While history loudly recalls the Beatles, David Bowie, and, of course, Queen as the forefathers of modern rock video, ABBA, too, can claim a share of the pioneering honors. Long before it became de rigeur for every band's every single to be accompanied by a promotional film, ABBA and director Lasse Hallstrom were producing three-minute mini-movies to compensate foreign markets for the band's own inability to travel the world for every successive new release. The result, beginning with 1974's breakthrough hit "Waterloo," was a sequence that, by the time MTV commenced broadcasting in August 1981, stretched to a staggering 26 videos, not only wrapping up all the quartet's biggest hits, but also cuts that never even made it out on single in Britain and America. Released to partner the Gold: Greatest Hits CD collection, the Gold VHS rounds up the videos for 17 of ABBA's best-loved hits, plus two more compiling still photographs and the like as backdrop to "Dancing Queen" and "Lay All Your Love on Me," the latter a summer 1981 hit that, for some reason, was never granted a real film of its own. And, though it has since been thoroughly superseded by the infinitely more complete

tracks) Definitive Collection DVD, it's nevertheless a superb roundup of all the timeless joys that ABBA's first half-decade represents. Criticism, on the other hand, is largely confined to the compiler's refusal to follow a chronological thread and the number of videos that begin with a shot of Benny Andersson's keyboard. That and the fact that ABBA's influence on the then-fledgling video medium still escapes most observers. In terms of concept, choreography, and, of course, costuming, ABBA was streets ahead of all their competitors. ~ Dave Thompson