# Best Band Ever **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 19, 2014, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054 "2014-11-19T07:32:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jack\_of\_Words](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@Jack\_of\_Words](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_of_Words)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/21 "2014-11-19T14:02:31Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > A few years back, in St Martin, the island was covered with signs advertising the upcoming ABBA concert. We laughed. ‘A few’ as in ‘many’, or was it a tribute band? I’ve worked some ABBA tribute nights, they’re always popular and usually very entertaining. Of course, there are enduring Beatles tribute bands (and the Rutles…and Oasis…I’ll concede they’ve influenced more musicians than ABBA). I don’t doubt they can also make a roomful of Beatles fans dance and go home happy. Mother Jones’s ‘PartyBen’ agrees with me. I’ll let him list his top 5 ABBA tracks, skipping (as he says) the big ballads and the disco stompers. You know, those tracks you know all the words to but wouldn’t admit it 😉 > [@](#): > > 1. “Take a Chance On Me” (from The Album, 1978) > > One of my very first favorite songs (I was 7!), this song exemplifies my favorite thing ABBA did: soaring vocal harmonies. They’re given free reign in an a capella intro that’s one of the great openings in pop music history. > > 1. “Arrival” (from Arrival, 1977) > > Hey Sigur Ros fans: ABBA was doing it better 30 years ago. > > 1. “Super Trouper” (from Super Trouper, 1980) > > Supposedly the Beach Boys were fans of this song, and it’s easy to see why: not only is the production astonishingly crisp for 1980, the vocal harmonies are so precise they’re almost invisible. > > 1. “Does Your Mother Know” (from Voulez-Vous, 1979) > > With Bjorn and Benny on vocals, this song is already unusual for ABBA, but it’s made unique by its nods to '50s rock, ending up sounding like the distillation of every great song made in 1979, in one ecstatic package. > > 1. “Knowing Me, Knowing You” (from Arrival, 1977) > > The perfect balance of all things ABBA: a heartfelt ballad and a propulsive rhythm, overlaid with perfect production and awe-inspiring harmonies. See if you can stop yourself from getting chills during the otherwise-repetitive line, “We just have to face it this time, we do,” as one vocal melody slowly slides down the scale. It’s one of the grandest gestures of melancholy ever put on tape. It’s perhaps worth noting that he does point out he’s a gay man in his opening paragraph…like he was excusing acknowledging the consumate skill of A, B, B and A. Hmmm. JPGR scores low on _that_ metric… ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/22 "2014-11-19T14:10:06Z")
Are ABBA even a band at all, in the strict sense of the word? Do they play all the instruments? I’m willing to grant that ABBA are the best at what they do—the specific genre or niche they fill—but that niche is not one in which they’re competing against the Beatles or other bands mentioned in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/23 "2014-11-19T14:15:50Z")
> [@Jack\_of\_Words](#): > > ‘A few’ as in ‘many’, or was it a tribute band? I Circa 2008 or so. We assumed tribute band, but if so the signage was (intentionally) misleading. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/24 "2014-11-19T14:20:42Z")
Everyone knows the best band ever is the [Wyld Stallyns](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EXJ5wdzYcE). ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/25 "2014-11-19T14:44:14Z")
You’re all wrong – it’s _Jethro Tull_. When you can become and remain a rock god holding a flute, you have accomplished! ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_of\_Words](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@Jack\_of\_Words](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_of_Words)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/26 "2014-11-19T15:22:35Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Are ABBA even a band at all, in the strict sense of the word? Do they play all the instruments? > > I’m willing to grant that ABBA are the best at what they do—the specific genre or niche they fill—but that niche is not one in which they’re competing against the Beatles or other bands mentioned in this thread. The best at what they do? Thank you, that was my case. B&B are multi-instrumentalists, I think A&A occasionally play, but voice is their true instrument. They compete against the Beatles because women and gay men don’t have a musical ghetto. Music is music. I’d hope we could acknowledge the merit of music from outside the niche of ‘appealling to me (and, perhaps, those of my gender and orientation)’. > [@kopek](#): > > You’re all wrong – it’s _Jethro Tull_. When you can become and remain a rock god holding a flute, you have accomplished! Well played. Honourable mention, certainly, but my brother had a lot of their stuff and it was pretty dreary, really. No? 😛 He is a legend, though, and rightly so. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_of\_Words](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@Jack\_of\_Words](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_of_Words)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/27 "2014-11-19T15:30:48Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > could you find as much musical variance in their entire discography as you could on, say, Sgt. Pepper? Hmm. Benny did release an album of [Swedish birdsongs](http://felpin80.tripod.com/ata/id33.html) but there’s not technically any music on it and none of the birds were ever officially members of ABBA. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/28 "2014-11-19T16:04:52Z")
Everyone is wrong. The answer is The Smiths. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/29 "2014-11-19T16:48:37Z")
The Benny Goodman Quartet. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/30 "2014-11-19T16:57:34Z")
