Gold: Greatest Hits (ABBA Album) - Overview

Overview

Prior to its release, all previously released ABBA compilations had been deleted and only the original studio albums (along with the 1986 live album) remained in print. Gold: Greatest Hits was well received by the music-buying public, and went on to be one of the best-selling albums of all time worldwide. Worldwide sales as of 2009 are 28 million, Gold: Greatest Hits has emerged as the group's all-time greatest success. It is the third best-selling album of all time in the UK as of March 2012, it was announced in May 2012 that it has now sold 5,000,000+ copies in that territory and ABBA joins Queen & The Beatles as one of only three artists to have sold over 5 million copies of one album in the UK. The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number one in October 1992, and had climbed back to number one position four times after then, the most recent time in 2008. It has occupied every position in the top 75 of the UK chart, while also appearing in the chart every year since the release except for 2002 and 2006. It now holds the title of longest time spent in the album charts, (507 weeks in the UK Top 100 as at w/c 12 Nov 2012), and is the first album in UK chart history to reach the 500 week mark. In Germany, Gold is the third best-selling album of all time with sales of 2.5 million units. It is also the best-selling album of all time in Switzerland, with certified sales of half a million copies.

Gold: Greatest Hits has been re-released in various "special" or "remastered" releases in 1999, 2002, a 2003 CD/DVD release, 2004 and 2008. Most recently, in December 2010, Gold was again re-released with a bonus DVD; this time featuring the group's original promotional films in newly remastered high resolution. A similar package titled ABBA Oro: Grandes Éxitos features fifteen ABBA songs sung in Spanish.