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Source: Japan SHM-CD Remaster

Ring Ring is the debut album by Swedish pop group ABBA, released in Scandinavia and a limited number of other territories, including West Germany, Australia, South Africa and Mexico, in 1973. The album was re-released in Australasia in 1975, but was not issued in the United Kingdom until 1992, and the United States until three years after. The re-release artwork for the album (see below) uses the name "ABBA", although at the time of the album's original release, the name ABBA had not yet been coined, and instead was awkwardly credited to "Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida". Ring Ring was first released on CD in Sweden in 1988; a West German CD release followed in 1990 (later released internationally). The album has been reissued in digitally remastered form three times; first in 1997, then in 2001 and again in 2005 as part of the The Complete Studio Recordings box set.

The original 1973 Polar Music version of the album opens with "Ring Ring (Bara Du Slog En Signal)", the Swedish version of the track, and places the English language version as track four on Side B.

The track "She's My Kind of Girl", included on the international editions, is in fact a song by Björn & Benny which dates back to 1969, which was a hit in Japan, and had also been included on the B side of the English version of "Ring Ring" in Scandinavia.

The album also features a song co-written by Agnetha Fältskog. Although she had composed much of her Swedish solo output, the song "Disillusion", for which she wrote the music, is the only song released on an ABBA album to feature a songwriting contribution from her.

ABBA was a Swedish pop music group formed in Stockholm in 1972, consisting of Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog. Throughout the band's existence, Fältskog and Ulvaeus were a married couple, as were Lyngstad and Andersson - although both couples later divorced. They became one of the most commercially successful acts in the history of popular music, and they topped the charts worldwide from 1972 to 1983.

ABBA gained international popularity employing catchy song hooks, simple lyrics, sound effects (reverb, phasing) and a Wall of Sound achieved by overdubbing the female singers' voices in multiple harmonies. As their popularity grew, they were sought after to tour Europe, Australia, and North America, drawing crowds of ardent fans, notably in Australia.

Due in part to the fact that touring became a contentious issue, being particularly cumbersome for Fältskog, producer Stig Anderson became one of the very first to make promotional film clips which were the forerunner of today's music video to increase exposure to the group's music in addition to releasing studio albums to widespread commercial success.

At the height of their popularity, however, both relationships began suffering strain that led ultimately to the collapse of first the Ulvaeus-Fältskog marriage (in 1979) and then of the Andersson-Lyngstad marriage in 1981. In the late 1970s and early 1980s these relationship changes began manifesting in the group's music, as they produced more thoughtful, introspective lyrics with different compositions.

ABBA remains a fixture of radio play lists and is one of the world's best-selling bands, having sold over 375 million records worldwide, making them the fourth best-selling popular music artists in the history of recorded music. They still sell two to three million records a year. ABBA was also the first pop group from a non English-speaking country to enjoy consistent success in the charts of English-speaking countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Their popularity in Latin America was also undeniable, as well as reaching the top of the charts in different countries like Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Peru among others, the band also released a compilation of their hit songs translated into Spanish. "Gracias por la musica" was released in 1980 to be followed by "ABBA ORO" in 1999.

After ABBA split, Andersson and Ulvaeus achieved success writing music for the stage while Lyngstad and Fältskog pursued individual solo careers with varying success. ABBA's music remained steadily popular until several films, notably Muriel's Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, revived interest in the group, spawning several tribute bands. In 1999, ABBA's music was adapted into the successful musical Mamma Mia! that toured worldwide and had a movie version released in 2008, becoming the highest grossing film in the UK at the time. The group was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 15 March 2010. Only Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad were present to accept ABBA's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The group was inducted into the museum by Bee Gees members Barry Gibb and Robin Gibb. ABBA is often called, "Sweden's greatest gift to the world".

First hit as 'Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid'
Ulvaeus and Andersson persevered with their songwriting and experimented with new sounds and vocal arrangements. "People Need Love" was released in June 1972, featuring guest vocals by the women, who were now given much greater prominence. Stig Anderson released it as a single, credited to Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid. The song reached #17 in the Swedish combined single and album charts, enough to convince them they were on to something. The single also became the first record to chart for the quartet in the United States, where it peaked at #114 on the Cashbox singles chart and #117 on Record World's singles chart. Billed as Björn & Benny (with Svenska Flicka), it was released there on Playboy Records. However, according to Stig Anderson, "People Need Love" could have been a much bigger American hit, but a small label like Playboy Records did not have the distribution resources to meet the demand for the single from retailers and radio programmers. The foursome decided to record their first album together in the autumn of 1972, and sessions began on 26 September 1972. The two women shared lead vocal on "Nina, Pretty Ballerina", on this day, and the two women's voices combined in harmonies for the first time gave the foursome an idea of the qualities of their combined talents.

