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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