Wednesday, 29 January 2025

Mamma Mia Single

This is the entry for “Mamma Mia” in the list of the groups 40 greatest songs as included in Record Collector magazine… 











Few ABBA songs capture the casually

playful deployment of pop nous quite as

well as the song which formally ushered in

ABBA’s imperial period of pop dominance.

Mamma Mia was ABBA’s first chart-topper

since Waterloo, a peak that five of their

next six single releases would also reach.

Its importance in their evolution is

affirmed by Benny, who described the

song as “the first eureka moment”.

Nothing in Mamma Mia is left to chance.

At every turn, every component is made to

justify its presence in the song. In Benny’s

words, “all the instruments contribute

something that deviates from the melody

line. Listen to the marimbas, listen to the

guitars. They’re playing their own lines.”

Mamma Mia was also the song in which

ABBA realised that the elusive quality of

catchiness sometimes comes with knowing

what to remove. Perhaps Mamma Mia’s

one moment of indisputable genius comes

with the decision to withhold the drums

from the first chorus, as good an example

of the power of delayed gratification as

you could hope to find in a pop song. For

proof of that claim, all you need to do is

wait until the full band come in on the

final chorus at two and a half minutes

and bear witness to your own

emotional response.




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