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I never listened very closely to the music of ABBA when I was young. Of course I heard it on the radio a lot, but it was just bouncy pop music to me (with very strong choruses and lyrics that were easy to remember), so I didn't think much about it.
What really impressed me was the concept album for the musical, Chess, that Benny and Bjorn helped to create. I wasn't a big fan of Jesus Christ, Superstar (which their fellow collaborator, Tim Rice, helped to create), and I wasn't a big fan of ABBA, so Chess escaped my attention for at least a year after it was released. But when I finally listened to the album (one of my friends was an ABBA fan, and he played it for me), I was fascinated by it. In a short span of time, I listened to it several times so I could absorb it, and soon thereafter, I couldn't get enough of it. The lyrics, the story, and the characters were part of the appeal, but the music is what really hooked me. The stylistic range, the composition, and the emotional impact seem brilliant to me.
Coincidentally, I've had the urge several times over the last two weeks to dig out my old CD and listen it, and I've been humming and singing it to myself. (I got a smile from a couple of people at a department store a few hours ago because they were amused by my absent-minded humming.)
I see now that ABBA has been in the news lately, but I haven't paid any attention to it. I assure you that I was spontaneously humming the music from Chess because that's something I do purely on my own from time to time, not because I heard about ABBA in the news. Quite simply, it means that I enjoy the music, and it is forever etched into my brain. I think that most of us have a tendency to believe that the things we like personally are "great", so I don't want to spend too much effort trying to convince other people that they, too, should believe that Benny and Bjorn are talented composers. I will simply say that if they can write music that has such an effect on me, then they definitely know how to hit the right notes.
