This week in 1976
1 Fernando ABBA
2 No Charge JJ Barrie
3 Silver Star The Four Seasons
4 Can’t Help Falling In Love The Sylistics 5 Arms of Mary Sutherland Brothers and Quiver 6 More, More, More Andrea True Connection 7 Fool To Cry The Rolling Stones
8 Save Your Kisses For Me Brotherhood of Man 9 Jungle Rock Hank Mizell
10 S-S-S-Single Bed Fox As ABBA prepare to release new material for the first time in decades, our chart takes us back 42 years this week when ‘Fernando’, their biggest selling single, was sitting on the top of the charts. It’s one of the top 40 best selling singles of all time, with sales of over 10 million physical copies – six million of them in 1976 alone. ABBA’s 17th single, ‘Fernando’ was written by the band’s Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus and originally released not as an ABBA song, but as a track on member Anni-Frid Lyngstad’s 1975 solo album ‘Frida ensam’, a chart-topper in the Swedish charts. The group version of Fernando topped the charts in many countries, but not in their native Sweden where it stalled at 2. In Australia, the song was the longest running No 1 (14 weeks) until last year when Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape Of You’ beat the 41-year-old record, spending 15 weeks at the top. ‘Fernando’ was one of 12 ABBA number ones in Ireland, and one of 9 in the UK.