ABBA Mania Part 2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Angeleyes

Epic felt that "Angeleyes" would be favoured more by the public due to its resemblance of other classic ABBA ballads. The joint single peaked at number three, with "Angeleyes" being the more 'dominant' A-side. Everywhere else, "Angeleyes" was simply the B-side to "Voulez-Vous".

Answer: Does Your Mother Know

Most singles saw Agnetha and/or Frida on lead vocals, but a notable exception was "Does Your Mother Know". Upon release, it hit number one in Belgium, the top ten in various other countries such as Britain and Australia, and the top 20 in the United States.

"Summer Night City" features all four band members sharing lead vocals, "Honey, Honey" sees Björn sing a small passage (the song is led by the girls), and "Take a Chance on Me" sees him (along with Benny) supply the famous backing vocals.

Answer: The Beach Boys

To give an example of musical tributes to The Beach Boys, take the song "On and On and On". The backing 'do do do' backing vocals (performed by Benny) are based on those from the Beach Boys song "Do It Again".

Answer: True

They shared this record with the Beatles, with both groups amassing 18 consecutive top ten hits, in ABBA's case branching from "SOS" to "One of Us" over a period of six years. They had 19 in total, the only non-consecutive one being "Waterloo".

Answer: Atlantic

Whereas most artists sign with one record label that acts worldwide, ABBA signed with several different ones for each country, so that they would provide the maximum amount of advertising of the band in the country the label was located in. Epic was ABBA's UK label, Polar was for Sweden and RCA for Australia.

Their success in North America was more moderate than elsewhere. The head of Atlantic Records once said, "We were doing okay, but they were nothing like they were everywhere else. Everywhere else it was like The Beatles".

Answer: 1978

They had been engaged since 1969, but were not married until 6th October 1978, which coincidentally was the same day that "Summer Night City" topped the Swedish charts. Sadly, their marriage ended in 1981, just three years later.

Answer: Agnetha - Soprano; Frida - Mezzo-Soprano

Many of ABBA's songs were written in a key that meant the girls had to push themselves to reach the higher notes. Because Frida's vocal range didn't reach as high as Agnetha's, this meant that she was much more strained than Agnetha was in reaching the high notes.

There are, of course, a number of exceptions, such as "Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "Money, Money, Money", where a lower key comes into play.

Answer: The Name of the Game

One of ABBA's most unusual and complex songs, "The Name of the Game" is about a girl who goes to a psychiatrist and subsequently falls in love with him. If that sounds surreal, such a lyric was specifically requested for the psychiatrist theme in "ABBA - The Movie".

It was another hit single for ABBA, topping the charts in the UK, hitting the top ten across Europe and Australia and number twelve in USA.

Answer: People Need Love

Indeed, right from the beginning ABBA records were available in the USA, though until "Waterloo" they were called "Björn & Benny with Svenska Flicka", and were released on a label called "Playboy Records". It peaked at number 114 on the Cashbox singles chart and number 117 on the Record World chart. That may not seem like much, but for a completely unknown quartet from Sweden it wasn't bad at all. Stig claimed that it could have been a bigger hit for the group, but because Playboy Records was a very small label, it did not have the distribution resources to allow this to come true.

Answer: So Long

"So Long" was the first single release from the album "ABBA", and was chosen primarily because its uptempo, rock-influenced beat was similar to that of "Waterloo". It was a top ten hit in Sweden and Austria, and peaked just outside the top ten in West Germany, but failed to make any impact elsewhere. In the UK it didn't even manage to chart.

Answer: Fernando

"Fernando" was originally written for Anni-Frid Lyngstad, for her 1975 solo album "Frida ensam" (meaning 'Frida Alone', appropriately enough), with Swedish lyrics. After becoming a huge hit in Scandinavia, the band decided to record an English language version as an ABBA single, and it ended up being one of their biggest hits.

Regarding "SOS", it was originally an ABBA song, but Agnetha recorded a solo version in Swedish later.

Answer: She's My Kind of Girl

The track was actually recorded in 1970, and did not involve the two girls in any shape or form. The Björn and Benny single managed to become a top ten hit in Japan, and a minor hit in their homeland Sweden.

The emphasis of the question on NOT being the remastered version is because that included "Merry-Go-Round" and "Santa Rosa", bonus tracks not featured on the original album that did not feature the girls either.

