ABBA's "SOS"

It is regarded by many as one of the greatest musical compositions recorded.

I'm glad you linked the REMASTERED version. It feels so different than the original.

I always wanted to sample Benny's Swedish meatballs.

There are so many better ABBA songs than SOS.

Knowing Me, Knowing You for starters:

Waterloo is my favorite. SOS is fun and definitely up there though.

My favorite is Fernando. Piece of trivia from Wikipedia:

It is one of fewer than forty all-time singles to have sold 10 million (or more) physical copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time.

The remastered sounds exactly the same to me.

I agree that SOS is one of their very best from a production standpoint - a wall of sound to rival Phil Spector.

Their last single is my personal favorite, "The Day Before You Came", because it's so simple and broken down, and open to numerous interpretations: was she murdered? lived happily ever after? something else? Plus Agnetha has given up trying to enunciate English correctly and the off diction makes it even odder.

It is an excellent song indeed, OP. I love the live version that the group sang during their Eskilstuna concert back in 1974. Interestingly, Frida sang the second verse in the same key as Agnetha, and when they're both belting the bridge, you can see why their voices complimented each other so very well - their sound at the top was surprisingly similar, with Agnetha's diamond-like brightness being complimented by Frida's silvery, girlie tone.

Personally, I think that Chiquitita is one of the band's most elaborate and beautiful songs. The harmonies are insanely elaborate and the interesting thing is that each singer takes the main vocal line at different parts: Agnetha does the verses while Frida does the lower harmony, and then Frida goes up a full key to do the chorus, while Agnetha does the stratospherically high upper harmony.

The love that many people have for ABBA is entirely justified, as they were a BRILLIANT band.

It is indeed superb, but for me the title track from The Visitors is their finest song.

The Visitors is in my opinion by far their best album. It includes absolute masterpieces, such as the title track as mentioned by R10, Slipping through my fingers hauntingly sung by Agnetha with superb harmonies by Frida. I hear the music speak, which showcases Frida’s chops in musical theatre. Or Like an angel passing through my room, which Madonna covered for the Ray of Light album, but eventually didn’t include it as she realised she just couldn’t compare to Frida. The latest releases of The Visitors include a few bonus tracks, including The day before you came, which I agree is probably ABBA’s best song.

One thing I would say though is that as much as I love ABBA, I think calling it an end in 1982 was wise. New Wave was around the corner, Depeche Mode were going to release their first album, Visage had score a massive hit with Fade to Grey, etc. ABBA’s music could not have competed with the taste of the time.

"Bring Me Edelweiss" sampled "SOS" heavily.

Of course of the biggest bands of 1981, who openly admitted their admiration for ABBA when it was far from cool to do so, was The Human League.

The Sound: Drama Queen

Best or not, my favorite pick-me-up song is Move On. It's not often recognized, not sure it ever became a single anywhere. But from the very beginning with the piano it gets me a low-key positive energy of 'everything will be fine'.

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[quote] Plus Agnetha has given up trying to enunciate English correctly

That made me laugh so much. Yeah Agnetha’s English always sounded, erm, “exotic”. Although this song was the product of their very last recording sessions, and by then they all hated each other as well as ABBA. It’s a miracle they still came up with such a sublime song.

Angel Eyes is another one that's well-produced. It's not as easy to cover as it seems, as John Grant showed us.

Hasta Manata was their best tune with Eagle a close 2nd.

I could never enjoy Fernando or Chiq. Ugh.

Their Marionette song annoyed me for a time, but it grew on me & now I enjoy it whenever I come across it.

This is my absolute favourite ABBA song.

Love it.