How many weeks was SOS number 2 in Australia ?

I’m friends with Ian Cole on Facebook, so I knew he would have the answer to this. He said:

“What an interesting question. SOS was at number 3 for one week, then three weeks at number 2 for three weeks, while Mamma Mia was number 1. When SOS finally got to number 1, Mamma Mia dropped to 3.”

Unfortunately he’s not answered your other question, about whether it fell back to number 2 after being number 1, and for how many weeks.

Update - more from Ian:

In the time that Mamma Mia was number 1, SOS was out of the chart the first week. Then 77, 48, 30, 21, 6, 3, then the 3 weeks at 2. After SOS’s week at number 1, it was 5 weeks at number 2. So yes, it was 7 weeks at number 2 😊

Alan - 3 weeks at number 2, followed by a further 5 weeks, would total 8 weeks, not 7...?

Yes, that level of interest could not have been maintained. However, the “backlash” isn’t quite as bad as is often made out. First evident in 1977, when Knowing Me, Knowing You “only” made number 9 there, ABBA continued to have top 10 hits (The Name of the Game, Chiquitita, Does Your Mother Know, Gimme Gimme Gimme, The Winner Takes It All, On and On and On). It was only One of Us and all subsequent singles that really failed, but One of Us was their last UK top 10 hit and after that few countries maintained support.

We should remain thankful that ABBA quit whilst they were still (relatively) ahead. I’d have hated to see a further chart decline had they carried on. Their time was (at that point) well and truly up.

I sometimes wonder about ABBA’s status, to use a fancy word, in Australia today. While I’ve seen a couple of good documentaries done there in the last years (The Bang a Boomerang and the Sunday Night programs), and people like Ian Cole are among the group’s foremost banner carriers, my Aussie friends of roughly my age were quick the bring up their name when they first learnt I was Swedish, but in a half-mocking way, expecting us to join in laughter. They seemed genuinely surprised when I said I really liked them. And the percentage of Australians on this forum seems to be very low (even though the founder is one, of course).

From all one hears about the mania in the country around 1977, the backlash must have been inevitable, humanly speaking. That kind of saturation is literally impossible today with a totally different media landscape. I get the feeling that the Muriel and Priscilla movies somehow illustrate their position nowadays: even though they are very different, they have important things in common, apart from coming out simultaneously. Both use ABBA’s music as an integral part of the storyline, and both have misfits as their central characters, the overweight girl fantasizing in her room, the lost drag queens in the Outback…So maybe they’re seen as an instantly recognizable cultural reference, but still something a little bit odd?

Couldn’t they have played Tropical Loveland instead which was the B-Side to Fernando for a change?

Onlyabba4me, thanks a lot for your information!!  I would like to know how many weeks and what chart positions Abba hits from I do x5 to Money money money money had in the Australian Top Ten . Do you have a source for that ? Thanks in advance !

  ABBA had 16 Top 10 Singles, in Australia. They had 144 Top 10 Weeks and 84 Top 5 Weeks. 6 of their Top 10
  Singles were No.1's, with 42 No.1 Weeks between them. (In the UK, they had 19 Top 10 Singles, with 114 Top
  10 Weeks, 84 Top 5 Weeks, & 9 No.1's, with 31 No.1 Weeks. So, they had 84 Top 5 Weeks, in both Countries).

  As you can see, after 'Money, Money, Money', ABBA only had 1 more Australian Top 5 Single - 'Chiquitita', which
  was No.4 in 1979. It would have been interesting, to see how, 'Hole In Your Soul' would have done there, in 1977.
  RCA wanted it to be the Australian Single, as they were not keen on 'The Name Of The Game'. ABBA refused to
  allow it and 'The Name of The Game' Peaked at No.6 there...

  NOTES -- Ring Ring had only been a No.92 Australian Hit, in 1973. 'Rock Me' was a 1976 No.4 Hit, in Australia, in
  1976, even though it had been the 'B' Side of their 1975 No.1 'I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do'. 'Rock Me' was a 1976
  No.2 New Zealand Hit, even though 'I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do' had also been, a 1975 No.1 Hit, in that Country.

ABBA's SINGLES IN THE AUSTRALIAN TOP 10

  W/E 5th August 1974 -- Waterloo -- 7-6-4-5-7-9-9-9

  W/E 22nd September 1975 -- I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do -- 9-4-2-1-1-1-2-5-7-7-10

  W/E 20th October 1975 -- Mamma Mia -- 9-4-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-3-4-5-5-7-10

  W/E 8th December 1975 -- SOS -- 6-3-2-2-2-1-2-2-2-2-4-6

  W/E 15th March 1976 -- Ring Ring -- 10-7-7-0-0-0-10

  W/E 29th March 1976 -- Fernando -- 2-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-2-2-2-3-3-6-7-8-9

  W/E 10th May 1976 -- Rock Me -- 9-7-5-7-5-4-4-6-8

  W/E 23rd August 1976 -- Dancing Queen -- 8-3-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-2-4-5-6-7-10

  W/E 8th November 1976 -- Money, Money, Money -- 5-1-1-1-1-1-1-2-4-8

  W/E 28th March 1977 -- Knowing Me, Knowing You -- 9-10-10

  W/E 12th December 1977 -- The Name Of The Game -- 10-7-7-7-7-6-10

  W/E 19th March 1979 -- Chiquitita -- 9-5-5-4-4-5

  W/E 9th July 1979 -- Does Your Mother Know -- 9-9-7-8

  W/E 24th December 1979 -- Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) -- 10-10-9-8-8

  W/E 13th October 1980 -- The Winner Takes It All -- 10-7-10-9

  W/E 19th January 1981 -- On and On and On -- 10-9-10 

Really surprised at TACOM not hitting the top 5 never mind top 10. Not surprised @ KNKY considering Arrival had sold so well by then.... most people would already had it by then. Maybe Abba should have listened to the record label there about best release in that territory from The Album. However TNOTG is one of ABBA’s finest recordings. Should have done better there. Wonder stole ABBA’s crown in Australia in 1977...Boz Scaggs? Meatloaf? Kiss?