I titled my review The Only Box Set Worth Buying because box sets are pretty expensive and when you shed out the dough, you want to be worthwhile. But with ABBA, it's guaranteed to be worthwhile. This box set contains all the ABBA hits and B-Sides. For this review to be easier, I will comment each CD seperately.

CD 1:

This is ABBA in their early years. It includes their first single : People Need Love which is very catchy. Three songs that surprised me on this CD are He Is Your Brother, Hasta Manana and Dance (While The Music Still Goes On) which are really good. And of course you have all the disco-pop hits : Waterloo, S.O.S., Mamma Mia, Fernando and Dancing Queen. My favorite song on this CD is That's Me.

CD 2:

This CD contains mostly Disco songs such as Knowing Me, Knowing You, Take A Chance On Me, Does Your Mother Know, Voulez-Vous, Angel Eyes, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! and I Have A Dream. It also has the song Happy Hawaii which was never published on an album but only as a b-side to Knowing Me, Knowing You and the BEST track of the CD and of the ENTIRE BOX SET has to be the previously unreleased full-length version of Summer Night City, a song that truly captures the ABBA spirit.

CD 3:

This CD exposes the years of the Super Trouper and The Visitors albums. The latter going almost completely against ABBA's style of pure pop is quite interesting. Cherished hits also appear on this one like: The Winner Takes It All, Super Trouper, Lay All Your Love On Me, Our Last Summer, One Of Us and Head Over Heels­. However, ABBA started to expose their darker side with songs such as : The Visitors, When All Is Said And Done, Like An Angel Passing Through My Room, Under Attack and The Day Before You Came. On this CD, I have four equally favorite songs : Elaine, The Day Before You Came, Cassandra and Under Attack.

CD 4:

This CD consists of B-Sides, the collector's treat on this box set. Some songs turned out to be really good like : Dream World, Thank You For The Music(alternate version), Merry-Go-Round, Pick A Bale Of Cotton/On Top Of Old Smokey/Midnight Special, You Owe Me One and Slipping Through My Fingers/Me And I (Live). But other songs like Hej Gamle Man were just not necessary and Abba Undeleted, which may be a treat for some isn't really that much of a treasure (23 minutes of track that didn't make it to the albums and studio footage). On the plus side, I like their singing in different languages but couldn't they have put the whole Waterloo French version and the whole Waterloo Swedish version instead of a medley, same goes for Ring Ring. This is one of the reasons why I bought ABBA Oro. My favorite song on this CD is You Owe Me One, a poppish song that reminds me of Me And I on the Super Trouper album.

Well, that sums it up. Pretty much all the songs are good, except for a few on CD 4 and I think that buying this box set is money well spent. 4 CDs, 66 tracks, 4 and 1/2 hours of golden music. Who can beat that!

In my mind, ABBA are the greatest entertainers of all time, so do yourself a favor, buy Thank You For The Music!

ABBA. One of those groups considered guilty pleasures by many. Why? Listen to the music. Their voices frequently blended better than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The arrangements were appropriate and often quite inventive. The music and lyrics were infectious and sometimes deceptively dark and challenging. There was their wardrobe, but nobody's perfect.

This set showcases many of the reasons that ABBA has both retained their original fans and made an impressive number of new ones in recent years. Quite simply, these are gifted musicians who have an obvious love of what they do. Let not any serious music lover ever apologize again for an affinity for this Swedish supergroup.

As for the music, two complaints. One, a few of the songs appear in edited form, compared to those on the original albums. And two, not enough of them are included (yes, I realize it's a 4-disc set and that the discs are crammed with material, but this is ABBA). Another disc or two could be filled with perhaps lesser-known, but equally essential tunes like "As Good As New" (from VOULEZ-VOUS), "Andante, Andante" (SUPER TROUPER), and "Tiger" (ARRIVAL). Oh, well. Maybe there will be a THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC, VOLUME 2.

Those minor flaws notwithstanding, this is a wonderful collection. If you remember ABBA, this will be like a visit with a few old friends. If you don't, be prepared to make some new ones. And no apologies.

Thank you for the Music is an absolute necessity for anyone who truly loves and appreciated ABBA. It includes all the hits the rest of the world knows, such as Dancing Queen and Mamma Mia, but also includes other absolute masterpieces that portray the fantastic ABBA sound, but weren't as well known at the time they were written.

