All Abba's UK singles – ranked!

27. Under Attack (1982)

Last place for the band’s last single, taken from recording sessions for a ninth album that never came to fruition. And maybe that’s for the best: the dissonance between the robotic verses and a bizarrely jaunty chorus about being at one’s wit’s end over a stalker is too jarring to work. LS

26. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do (1975)

Throughout their career, Abba would offer occasional proof that they were a far from an infallible singles band. This was one such piece of evidence. Benny and Björn combined their loves of German schlager music and the American bandleader Billy Vaughn in a single that Melody Maker concluded was “so bad it hurts”. MH

25. Thank You for the Music (1983)

“Without a song or a dance what are we?” A poignant rhetorical question to which the answer is, of course, nothing. Still, there are better songs with which to prove it than this cloying number, to which one almost certainly cannot dance. LS

24. Fernando (1976)

A favourite for terrace chants – “He was awesome in the air tonight, his hair looked nice, Fernando!” as Liverpool fans once sang – the original Abba song is, somewhat improbably for a 70s chart topper, about two war veterans recalling the Mexican revolution of 1910. Regardless, it became one of their biggest-selling singles. TJ

23. Chiquitita (1979)

A tale of trying to help a friend through heartbreak, Chiquitita offers up the perfect lyrical fit for Abba’s inimitable Nordic melancholy. Inspired by the Peruvian folk song El Cóndor Pasa, it was deemed so strong by the band that it replaced the excellent If It Wasn’t for the Nights as lead single pick from their disco album Voulez-Vous. TJ

22. Waterloo (1974)

A piece of glam-pop indebted to Wizzard’s 1973 hit See My Baby Jive (itself in thrall to classic Phil Spector) that transcends its influences at a stroke. From the pile-driving rhythm through those piano crashes to its brilliant opening line, Waterloo’s irresistibility is sealed within 15 seconds – and it remains the best-ever Eurovision winner. JH

21. I Have a Dream (1979)

A simple, gospel-tinged song that borders on the saccharine yet still contains some subtle Abba mastery thrown in – note that hanging pause after “I believe ...” I Have a Dream features a children’s choir, making it the only Abba single to feature vocalists outside the band. It reached No 2 in the UK charts, though Westlife’s rubbish cover went one better. TJ

20. Ring Ring (1974)

The history book on the shelf could have read quite differently: rock wobbler Ring Ring was put forward for Eurovision consideration 12 months before the band made a more successful attempt with Waterloo. Worth noting that Ring Ring was penned in an era when a tinkling phone signalled potential romance, rather than a speculative PPI claim call. PR

19. Head Over Heels (1982)

The Visitors found Abba clacking towards their 40s with a mindset that was 80% meditative and 20% divorcees-on-the-lash. The dizzying Head Over Heels exemplified the latter. In the video we saw Frida sporting a post-divorce scarlet mullet, which kind of said it all. PE

18. Mamma Mia (1975)

Mamma Mia is a showcase for Abba’s musical inventiveness, from the way the opening xylophone playfully shifts from on-beat to off-beat to the cruising Beach Boys harmonies towards the end. Then, of course, there’s the way Björn and Benny drop everything for the chorus, bar Frida, Agnetha, that xylophone and a tiny, tinkly piano, creating one of the quintessential Abba moments. AN

17. Does Your Mother Know (1979)

A rarity in Abba’s catalogue in every sense: Björn takes the lead on vocals, rock rules over disco and then there’s the unusually troubling lyrics, about a man who definitely knows better contemplating his attraction to a girl who’s “only a child”. The raucous chorus has weathered better than the message. LS

16. Summer Night City (1978)

Previously titled Dancing in the Moonlight, the title of a 1972 hit by King Harvest, Abba’s 1978 UK No 5 pays delirious homage to nightlife, sexual attraction and the era’s disco boom. Oddly, the band have never been overly enamoured with it: our critics disagree. DS

15. You Owe Me One (1982)

As Abba entered their twilight years they got fascinatingly weirder. You Owe Me One, the B-side to 1982’s Under Attack, was a case in point: a snaking Middle-Eastern riff that sounded more Selda Bağcan than Summer Night City, Frida and Agnetha pitch-shifted upwards into Disney-fied adolescence and a breakup lyric that rode into white wine o’clock with a cackle. PE

14. One Of Us (1981)

Divorces are grisly and bad, but One of Us, recorded after both Abba’s couples had separated, is next level: a despondent tale of loneliness and empty beds with Agnetha’s protagonist “wishing she had never left at all” in a song written by her ex-husband. Which puts arguing over a lawnmower in perspective. PR

