Continuing my look at the albums of 1975…

Swedish pop group ABBA started blowing up after winning the Eurovision song contest with ‘Waterloo’ in 1974. Their third, self-titled, album came out a year later and became their biggest hit to date.

The album featured three hit singles in ‘I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do,’ ‘SOS,’ and ‘Mamma Mia,’ all of which hit #1 in Australia and the top ten in a half dozen other countries. The first two gave the band their second and third top 20 hits in the United States.

On a side note, what exactly is behind ABBA’s tremendous success in Australia? Two of the country’s top-selling albums of all-time are ABBA compilations, and this 1975 album sold 14 million copies there.

My exposure to ABBA has come almost entirely through the Mamma Mia films, so when hearing one of the band’s albums I can’t help but imagine which songs could fit into a hypothetical third movie.

In this case, I think the best candidate is the song ‘Hey, Hey Helen,’ which is both catchy and potentially lyrically appropriate. The song is about a woman who neglects her husband and children to become a “woman of today.” I’m envisioning a movie about a younger version of Donna’s absentee mother.

The rest of the album is decent. In addition to the well-known hits, it features ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You,’ used beautifully in the second film, and a couple of serviceable pop rock tunes. It also has an ill-advised stab at reggae, something I hope ABBA didn’t attempt again.