ABBA in the UK Charts, regular updates, etc.

  
  Gazman  --  Yes, I've noticed that 'Arrival' and 'The Visitors' are the 2 ABBA Studio Albums with the 
biggest increase in Sales, due to 'Mamma Mia! 2'. They may or may not get back into the UK etc.
Album Charts. ABBA Studio Albums tend to sell no-where near as well as their Compilations.

'More ABBA Gold' was a UK No.14 Hit in 1993. It was then a No.13 Hit in 1999. However, Universal
did not promote it in 2008. Despite the 1st Film causing 'Gold' to return to No.1 and '18 Hits' to
reach No.15. Because Universal ignored it in 2008, 'More Gold' was only a No.63 Hit that Year.

 The fact that more Songs from 'More Gold' are in Film 2 may cause it to have a bigger impact 
this time. We will see, As usual it is 'ABBA Gold' that is selling the most, even though a lot of
the Songs in Film 2 are not even on it. So it is 'ABBA Gold' that will be doing the best in every
Country's Charts that it enters. 

 The 2014 Triple 'Gold' CD is also selling again. That one does have a lot of Songs from Film 2
on it. That Triple CD was only a No.59 UK Hit in 2014. It had 1 Week in the Top 100. By 2016,
(September), it had sold just 4,200 UK copies. However, it has been quietly selling ever since
- every Week. On Friday, (20th July), The British Phonographic Industry, (The B.P.I.), gave it
a Silver Disk for 60,000 UK Sales. So, it has sold 55,800 copies, since September 2016, and
it never re-entered the Top 100 once! It shows how Albums, (and Singles), can sell very well
without re-entering the Top 100.

 A few Months ago The B.P.I. gave 'The Winner Takes It All' a Silver Disk, for 200,000 UK 
Downloads since November 2004. This was nothing to do with its UK Sales in 1980. The
1980 Single never got a UK Gold Disk. It sold around 545,000 to 565,000 that Year, but
Epic Records never asked The B.P.I. for a Gold Disk for it, (500,000), so it had no UK 
Sales Award at all. Which is why the Download version can have a Silver Award. Old 
Singles, (and Albums), can only get a Download Award if they never got an Award,
when they were first released. 'Dancing Queen' has gone Silver, (over 200,000 UK
Downloads, since November 2004). However, it cannot have a Silver Disk for the
Downloads. This is because it got a Gold Disk, (500,000), in 1976. A Silver Single
is 200,000 Sales, (400,000 for Gold), and a Silver Album is 60,000 Sales, (100,000
Gold). In ABBA's day, Gold was 500,000 for Singles and the same as now - 100,000
 - for Albums - and a Silver Single had to sell 250,000.
 

  Gary -- Yes, 1978 was the last time that ABBA had 3 Albums of their Songs in the UK Top 20.

  They managed it for 5 Weeks in a row -- W/E 25th February 1978 to W/E 25th March 1978.

  This was with 'The Album', 'Greatest Hits' and 'Arrival'.

  So this Week is the 1st time that 3 ABBA Song Albums have managed it since.

  W/E 26th July 2018 -- 'Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again' -- No.4, 'Mamma Mia!' -- No.13, and 'ABBA Gold' -- No.19.

  In 2008 the closest that the 1st Film got to causing 3 Top 20 Albums of ABBA Songs was:

  W/E 27th September 2008:

 No. 14  --  GOLD - GREATEST HITS  --  ABBA

 No. 15  --  18 HITS  --  ABBA

 No. 21  --  MAMMA MIA!  --  Original Stage Cast Recording 

NOTE -- The 2008 Film Soundtrack was banned from the Artist Chart and it was at No.1 in the Compilation Chart, at the time.

'The Winner Takes It All' is on 3 UK Top 20 Albums this Week. It is on 'Mamma Mia!' at No.13, 'Cruising With' by Jane McDonald
at No.14, and on 'ABBA Gold' at No.19.

 Despite 3 Top 20 Albums - for 5 Weeks in 1978 - ABBA never managed 2 in the Top 10. Only 'The Album' was in the Top 10.

 ABBA last had 2 Albums in the same UK Top 10 on W/E 21st May 1977. 'Arrival' was at No.1 and 'Greatest Hits' was at No.9.

 We will see if 'Mamma Mia! 2' can get 2 Albums of ABBA Songs into the UK Top 10. We will soon find out...

   Graham -- We will see if 'Mamma Mia! 2' can be the UK's No.1 Album on Friday.

   The Monday Mid Week's show that it is less than 2,000 Sales in front of the No.2
   Album - 'The Greatest Showman'. That Album has already sold over a UK Million.

