The Name of the Game - ABBA (1976-77) 4/14/22

Let's play "Great Songs of the '70s" Jeopardy!

The Answer? Fia-spel, the Scandinavian version of the German board game "Mensch ärgere dich nicht", which is a variation of the English board game Ludo and American Parcheesi.

The Question? What's "The Name of the Game?"

More specifically: 'What's the name of the game Abba is playing in the video of their "Great Song of `1977-78," "The Name of the Game?"

The song was the first single from the cleverly-named album, "Abba: The Album," which was released in conjunction with the cleverly named film, "Abba the Movie."

But seriously, the song was a monster worldwide hit, charting in 16 countries...topping the charts in the UK, while reaching #2 in Belgium, Ireland, The Netherlands, and Abba's home country of Sweden. In the US, it peaked at #9 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary Chart and #12 on the Hot 100.

The song was originally titled "A Bit of Myself," and, according to Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, the opening bass and synthesizer riff was inspired by Stevie Wonder's "Great Song of 1977," "I Wish." (We highlighted "I Wish" way back on 11/26/19. You can check it out below, and see if you can hear the influence).

"The Name of the Game" by Abba: a "Great Song of 1977-78! Parcheesi anyone?

"I Wish by Stevie Wonder (1977): https://www.facebook.com/MichaelCuuuk/posts/109928413813948

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