Waterloo

Waterloo is the second studio album by the Swedish pop group ABBA, and the first released internationally. It was originally released in Sweden on 4 March 1974 through Polar Music. The album’s title track won ABBA the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest and became a worldwide smash-hit, launching the group’s career.

Recording sessions for Waterloo began on 24 September 1973 with the track Dance (While the Music Still Goes On). This song was unusual in that it is the only ABBA track not to feature member Benny Andersson on keyboards, but instead featured American pianist John Rabbit Bundrick who was in Sweden at the time. Bundrick, however, was not credited on the album. Three weeks later the next two songs (Suzy-Hang-Around and My Mama Said) went into the studio. A recording sheet from the day credits the artist as “ABBA”, the first time the name was ever used, the group until now being called “Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid”. The former of these songs marks the only time Benny Andersson sang lead on a track. 17 October saw the recording of two more tracks; What About Livingstone and Honey Honey – the latter being the second single released from the album in most countries. King Kong Song was recorded on 14 November, a song which members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus today single out as one of their weakest tracks. This was also the date in which it was announced that ABBA were to appear at the Swedish selection for the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. From that point, recording sessions speeded up and the rest of the tracks were recorded. Two songs were up for consideration for their Eurovision entry; Waterloo and Hasta Mañana. The group preferred the former but felt the latter was a more safe bet. Ultimately they chose Waterloo as it was more the direction they wished to take the group. Waterloo and Watch Out were recorded on the same day – the songs that made up the lead single and its B-side.

Waterloo swept to victory at the Swedish heats and the group represented Sweden in Brighton for the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. ABBA won the contest and Waterloo became not only a massive hit in Europe but all over the world (peaking at No.6 in the US for example). In Sweden, the album had already been released as topped the Swedish album charts for 12 weeks, becoming one of the biggest-selling Swedish albums ever to that point. In the UK the album made No.28 – the first time a foreign Eurovision act had charted an album and it performed well in the rest of Europe.

Reviews of the album were positive with Phonograph Record’s Greg Shaw stating that it “might just turn out to be one of the classic début LPs of the ‘70s”. Rolling Stone also gave the album a favourable review. In a 3-star review, AllMusic said that it was “a beautiful album”.

Waterloo was first released on CD in Sweden in 1988; a West German CD release followed in 1990 (later released internationally). The album has been reissued in digitally remastered form three times; first in 1997, then in 2001 and again in 2005 as part of The Complete Studio Recordings box set. It was also released as a special 30th Anniversary edition in 2004, celebrating 30 years of the group’s victory in the Eurovision Song Contest. The album was released yet again in 2014 as 40th anniversary edition with bonus tracks and bonus DVD. This version of the album re-entered the UK album charts.

The original 1974 Polar Music edition of the album opens with the Swedish version of the title track and closes with the English-language version. The American version of the album, released through Atlantic Records, closes with a 1974 remix of Ring Ring. In the United Kingdom/Ireland and several other European markets, the original 1973 version of Ring Ring was added as track 6 on side 2. The cover features the sub-title “Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Frida” although some editions replaced ‘Agnetha’ with ‘Anna’ – by which Agnetha Fältskog was known in some countries.