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Björn and Benny met each other in the summer 1966 in Västervik and became friends. They started to write music together. Some years later Björn met Agnetha Fältskog and Benny met Anni-Frid Lyngstad - that's how it started. Both girls started to participate in Björn and Benny's recording sessions at the beginning of 1970s. They used to contribute with backing vocals and harmonies.
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Festfolket
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The show was nothing ABBA members want to remember today but of course it is a part of the ABBA history. After several evenings at the restaurant "Trä'gårn" in Gothenburg the show moved to Stockholm where it was played until December 20th, 1970.
Probably the very first TV performance of the future ABBA was filmed for Swedish TV in 1970. They performed "California Here I come".
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ABB on tour
At the end of April Björn, Benny and Agnetha started their bizarre tour in Sweden. They performed several covers during a 30-minutes-show. In June they performed in front of TV cameras in Skansen in Stockholm.
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Agnetha & Björn get married
On July 6, 1971 Björn married Agnetha in the Verum church in Skåne in southern Sweden.
See even: Agnetha & ABBA related places
Anni-Frid worked together with other well-known Swedish artists in a show at the theatre Folkan in Stockholm. Agnetha finished recording of her new solo album together with Frida, Björn and Benny who sang backing vocals.
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Vi i femman
Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid appeared on Swedish TV in the youth programme "Vi i femman". It was one of their very first appearances on Swedish TV on 30 April 1972.
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In March 1972 the foursome were in the studio together again recording a new song called "People Need Love". The single was released in Sweden in June 1972 with "Merry-Go-Round" on the B-side. The group was called Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid on the single cover and on the label on the A-side while the B-side with "Merry-Go-Round" was credited only to Björn and Benny. "People Need Love" reached #3 on the "Tio i topp" chart in Sweden and #17 on the "Topplistan" chart in July 1972. Promo sessions for this cover were taken on the Djurgården island in Stockholm someday in 1970 - check ABBA related places.
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Summer 1972
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ABBA and their dogs
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Christmas album with Frida
In September Frida recorded two songs for the forthcoming Christmas album with all artists working at Polar Music. Björn and Hootenanny Singers, Lena Andersson and Arne Lambert were some of the other artists on the album.
People Need Love in France
The single "People Need Love"/"Merry-Go-Round" was released in France and Belgium on 10 October 1972. Stikkan Anderson signed contract with the publishing company Baboo for a future collaboration. The single was distributed by Vogue in France. The cover featured the same picture as on the Swedish issue of the single but the names of the singers were a little bit different as Björn and Benny had been joined not by Frida and Agnetha but Frieda and Anna. Agnetha would be called Anna some more years to come at the beginning of ABBA's international career.
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1972 photo session
Pictures of ABBA and the team with Stikkan Anderson taken in the autumn 1972.
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More pictures from autumn 1972.
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Ted Gärdestad
Recording sessions for Ted Gärdestad's new album started at the Metronome studio in October 1972 and continued until February 1973. Among backing singers there were Agnetha, Frida, Björn and Benny. Benny and Björn were playing several instruments on the album and they even produced it together with Ted.
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He Is Your Brother - the second single
The second single "He Is Your Brother"/"Santa Rosa" was released by the group in November 1972. The single became #1 hit on "Tio i topp" chart in Sweden in December 1972.
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Christmas with ABBA
At the end of the year 1972 there was arranged a Christmas photo session at Björn's and Agnetha's place in Vallentuna. Hundreds of photos were taken during the session and many of them were later published in several Swedish magazines. Pictures from this session were even used in several articles about Agnetha's pregnancy.
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Without Agnetha
Björn, Benny, Frida and her friend Inger Brundin performed "People Need Love" on German TV on January 6, 1973. Agnetha did not participate in the show because of her pregnancy.
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At the beginning of January the Swedish version of "Ring Ring" was recorded.
Melodifestivalen 1973
Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Frida participated for the first time in 1973 in the Swedish "Melodifestivalen" - the outtake for the Eurovision Song Contest. They performed "Ring Ring". Agnetha was there although she was pregnant in ninth month. The Song Festival was held in Stockholm on 10 February 1973. "Ring Ring" did not win and ending on #3 but it became a big hit in Scandinavia and a lot of countries in Europe.
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The Ring Ring photo session
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Ring Ring - the single
Polar Music released the single "Ring Ring" (Swedish version)/"Åh vilka tider" on 14 February 1973 in Sweden. The single entered Svensktoppen on March 11th, 1973 at #1 where it stayed for 9 weeks. Totally "Ring Ring" stayed on the chart for 17 weeks (until July 8th, 1973).
Even "Åh vilka tider" entered Svensktoppen on April 29th, 1973 and stayed there for 5 weeks.
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Ring Ring - English version
The English version of the song with "She's My Kind Of Girl" was the B-side was released on February 19th, 1973 in Sweden and later in almost all European countries though not in Great Britain.
