derived vicariously, pulling on memories old or imagined, as we watch someone else live in the moment without a care." |
|
|
|
Post by foreverfan on Nov 4, 2019 17:21:02 GMT
I don’t think to many people would be disappointed, me for one 🤪always has and guess always will be my favourite..
Obviously all of us would have a different top 10 with a track lower down in this chart being higher, but that’s the fun of these, we will never agree on a definitive top 10 and we shouldn’t ...
|
|
|
|
Post by chron on Nov 4, 2019 17:37:42 GMT
Daniel, you are a legend. Thank you so much for this fun project. We need more of this kind of thing. That was great, well done and thanks for undertaking such a task! I've loved reading the comments on the songs, even the negative stuff as it makes you reevaluate things. I was unsure how it would pan out initially as so few seemed to participate but it worked out rather well. And Dancing Queen at numero uno...well, it's kind of the ultimate pop song, isn't it? Majestic and uplifting but sad at the same time. It evokes such complex emotions that are hard to put into words (but others do so much better than me!) Still processing the results, but no complaints about how it ultimately panned out or with the winner; we probably all knew that DQ was well-nigh unbeatable. I'd got the battle for runner-up spot and third place down as a tussle between KMKY, TNOTG and the dreaded (which actually traipsed in in a surprising - and personally gratifying! - 9th [equal]). A big round of applause to GS/Daniel for coming up with this and then doing all the work for it (sourcing and attaching an appropriate pic or animation for each entry was a great touch). A super effort, sir; engrossing and thoroughly enjoyable stuff. Firstly, many thanks for doing all of this Daniel and in such a visual and enjoying way, thanks.  Secondly, I my opinion, there could only have been one winner, and thankfully it turned out to be true. With those surprises along the way, I had doubts. I remember the day I first heard it, 40 years ago a spotty 14 year old in flares, and having heard for the millionth time, I'm still in love with that song as much now as then, thankfully the spots and flares have gone. Yes it's over played, it's on every greatest hits, it's played at most weddings etc, etc, but at the end of the day, and yes I'll use the word, it's iconic and deserves its place at number one, and the ultimate ABBA tune. Graham [foreverfan], you echo my thoughts exactly. Slightly surprised we were the only two to give Dancing Queen top marks. But I guess there is quite a lot of competition from all those other classic songs ABBA produced. Nice to see LIke An Angel Passing Through My Room is so highly thought of. That song is important to me, as I had it played at my partner's funeral. The alternate versions are also very nice, particularly Another Morning Without You. I hope eventually we will hear the equivalent of FATSTAPA for other songs. Thanks Daniel, that was fun. Thank you gingerspice for this nicely presented countdown, great job! I also loved the pictures you posted, many of them I hadn't seen before. Wow Rankings: Up: Like An Angel Passing Through My Room, Soldiers. Down: I Have A Dream, Chiquitita. Pleasantly Surprised: I'm A Marionette, One Man One Woman, I've Been Waiting For You, My Love My Life, Eagle, Gonna Sing You My Lovesong, Angeleyes. Grrrr Moment: Andante Andante (The campaign to convince of this songs magnificence continues)  No dissension over the top song here. It's not in my personal top 10 favourites but recognise its undeniable place in pop history. 2nd, 3rd and 4th got 10's and the 11 from me. Great to see songs from 'The Visitors' album doing well too. Thanks for all your sterling work on this topic, Gingerspice. There are quite a few zeros but no others given to a song quite as, shall we say, prominent as The Winner Takes It All. Probably the closest is a zero given to Does Your Mother Know. Take a look at the lower echelons of the countdown. I gave mine to I Am Just A Girl, which I think is well deserved. Those 'nil points' scorings in full: I Am Just A Girl (gary, Hometime) Crazy World (Ginger Spice) Man In The Middle (Smugasacat) Intermezzo (Cerulean) Watch Out (Nocturn) He Is Your Brother (Johnny) Does Your Mother Know (Shoshin) The Winner Takes