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They broke up in 1982, after ten chart-topping years and at least five songs I can’t get out of my head, even today, despite hypnotherapy. But just because the band hasn’t released an album in nearly 25 years doesn’t mean they can’t be in our faces — their hit Broadway musical Mamma Mia premiered in 2001 and now there’s talk of a film adaptation. What’s more, the city of Stockholm has just announced that it will build an ABBA museum, featuring personal effects donated by the band, instruments and hand-written lyric sheets. (Whoa, daddy!) As a tip o’ the hat to all this ABBA madness, here are some flossy fun facts about the quartet.
- Most of their music videos were directed by Lasse Hallstrom, who went on to helm The Cider House Rules and Chocolat.
- “ABBA” was actually the name of a Swedish fish canning company. The band started referring to themselves as “ABBA” as a joke, but the name stuck. Foolishly, they assumed overseas audiences didn’t know anything about canned fish.
- In 2000, ABBA turned down an offer of one billion dollars to reuinte for a world tour.
- In 1975, “SOS” became the first song with a palindromic title recorded by a group with a palindromic name to hit the pop charts. For the lyrics to a song which is itself entirely a palindrome, and even the length of which — 2:22 — is a palindrome, click here.
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the lyrics to I Palindrome I are not entirely a palindrome.
posted by marcy on 11-29-2006 at 10:32 am
Yeah, Ransom, I have to agree with Marcy here…. I love me some “They Might Be Giants,” and the song uses palindromes, but I tried to read it backwards and I just got “daeh ekans edis etisoppo eht no daeh eth” and so on. I guess the moral of the whole story is sort of a palindrome?
posted by Mary on 11-29-2006 at 10:41 am
An ABBA museum? I’m guessing the color theme will be…oh…I don’t know. Maybe WHITE? lol
posted by Sheldon Siegel on 11-29-2006 at 11:06 am
In “Weird Al” Yankovic’s song “Bob” (on his Poodle Hat album) each line is a palindrome. I don’t know if the lyrics are on-line, but here’s a example from the first verse:
I, man, am regal, a German am I.
Never odd or even.
If I had a Hi-Fi.
Madam, I’m Adam.
Too hot to hoot.
No lemons, no melon.
Too bad I aid a boot.
posted by Dan H. on 11-29-2006 at 11:33 am
Guys! You don’t trust me. No, the letters themselves are palindromes, but the word-units are:
“Son I am able she said, though you scare me. Watch, said I, beloved, I said, watch me scare you though. Said she, able am I, Son.” is a palindrome which uses words as units instead of letters. Speaking in a literary sense, this configuration of wording is called chiasmus.
The song does include several letter-for-letter palindromes: “Man o nam” and the classic palindrome, “Egad, a base tone denotes a bad age.”
Either way, Giants write more interesting songs than ABBA.
posted by Ransom on 11-29-2006 at 11:40 am
Giants may write interesting songs (hey, I’ve got a birdhouse in my soul as we speak), but Abba sure enough wrote some of the most infectious melodies in music history.
Oh, and to add to your list of facts, Abba was the first musical guest to lip sync on “Saturday Night Live.”
(There’s a Fact of the Day on this in the library, but the comments, they won’t let me link….)
posted by Kara on 11-29-2006 at 1:24 pm
I don’t trust you!!!
Yes, I understand Chiasmus. But only in that section. You state above “a song which is itself entirely a palindrome”!
posted by marcy on 11-29-2006 at 2:30 pm
Marcy’s right. Just that verse, and some other lines, are palindromes. And technically that verse isn’t a true palindrome where letter by letter the text is reversed—in this case just word by word.
posted by Kristin on 11-29-2006 at 6:41 pm
Hi! Why I can’t fill my info in profile? Can somebody help me?
My login is Kisakookoo!
posted by Kisakookoo on 1-23-2007 at 1:57 pm