Aw hell, why not? Ladies and Gentelmen! [BO DIDDLEY!](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4of48_bo-diddley-at-his-best-bodiddleyiti_music) ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_of\_Words](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@Jack\_of\_Words](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_of_Words)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/31 "2014-11-19T17:17:48Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > The answer is The Smiths. Nope. Neither is it ‘violence’ or ‘seeking refuge in an alcoholic stupor’ Though that last may be the answer _to_ The Smiths. Johnny Marr plays a mean guitar though. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/32 "2014-11-19T19:18:43Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > Everyone is wrong. The answer is The Smiths. As in the album “Minus Plus”? That teddy-bear song intro is acid-burned into my brain - possibly literally. Those were interesting times. > [@Jack\_of\_Words](#): > > Well played. Honourable mention, certainly, but my brother had a lot of their stuff and it was pretty dreary, really. No? 😛 He is a legend, though, and rightly so. One of the odd things with Tull is how many times they (and Ian) have been rediscovered by very different generations and very different backgrounds. The only group I can think of that comes close is maybe “Kraftwerk”. Both were “reborn” in the early 80s when I was teaching in a mostly African-American school and both now seem to have floated down to farm country. I heard Tulls “Fat Man” and Kraftwerks “Man Machine” in very rural Indiana on the radio just this past summer. Had it been “Bungle in the Jungle” or “Autobahn” I would have written it off as a oldies or “BOB” station but those two? Gotta be something else. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/33 "2014-11-19T19:51:09Z")
Welcome. We have a forum named Cafe Society. It’s better suited for topics about movies, music, TV, food, etc…so I’ve moved it for you. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/34 "2014-11-19T20:09:47Z")
Actually, I think Glenn Miller’s Army Air Force Band was the greatest band ever. It pretty much killed the “Big Band”, because no one could top it. Sort of like would you want to be the act that came on after Jimi Hendrix or Jerry Lee Lewis (at his prime)? ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/35 "2014-11-19T20:14:34Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I think of ABBA as a 70’s disco-dance group. Good for their niche. > > The Beetles though have way more depth and variety as well as quality of music. > > My favorite is Creedance Clearwater Revival. But what do you think of The Beatles? And Creedence Clearwater Revival? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/36 "2014-11-19T20:17:19Z")
E Street Band for American representation. But nothing beats the Beatles. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/37 "2014-11-19T21:07:06Z")
Best Band cannot be objectively known, as there is too much variation in musical tastes and styles. That one band did not accumulate the sales like another doesn’t really mean they are lesser. The Beatles are head and shoulders above above all others in terms of record sales and are always mentioned, but everything in their catalog has been issued, compiled, then reissued, the reissued again and again in whatever the new format is. Essentially, everyone has bought the all same Beatles albums 4 or 5 times. Now you could argue that this is testament to how great they were. And clearly, all intelligent folk appreciate their greatness. BUT, artists that are actually still recording in the digital age will not have to opportunity to keep re-releasing their catalogs. ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/38 "2014-11-19T21:17:26Z")
> [@Jack\_of\_Words](#): > > And Granny Factor, and fanbase, and “etc” and “comprehensively”. > > You link to a sales report, which is but one metric. I welcome suggestions as to how to weight inividual measures for a comprehensive ‘score’. Being the band with the most units moved should surely suggest that grannies are more likely to recognise them, the fanbase is more likely to be bigger, etc. as well. And I dare anyone to find a group of women in their 70s, play them “She Loves You” and “Waterloo” and see if they can guess the two bands. At best, it’ll be neck-and-neck for recognition, and most likely the Beatles will edge out ABBA with a large enough group. You’re not seriously suggesting that “grannies” will recognise ABBA ahead of the Beatles, are you? I get it: you’re saying ABBA may not top every criterion, but across the entire set of criteria, they outperform the Beatles, the Stones, etc. Influence? ABBA can’t touch the Beatles here. Indeed, their influence is minimal at best. Sales? Again, not even near the Beatles. Cultural impact? A tie at best. Musicianship and songwriting? Beatles, hands down. Recognition? Again, a tie at best. Danceability? This is about the only thing ABBA are better at. Sustained solo careers? The Beatles clearly win here, even given Lennon’s death. The big picture looks pretty clear to me. I get the feeling this thread is contrarian for its own sake. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/39 "2014-11-19T21:37:35Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > E Street Band for American representation. > > But nothing beats the Beatles. I have to admit to being one of those who never quite got the Beatles. I like a lot of their stuff and Lennon and Harrison were both incredible talents. But the group, as a group, just always seemed like more of a marketing thing than musical sensation. But maybe its just me. (And I always loved the joke about the dog with wings just a little too much) ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054/40 "2014-11-19T21:46:42Z")
> [@Jack\_of\_Words](#): > > Well played. Honourable mention, certainly, but my brother had a lot of their stuff and it was pretty dreary, really. No? 😛 He is a legend, though, and rightly so. Well, you’re trying to establish your music cred, and you refer to the band Jethro Tull as “he”? Not helping your case. You are welcome to love ABBA and consider them the best. But so far, nothing you have stated dismissing the Beatles or Stones comes across as anything more than having a bit of snarky fun on the interwebs. Enjoy yourself. But I am not seeing a credible discussion here. You are new to the SDMB. You might consider searching on previous threads discussing this type of stuff, or just hanging out for a bit. There’s a lot of great music folks here - who knows, you might learn something. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-band-ever/705054.md?page=3)