Dum Dum Diddle | 10 October 2006
Thirty years ago Arrival was the very first true ABBA album I bought. The Dancing Queen single got me hooked on those Swedes, so buying the album was the logical next step. In fact this album was the first ever pop album at all that I possessed. Not counting the famous red an blue Beatles collection of course. So I played the album with the fascinating cover over and over again. I didn't count how many times the record was on the turntable, but my parents must have gone mad. To me Arrival is the last naive ABBA pop-album. The songs radiate and show an energy that was never equaled by ABBA later in their career. In particular songs like Tiger and Dum Dum Diddle were very rare in their post 1976 songbook. The best of the record however is the many styles that made it to the vinyl. There's the wild Tiger in contrast with the soft My Love My Life. And the pure and simple Dum Dum Diddle or When I Kissed The Teacher against the deep Knowing Me Knowing You. Et cetera. But the absolute highlight of the LP is Dancing Queen. There's no other song that captivates every aspect of ABBA perfectly. Smashing vocals, a phenomenal melody and a brilliant multi-layered production. This has to be THE ABBA classic. You can imagine that I can't wait to get my hands on the "Deluxe edition" CD – DVD set. And that DVD looks so promising with for instance the documentary ABBA Dabba Doo. It's time to be spoiled rotten by old tv-recordings: "You can dance, you can jive …" |
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