Gold – Greatest Hits (1992)

ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released on 21 September 1992 through PolyGram, making it the first compilation to be released after the company had acquired Polar Music, and thus the rights to the ABBA back catalogue.

With sales of 30 million, Gold: Greatest Hits is the best-selling ABBA album, as well as one of the best-selling albums worldwide. Since 1992, it has been re-released several times, most notably in 1999 as the first remastered reissue to mark the group's 25th anniversary of winning the Eurovision Song Contest 1974, in 2008 to coincide with the release of the film Mamma Mia!, in 2014 to mark the group's 40th anniversary of winning the Eurovision Song Contest, and most recently in 2022 to commemorate the album's 30th anniversary.

Background and Overview

In 1989, Stig Anderson, ABBA's manager and sometime songwriting partner, sold Polar Music to PolyGram (which was bought by Universal Music in the late '90s). Before that, Polar had only produced and distributed ABBA's records in Scandinavian countries, licensing the recordings for release by different companies around the world (such as Atlantic in the US and Epic in the UK). This meant there were many different compilations released in different parts of the world. As these licenses were renewed every three years, between 1989 and 1992, PolyGram waited for these licenses to expire before releasing any new ABBA compilations. PolyGram made all of the original studio albums available (along with the 1986 live album which had originally been issued by Polydor worldwide), while all previously released ABBA compilations had been deleted.

In the summer of 1992, Erasure had released a 4 track ABBA cover EP, titled Abba-esque, which topped charts around the world and showed that there was still a strong interest in ABBA's music. Rather than issue the multiple previous compilations, PolyGram put together a new collection, optimized for the CD format.

This new release was compiled by PolyGram International's Chris Griffin and Jackie Stansfield, Polydor UK's George McManus, Ingemar Bergman of Sweden Music and Polar in Sweden, and music journalist John Tobler, who also wrote the album's liner notes. Chris Griffin tried to sequence the tracks as if it were a radio show: the album starts with "Dancing Queen", the band's most famous song, and then journeys through ballads, fun hits and dance classics, before it ends with "Waterloo", a nod to the group's international breakthrough in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.

The album contains a selection of at least one track from every album in ABBA's discography up until that point (other than their debut album, Ring Ring) including three tracks each from Arrival, ABBA: The Album and Super Trouper, four from Voulez-Vous, two from ABBA, and one each from Waterloo and The Visitors. Additionally, it features the singles "Fernando" and "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)", released on Greatest Hits and Greatest Hits Vol. 2, respectively.

Gold: Greatest Hits was well received by the music-buying public, and went on to be one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Release

ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits was released on September 21, 1992. It has been re-released in various "special" or "remastered" releases:

Regional variations and tie-ins

Australian editions:

The 1992 and 1999 editions released in Australia and New Zealand (and some other territories in that area) had a modified track listing to include three local hits, replacing three other songs on the international edition.

The 2002 re-release was not released in Australia, while in New Zealand, the international edition was issued.

From 2008 onwards, only the international editions have been released in Australia and New Zealand.

Spanish versions:

The original 1992 release had a slightly different track listing, replacing the English versions of "Chiquitita" and "Fernando" with the Spanish language versions.

Shortly after the release of Gold: Greatest Hits, a Spanish version of the album, titled Oro: Grandes Exitos, was issued, followed later by Mas Oro: Mas ABBA Exitos.

Video and DVD:

In 1992 a VHS video was released which included all tracks from the original album. During the 1990s, various regional variations on this video were issued, until Universal Music decided in 2003 to re-issue the video on VHS and DVD. The track listing was similar to the original album, with some added content: a 25-minute documentary produced in 1999, and the 1992 video of "Dancing Queen".