Abba

[Peter Graham]

Originally Posted by Stephen Palmer

To my list I'm going to add Roland Orzabal, Neil Young and Julian Cope up to about 2005. All tunesmiths of the very highest standard.

I think spaces must also be reserved for Bob Marley, Richard Thompson and John Fogerty of damp-eyed hippy backwoodsmen Creedence Clearwater Revival. Prince too, although personally I don't like the end result and can't stand the self-important little twonk.

Regards,

Peter

[Stephen Palmer]

Did Bob write tunes? Maybe a couple. I don't think he stands up to Roland Orzabal though. I also forgot to add to The Greats: the guy who writes the tunes in Dodgy (Nigel Clarke?) and Evan Slamka, who wrote one of the most incredible batch of tunes for his only album, Marjorie Fayre Self-Help Serenade.

[Starbeast]

Originally Posted by undormant

Any ABBA fans out there?

R

Fantastic and wonderful voices. I saw them sing live in New York on the TV show Saturday Night Live in the the 1970's.

[undormant]

Glad to see some love for ABBA here

R

[Darth Angelus]

Ah, my countrymen.

I was very into them a few years back, but my interest for them now is not quite what it was. Still, they can be enjoyable from time to time. My favorite songs of theirs are Fernando, Happy New Year and of course Dancing Queen. Chiquitita, Lay All Your Love On Me, Summer Night City, Gimmie Gimmie and Head Over Heels are also songs I kind of enjoy listening to from time to time.

[TheTomG]

Ah the first band I ever bought LPs of! And I still listen to them to this day. I'm an "Eagle" "Knowing Me and Knowing You" and "Name of the Game" and "Winner Takes It All" kind of guy as far as favorites go.

What always surprises me is what seems like an eminently hummable simple pop song turns out to be surprisingly complex when you listen to what all is going on in the music.

[Stephen Palmer]

They're extraordinarily sophisticated compositions. Must've been quite difficult to sing those complex harmonies on some occasions.

[AnyaKimlin]

I think that was shown in the first series of Pop Idol when they had Abba night. Only four were even in tune and the rest all struggled with the compositions. Those that were in tune had enough music background to tweak them a bit.