The Album's closing trilogy, "The Girl with the Golden Hair: 3 Scenes from a Mini Musical," was Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus's most ambitious work yet. But despite "Thank You for the Music," a more humble "I Write the Songs," and the barely veiled complaint "I'm a Marionette," it wasn't the 1977 LP's best stuff. That came in two great singles: "Take a Chance on Me" and "The Name of the Game," which continued the two Abba couples' string of growing-up-in-public heartache songs. ("Knowing Me, Knowing You," from the previous Arrival, inaugurated the tradition.) "The Girl," though, hinted that the Bjorn-and-Benny writing team was bent on storming the musical stage, as it did by the mid-'80s with Chess. --Rickey Wright