"Ring Ring" did not manage to enter the West German chart even if the group re-recorded two of their songs in German. Surprisingly the single became #2 in Austria and Norway and #5 in Holland. In France "Ring Ring" reached only #82. Even Australia was not ready for the group yet and "Ring Ring" ended at #92. In Belgium the single reached the chart top in June 1973. The single was released even in Mexico but it did not enter the chart there. In South Africa "Ring Ring" was #3 and in Zimbabwe #12. The Japanese release of "Ring Ring" with "I Am Just A Girl" on the flipside did not enter the single chart.
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The Kaknäs photo session
The Polydor cover featured the photo from the session taken outside the TV tower "Kaknästornet" in Stockholm. One of the early ABBA sessions taken in 1972.
See even ABBA related places.
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The first promotional trip in Europe
Björn, Benny, Frida and... Inger Brundin went on the promotional tour in the middle of March 1973. Agnetha did not participate because of her first days as mother to little Linda. The group was unknown in Europe and it was not so big problem to have a stand-in for Agnetha so Inger pretended to be the other female singer in the group. They did promotion for their forthcoming album performing (of course not live) "People Need Love" and "Ring Ring". The trip went through West Germany, Austria, Holland and Belgium.
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Ring Ring in German
ABBA re-recorded "Ring Ring" and "Another Town Another Train" with German lyrics for a single release in West Germany in the spring 1973. The single did not enter the German chart though.
The first album entitled "Ring Ring" was released by Polar Music on 26 March 1973. It included some already well-known hits as "People Need Love" and "He Is Your Brother" as well as some upcoming singles "Love Isn't Easy", "Nina Pretty Ballerina" and of course the title song "Ring Ring" in two language versions: Swedish and English.
The album was good enough to be promoted internationally but it was no "real" ABBA yet. The songs were a mixture of all possible trends. It was quite easy to recognize which songs had been planned for Björn and Benny's second album if you listen to "I Saw It In The Mirror" or "Rock'n'Roll Band". The latter one was in fact performed live on their tours with lead vocals sung by Frida. The old-fashioned sounding "I Am Just A Girl" was maybe an early version of the future success tunes as "I Do I Do I Do...", "Hasta Manana" and "I've Been Waiting For You". Three songs that had a big potential were "Nina, Pretty Ballerina", "Another Town Another Train" and "Love Isn't Easy" and they would be released as singles in other countries in Europe. Agnetha contributed for the first and last time during the ABBA period with her own composition "Disillusion" (released as "Mina ögon" earlier on one of her solo LPs) and Frida sang leadvocal on the quite underestimated "Me And Bobby And Bobby's Brother".
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The photo sessions
The "Ring Ring" photo session was taken in the autumn 1972.
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Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure Is Hard Enough)
The new single release featured "Love Isn't Easy" with "I Am Just A Girl" on the B-side. The SP was released in Sweden in April 1973 and in the other Scandinavian countries in June. The single reached #3 on the Swedish chart.
The photo session were taken outside Frida's and Benny's house in Vallentuna.
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Agnetha, Björn and their dog
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Denmark
Stikkan tried to promote the album in Scandinavia and in Europe. One of the first countries that ABBA made a promotional trip to was Denmark. The foursome went to Denmark in June 1973. They appeared in the TV-show "Sommerlördag" (The Summer Saturday) where they performed "Love Isn't Easy" (the latest single release) and "Ring Ring". They signed their LP in the "Fona" music shop on Ströget in Copenhagen but the interest for the group was very low... Both the single and the album "Ring Ring" were though released in Denmark with slightly different layout.
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Denmark, June 1973
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(in Copenhagen on June 20, 1973)
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Ring Ring in Danish
The Danish group "Klaus & Servants" recorded "Ring Ring" in Danish and released as a single in the early summer 1973.
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The Tour 1973
Their big summer tour started on 15 June 1973 in Göteborg and after 58 shows ended in Malmö on September 9, 1973. The show included several songs and lasted for approximetely 30 minutes.
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On September 1st, 1973 ABBA performed in Vretstorps Folkets park. After the show Agnetha posed for photos with her fans. One of them was published 3 years later in Swedish gossip magazine "Hänt i veckan".
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The photo session in the park
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Polar Music AB celebrated the first ten years as a company. A big party was arranged by Stikkan Anderson. Agnetha, Björn, Frida, Benny, Ted Gärdestad and Hootenanny Singers received gold discs for their latest albums. An anniversary album "Sånt som slog" (The ones that hit) including the greatest hits recorded by the Polar artists was released as well.
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Summer in the Stockholm Archipelago
The ABBA members relaxed in the Stockholm archipelago. Bengt Malmkvist took several photos in the summer 73.
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In the autumn 73 ABBA worked in the studio preparing material for a new album.
In West Germany
"Ring Ring" credited to Björn & Benny, Anna & Frida appeared on the international compilation album "20 Original Tophits" in West Germany at the end of 1973. It was probably the very first appearance of an ABBA song on an international compilation album.
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