They did not have a ton of original albums, but they had dozens of singles and lots of collection albums.

http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/abba

As someone else said, they had 20 #1 singles in multiple countries.


Greatest Hits was rush-released in Scandinavia in November 1975 to counter expected import sales of similar collections released by licencees in Europe, such as French Disques Vogue's ABBA's Greatest Hits and West German Polydor's The Best Of ABBA. The album was the best selling album of 1976 in the UK, the second best selling album of the 1970s in the UK, and is the second-best selling album in the UK for ABBA,[2] staying in the charts for 130 weeks.[3] The album was certified Platinum in the US.[4] Its compilation successor was Greatest Hits Vol. 2, released in 1979, and this album was later referred to as "Greatest Hits Volume 1".[3]

The tracks, taken from ABBA’s first three studio albums, had all but one been single sides somewhere in the world. Despite the title of the compilation, only half of the tracks had actually charted as hit singles in major territories. One track, "Dance (While The Music Still Goes On)," was never released as a single and thus was never certified a hit in any territory or country. "Waterloo," "SOS," "Mamma Mia" and, later, "Fernando" were Top 10 hits in the UK and several other countries, though only the first of these was a Top 10 hit in the US. Other arguable hits in multiple territories included "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" (a Top 10 hit in several countries, a number one in Australia, and a Top 20 hit in the US, though barely cracking the Top 40 in the UK), "Honey Honey" (a Top 20 hit in several countries and a Top 30 hit in the US), "Hasta Mañana" (a Top 10 hit in South Africa and New Zealand and a Top 20 hit in Australia), and "So Long" (a Top 20 hit in Germany and a Top 10 hit in Sweden). Ironically, in Australia, where several of the tracks had reached Number One, the release of Greatest Hits was beaten to the market by the local compilation The Best Of ABBA, precluding a release there for years. Nevertheless, the official greatest hits package was an enormous success. Even Rolling Stone, often one of ABBA's harshest critics in the US, declared in the years shortly after its release, "Anyone who could listen to this record five times and not wind up humming half the songs is an android."

ABBA has sold over 370 million records worldwide and still sell millions of records a year,[1][2] which makes them one of the best-selling music artists. ABBA was the first pop group to come from a non-English-speaking country that enjoyed consistent success in the charts of English-speaking countries, including the UK, Ireland, the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the Philippines. The group also enjoyed significant success in Latin American markets, and recorded a collection of their hit songs in Spanish.

So does Boone get cultural and musical impact for his covers, and should he be on Sampson's list of Greatest 1950s Rock Artists?

So yes, ABBA should be added to the top 100, pop is part of rock. In fact, maybe is the most popular subgenre of rock.

All I´m saying is that Clapton helped to introduce reggae (especially Bob Marley) to the mainstream.

And Boone helped to introduce rock and roll to the mainstream in 1955, before Elvis was mainstream.

I think influence is the weak area of the criteria for both of those artists. It seems to me most of Kanye's influence has to be credited to his prior production work for Jay-Z and others.

But in cultural, Kanye does very well. Sampson mentioned his ability to tour in the suburbs. I would also give him credit as a fashion trendsetter as he was ahead of the dapper/nerdy "Urkel look" which is still the rage. So I'm not sure he loses in cultural.

I'm pretty sure Kraftwerk are considered for the list, but I think you are exaggerating their influence. I think they were too contemporary with a lot of other electronic experimentation to rank top 20. Not that they weren't genuinely innovative, but so were a bunch of others in that era.

C) Boone scores horribly in musical impact (rock musicians have never had much respect for him)

In addition to the other examples cited, Paul Simon's "Mother and Child Reunion" preceded Clapton's "I Shot the Sheriff" by more than 2 years.



Good point about Kanye's cultural impact. If Kanye beats or even ties GnR in cultural impact, then I definitely think Kanye beats him overall. In that case GnR's only clear win is popularity, where Kanye also does very well. But there might be room for both in the top 100.

I like the way that you are giving more importance to popularity outside of US/UK. What you said about ABBA´s popularity is totally true.

So yes, ABBA should be added to the top 100, pop is part of rock. In fact, maybe is the most popular subgenre of rock.

Also, I think is time to add the King of Pop to the top 10 at least. I concur with the fact that MJ´s is in the top 3 of worldwide popularity (The Beatles are #1, MJ and Elvis are close for #2). In Mexico MJ is huge. I still remember dancing a la thriller when I was a little boy and 10 years later I went to his famous concerts at the Estadio Azteca (in total he gave 5 concerts with a total audience of half a million people, both are still records).

Bruce is right, ABBA should at least be considered for possible inclusion. His popularity is enormous. Here in Brazil are also very popular.

Abba is a group, not one guy.

If Kanye beats or even ties GnR in cultural impact, then I definitely think Kanye beats him overall.

In addition to the other examples cited, Paul Simon's "Mother and Child Reunion" preceded Clapton's "I Shot the Sheriff" by more than 2 years.