ABBA GOLD JAM

Our first ABBA GOLD ukulele jam will take place on Tuesday 1st May 2018 at 7 pm EDT in the common room of the Walter Baker building in Historic Lower Mills.

We will celebrate ABBA’s announcement of new songs, first time in 35 years with a trivia pursuit game and aim to play all 19 songs on their gold album. Join us!! RSVP via meet-up for this FREE singalong to ukulele accompaniment.

While compiling our ukulele songbook for “Easy Beatles” I came across a triibute concert to ABBA on Wednesday 2nd May 2018. Suddenly I remembered how much I love ABBA. How can we devote an evening to the Beatles without one for ABBA?

Well, why not? As I searched for ukulele chords to lyrics of songs from the ABBA Gold album, I travelled down memory lane.

Some highlights of my ABBA groupie syndrome:

At sweet sixteen, I was voted “Dancing Queen” at my high school in Okinawa. Driving to and from my office on the 30th floor in Houston, I had only one cassette (ABBA Gold) and the radio didn’t work in my red convertible. No wonder I knew all the songs and could even anticipate the order on that album.

In London, I forced my friends to sing (or lipsync) only ABBA songs on my birthday. When the preview of “Mamma Mia” the musical in London came out, my editorial colleague Cathy and I joined numerous other fans, suppressing the urge to sing. We were not allowed to sing until the end. Only one person did not stand up and sing “Waterloo!”  We all looked at him like “you don’t belong here.”

When the movie “Mamma Mia” came out, once again I had to see it. Needless to say, I have ABBA GOLD songbook and CD, and play “Thank You for the Music” every Thanksgiving. How could I forget attending the concert of  “Bjorn Again” and believing that they were the new ABBA?

I can’t wait to see part II of Mamma Mia — 20th July 2018. Maybe we will do another ABBA jam then.

Here’s my list — I’ll need to try them all and re-arrange them in increasing order of difficulty for my ukulele club.

Only 19 songs are on the ABBA GOLD Album. Can you guess which? Hot off the press: 30 pages of ABBA GOLD songs for ukulele

1. I Have a Dream: 3 chords
2. Ring, Ring
3. Voulez Vous
4. Waterloo: 6 chords or Waterloo 5 chords or Waterloo 8 chords
5. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight): 7 chords
6. Dancing Queen: 8 chords
7. Knowing Me, Knowing You
8. Fernando: 8 chords
9. Mamma Mia (in C) or Mamma Mia (in F)
10. Chiquitita
11. Take a Chance on Me
12. Super Trouper
13. S,O.S.
14. One of Us
15. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do
16. Money, Money, Money
17. Lay All Your Love on Me
18. The Winner Takes It All
19. Does Your Mother Know
20. The Name of the Game
21. Honey, Honey
22. Thank You for the Music

Lesser known:

1. Eagle
2. Rock Me
3. When I Kissed the Teacher
4. Slipping Through My Fingers

Note @22 April 2018: there are other ABBA fans out there — a web site with ABBA songs and ukulele songsheets!