Benny and Bjorn from disco-pop superstars ABBA talked about the secrets of their song-writing success recently, revealing that one of their biggest dance floor favourites ‘Does Your Mother Know’ was inspired by a preset sound from the world’s most expensive analogue synth, the Yamaha GX1.
“The sound at the beginning of that song… it was the first time where we used the GX1, you know, the dream machine, the big Yamaha, the last analogue synthesiser that cost a fortune,” Benny told the Observer. “It was expensive, even for us. I thought it was over the top – maybe something like £25,000 then. It’s quite much for a synthesiser. But with only that sound, I think it totally paid itself back,” he added.
Despite being hugely influential, the Swedish four piece always attracted critical disdain and mockery throughout their career, which music journalist turned Pet Shop Boy star Neil Tennant recently admitted was highly unfair. “I was one of those NME journalists who couldn’t declare what they really liked, although secretly I did like Abba,” Neil confessed in an interview with Skrufff in 2006.
“I was a musical snob, so even if I did, I would have never admitted it. When I worked at Marvel Comics, one of the graphic designers there was a DJ who loved Donna Summer’s records and I used to tell him they were shit, though in my heart of hearts I knew I really liked them too, but in those days I was more into punk rock so I couldn’t reveal I liked disco,” he said.
Sex Pistol Johny Rotten also discussed the band’s guilty pleasure status on the sleevenotes of their compilation in 1992 revealing; “Glenn (Matlock) was a closet ABBA fan and funny enough, so was Sid (Vicious). One time, Sid ran up to the girls from ABBA in the Stockholm airport to ask for their autograph. Sid was completely drunk and stuck his hand out,” he recalled. “They screamed and ran away. They thought they were being attacked – or maybe they thought he wanted money or something,” he added.