13. Money, Money, Money (1976)

Money, Money, Money suffers from being no one’s favourite Abba single. But the pizzicato intro is brilliant and the sinister guitar line underneath the chorus is terrific. The sentiment – find a rich man to shack up with – might be timeless, but it does feel a bit icky: the patriarchy is not being smashed. MH

12. Voulez-Vous (1979)

Abba on both autopilot and at the peak of their powers. As so often, the lyrics treat seduction as a transaction (the cynicism in much of the Abba catalogue is rarely remarked on). The faintly Arabic guitar refrain adds a touch of exoticism, the Earth, Wind and Fire-style horns in the chorus are fabulous. It’s just not quite perfect. MH

11. Angeleyes (1979)

Decades before Dua Lipa issued three rules for dealing with the troublesome ex you’re not quite over, Abba issued just one: “Don’t look too deep into those angel eyes.” Passed over for Abba Gold inclusion, this has the potential to be the surprise hit of Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again. Make of that what you will. PR

10. The Name of the Game (1977)

With its Stevie Wonder-influenced funk intro and slinky, soulful chorus, this 1977 No 1 is written from the viewpoint of a young, vulnerable person struggling with unfamiliar feelings, unsure if they are mutual or misplaced: “If I trust in you, would you let me down?” DS

9. Take A Chance on Me (1978)

The unusual a cappella intro of Abba’s seventh British No 1 originated in a rhythmic mantra that Björn hummed to himself while running. The lyrics are a classic tale of as-yet-unrequited longing: “If you’re all alone when the pretty birds have flown / Honey I’m still free, take a chance on me.” DS

8. Super Trouper (1980)

Abba’s final UK No 1 was a marvel: a spun-sugar melody with vocal harmonies so tightly arranged and recorded they sound barely human. You might think it’s a nursery rhyme but for the dread and horror in the lyrics, in which only the presence of a lover can distract Anni-Frid from her horror at the charade of being a pop star (one has to assume the song was written with Agnetha, who found fame extremely hard, in mind). A perfect single. MH

7. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) (1979)

The peak of Abba’s disco adventures and an instant gay anthem, complete with a beguiling tension: in the throes of divorce from Björn, Agnetha sings a hymn to desire and sexual freedom with lyrics by her former husband. That aside, the central riff and pulsating arrangement are deliriously great – as confirmed when Madonna nicked them both for 2005’s Hung Up. JH

6. Lay All Your Love on Me (1981)

Anyone who ever called jealousy an ugly emotion clearly hadn’t spent enough time listening to the rapturous Lay All Your Love on Me, whose clipped, defensive verses about perceiving every woman as a potential threat give way to pure, unfiltered id: a demand for attention that sounds both luxurious and genuinely threatening. LS

5. The Winner Takes It All (1980)

Writing about divorce is one thing; asking your ex-wife to sing it quite another. Björn would always declare The Winner Takes It All to be a work of fiction – although the song’s original working title, The Story of My Life, suggests otherwise. Whatever, the combination of uplifting pop balladry (those descending piano lines!) and despairing lyrics has been much imitated but never bettered. TJ

4. Dancing Queen (1976)

Not just Abba’s most joyous song, but arguably pop music’s itself. Dancing Queen is a hymn to youthful dancefloor euphoria that launches listeners straight into the middle of the chorus and doesn’t let up from there. It’s so perfect, in fact, that it made Frida cry on first hearing it, “out of pure happiness that I would get to sing that song”. TJ

3. Knowing Me, Knowing You (1976)

Written well before Abba’s own breakups, this 1977 No 1 is sung in the mournful words of a couple who have nothing left for one another. The gossamer chorus and pinch of kitsch gave Steve Coogan a readymade theme tune and catchphrase (“A-ha!”) for his comic character, Alan Partridge. DS

2. The Day Before You Came (1982)

A sparse, sprawling, electronic spookpop masterpiece. Fans have speculated for decades over the identity of the titular “you”, whose arrival marks a change in Agnetha’s mundane life – theories range from a new lover, to a stalker, to even suicide – but the song is about finality in more ways than one: it was the last one Abba ever recorded. Until now … PR

1. SOS (1975)

There’s Abba gold, and then there’s Abba platinum. The ultimate pop band’s ultimate pop song went on to inspire hits for the Sex Pistols, Girls Aloud and countless songwriters in between – including Abba, with Björn later identifying this 1975 single as fundamental in forging their musical identity. And it’s all here: the pathos and drama of intense romantic despair delivered via a peerless melody and a minor-to-major chorus explosion, a collision of sonic euphoria and lyrical gloom so potent and disorientatingly bleak that Portishead’s downbeat 2015 cover arguably cheered the song up a bit. PR

• This article was amended on 16 February 2019 to remove incorrect dates from picture captions.