Entertainment, Music - Navy Times

Listeners still taking a chance on ABBA

You happen to hear that disco ditty “Dancing Queen” while in the car or at the mall. Instead of engaging your gag reflex, which was the case back when Springsteen and The Who were more likely to blast out of dorm rooms, you happily hum along.

ABBA. How can we resist them?

Apparently, we can’t. Of all the acts born during the “do the hustle” 1970s, this Swedish pop quartet continues to cling to our cultural consciousness like Scandinavian super glue.

With the July 18 arrival of the movie version of “Mamma Mia!”, the stage musical inspired by the group’s hits and seen by more than 30 million worldwide, expect ABBA mania to grow even more tenacious.

Actress Rita Wilson, along with her husband, Tom Hanks, first fell for the show in 1999, weeks after its premiere in London. The pair didn’t hesitate to take a chance on being executive producers of the film. As Wilson said, “Is there anyone who doesn’t like ABBA? I haven’t met them yet.”

John McCain has come clean about his love of the glossy harmonies produced by Agnetha Fdltskog, Bjvrn Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson, whose decade-long heyday ended in 1982.

As he confessed in June while discussing his iPod selections, “I’m not embarrassed to say I like ABBA.” Furthermore, if elected, “the background music would be ABBA in the elevators all over the White House.”

He is not the only one to embrace his inner Fernando or Chiquitita.

Judy Craymer, the creator of “Mamma Mia!” who sold Ulvaeus, 63, and Andersson, 61, on the idea after collaborating on their post-ABBA stage production “Chess” in the 1980s, didn’t appreciate the group until she met the men behind the music. “In my teens, I was more of a punky rock girl. I was never obsessive about them. I never had their pictures on my wall. But I do now.”

ABBA’s ongoing popularity is boosted by the band’s recordings, which have sold more than 370 million copies worldwide, ranking up there with The Beatles. Catalog sales regularly top 3 million a year.

Andersson, who oversaw the movie soundtrack and brought back some of the original musicians to record it in Stockholm, is at a loss at explaining ABBA’s staying power. “I wish I knew,” he said. “We made good music. But so did a lot of other people.”

Don’t expect a reunion, Andersson said. “Honestly, we would just disappoint people. Let it be what it was.”

And, apparently, still is.