Bjorn and Benny are truly great composers, and many of the songs on Thank you for the Music will enlighten listeners to their ability at creating timeless music classics.

If you are even remotely an ABBA fan, this boxed set is a must have, so you can appreciate all of ABBA's work, and also enjoy hearing the "creating" process taking in place in the "ABBA undeleted" track on Disc 4.

This is a superb collection. Beautifully boxed, wonderful photos, really interesting historical comments, AND, great music!! Packaged in 1994, the first three of the four discs contain 52 tracks recorded from 1972 to 1982. The chronological order is neat, as it lets you experience the gradual maturing of the group over the decade. Most tracks are familiar to ABBA-ites, but a few are new or somewhat different arrangements. Recording is crystal clear. The fourth disc of another 14 cuts is an odd and interesting collection of previously unreleased works and other behind-the-scenes studio tapes, the popular hits in other languages, etc. When I bought the set, I thought this disc might really be a bit of a waste, but not at all. There are even some cuts that I think could have made it if released in the States at the time. So, I really recommend all four of the discs. If you're already hooked, you'll love the set. If you sort of like ABBA, you'll get hooked. If you're just browsing (and have the bucks to spare), and like the genre,it's definitely worth a shot.

One of the most successful groups of all time (thought it was surprisingy limited in America), ABBA is truly one of the few artists who truly deserve a boxed set like "Thank You For The Music". In their 11 - year tenure, Anni - Frid "Frida" Lyngstad, Bjorn Ulvaeuss, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Faltskog created a string of classic pop singles that hold up against the best of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. They also had many lesser known album tracks that were just as good.

Both these aspects are included on "Thank You For The Music", a four - cd, 66 - track collection of ABBA's work from 1971 to 1983, including all their biggest hits plus many album tracks and a disc of unreleased material.

Disc 1 covers their early years, 1971 to 1977. Starting off with some pre - "Waterloo" tracks, right from the beginning ABBA showed some true potential. However, they didn't break big until 1974's immortal classic "Waterloo". The rapid fire succession of hits that followed like "Honey Honey", "S.O.S." and "Mamma Mia" were top notch pop singles, while album tracks like "Dance (While The Music Still Goes On)" and "Crazy World" could have just as easily been hits themselves. This disc is also notable since it includes the band's two biggest worldwide hits, "Fernando" and the timeless "Dancing Queen" (their only number one hit here in America).

Disc 2 covers 1977 to 1979. Kicking off with "Knowing Me, Knowing You", ABBA started to create more experimental music, such as "I Wonder (Departure)". However, their best songs at this point were still straightforward feel - good pop numbers like "Summer Night City", the bouncy "Take A Chance On Me" (a number three hit in America), "Does Your Mother Know" and "I Have A Dream".

Disc 3 covers their final years, 1980 to 1983. Starting off with the somber divorce ballad "The Winner Takes It All" (written about Agnetha and Bjorn's divorce and a true musical masterpiece), their music at this point touched on personal (Frida and Benny's marriage ended in 1982, immortalized by the excellent "When All Is Said And Done" and the lush "One Of Us"), political (the powerful Cold War anthem "The Visitors") and even immortality (the chilling "Like An Angel Passing Through My Room"). Still, they had time to create upbeat pop songs like "On And On And On" and "Head Over Heels". One of their best b - sides is on here as well, the beautiful "Cassandra". Closing out the disc is their final single "Under Attack", a good song but not a great one and also an innapropriate swans song (they should have either "When All Is Said And Done" or "Thank You For The Music" as a farewell single).

Disc 4 is filled with unreleased material, all of which are really good, especially songs like "Dream World" (an early version of "Does Your Mother Know") and "Put On Your White Sombrero". The "ABBA Undelted" medley is a 23 minutes long. It features only mere snippets of unreleased songs, but listening to many of them you can see how pretty much everything ABBA released could have been a big hit. My favorite song in the medley is "Just Like That", a Culture Club - style song that I think cold have been a huge hit circa 1985.

Overall, an excellent collection of ABBA's music. As bonus, the set comes with a 66 page booklet filled with track information, some intriguing liner notes and many great photos. A truly great set for a truly great band.