The worst ABBA compilation

I thought Absolute ABBA was actually rather good. It was 24 singles in an admittedly random order, and omitted TDBYC and UA. Like you say, the sleev was great.

For me, 18 Hits seems like a real oddity, in that it included the Swedish versions of Waterloo, Honey Honey and Ring Ring - and rounded things off with Ah Vilka Tider. But it seems to have been a steady seller nonetheless, so what do I know?!

Be interesting to see what other people's least liked comps are.

18 Hits is one of the (very) many cheapo compilations. Include enough hits to make it sell (but missing out some very big hits) add album tracks and other obscurities, and sell at a budget price. The ABBA Discography on Wikipedia lists quite a lot of them but I’ve seen others.

Of the proper, mainstream compilations, I’d pick Number Ones (2006) as the worst. The Number Ones thing was being done for many acts at the time, usually restricting it to chart-toppers in the UK and US. ABBA didn’t have that luxury so had to look to other countries’ charts. The trouble is, it’s essentially ABBA Gold with three tracks removed and three others added. Had Gold not existed it would have been fine, but instead it was pretty much pointless. I’m not sure if it was designed to replace Gold, but in the end it quite quickly got deleted, allowing Gold to reign supreme once again.

The rejects were Thank You For The Music, Does Your Mother Know and Lay All Your Love On Me, all understandable as they weren’t number ones anywhere. Of the additions, Summer Night City was probably the most welcome (the UK edition had the full extended version, getting a rare mainstream release). I Do, I Do, I Do was also included. Ring Ring was exclusive to the UK version.

Tellingly, Number Ones is actually the last new, mainstream, full price ABBA compilation to date (The Essential Collection was merely a modified re-release of The Definitive Collection).

Ironically, Definitive is my favourite compilation. It has the most elegant packaging of any ABBA best-of, the tracks are in chronological order and disc 2 rules. Everything from Gold, plus a bunch of under-appreciated gems: what's not to love? While compilations are sneaky sellers, I think that brand protection needs to be taken into account when licensing them. Even when they get deleted, they end up in the most dog-eared boxes at secondhand/charity shops.

The Definitive Collection is fine in terms of tracklisting, running order and artwork but does use the much-derided Jon Astley 2001 remasters, including the dreadful error edit of Eagle. Not sure if its later re-release as The Essential Collection uses some of the deluxe masters (though even they were hit and miss).

Any new compilation would at least include the latest, improved remasters.

I bought that A&F compilation too. At the time, it was the only CD appearance for some of the songs. Getting a resentful intern to design the sleeve was a bad move, though. My eyes!!

For the same reason, I bought the Love Songs compilation that was part of The Hits series back in the day. At the time it was the only way to have SILOC and Lovelight on CD. Actually, I think it appeared before most/any studio albums were released on CD...?

I think it was a daft title to use. Anyone with less than a fan's knowledge of ABBA - the general public, in other words - probably picked it up, expecting a bunch of kissysmoochy numbers to soundtrack a romantic evening. At that point, though, they had a reasonably captive audience. The albums hadn't yet been released on CD, so they probably didn't have to try too hard. Interesting that none of these CDs charted. I presume it was still uncool to like ABBA in 1989.