ABBA’s Gold returns to top 40 on Billboard 200 after 3 years

ABBA is back in the top 40 of the Billboard 200 albums chart for the first time in over three years, as the Swedish pop pioneers’ ‘Gold’ greatest hits surged from No. 114 to No. 34. The set vaults following the release of two new singles from the quartet on September 2, the announcement of a forthcoming studio album — ‘Voyage’, its first in 40 years is due on November 5 and a series of concerts in 2022, reports Billboard.com. ‘Gold’ earned 15,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending September 9, up 61 per cent, according to MRC Data. Of that sum, album sales comprise 5,000, also enabling the set’s 33-11 jump on the top album sales chart. ‘Gold’ was last in the top 40 of the Billboard 200 on the chart dated August 11, 2018, when the set ranked at No. 40. It was last higher than on the latest list just one week earlier, when it placed at No. 25, its peak. ‘Gold’ was released in 1993 in the U.S. and has spent 186 weeks on the chart in total. “We took a break in the spring of 1982 and now we’ve decided it’s time to end it,” ABBA said in a statement. (IANS)