Women Who Rock

Okay, so Yesteryear is willing to wager a Rand or two that more than a few of you had posters of ABBA on your bedroom wall back in the day. Even if you're a little shame-faced to admit it now, there is no escaping the Scandinavians influence on pop culture the world over.

Our first hazy memory of the Swedish sensations is the cover of their 3rd album, simply called ABBA. All four of them sitting in the back of a vintage car, the girls sipping champagne. It was 1975. Yesteryear was 7 years old.

The schmaltzy, I Do, I Do, I Do... was the 1st track to make our transistor radio. It barely cracked the UK Top 40 but Down Under in Oz, it went straight to #1. We didn't know this at the time of course, but the Australian arm of the record company, pulled Mamma Mia as its own 2nd single, and it also topped the Aussie charts. The rest is pop history.

Looking back on that time and place, we're not too ashamed to confess - yep, we had the girls up on the wall :-) First it was Agnetha, with her long blonde hair, and then it was the brunette's turn, Frida. They looked kind of out of place alongside Aussie bands, Sherbet & Skyhooks, who barely registered on the international scale back then, but we thought those girls were just the bees knees. Our first celebrity crush.

Next came the quintessential girl-next-door, Olivia Newton-John, fresh on the back of our very first experience at the cinema. It was 1978. The movie was Grease. Agnetha and Frida came down and ONJ took centre stage, a new love interest for young Yesteryear, though she didn't quite know it at the time ;-)

But young love is fickle. When a blonde new-wave punk from New York City sang about her Heart Of Glass that same year, we replaced Olivia with Deborah Harry, innocently torn between naughty and nice.

As an awkward teenager in the 80's, many more poster girls would follow, all equally oblivious :-)

The white-winged dove, Stevie Nicks (Edge Of Seventeen), Pat Benatar (Hit Me With Your Best Shot) and Belinda Carlisle's Go Go's (Our Lips Are Sealed) jostled for wall space with Aussie pub rockers Cold Chisel, INXS & Midnight Oil. It was a mosh-pit of styles and emotions, where popular beauty often triumphed over street-cred.

And so, to celebrate Women's Month in South Africa, this weekend's SPIN is all about paying tribute to the many women who have rocked and rolled through the ages.

From the veterans (Stevie, Linda and Carly) to relative newcomers such as Lana, Taylor & Phoebe, the music world has an awful lot to thank women for.

So folks, raise a glass and drop the needle on your favourite female artist this weekend.

Cheers from Yesteryear :-)

Win a R500 Voucher from Yesteryear - next Spin The Wheel Draw Sept 1

1) what two songs from Abba's 3rd album went to #1 in Australia in 1975?

2) name your own #1 'poster crush' from when you were a teenager - can be any band or artist