  Also, the Mid Week Sales of 'Mamma Mia! 2' are not at all big. By just looking at
  them, I can already see that it has no chance to get anywhere near the UK Sales
  of the 1st 'Mamma Mia!' Soundtrack. I can see that after just 3 days Sales!

  It should be selling far, far more, if it was going to be a truly big Album.

  The 1st Soundtrack is on over 1,530,000 UK Sales.

  The Film has started big - lots of cash flowing in, but I can sense that word
  of mouth will have it fading away pretty soon. 

  The 2nd Film makes too many mistakes. It kills a hugely popular character. It
  makes it look llke another character has a big part and it is a tiny part. It is too
  serious in parts. There are too many slow songs. The 'Fun' is not as great this
  time. All of this has upset a lot of Fans of the Stage Show and Film 1. 

  The editing - between the past scenes and the present scenes - is not very well
  done. It is just irritating a lot of those who see the Film. Too much is badly done.

  That is why Film 2 will make nowhere near as much cash and why the DVD will
  sell a fraction of the Film 1 DVD. It is also why the Soundtrack is not selling as
  well as people expected. The Film has disappointed many people and they don't
  see any point in buying the Soundtrack.

  So, there will not be a Stage Show of Film 2. Nor will there be a 'Mamma Mia! 3.

  Benny and Bjorn have let Film 2 make too many silly and wrong choices...

Very good album chart placings this week - the Mamma Mia HWGA soundtrack at number 1 in the UK, the first film soundtrack at number 5, and 'ABBA Gold' at number 7, with the 'Gold 3cd package' at number 48.


And 3 songs from the soundtrack in the very bottom part of the singles chart too - at numbers 91, 92 & 98.

That makes six Arrival songs that have made the UK charts in one form or another, I think. And two of the best songs (My Love My Life and Tiger) are among the four songs that haven’t. What an album!

I am sure people are buying Voulez-Vous because they loved the version of Kisses Of Fire in MM2!

My first post! I cannot believe what a good year this is for us Abba fans. Just look at the UK charts. The MM2 soundtrack had sold just over 92,000 copies when last Friday's (3 August) UK album chart was published so it will be well over 100,000 by now. That's really not bad at all. Bear in mind that the likes of Tesco and Sainsbury's are reducing their space for physical CDs - they just don't sell the way they used to. Clearly, the MM2 soundtrack is not going to sell 1.5 million copies but it may, just may, reach 500,000. That would be a fantastic achievement since last year's third best-selling UK artist album (by Sam Smith) sold 502,000 copies.

And there's so much more to come.....

Well, those are still pretty spectacular results if you ask me! :-) 3 ABBA-related top 10 albums yet again!

^

Must admit to getting some pleasure out of WIKTT and WDIHTBM being in the chart. It sort of confirms my opinion that Arrival is the quintessential ABBA album. It's that perfect combination of Benny and Bjorn being at their peak, and being just between the happy-go-lucky earlier albums and the more serious later albums. Every track is a gem. (Let's overlook the title of the fourth track!) Three perfect singles, plus other amazing could-have-been singles (WIKTT, MLML, Tiger). I can't understand people who think The Visitors, for example, is their best album. But each to his or her own!

Yes!

Could it all be about to change? 

UK Charts


 MM2 holds  at number one for the 4th week , with fairly strong sales for this day and age. 30,129 sales

MM holds at number 7 with 7,312 sales

Gold slips to 11 with 5,688 sales

Gold/ More falls out of the official top 75 to number 76


Compared to even a few years ago, these sales are small, so in these different times it looks more and more unlikely MM2 will achieve the sales of MM.


UK singles 

When I Kissed The Teacher  climbs 6 places to break the top 40 @ 40.  With 11, 372 sales

Why Did It Have To Be Me climbs  6 places also from 50 to 44 its highest position so far with 10,444 sales

Mamma Mia holds at 57 under the 3 track rule


surprise surprise after all the hype Cher and Gimme Gimmie Gimmie fails to make even the top 100, not sure what's happened there 🤔

 Graham -- You are looking at the UK Charts as if they are the same as they used to be. Yes, Cher's
'Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!' is not in the Main UK Top 100 - yet. However, it is actually doing quite
well in the other UK Singles Charts. It is at No.34 in both the Sales and Download Top 100's. It
is as high as No.26 in the Scottish Singles Chart. It is struggling to enter the Main Top 100 for 2
reasons. The 1st is that it is not doing at all well via Streaming. 'Old' Acts tend to struggle with
'Streaming' and it prevents them doing well in the Main Top 100. The other thing holding Cher 
back is that there is no Physical release of her Single - so she has no Physical Sales to help her.

