Hogie's Heroes: ABBA

Okay, after the last post, this is going to seem like an abrupt musical U-turn, but really it isn't.

Probably the next musical act I remember getting into was ABBA. This was largely from the influence of a neighbor friend who was a few years older than me. (And wrote a comic that I drew in 7th grade.) They may not seem much like KISS but hear me out: They had four members, a band name made up out of four capital letters, they wore too much makeup, they were togged out in goofy outfits and in the mid late 70's they were enormously popular. They may not have had as much cachet with straight boys, but this was years before my friend struggled with dating, joined a seminary and finally came out of the closet...so what did I know? (His collection of broadway musical soundtracks should've been a tip off. Heterosexual teen males are not THAT into Godspell.)

But hey, good on him for sharing some catchy Swede pop. They were unscary enough that my parents kept buying me ABBA 8-tracks, presumably to keep me away from drugs and Satan or whatever they thought KISS would lead to.