Greatest Hits (ABBA album)

Greatest Hits
Greatest hits album by ABBA
Released	17 November 1975 (1975-11-17)
Recorded	March 1972–September 1975
Genre	Pop
Length	48:00
Label	Polar (Sweden) Epic (UK) Atlantic (US) Universal Music (2006 reissue)
Producer	Benny Andersson Björn Ulvaeus
ABBA chronology
ABBA (1975) Greatest Hits (1975) Arrival (1976)
Alternative cover
UK/North American Cover
Singles from Greatest Hits
"Fernando" Released: March 27, 1976 (UK) April 12, 1976 (Sweden) September 4, 1976 (US)

Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was originally released in Scandinavia on 17 November 1975 and in other parts of the world in 1976, notably the UK, the US and Canada. The 1976 versions of the album added the group's most recent single at the time, "Fernando", which did not appear on any of ABBA's studio albums in Europe or North America.

The album was released in response to similar ABBA compilation albums being issued at the time by record labels in other countries who had licensed ABBA's music for release in their own territories, and the threat of import sales of those compilations impacting upon ABBA's home market. This meant that the success of Greatest Hits was largely confined to Scandinavia, the UK, and North America, although the size of the latter two markets and the scale of its success there has ensured that Greatest Hits is one of ABBA's best-selling albums worldwide.

ABBA had won the Eurovision Song Contest in April 1974 with the song "Waterloo", which went on to be a major hit across Europe and in Australia and New Zealand. However, the immediate follow-up singles did not meet with the same success, and it wasn't until over a year later that "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do", "SOS" and "Mamma Mia" became worldwide hits and reignited interest in the band. To capitalise on this resurgence of interest, several labels around the world released their own licensed compilations of ABBA's singles up to and including "Mamma Mia" – these included a similarly-titled Greatest Hits by France's Disques Vogue, and The Best of ABBA, released by West Germany's division of Polydor Records and by RCA Victor in Australia and New Zealand. To counteract the possibility of import sales from these records in Scandinavia, ABBA's record label Polar Music rush-released their own version of Greatest Hits.

The tracks were taken from ABBA's first three studio albums, Ring Ring, Waterloo and ABBA, and with the exception of "Dance (While the Music Still Goes On)" had all been released as singles somewhere in the world. Despite the title of the compilation, only half of the tracks had actually charted as hit singles in major territories. "Waterloo", "SOS", "Mamma Mia" and (later) "Fernando" were top 10 hits in the UK and several other countries, though only the first of these was a top 10 hit in the US. Other hits in multiple territories included "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" (a top 10 hit in several countries, a number one in Australia, and a top 20 hit in the US, though barely cracking the top 40 in the UK), "Honey Honey" (a top 20 hit in several countries and a top 30 hit in the US), "Hasta Mañana" (a top 10 hit in South Africa and New Zealand and a top 20 hit in Australia), and "So Long" (a top 20 hit in Germany and a top 10 hit in Sweden). On the North American version of the album "Hasta Mañana" was omitted and the other tracks were reordered. Ironically, in Australia, where several of the tracks had reached number one, the release of Greatest Hits was beaten to the market by the RCA Victor compilation The Best of ABBA, precluding a release there for years. Nevertheless, the official greatest hits package was an enormous success. Even Rolling Stone, often one of ABBA's harshest critics in the US, declared of the album, "Anyone who could listen to this record five times and not wind up humming half the songs is an android".