The original 1992 release included an edited version of " Voulez-Vous" and the US Promo Edit of " The Name of the Game". The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Since 1992, it has been re-released several times, most notably in 1999 as the first remastered reissue to mark the group's 25th anniversary of winning the Eurovision Song Contest 1974, in 2008 to coincide with the release of the film Mamma Mia! Gold has a particularly spectacular story in the UK, where it is confirmed by the Official Charts Company as the second-biggest selling album in history, only behind Queen’s Greatest Hits. In 2002, Gold: Greatest Hits was released in mainland Europe (though not in the UK) with a bonus second disc.

Rare misses aside, hearing Faltskog and Lyngstad’s impeccable voices weave through a battalion’s worth of riffs, bells, and whistles is an indefatigable source of ecstasy.

The children who grew up with ABBA omnipresent on the radio were maturing into punk, rap, and new wave; the adults who enjoyed their lighthearted, melodic hits were less interested in minimally arranged character studies. And if the commercial potential of ABBA’s music wasn’t already evident, it became impossible to ignore in mid-1992 when Erasure’s cover EP Abba-esque topped the charts across the UK and continental Europe. As the division of labor between Andersson and Ulvaeus became clearer later in the band’s discography—the former handled most of the music, the latter wrote the bulk of the lyrics—the divide between subject matter and sound became even more pronounced. It’s a moot point since 32m global sales and counting means no one cares and despite missing some excellent singles such as ‘Under Attack’ and ‘The Day Before You Came’ (neither was a big hit in the UK so it’s understandable) it cannot be denied that the 19-track collection does a great job of bringing together all the big singles, including ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Money Money Money’, ‘Knowing Me Knowing You’, ‘Take A Chance On Me’ and ‘Mamma Mia’.

From a distance, it must have seemed unlikely that ABBA would explode back into the popular consciousness and stay there indefinitely. The track listing was similar to the original album, with some added content: a 25-minute documentary produced in 1999, and the 1992 video of "Dancing Queen". It was released on 21 September 1992 through PolyGram, making it the first compilation to be released after the company had acquired Polar Music, and thus the rights to the ABBA back catalogue. I own this release and I probably shouldn't be saying this, but I really can't see the reason for the high value - the volume is somewhat low and the overall sound is a bit flat, nothing like ABBA Gold.

As of July 2021, "Gold" became the first album to reach 1000 weeks on the Official Charts in United Kingdom with pure sales of 5. In Austria, the album charted for 397 weeks, making it the all-time second longest stay on the chart. In his 2016 eulogy for greatest hits, anthologies, and other, similar reissues, Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted that Bob Marley could have languished in relative obscurity were it not for the release of Legend in 1984.

This version was issued in the US in 2010, although it does not come in a super jewel case, but instead a regular jewel case. Its two constituent couples—Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Faltskog, and Benny Andersson and Frida Lyngstad—were either separated or divorced by the release of their final album, The Visitors, in 1981. Included two discs: the original CD (using the 2008 remasters), and a DVD of the video clips, remastered in 2010. And yet Gold still conveys the one thing you absolutely need to know about the band: For about a decade, these four Swedes cracked the code on pop music.

Music critic Elisabeth Vincentelli ( New York Post; Time Out New York) credits the album for a revival of critical interest in ABBA's music after ten years of neglect following the band's 1982 break-up. Ulvaeus summed up their approach rather neatly in a 1981 interview: “Our musical roots are European—we like French and Italian songs,” said Ulvaeus. Even gorgeous hooks wilt up against inelegant English lyrics, martial Germanic pomp, and faux-Italian balladry.