By Randal C. Hill
From 1974 to 1982, Sweden’s ABBA quartet sold a reported 400 million discs. Along the way, the group never heard one word of complaint from the owner of a Swedish fish-canning factory. (More about that later.)
ABBA consisted of two married couples from Stockholm: Bjorn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Faltskog, and Benny Anderson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Bjorn and Benny had worked together for years in various groups.
Enter Stig Anderson. An ex-teacher who had started Polar Records in the early 1970s, Anderson met and signed the foursome, naming them ABBA by using the first initial of each of their names. Now he needed to get them noticed. In a big way.
The Eurovision Song Contest had been held annually since 1956 and was often a highlight of the European TV year. Between 100 – 600 million viewers watched each event, with participants representing their home country performing original three-minute songs.
Related: Revisiting ABBA’s “Waterloo”: Eurovision Song Contest (1974)
ABBA entered the contest in 1974 with the Bjorn and Benny-created “Waterloo,” which compared a young woman’s surrender to her suitor’s advances to Napoleon’s being vanquished at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815:
Waterloo, I was defeated, you won the war //
Waterloo, promise to love you forevermore
That Eurovision night, Bjorn and Benny provided onstage instrumentation while the spotlight mainly fell on their gorgeous wives, resplendent in flashy outfits and frolicking in well-choreographed steps. The ladies blew millions of minds that night as ABBA swept away the competition.
Related: Music Flashback: Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling”
ABBA eventually released hit after hit worldwide. On our shores, 14 of their Atlantic Records reached Billboard’s Top 40 singles charts, with one gem—“Dancing Queen”— streaking to Number One in 1977. The group was voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.
A little-known fact is that before Stig Anderson could register the name ABBA, he had to obtain permission to use that name, as a Swedish fish-canning company named Abba Seafood had been around since 1838. Agnetha Faltskog later recalled that the company owner had initially grumbled, “Okay, as long as you don’t make us feel ashamed for what you’re doing.”