It All (no.95) Those early '0's must've not consciously registered with me as they were popping out. One of the late peeves for me was not clocking that Slipping Through My Fingers had gone out in the lower reaches of the 20s. Arguably the best track on The Visitors (or best equal track, along with the title track), and in ignorance I was thinking: Yeah, top ten; I'm not going to argue with that! Like An Angel... is a great track (and hats off to it for placing highly), but an evanescent one, and I'm not sure how effectively it would stand up as an isolated track. Its spectral aspect is very much of departure and death, and much of its power and meaning comes from the specific place it occupies on The Visitors, and in ABBA's output as a unified, album-creating group. Can't remember playing/hearing it by itself; it always follows on from its partner track, Slipping Through My Fingers (the two form a mini suite if you like, focusing on the passing of time, loss and death). Putting aside the fact that it's an album closer (nonpareil), could it ever 'work' in some sort of Best Of/compilation setting? [Like An Angel... has been on a compilation:] 90s Love Songs. I think it could have worked well on a more carefully considered "More Gold" type compilation. ABBA have enough interesting, low-key tracks to warrant a compilation, without lumping them in the lazy "love songs" category. I can imagine it working quite beautifully on a Frida best-of (if she ever deigned to release such a thing), like the ABBA tracks selected for Agnetha's That's Me collection. It's a good list. Every song is more or less where I'd expect it to be. I can't see anything that's too much higher or lower than it should be. [Re:'0' mark for TWTIA] Are you serious [No.95]? Surely this is over-familiarity influencing this? I didn't even give Super Trouper nil points. In fact, I think I gave it a 4. How can anyone give The Winner Takes It All a zero? On the plus side, I'm pleasantly surprised that Two For The Price of One didn't get a zero. Apart from TWTIA, all the other tracks in the zero list are understandable. I couldn't be that unkind though. None of ABBA's songs deserve nil points. Hey, I'm still having a hard time believing that Andante, Andante got a 10! And I'm always serious about my loathing for TWTIA! You're right that over-exposure fed big-time into this (the only time I couldn't eliminate [reputation] from a consideration of a song's merits), but a part of it is plain strong dislike. Outside of the constraints of Megarate, I'd agree with you about no ABBA track deserving a zero. In fact, I was agreeing with you before the countdown had begun - this is what I said in the thread where GS was flagging-up Megarate: [T]he idea of having a '0' option I'm not so happy with. While there are two or three ABBA songs I loathe, none deserves a score of less than '3,' but with the best will in the world I'll probably still end up giving one of them a zilch, because I know others will likely be dishing one out, too. Edit: re-read GS's OP and he says the criterion for a zero award is 'least favourite,' so on that basis, The Winner Takes It All, I'm giving you both barrels, guilt-free! It's funny really. That's a cracking countdown and I think most people are agreed that Dancing Queen makes a fitting number one. However, when I chance to listen to a song like SOS, my opinion wavers! In many ways, this is ultimate ABBA - that incredible lead vocal by Agnetha, Benny's flourishes, the combined third voice, the rocky ''when you're gone'' part...how could anyone argue that this is ABBA at their best? |
|
|
|
Post by chron on Nov 4, 2019 18:07:30 GMT
Here's the official list: 01. Dancing Queen 02. Knowing Me, Knowing You 03. The Name of the Game 04. SOS 05. Take a Chance on Me 06. One of Us 07. Like an Angel Passing Through My Room 08. Fernando 09. The Winner Takes It All 09. Summer Night City 11. Eagle 12. Lay All Your Love on Me 13. The Visitors 14. When All is Said and Done 15. Mamma Mia 15. When I Kissed the Teacher 17. Money, Money, Money 18. If It Wasn't For the Nights 18. One Man, One Woman 20. Soldiers 21. Chiquitita 22. