Swedish pop group ABBA has released nine studio albums, two live albums, thirteen compilation albums, four box sets, five video albums, 53 singles, and 41 music videos. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the best-selling music acts in the history of popular music. ABBA have sold an estimated 150 million to 400 million records worldwide. They have scored nine number-one singles and 10 number-one albums in the UK, becoming the most successful Swedish act of all time on the Official Charts, and were ranked third best-selling singles artists in the United Kingdom with a total of 11.3 million singles sold as of November 2012. In May 2023, ABBA were awarded the BRIT Billion Award, which celebrates those who have surpassed the milestone of one billion UK streams in their career.
ABBA's biggest hit singles worldwide are "Dancing Queen" and "Fernando", with Arrival being their biggest hit studio album.
The compilation album ' is the second best-selling album of all time in the UK and has sold over 32 million copies worldwide.
âÂÂFilm clipsâ showing groups performing their songs had been used to great effect by major artists like The Beatles since the mid-Sixties as a convenience for those who were reluctant or unable to tour or make appearances abroad. In the summer of 1974, when there was a demand for the group's presence in the United States, they hired the director Lasse Hallström to direct the group's first film clips, for "Waterloo" and "Ring Ring". Hallström had been making pop film clips for television since the late Sixties, and had recently directed a sequence of successful short comedy skits for Swedish television. The videos were successful, and the following year the group rehired him to make four promo clips of the songs they felt had the strongest hit potential on the new album ("I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do", "Mamma Mia", "SOS" and "Bang-A-Boomerang"). Hallström would go on to make most of their in-house promotional clips, often on a very small budget (the four 1975 films were completed in two days, at a total cost of less than 50,000 kronor (ã5,500), and Hallström did the editing work himself from his apartment). The relationship ended in 1982, prompted by changing tastes and demands and complaints from ABBA's distributors that Hallström's low-budget approach made it difficult to market the band. Director Kjell Sundvall and cinematographer Kjell-àke Andersson, an up-and-coming filmmaker team, were hired to replace them for the final two promotional videos, "The Day Before You Came" and "Under Attack".
Notes for albums and songs
Notes for peak chart positions