World of Chig   

13.4.04

#13 Mamma Mia
It took four singles after Waterloo for ABBA to crack the UK number one spot again, but this was the one that did it. Unleashed upon the world two weeks before the end of 1975, it’s a minor miracle that it reached anywhere near #1, let alone staying there for a fortnight, as its initial chart run was a pretty hopeless 32-29-29(again) before it leapt up to 12-3-1. Chig’s theory on this is that Mamma Mia was given relentless subliminal advertising by the record which was number one for all the time ABBA were climbing the chart. “Mamma Mia let me go”, sang Queen and in the end it did indeed let them go, as ABBA replaced ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ at the top of the charts after nine weeks. Mamma Mia remains one of the few number ones which is namechecked by the single it displaced at the top of the chart. (Feel free to name any others, because I can’t, but there are probably a few with ‘love’ as their theme, at least.)

With this single, ABBA became the first act to hit number one AFTER a Eurovision number one. I think they remain the only non-UK act to achieve this, although UK acts have. Mamma Mia was also the 400th different song to reach the UK #1 (but the 383rd release). It was more than 23 years before the show of the same name hit London’s West End, where it celebrated its 5th anniversary last week.

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