Okay, unless you’re a hardcore ABBA fan, you can give Carl Magnus Palm’s detailed and extremely thorough biography, Bright Lights Dark Shadows: The Real Story of ABBA – a miss. I am a hardcore fan, so I persisted with all 554 pages.

My love affair with ABBA began at age six. My birthday was all planned when, two days before the party, I got the mumps. Socially devastating when you’re in prep! My dad repaired the disaster by buying me ABBA’s Arrival album and a bottle of Lucozade (“Because that’s what the Queen drinks when she’s sick.”). No party, but my new school friends came over frequently to dance to Arrival.

A whole generation of children were ‘playing ABBA’ alone in front of their bedroom mirror or together with other friends. Miming to the records with skipping ropes as pretend microphones, they’d be quarrelling about who was to be Frida or Agnetha.

For the record, I was always Agnetha.

Was there anything in this book that I didn’t already know? A few bits and pieces. For example, I didn’t realise that Hasta Mañana was almost picked for Eurovision over Waterloo. Equally, I always thought Ring, Ring was their first big hit, but it was actually People Need Love.

Palm’s account of ABBA’s history highlights that stardom isn’t about ‘luck’ or about the people you know. It’s about sheer persistence. The members of ABBA had been musicians for years before forming the band. In those years, they worked night after night in tiny venues, on the summer concert circuit (where the pay hardly covered their costs travelling between concert venues), and being their own support crew.

After reading this book, I considered an ABBA project, much like my Bruce Springsteen project but ABBA songs and albums were not released in an orderly way (singles came out long before albums, some songs were only ever B-sides, and releases were made in different parts of the world at different times). Instead, I’m listing my top 20. This was really hard. Others have done it (here, here, here) but those lists are obviously wrong 😉

20. Ring Ring
19. So Long
18. Why Did It Have To Be Me?
17. When All Is Said And Done
16. Thank You For The Music
15. Gimme, Gimme, Gimme!
14. Rock Me
13. Voulez-Vous
12. Mamma Mia
11. The Name Of The Game
10. Knowing Me, Knowing You
09. Waterloo
08. Super Trouper
07. One Of Us
06. Lay All Your Love On Me
05. My Love, My Life
04. Take A Chance On Me
03. The Winner Takes It All
02. Dancing Queen
01. SOS

2.5/5

As part of the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge, I’m comparing the Belfast summer and Melburnian winter. The results for the day I finished this book (July 6): Belfast 9°-15° and Melbourne 5°-12°.