World of Chig   

12.4.04
Your favourite ABBA tracks: numbers 16-20

You expected more today? After four consecutive nights of drinking; four nights spent in different beds in different parts of the country? AND while there's a 100 minute documentary about boybands on the telly as I write this? Sorry, not yet... Here are the next five:

#16 Under Attack
From December 1982 and the last planned, original single of ABBA’s career. The last two singles had only managed to scrape numbers #25 and #32 and this went the same way, fizzling out at #26. It didn’t even enter the top 40 until its second week on the chart, and it must surely been one of ABBA’s least-remembered singles. Actually though, it does hold claim to one unusual chart record. It stayed at #26 for FOUR consecutive weeks. That kind of inertia hardly ever happens so low down the chart.

#17 Take A Chance On Me
ABBA’s eleventh UK hit and their seventh chart-topper. The second track on ‘ABBA- The Album’ from 1977 became a single in February 1978 and chucker-chucker-chanced its way to number one in its third week on the chart. ‘Take A Chance On Me’ stayed at the top for three weeks before being deposed by Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’.

#18 If It Wasn't For The Nights
Track seven on the ‘Voulez-vous?’ album and never a UK single. Numbers 18, 19 and 20 in this survey are all from the same album.

#19 As Good As New
The opening track on 1979’s ‘Voulez-Vous?’ album. Never a UK single.

#20 I Have A Dream
What should have been a shoe-in for ABBA to claim the 1979 Christmas #1 had the misfortune to run up against Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2). The Swedes and their aspirational kiddie chorus had to be content with four consecutive weeks at #2 behind Pink Floyd, and missed out on the chance to be the final number one of the 70s. No worry though, the song got to the top eventually, exactly 20 years later, when Westlife managed it instead, making it another of ABBA’s songs which did better for someone else. (More of this phenomenon to come higher up the chart.) Coincidentally, Westlife’s version also spent four weeks at its peak position.

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