ABBA – Waterloo [1974]
ABBA Waterloo Track List
ABBA's second studio album, Waterloo, which continued to be worked on for a year at Polar Musik Studios, was released in early March 1974. This was the year of the convincing victory of the Swedish group at the Eurovision Song Contest with the single, which gave the name to the album. And for the first time on its cover appeared the famous abbreviation ABBA. “Waterloo” differed from the previous work “Ring Ring” by its diverse musical material and quite clearly expressed idea. The album seems quite a hit, but this is only at first glance. The energetic glam rock “Waterloo” and, perhaps, the most “fateful” song “Watch Out” in the entire repertoire of the group, with Björn’s hoarse vocals, a pronounced fuzzy guitar part and powerful drums. Pop melodies of hits “Hasta Mañana” and “Honey, Honey” with excellent vocals of Agneta and Frida. In “My Mama Said”, the jazz style gives the song rigor, and the beat in “Dance”, in which everyone has a vocal part, convincing. By the way, this is the only album in the ABBA repertoire, where there is Benny's lead solo vocals in the song “Suzy-hang-around”. “Waterloo” became the record holder in the homeland of musicians. Only four weeks after the start of sales in Sweden, 125,000 copies were sold, by the end of the year – a quarter million. And in November of the same year, the group carried out their first tour, their concerts were held in Germany, Denmark and Austria. Singles on this ABBA album began to be released in the US, where Waterloo hit the charts of the influential Billboard. This was the beginning of the worldwide popularity of ABBA.