release date: Nov. 17, 1975
format: vinyl (1976 reissue)
[album rate: 4 / 5]
producer: Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus
label: Polar - nationality: Sweden
Best of album by ABBA released only 2½ years after the band's debut album Ring Ring (Mar. 1973). At this point, the band has released three studio albums and one best of album The Best of ABBA (Aug. 1975), however, that had only been released outside of Scandinavia by other labels, which made Polar, who issued music by ABBA in Scandinavia compile an 'original' best of album, which is this one. Also, all twelve songs from the international album are found on Greatest Hits with the addition of two songs to the tracklist (3 for the 1976 issue).
The album was actually my first physical issue by ABBA. It was a Christmas present at age 10 from my parents in '75, and it was the Danish cassette-issue of the album with 14 tracks. Only a few years back from now, I purchased a used issue of the Scandinavian '76-reissue, which comes with the band's then new single "Fernando" as a bonus track. I was pretty happy listening to ABBA as young but I never paid much attention to their discography and basically only ever owned two original albums by ABBA back then: this one, as my first ABBA-album, and the studio album Arrival (Oct. 1976), which I was handed as a Christmas present in '76. After that, I even purchased a poster for the album, which hang in my room for the following 5 years, I guess, before being substituted with a poster with gothic rock band Bauhaus.
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This post is part of MyMusicJourney, which enlists key releases that have shaped my musical taste when growing up and until age 14. Most of these releases come from my parents' and / or my older brother's collection.