"Ring Ring"
For 1973, the band and their manager Stig Anderson decided to have another try at the Melodifestivalen, this time with the song "Ring Ring". The studio sessions were handled by Michael B. Tretow, who experimented with a "wall of sound" production technique that became the wholly new ABBA sound. Anderson arranged an English translation of the lyrics by Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody and they thought this would be a surefire winner, but in the Melodifestivalen, on 10 February 1973, it placed third, and thus never reached the international contest. Nevertheless the proto-group put out their first album, called Ring Ring. The album did well and the "Ring Ring" single was a hit in many parts of Europe and also in South Africa, but Stig Anderson felt the true breakthrough could only come with a UK or US hit.

Official naming
In early 1973, Stig Anderson, tired of unwieldy names, started to refer to the group privately and publicly as ABBA. At first, this was a play on words, as Abba is also the name of a well-known fish-canning company in Sweden, and itself an acronym. However, since the fish-canners were unknown outside Sweden, Anderson came to believe the name would work in international markets. A competition to find a suitable name for the group was held in a Gothenburg newspaper. The group was impressed with the names "Alibaba," "FABB," and "Baba", but in the end all the entries were ignored and it was announced in the summer that the name "ABBA" was official. Later the group negotiated with the canners for the right to the name."ABBA" is an acronym formed from the first letters of each group member's first name: Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid. The first 'B' in the logo version of the name was "mirror-image" reversed on the band's promotional material from 1976 onwards and became the group's registered trademark. The first time the name is found written on paper is on a recording session sheet from the Metronome Studio in Stockholm, dated 16 October 1973. This was first written as "Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Frida", but was subsequently crossed out with "ABBA" written in large letters on top.

The official logo, using the bold version of the News Gothic typeface, was designed by Rune Söderqvist, and appeared for the first time on the Dancing Queen single in August 1976, and subsequently on all later original albums and singles. But the idea for the official logo was made by the German photographer Wolfgang Heilemann on a "Dancing Queen" shoot for the teenage magazine BRAVO. On the photo, every ABBA-member held a giant initial letter of his/her name. After the pictures were made, Heilemann found out that one of the men held his letter backwards. They discussed it and the members of ABBA liked it. Following their acquisition of the group's catalogue, Polygram began using variations of the ABBA logo and added a crown emblem. When Universal Music purchased Polygram (and, thus, ABBA's label Polar Music International), control of the group's catalogue was returned to Stockholm. Since then, the original logo has been reinstated on all official products.

01."Ring Ring" (Andersson, Stig Anderson, Ulvaeus, Neil Sedaka, Phil Cody) – 3:06
02."Another Town, Another Train" (Andersson, Ulvaeus) – 3:13
03."Disillusion" (Fältskog, Ulvaeus) – 3:07
04."People Need Love" (Andersson, Ulvaeus) – 2:46
05."I Saw It in the Mirror" (Andersson, Ulvaeus) – 2:34
06."Nina, Pretty Ballerina" (Andersson, Ulvaeus) – 2:53
07."Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure Is Hard Enough)" (Andersson, Ulvaeus) – 2:55
08."Me and Bobby and Bobby's Brother" (Andersson, Ulvaeus) – 2:52
09."He Is Your Brother" (Andersson, Ulvaeus) – 3:19
10."She's My Kind of Girl" (Andersson, Ulvaeus) – 2:45
11."I Am Just a Girl" (Andersson, Anderson, Ulvaeus) – 3:03
12."Rock'n Roll Band" (Andersson, Ulvaeus) – 3:11

Bonus Tracks:
13."Merry-Go-Round" (Andersson, Anderson, Ulvaeus) – 3:26
14."Santa Rosa" (Andersson, Ulvaeus) – 3:01
15."Ring Ring (Bara Du Slog En Signal)" (Andersson, Anderson, Ulvaeus) – 3:10