Tuesday, April 30, 2013

ABBAnatic: A Download From The 90s ABBA Site

It's 1993. I want to learn HTML. What subject do I have the depth of knowledge needed to create a web site and accomplish my goal?
Seven years before Mamma Mia the musical and right after the late 1992 release of ABBA Gold, ABBAnatic: The Alternative ABBA Web Page was first conceived and uploaded to the domain servers at http://www.sirius.com/funnyguy/abbanatic.html. ABBAnatic is an amalgamation of ABBA and fanatic. (ABBAholic was also an option.) Over the next five years, I added many ABBA related sections to the site until I had nothing left to say (or I learned HTML - whichever came first). I still receive email from folks happening upon ABBAnatic now at www.AManAndAMouse.com.

Considering this background, I recently received a tweet that read: @AManAndAMouse Are you the author of 90's ABBA site "ABBAnatic"? Huh? I'm not OLD enough to have a 90s site. I woke up from that pleasant dream realizing that I am, in fact, old enough to have written ABBAnatic: The Alternative ABBA Web Page twenty years ago. So how lovely is that to be remembered!

Links for the ABBAnatic Challenged
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Shhhh! The Official ABBA Bootleg Page

Kristina! pa North America: An Interactive Adventure

Ring Ring or Wrong Wrong: A Controversy

In Search Of... Abba Day 1996 and Then Some

Muriel's Wedding


Download For ABBAnatics

In recognition of this 20 year milestone, here's a gift for ABBAnatics worldwide: a rip of a two (Licorice Pizza) record set called The ABBA Special. Although the cardboard gatefold cover and the vinyl LPs inside are not dated, it was made after The Visitors (music included) but before Under Attack or The Day Before You Came (not included). The record labels have the recognizable red and green Atlantic imprint.


The ABBA Special

The ABBA Special is an hour and a half edit of solo interviews with Agnetha Faltskog, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Anni-frid Lyngstad and Stig Andersson about their early lives and the beginnings of ABBA. Interspersed amongst the interesting questions (including Björn, do you think ABBA is hip?), a bunch of ABBA hits are played en toto. The interviewer is Bob Hamilton of Radio Report and, at the program's end, he seems to call it The Story Of ABBA although the LP cover and four record labels are stamped The ABBA Special. Either way, if you like ABBA you won't want to miss this ready-for-radio autobiography of their humble beginnings.

Click to download a ZIP that contains 4 MP3 files, one for each LP side. I also included this video of ABBA singing California Here I Come in cowboy/saloon girl drag as a bonus. Let me know if there are issues with the download or the ZIP. Enjoy!


1 comment:

  1. Michael, you're not OLD, you're CLASSIC! Just like ABBA. And I feel astounded too, when I realize that I was "young and sweet only 17" when I discovered your website. It was 17 years ago! LOL

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