Abba - Number Ones 2006

The writing team of Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson and their respective partners in music and life, Agnetha Faltskog and Frida Lyngstad, basically invented Europop when they pooled their collective talents and became ABBA. One supposes keeping their past-affiliations names (Hep Stars or the Hootenanny Singers) wasn't quite as catchy. But then they wrote "Waterloo" for a Eurovision song contests and the musical universe suddenly altered.

That one song pretty much laid out the template for Abba's world domination to come. Frothy melodies wed to instantly catchy choruses sung with frothy harmonies by the twin female singers. "Number Ones" captures that cotton candy in all its seventies glory, as the band rocketed from pop-stars to international phenomenon. As their songs moved from the catchy singles like "Ring Ring" and "Waterloo" into the later seventies, ABBA wisely embraced disco and created the immortal "Dancing Queen." They were so insanely wealthy from their worldwide hitmaking that they were forced to take payments in commodities instead of cash, that is how omnipresent the likes of "Dancing Queen" and other dancefloor smashes like "Voulez-Vous" and "Gimme Gimme Gimme" became.

Tracklist:
1. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
2. Mamma Mia
3. Dancing Queen
4. Super Trouper
5. SOS
6. Summer Night City
7. Money, Money, Money
8. Winner Takes It All
9. Chiquitita
10. One of Us
11. Knowing Me, Knowing You
12. Voulez-Cous
13. Fernando
14. Waterloo
15. Name of the Game
16. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do
17. Take a Chance on Me