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) 22. My Love, My Life 22. I've Been Waiting For You 22. As Good as New 26. The Day Before You Came 26. Kisses of Fire 28. Slipping Through My Fingers 29. I'm a Marionette 29. Move On 31. Our Last Summer 32. Hole in Your Soul 33. Angeleyes 34. I Let the Music Speak 34. Cassandra 34. The Piper 37. That's Me 37. Tiger 39. The King Has Lost His Crown 40. Waterloo 40. Voulez-Vous 42. Should I Laugh or Cry 43. Super Trouper 44. Head Over Heels 45. Happy New Year 45. Elanie 47. Ring Ring 48. Bang-A-Boomerang 49. I Wonder (Departure) 49. Dance (While the Music Still Goes On) 51. Lovers (Live a Little Longer) 52. Gonna Sing You My Lovesong 53. The Way Old Friends Do 53. I Am the City 55. Honey, Honey 55. Lovelight 57. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do 57. So Long 57. On and On and On 57. Hasta Mañana 61. Thank You For the Music 62. Under Attack 62. Another Town, Another Train 62. Hey, Hey Helen 65. Andante, Andante 65. Me and I 65. Why Did It Have to Be Me? 68. Arrival 69. Does Your Mother Know 69. Dum Dum Diddle 71. Disillusion 72. My Mama Said 73. Nina, Pretty Ballerina 74. I Have a Dream 75. Put on Your White Sombrero 76. Dream World 77. Two For the Price of One 77. Happy Hawaii 79. You Owe Me One 80. Tropical Loveland 81. People Need Love 82. Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure is Hard Enough) 83. He is Your Brother 83. Suzy-Hang-Around 85. Medley: Pick a Bale of Cotton/On Top of Old Smokey/Midnight Special 85. What About Livingstone? 87. Watch Out 88. She's My Kind of Girl 89. Rock'n'Roll Band 90. Rock Me 91. Me and Bobby and Bobby's Brother 92. Intermezzo No. 1 93. Man in the Middle 93. Crazy World 95. Sitting in a Palmtree 95. I Am Just a Girl 97. Merry-Go-Round 98. Santa Rosa 99. King Kong Song 100. Åh vilka tider 101. I Saw It in the Mirror Thank you all for your really nice comments and thanks to everyone who participated. Even though it was quite a bit of work, I had a lot of fun doing this, and I'm really glad that you all seemed to enjoy it! I'd love to do more things like this in the future, although maybe some that are a bit less work-heavy! |
|
|
|
Post by HOMETIME on Nov 4, 2019 21:59:52 GMT
And thank you, Orf, for resurrecting this in such precise detail. It was great fun. Not gonna lie: some of the placings and some of my comments are so far from any recoverable memory, that I'm beginning to get slightly anxious about my fading grey matter! But here's my question: what are we going to do with ourselves now?!  |
|
|
|
Post by chron on Nov 5, 2019 3:14:45 GMT
Bit of a higgle-piggle, layout-wise, especially towards the end, but we got there (again!). As to what we do with ourselves now: we wait for the new tracks to appear. And then maybe one day, when we can all face it, we could consider attempting another of these, with the new material added and fair game for a rating!
|
|
|
|
Post by foreverfan on Nov 5, 2019 10:25:18 GMT
It was interesting to read through again and many thanks for posting. Id imagine of great interest for those who weren’t around when first published. Like all these charts there is fundamentally little difference, most of the older tracks at the bottom, B sides middle and single releases at the top end. The only one that may move substantially is The Day Before You Came, which seems to have gained a little bit of a cult status in recent years, so would imagine it could be a top 10 track now.. Im sure we will get around to doing it again soon, when if ever  New tracks released. That said the chart would be slightly bias I’d imagine due to new tracks instantly becoming favourites, and feature high.. unless they are rubbish of course Highly unlikely.. we wait.... |
|
Secondly, I my opinion, there could only have been one winner, and thankfully it turned out to be true. With those surprises along the way, I had doubts. I remember the day I first heard it, 40 years ago a spotty 14 year old in flares, and having heard for the millionth time, I'm still in love with that song as much now as then, thankfully the spots and flares have gone. Yes it's over played, it's on every greatest hits, it's played at most weddings etc, etc, but at the end of the day, and yes I'll use the word, it's iconic and deserves its place at number one, and the ultimate ABBA tune.
New tracks released. That said the chart would be slightly bias I’d imagine due to new tracks instantly becoming favourites, and feature high.. unless they are rubbish of course