ABBA

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Lore & Background

In 1989, Stig Anderson sold Polar Music to PolyGram. Before that, Polar had only produced and distributed ABBA's records in Scandinavian countries, licensing the recordings for release by different companies around the world. This meant there were many different compilations released in different parts of the world. As these licenses were renewed every three years, and, between 1989 and 1992, had all expired, something PolyGram waited for before releasing any new ABBA compilations. In the summer of 1992, Erasure had released a 4 track ABBA cover EP, titled Abba-esque, which topped charts around the world and showed that there was still a strong interest in ABBA's music. Rather than issue the multiple previous compilations, PolyGram put together a new collection, optimized for the CD format. This new release was compiled by PolyGram International's Chris Griffin and Jackie Stansfield, Polydor UK's George McManus, Ingemar Bergman of Sweden Music and Polar in Sweden, and music journalist John Tobler, who also wrote the album's liner notes. Chris Griffin tried to sequence the tracks as if it were a radio show: the album starts with "Dancing Queen", the band's most famous song, and then journeys through ballads, fun hits and dance classics, before it ends with "Waterloo", a nod to the group's international breakthrough in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.

In Their Own Story

Gold: Greatest Hits was released on September 21, 1992. It has been re-released in various 'special' or 'remastered' releases. The 1992 and 1999 editions released in Australia and New Zealand had a modified track listing to include three local hits, replacing three other songs on the international edition. The original 1992 release had a slightly different track listing for Spanish versions, replacing the English versions of "Chiquitita" and "Fernando" with the Spanish language versions. Shortly after the release of Gold: Greatest Hits, a Spanish version of the album, titled Oro: Grandes Exitos, was issued, followed later by Mas Oro: Mas ABBA Exitos. In 1992 a VHS video was released which included all tracks from the original album. In 2010, the DVD was remastered with six bonus clips, including five 'split-screen' versions of the clips to show which improvements were made by remastering the old videos. The UK saw a 30th Anniversary Edition released in 2004 with a gold-coloured sleeve cover with black writing, rather than the normal black sleeve with gold writing.

Reader's Guide

With pure sales of 5.61 million copies, Gold: Greatest Hits is the second-highest selling album of all time in the United Kingdom, after Queen's Greatest Hits. It is the best-selling album on compact disc in the UK, having sold over 4.04 million copies in that format. In August, 2019, Gold: Greatest Hits became the longest-running top 100 album of all time, spending 900 weeks on the UK Albums Chart. The album spent 61 (non-consecutive) weeks in the top 10 and topped the British chart 5 times, most recently for two weeks in 2008 following the release of the motion picture Mamma Mia! As of July 2021, Gold became the first album to reach 1000 weeks on the Official Charts in the United Kingdom. In January 2025, it was awarded 22× Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry, denoting 6.6 million album-equivalent unit in the UK. In the United States, the album has sold a total of 5.8 million copies and is the nineteenth biggest-selling greatest-hits album in the Nielsen Music era (which began in 1991). In Canada, Gold: Greatest Hits achieved Diamond status (one million units sold) in May, 2000. In Germany, Gold: Greatest Hits has been certified five times Platinum for shipment of 2.5 million units. It has also been certified 10 times Platinum in Switzerland for sales of 500,000 units.

Did You Know?

• Gold: Greatest Hits is the best-selling ABBA album, with sales of 30 million.
• The album was compiled by a team including music journalist John Tobler, who also wrote the liner notes.
• In the UK, Gold: Greatest Hits became the first album to reach 1000 weeks on the Official Charts in July 2021.
• The album's track listing ends with 'Waterloo', a nod to the group's international breakthrough in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.
• A Spanish version of the album, titled Oro: Grandes Exitos, was issued shortly after the original release.