Happy birthday, Benny Andersson (member of ABBA), born on this day in 1946.

Göran Bror Benny Andersson KVO1kl (born 16 December 1946) is a Swedish musician, composer and producer best known as a member of the pop group ABBA and co-composer of the musicals Chess, Kristina från Duvemåla, and Mamma Mia! For the 2008 film version of Mamma Mia! and its 2018 sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, he worked also as an executive producer. Since 2001, he has been active with his own band Benny Anderssons orkester.

Together with Ulvaeus, Andersson was nominated for a Drama Desk Award in a category “Outstanding Music” (for the musical Chess), and for a Tony Award in a category “Best Orchestrations” (for musical Mamma Mia!). Original cast recordings of both musicals were nominated for a Grammy Award. Andersson/Ulvaeus also won a Touring Broadway Award for the musical “Mamma Mia” (best score).

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During his post-ABBA career Andersson won four Swedish Grammis awards, and together with Ulvaeus received the “Special International” Ivor Novello award from ‘The British Academy of Composers and Songwriters’, twice “The Music Export Prize” from the Swedish Ministry of Industry and Trade (2008), as well as the “Lifetime Achievement” award from the Swedish Music Publishers Association (SMFF). In 2002, Andersson was given an honorary professorship by the Swedish Government for his “ability to create high-class music reaching people around the world”.

In 2007, he was elected a member of Royal Swedish Academy of Music, and in 2008 received an Honorary Doctorate from the Stockholm University Faculty of Humanities for contributing importantly both to the preservation and the growth of the Swedish folk music tradition.

On 15 March 2010, Andersson appeared on stage in New York with former wife Anni-Frid Lyngstad to accept ABBA’s award of induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During his acceptance speech he reflected on the important influence of traditional European music and the melancholy of the Swedish soul on ABBA’s brand of pop music.

“If you live in a country like Sweden, with five, six months of snow, and the sun disappears totally for like two months, that would be reflected in the work of artists,” he said. “It’s definitely in the Swedish folk music, you can hear it in the Russian folk songs, you can hear in the music from Jean Sibelius or Edvard Grieg from Norway, you can see it in the eyes of Greta Garbo and you can hear it in the voice of Jussi Björling. And you can hear in the sound of Frida and Agnetha on some of our songs too.”

In 2012, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy from the Luleå Tekniska Universitet Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Andersson won the Swedish “Guldbaggen” award in 2012 as composer of the music for the film “Palme”.

For his album Piano he received the Opus Klassik award in 2018.

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On 21 March 2024, all four members of ABBA were appointed Commander, First Class, of the Royal Order of Vasa by His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. This was the first time in almost 50 years that the Swedish Royal Orders of Knighthood was bestowed on Swedes, also the 50th anniversary of ABBA winning the Eurovision Song Contest. ABBA shared the honour with nine other persons.

ABBA GOLD

ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits is a compilation by the Swedish group ABBA, it was released on September 21, 1992. It was released by PolyGram, being the first compilation to be released after said company acquired Polar Music and the rights to ABBA songs. ​

In 1998, PolyGram went bankrupt and is currently part of Universal Music Group. Due to its success, the album has been re-released in several ‘special’ versions, in 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2022, coinciding with its thirtieth anniversary.

ABBA Gold is ABBA’s most successful album, with more than 27 million copies sold by August 2008.

Prior to its release, all previously released compilation albums were discontinued, leaving only the studio albums in circulation. ABBA Gold was well received by the music market, being the group’s first compilation designed to be released on CD. The original 1992 release included edited versions of ‘Voulez Vous’ and ‘The Name Of The Game’, these were replaced by full ones in later versions.

The Australian version had a modification in the song lists, replacing three songs with others that were more successful in Australia. In Spain, the original 1992 release contained the Spanish versions of ‘Chiquitita’ and ‘Fernando’ instead of the originals.

In 1999, the album was released in worldwide and Australian versions, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of ABBA’s victory in the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo. This new version was called ‘signature series’, because it had autographs of the group members written in gold on the cover. In addition, this new version contained a short biography written by Carl Magnus Palm.

A tenth anniversary edition of its release was published in 2002. The ABBA logo was changed to the official one and the back was redesigned, being released mainly in Europe and New Zealand. In 2003 the ABBA Gold DVD was released.

A 30th anniversary edition of Waterloo’s Eurovision victory was released in 2004 with a gold, more colorful cover than normal. It also included a DVD with 18 of the 19 songs on the CD, excluding ‘The Name Of The Game’.

Finally, in 2008 a new version of ABBA Gold was released again to coincide with the premiere of the musical film Mamma Mia!, with a jewel box and with the group’s history updated.

Songs included:

Dancing Queen
Knowing Me, Knowing You
Take A Chance On Me
Mamma Mia
Lay All Your Love On Me

Super Trouper
I Have A Dream
The Winner Takes It All
Money, Money, Money
S.O.S.

Chiquitita
Fernando
Voulez Vous
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)

Does Your Mother Know
One Of Us
The Name Of The Game
Thank You For The Music
Waterloo

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