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The Definitive Collection
 
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The Definitive Collection [Double CD, Extra tracks, Original recording remastered]

ABBA Audio CD
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
Price: £17.81 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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  • This item: The Definitive Collection

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    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

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Product details

  • Audio CD (17 Mar 2008)
  • Number of Discs: 2
  • Format: Double CD, Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
  • Label: Polydor
  • ASIN: B00005QJFL
  • Other Editions: MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 8,204 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         


Disc 1:

Samples
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. People Need Love 2:45£0.89
Listen  2. He Is Your Brother 3:18£0.89
Listen  3. Ring Ring (English Version) 3:04£0.89
Listen  4. Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure Is Hard Enough) 2:54£0.89
Listen  5. Waterloo 2:46£0.89
Listen  6. Honey, Honey 2:54£0.89
Listen  7. So Long 3:05£0.89
Listen  8. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do 3:15£0.89
Listen  9. S.O.S. 3:20£0.89
Listen10. Mamma Mia 3:32£0.89
Listen11. Fernando 4:13£0.89
Listen12. Dancing Queen 3:50£0.89
Listen13. Money, Money, Money 3:05£0.89
Listen14. Knowing Me, Knowing You 4:01£0.89
Listen15. The Name Of The Game 4:52£0.89
Listen16. Take A Chance On Me 4:05£0.89
Listen17. Eagle 4:26£0.89
Listen18. Summer Night City 3:34£0.89
Listen19. Chiquitita 5:24£0.89
Listen20. Does Your Mother Know 3:15£0.89


Disc 2:

Samples
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. Voulez-Vous 5:08£0.89
Listen  2. Angel Eyes 4:19£0.89
Listen  3. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) 4:50£0.89
Listen  4. I Have A Dream 4:42£0.89
Listen  5. The Winner Takes It All 4:54£0.89
Listen  6. Super Trouper 4:12£0.89
Listen  7. On And On And On 3:40£0.89
Listen  8. Lay All Your Love On Me 4:34£0.89
Listen  9. One Of Us 3:56£0.89
Listen10. When All Is Said And Done 3:17£0.89
Listen11. Head Over Heels 3:47£0.89
Listen12. The Visitors 5:46£0.89
Listen13. The Day Before You Came 5:50£0.89
Listen14. Under Attack 3:46£0.89
Listen15. Thank You For The Music 3:49£0.89
Listen16. Ring Ring (1974 Remix, Single Version) 3:09£0.89
Listen17. Voulez-Vous (Extended Remix) 6:09£0.89


Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Is there anything which screams the 1970s most indelible pop cultural clichés-more than the Swedish pop phenomena Abba and their Definitive Collection? While many a pundit snootily dismissed them during their prime as some sort of prefabricated aberration, their worldwide popularity peaked somewhere just south of Beatlemania. Indeed, Abba's music was as finely tooled and crafted as anything to come from a Volvo or Ikea factory --if occasionally more economically potent. This double-disc, 37-track anthology comes neatly on the heels of Mama Mia, the smash, if unlikely, stage show based on the band's hits, and documents every single released by the band's Polar label in their home country was as well as key tracks released as singles elsewhere internationally.

When you hear the term "Europop," this is the canon from whence the term sprang. With a continental sense of vocal neo-classicism, informed by just the right ethnic clichés (and oft wed to the era's insistent 4/4 disco beat) to make songs like "Mama Mia", "Fernando", "Chiquitita" and "Voulez-Vous" work on a global scale, the writing team of Bjorn Ulvaeus/Benny Anderson and their respective partners in music and life, Agnetha Faltskog and Frida Lyngstad, developed the seamless, wall-of-sound productions contained herein. Definitive Collection features a rare single remix of "Ring, Ring" and a 1979 promo-only extended mix of "Voulez-Vous" as bonus tracks, as well as a concise, illustrated history of the band and each track. --Jerry McCulley


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Customer Reviews

25 Reviews
5 star:
 (21)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 83 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars If you only ever buy one Abba album, this is it., 1 Nov 2001
By 
Gavin Wilson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Definitive Collection (Audio CD)
Believe it or not, there are some of us who have never bought an Abba album. Well, not until this week, anyway. I was certainly around during the 70s, but fell into the category of being far too serious about Deep Purple etc to be seen dead with an Abba LP. I was certainly aware of Abba -- it was one of the many contradictions in the teenage bloke psyche that we watched 'Top of the Pops' whenever we could. And anyway, my Dad fancied the blonde one -- Agnetha, not Benny. So buying this marvellous compilation is part nostalgia, and part demonstration for my own children.

This 2CD set takes us chronologically through Abba's history. There are four tracks which precede the historic 'Waterloo' Eurovision winner. You can sense that the group are still feeling their way towards a defining formula even after that 1974 victory. To my ear, it's only when they created 'SOS' (track #9 here) that they found the correct gear, and from then on they never looked back. Abba stood for very high production values, attractive videos, middle-of-the-road pop and wholly inoffensive lyrics. (As revealed in the sleevenotes, Bjorn was always more concerned with the sound of a word than its meaning.) From that point, the lead vocals on all the singles would always be performed by the girls. Abba absorbed disco, but never pretended to be creating black music.

My favourite Abba song is one of the last, 'One of Us', which has many flaws but a gorgeously plaintive chorus. Agnetha really meant those words as she sang them on the video. It was 1981, the band was nearing the end, and even I fancied her now.

To people who haven't already purchased an Abba CD, I cannot recommend this highly enough. The remastered sound is excellent, bringing out the acoustic guitar particularly well. And the accompanying booklet is informative and contains some pretty photos, without ever saying which is of Bjorn and which is of Benny. Newcomers like me can get confused, but I guess it doesn't ultimately matter.

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars This is the real "Abba Gold"!, 9 Sep 2003
This review is from: The Definitive Collection (Audio CD)
Although there are rich pickings on the massive selling "Abba Gold" there are greater treasures here - basically all the singles they ever released anywhere in the world! What better option for the individual keen to purchase the very best of Abba?
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30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars still a good excuse to have this..., 7 Oct 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: The Definitive Collection (Audio CD)
some fans might think this is overkill - another compilation? we already have "gold", "more gold", "thank you for the music" and "the singles collection" what do we need another one for?
"the definitive collection" puts abba's singles in an international perspective - some tracks released exclusively to one or two territories(ie: honey honey - which was released in the u.s. after waterloo and peaked at 30 and was released as a single as well in germany). the cd also contains liner notes by carl magnus palm - the single most authoritative "abba historian" todate.
to sweeten the pot: 2 bonus tracks: the us remix of "ring ring" appearing originally in the us version of waterloo and the extended dance version of voulez-vous. while there's no certainty that this would be the last compilation released of the group's hits, it's still worthwhile having - until another one comes along...who knows there might be one featuring "just like that" a few years from now?
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