ABBA has credited the Beatles for having taught them the “key lesson” of adding variety to their music.
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In a new interview with Record Collector magazine, ABBA’s Benny Andersson revealed that the Fab Four inspired the group to have such a diverse sound.
“That’s something we learned from the Beatles,” he said. “They were always with their style in a way, much more than we were, but what they did was, you heard a song with them, then the next single was nothing close to the previous one, or the third, or the fourth, or the fifth.”
While using that outlook on their own records, Andersson went on to say that having two singers added something special to their sound.
“So, you have ‘Fernando,’ you want a song like ‘Dancing Queen’ or ‘My Mama Said,’ or whatever on that album, to give it some listening value,” he said. “And another great thing, I have to say, that goes for many of the bands that I like, is that you have more than one singer; it helps you.”
He continued, “You have John [Lennon] and Paul [McCartney], or you have Fleetwood Mac, you have the Eagles: it’s great to have two singers because that makes a difference between the tracks as well.”
Elsewhere in the same interview, Andersson revealed whether or not the group realized what a breakout success “Mamma Mia” would be.
“I think ‘Mamma Mia’ was when we realized, ‘Well this is special, now we find out exactly what we can achieve with a song if you work enough on it,’ you know?” he revealed. “You’re in the studio, and you see, ‘Oh, there’s a marimba there, let’s see if we can use it’ – that’s sort of special, there’s not much marimba [in other pop songs].”
(Photo by Gus Stewart/Redferns)
