In all the world except (which was too busy celebrating ten dials and electing presidents) 1976 was the Year of Abba In Britain ,for example, Abba bad three successive number one singles and their new one, "Money, Money, Money", is climbing the Top Ten as we write. Abba's Greatest Hits was the year's biggest one. selling album and the advance orders climbing on its successor, Arrival, were so huge Abba's that CBS’s European pressing plants were tied up for weeks. And Britain has only been following world trends. The most intense outbreak of Abba-mania so far actually occurred in Australia where all attendance records have been broken and Abba’s tour hasn’t even started yet!

Abba are an honest-to-god pop phenomenon and their appeal crosses as many boundaries as that of the Beatles of old—old and young, MOR and teenybop, Europhile and disco. Only trouble is they’re Swedish! And not just Swedish by birth or accident but Swedish by choice and design: their records are made in Swedish studios by Swedish musicians with Swedish masterminds. Which is strange because Sweden doesn’t have much of a record industry, has no great pop tradition and is anyway a boringly pleasant country where most people like jazz.