Regarding 'More ABBA Gold' - yes, that has gone in at No.74 in the Monday Mid Weeks. However,
a lack of Streaming has been holding that back too. It has actually been a Hit for a few Weeks now,
in some of the other UK Album Charts. It was at No.41 in the Physical Top 100 2 Weeks ago. It is
now down to No.48. it was at No.43 in the Sales Top 100 2 Weeks ago. It is now at No.56. It was 
at No.79 in the Scottish Top 100 2 Weeks ago. It is now at No.67. So, its Re-Entry in the Main 
Album Chart Mid Weeks at No.74 is nothing really. It has been a bigger Hit than that, for a few
Weeks in other UK Album Charts. It is its lack of Streaming that is preventing it doing better in
the Main Top 100. (Despite ABBA being an 'Old' Act, 'ABBA Gold' is managing to get quite good
Streaming, and it is at No.12 in the Streaming Top 100).

Also in the Scottish Top 100 is '18 Hits'. It is not allowed into the Main UK Album Chart, due to its
current low price. But, they do let it Chart in the Scottish Top 100. It is doing very well there too.
It was at No.8 last Week and now it is at No.12.

Also, the Soundtrack to the 2nd 'Mamma Mia!' Film should be selling better than it is. It is true that 
UK Album Sales are lower than they used to be. However, the 2nd Soundtrack is being sold on the
back of the 2nd Film. The Film is not going to do as well as Film 1, but it is already the UK's 24th 
All Time Box Office Film, with around £54.5 Million in UK takings. The 1st Film is in 11th place, with
almost £69 Million in UK takings. So, the Soundtrack from the UK's 24th All Time Film should be 
selling a lot better than it is. It has yet to reach 200,000 UK Sales. Yet the Soundtrack to Film 1 
is in the UK Top 10 too, and that is selling well even though it already has over 1,540,000 UK Sales.
It is obvious that Soundtrack 2 is under-performing. It is too simple to put it down to lower UK Album
Sales.

Don't forget - 'The Greatest Showman' Soundtrack is selling far, far more and that too is in an 'Era'
of low UK Album Sales. That Album has now passed 1,100,000 UK Sales. It has been in the UK Top
10 for 34 consecutive Weeks - all Top 5. Yet, the 2nd 'Mamma Mia!' Film has been a bigger success
at the UK Box Office. So the 2nd 'Mamma Mia!' Film is bigger than 'The Greatest Showman', but 
its Soundtrack is not selling nearly as well.

So, why is the 2nd 'Mamma Mia!' Soundtrack under-performing in the UK? Firstly, I think it was a 
big error for Benny & Bjorn to use several Songs from Film 1 in Film 2. Then to put them on the
2nd Soundtrack too. I think that a lot of people are refusing to buy Soundtrack 2 because they feel
that it is a bit of a rip off. It really should have had 18 fresh ABBA Songs on it. Secondly, we also
have 'Kisses Of Fire' on it, that a of of people will think is just the terrible Male version from the 
Film. So, that Track becomes another reason not to buy Soundtrack 2. Too many wrong decisions
were made about Soundtrack 2 and the result is that a lot of people don't want to buy it - even
though the Film is a huge success...

'The Greatest Showman' Soundtrack is not as big as the 1st 'Mamma Mia!' Soundtrack, in either 
the UK, (1,100,000 to over 1,540,000), or Globally, (Less than 4 Million to over 7,700,000), but 
it is far, far bigger than the Soundtrack to 'Mamma Mia! 2'. With a Film as big as the 2nd 'MM!',
the Soundtrack really should be selling far better than it is...I'm sure that Universal and Benny
and Bjorn must be already wondering how the Film can be so huge, but the Soundtrack is not
selling very well...

It seems to me that we can be reasonably certain that Mamma Mia Here We Go Again (both the film and the soundtrack) will not be as successful as Mamma Mia. That said, there is no doubt that MMHWGA is very successful, and that all fears of it being a Grease 2 have proved unfounded. It wouldn’t surprise me if a MM3 happens some time in the future.

Regarding another Mamma Mia film, in a Swedish interview Benny and Björn are asked about this.

Benny: I don't think so. There are no songs left now.

Interviewer: You can write new ones?

Benny: Yes, we can but then it will not be a third film, it will be a new film. But that's nothing we are working on now. We have other things to do.

Björn: It would be interesting to see what could be scraped together to make a third, that also fits together.

Benny: That's impossible!