Answer: That's Me

"Watch Out" was the B-side to "Waterloo", "Crazy World" was the B-side to "Money, Money, Money" and "When I Kissed the Teacher" was solely an album track (though strangely it had a promo clip filmed for it anyway).

Answer: False

"Ring Ring" was also recorded in German, and was backed with a German version of "Another Town, Another Train". They also recorded German and French versions of "Waterloo".

Answer: The Visitors

"Head Over Heels" and "Slipping Through the Fingers" were led by Agnetha, and "Two for the Price of One" was led by Björn. Interestingly, none of the tracks on "The Visitors" see Agnetha and Frida sharing lead vocals, not even the remastered version which has several bonus tracks.

Answer: Angeleyes

To try and achieve success in Latin American countries, several of their songs were recorded in Spanish. Among them, a Spanish version of "Angeleyes" was planned, but never came to fruition. In 1993, an album was released called "ABBA Oro: Grandes Éxitos", compiling their most popular Spanish recordings.

Answer: Five

Indeed, in the 1980s every worldwide ABBA single bar one had Agnetha on lead vocals, the one exception being "Super Trouper". And on four of those five singles, the B-sides were led by Frida. Was this done consciously on ABBA's part? Probably not, but it's still interesting nonetheless.

In North America, it was a different story, where "When All Is Said and Done" was released instead of "One of Us", and "The Visitors" instead of "Head Over Heels", which featured Frida on lead vocals.

Answer: Frida

Frida's first husband was Ragnar Fredriksson, who she married and had her first child with (named Hans Ragnar) in 1963, aged just 17. In 1967, she had a second child, Ann Lise-Lotte. They separated in 1969, the divorce being finalised the following year.

However, Benny came close to marrying beforehand. He was engaged to Christina Grönvall after she became pregnant by him (he was only 16 at the time), and in 1963 a son was born, Peter, and later a daughter, Lisette. However, they separated in 1966, and were never married.

Answer: Slipping Through My Fingers

However, "Slipping Through My Fingers" did appear on a later compilation called "That's Me". Also, the compilation title, "My Love, My Life" was the title of a song from ABBA's album "Arrival", and of course was on the compilation too. Interestingly, only "The Winner Takes It All" was actually a big hit for the group; the others were either solely album tracks, or did not become a sizable hit.

Answer: Two

Those two singles were "I Know There's Something Going On" and "Shine", the former being the more successful of the two by a considerable margin. It hit #1 in Belgium, France, Switzerland and Costa Rica, reached the top ten throughout most of Europe, Australia and South Africa, and even hit the top 20 in the United States! However, it didn't do so well in the UK, peaking at a lowly number 43.

It eventually sold 3.5 million copies worldwide (the album "Something's Going On" sold 1.5 million).

Answer: $1 billion

Yes, one billion dollars--$250 million each. The group would be expected to perform 100 concerts, in an attempt to cash-in on the recent revival of interest in their music (mostly because of the "Mamma Mia!" musical), yet they refused the enormous offer, claiming that they wanted people to remember ABBA for what they were at the time: young and exuberant.

To put that into perspective, in the mid '70s the Beatles were offered $30 million to regroup (which was also declined). Based on exchange rates at the time, it's equivalent to over £619 million or 8.87 billion Swedish krona.

Answer: False

Not quite. Volvo made more. ABBA, however, was a definite second place!

Answer: Anthem

Benny had written it in 1976, and shown it to the other members, all of whom decided that the song was not suited for ABBA, and thus it was used in the musical instead. However, there are remnants of it in one ABBA song, "Our Last Summer", during the bridge. They hoped that no one would notice when they used it later on...

Answer: Honey, Honey

The most famous use is "Knowing Me, Knowing You", but the first use was actually quite early in ABBA's career, with the 1974 single "Honey, Honey". The reason 'ah ha' was added to the songs was essentially to act as lyrical filler, when Björn felt that the track felt empty in the short space of time between lines. Other songs to include 'ah ha' are "Voulez-Vous" and "Angeleyes".

Answer: Lay All Your Love On Me

It also didn't feature "Honey, Honey", most likely because of time restrictions of the vinyl era. This album was eventually superseded by "ABBA Gold" in 1992, which in itself was also superseded in 2001 by "The Definitive Collection". Though the title does make you wonder. "The FIRST 10 Years" seemed to be implying that there would be more to come... but there never was.