ABBA's most Christmassy album

Super Trouper is the more 'festive' sounding rather than Chrismassy per se.

The title track has a Christmassy feel with the music. Happy New Year IS a song about New Year's Eve - whatever Alan says!

The Way Old Friends Do has a New Year feel to. It's a bit Auld Lyne Sang feel to it. I once described it in an Abba forum as 'hogmonay' and several people had to look up that peculier word.


The Visitors is the most Winter album. Like Narnia, always winter but never Christmas.

People in the Southern Hemisphere associate Christmas with hot, sunny days of course.

Here's US sketch dhow Saturday Night Live take on ABBA Christmas songs

Probably both Super Trouper and The Visitors I would say. They were both released late in the year and, to me, seem very dark. The Visitors is without doubt their darkest album but Super Trouper is very close. Voulez-Vous feels very summery in comparison (and it was released in late April, so even after 44 years it’s kept that).

The Visitors just about edges it, as it even has the lyric about a cold December and most of the songs do feel quite cold (and of course, Head Over Heels tries so hard - too hard - not to be cold and dark but ends up not far off from the other eight tracks). Also ABBA looked completely crap at the time so definitely appeared to be in the winter of their existence (which they were, but not much better to look at in late 1980 though).

December 1981 was cold, so Soldiers was correct - we had snow before New Year and even had three ducks take up temporary residence in our garden for a few days. And I think it went on into 1982.

Today is the darkest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. The solstice happens at 03:28 in the early hours of tomorrow. I much prefer this day than the summer solstice as with that, the days will be getting shorter again.

The thing is, what is Christmas? I’m pretty certain it was invented by someone in the northern hemisphere in order to brighten up the darkest days of the year. It merged with/took over the pagan festival of Yule. It’s unlikely that a certain person - whether real or not (and if real then probably not who they were purported to be) - was actually born at this time of year. It’s all a load of nonsense really but the Christmas lights do break up the winter.

The southern hemisphere should really have their Christmas on 25 June - it would be no less accurate than December!

Sorry if some of my post is controversial and at odds with anyone’s beliefs…

Changing the subject slightly but…

Is it just me or did ABBA have something in common with The Good Life (classic 1970s self-sufficiency BBC sitcom)? I watched the Christmas special from 1977 earlier for the umpteenth time (it seems to be on every single year). Bear with me…

Barbara Good, played by Felicity Kendal. 28 when the show started, she was by far the youngest member of the cast. Blonde, all the men fancied her, and she was even voted as having the sexiest bottom (or something) at one point. Sound familiar?

Margo Leadbetter, played by Penelope Keith. 34 when the first series was filmed. Brunette. Older than Felicity but glamorous and attractive. Again, who does that remind us of?

Tom Good, played by Richard Briers. Both character and actor were 40 when the series started (12 years older than his wife). Er… not particularly attractive. As the genuine “star” of the show when it began, he was often the spokesperson of the cast. Hmm.

Jerry Leadbetter, played by Paul Eddington. 47 when the first series was shown. Similar to Tom, he was 13 years older than his screen wife. Again, not attractive. The looks were very much focussed on the women. That made him 19 years older than the youngest cast member, Felicity, but there was a somewhat mutual attraction between their characters.

Ages may be more extreme. Age difference in ABBA was only five years or so between oldest and youngest but - sorry - it might have seemed like there was more at times…

If I’m saying anything it’s that ABBA unknowingly fitted in with the culture of the times. Two married couples that were close to each other, attractive women but not attractive men (admittedly, this is arguable as Benny is very definitely some people’s “type”). The Good Life started in April 1975 so was hardly influenced by ABBA.

[It’s somehow OK to slag off the 1970s - hence the Larry Grayson stuff on here a while ago - but sexism/ageism (applying to women) is still rife in TV. The (thankfully departed) Philip Schofield was 19 years older than his former co-presenter Holly Willoughby. The same difference as Paul Eddington was to Felicity Kendal.]

I always thought there was a bit of a "wife swap" thing in The Good Life - not sexual but platonic with the Odd Couple the posh Margot with the nerdy Tom and the "girl next doir" Barbra with the successful Jerry.