ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released on 21 September 1992 through PolyGram, making it the first compilation to be released after the company had acquired Polar Music, and thus the rights to the ABBA back catalogue. With sales of 30 million, Gold: Greatest Hits is the best-selling ABBA album, as well one of the best-selling albums worldwide. Since 1992, it has been re-released several times, most notably in 1999 as the first remastered reissue to mark the group's 25th anniversary of winning the Eurovision Song Contest 1974, in 2008 to coincide with the release of the film Mamma Mia!, in 2014 to mark the group's 40th anniversary of winning the Eurovision Song Contest, and most recently in 2022 to commemorate the album's 30th anniversary.

Background and overview

In 1989, Stig Anderson, ABBA’s manager and sometime songwriting partner, sold Polar Music to PolyGram (which was bought by Universal Music in the late '90s). Before that, Polar had only produced and distributed ABBA's records in Scandinavian countries, licensing the recordings for release by different companies around the world (such as Atlantic in the US and Epic in the UK). This meant there were many different compilations released in different parts of the world. As these licenses were renewed every three years, and, between 1989 and 1992, had all expired, something PolyGram waited for before releasing any new ABBA compilations. PolyGram made all of the original studio albums available (along with the 1986 live album which had originally been issued by Polydor worldwide), while all previously released ABBA compilations had been deleted. In the summer of 1992, Erasure had released a 4 track ABBA cover EP, titled Abba-esque, which topped charts around the world and showed that there was still a strong interest in ABBA's music. Rather than issue the multiple previous compilations, PolyGram put together a new collection, optimized for the CD format. This new release was compiled by PolyGram International’s Chris Griffin and Jackie Stansfield, Polydor UK’s George McManus, Ingemar Bergman of Sweden Music and Polar in Sweden, and music journalist John Tobler, who also wrote the album's liner notes. Chris Griffin tried to sequence the tracks as if it were a radio show: the album starts with "Dancing Queen", the band's most famous song, and then journeys through ballads, fun hits and dance classics, before it ends with "Waterloo", a nod to the group’s international breakthrough in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. The album contains a selection of tracks from ABBA's discography, including three tracks each from Arrival, ABBA: The Album and Super Trouper, four from Voulez-Vous, two from ABBA, and one each from Waterloo and The Visitors. Additionally, it features the singles "Fernando" and "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)", released on Greatest Hits and Greatest Hits Vol. 2, respectively. Gold: Greatest Hits was well received by the music-buying public, and went on to be one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Release

ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits was released on September 21, 1992. It has been re-released in various "special" or "remastered" releases:

Regional variations and tie-ins

Australasian editions: Spanish versions: Video and DVD: Other variations:

Critical reception

Gold: Greatest Hits has been called one of the most influential compilation albums ever released. Music critic Elisabeth Vincentelli (New York Post; Time Out New York) credits the album for a revival of critical interest in ABBA's music after ten years of neglect following the band's 1982 break-up. Writing for Pitchfork in 2019, reviewer Jamieson Cox agreed, describing Gold: Greatest Hits as a "refined package with surprising emotional range". The album, he wrote, "capitalized on a simmering, subcultural interest in ABBA’s work and sparked a full-blown revival" that culminated in the Mamma Mia! stage and film productions. BuzzFeed music editor Matthew Perpetua included Gold: Greatest Hits among the compilations he considered "so well curated in presenting a fertile period of a career that they are arguably an artist's definitive work". Former Rolling Stone magazine writer Tom Moon included Gold: Greatest Hits among his 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, describing the tracks as "models of impeccable craft", adding that the album is "an excellent starter kit for those wanting to investigate the DNA of post-Beatles pop." Writing for Vanity Fair, singer-songwriter Elvis Costello included Gold: Greatest Hits among his list of 500 essential albums.

Commercial performance

With pure sales of 5.61 million copies, Gold: Greatest Hits is the second-highest selling album of all time in the United Kingdom, after Queen's Greatest Hits. In August, 2019, Gold: Greatest Hits became the longest-running top 100 album of all time, spending 900 weeks on the UK Albums Chart. The album spent 61 (non-consecutive) weeks in the top 10 and topped the British chart 5 times, most recently for two weeks in 2008 following release of the motion picture Mamma Mia!. As of July 2021, Gold became the first album to reach 1000 weeks on the Official Charts in United Kingdom with pure sales of 5.61 million copies sold in United Kingdom. In November 2021, it was awarded 20× Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry, denoting six millions album-equivalent unit in the UK. In the United States, the album has sold a total of 5.8 million copies and is the nineteenth biggest-selling greatest-hits album in the Nielsen Music era (which began in 1991). In Canada, Gold: Greatest Hits achieved Diamond status (one million units sold) in May, 2000. In Germany, Gold: Greatest Hits has been certified five times Platinum for shipment of 2.5 million units. It has also been certified 10 times Platinum in Switzerland for sales of 500,000 units. In Austria, the album charted for 397 weeks, making it the all-time second longest stay on the chart. After reaching catalogue status, it returned to the top 10 three times, twice in the wake of the releases of Mamma Mia! The Movie Soundtrack and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and once due to the release of a special edition.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, except where noted.

40th anniversary edition

A three-CD set released on April 7, 2014, as part of the celebration for the 40th anniversary of ABBA's Eurovision victory. Disc one consisted of the original album, disc two of the album More ABBA Gold: More ABBA Hits, and disc three of B-sides. The information on disc three has been adapted from the 40th anniversary reissue's cover. All tracks are written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, except where noted.

Personnel

ABBA Production

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications and sales