Both kings of that late seventies disco sound and both guaranteed to have dancers of all ages up on the floor with their timeless catchy tunes, particularly at weddings - but which is better (in that, who wrote/performed the better songs in their genre)? Sweden’s top export, Anni-Frid, Bjorn, Benny and Agnetha? Or those legendary Manx lads, The Brothers Gibb?
Personally I had a prior fondness for ABBA over the Bee Gees, but going over their tunes the Bee Gees sure could knock 'em out of the park, although it depends if you find Barry Gibb’s unbelievable falsetto appealing or not.
Not a disco fan, but I liked the Bee Gees better. They had some decent stuff before disco, and some of their disco stuff was hard not to sing along to.
Now just comparing the two groups without that damning label, I find my listening history contains a lot more ABBA than it does Bee Gees. Really, the only Bee Gees song worth listening to is “Nights On Broadway,” which is superb. Nothing ABBA ever did reached that height, but they have a lot of stuff that made it to “good.”
Yeah, ABBA only flirted with disco for a couple of years, and it really wasn’t the high point of their career. Of the tracks in the OP, only Voulez Vous is disco. Dancing Queen is about discos, but it isn’t actually disco itself.
I think ABBA were one of the best pure pop acts ever, while the Bee Gees were merely very good, but when it comes to actual floor-filling dance tracks, the Gibbs have it.
A dead heat so far, which surprises. When I say ‘disco’, I also mean the function as well as the genre (which has been rightly pointed out ABBA didn’t flirt with as much as the Bee Gees), the best floor filler, the best tunes to dance to.
As neither were primarily disco bands, neither seems a good candidate for “Kings of Disco.” Also, as ABBA was 50% female (and the female members were the front persons), it seems odd to nominate them as kings of anything.
I would suggest The Village People, or (as has already been said) KC and the Sunshine Band. Both ABBA and the Bee Gees were better bands than either of those, but they were better not because they did better disco, but because they were more versatile, and did good stuff apart from disco.
I am a bit torn as to which of ABBA and the Bee Gees were better overall. Their respective merits and demerits were very different.
Just a turn of phrase, no disrespect meant to the lovely Agnetha or Anni-Frid. I think the term disco is putting people off and I regret using it now to be honest. Was thinking of the better band to dance to and the term seemed natural.