Few unknown musicians can have played on as many big-selling records as Ola Brunkert, the man behind the drum kit on every Abba recording from their first single in 1972 until the Swedish quartet split up ten years later.

The Abba glory was taken by the guitarist Björn Ulvaeus and the keyboard player Benny Andersson, who wrote the songs, and their wives, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, who sang them — but it was Brunkert who held down the beat on all of their hits from Waterloo and Dancing Queen to The Winner Takes it All and Super Trouper.

Only Elvis Presley and the Beatles can claim to have sold more records worldwide than Abba, and as Presley employed a variety of different drummers over the years, Brunkert can be regarded as the world’s most ubiquitous drummer after Ringo Starr. Ironically, however, few were aware of his identity until a fatal accident catapulted his name into the headlines that he never sought — or received — during his lifetime.

Born in 1946 in Örebro, Sweden, Brunkert was a respected figure on the Swedish music scene long before the advent of Abba. His first musical interest was in jazz and blues, and in the 1960s he played with Slim’s Blues Gang, before joining the pop group Science Poption. He then formed the jazz-rock combo Opus III with the guitarist Janne Schaffer and by 1970 had become one of the most sought- after session drummers in Stockholm.

His first experience with Abba came in early 1972, before the group had even adopted the name by which they were to become famous, when he played on People Need Love. On its release the disc was credited to “Bjorn, Benny, Agnetha and Frida”. The following year they adopted the name Abba, and Brunkert was there playing on their debut album, Ring Ring.

From Abba’s breakthrough in 1974, when they won the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo, Brunkert played on eight Abba studio albums and 25 British hit singles, including nine number ones. Worldwide sales of the Abba records on which he played are estimated at 370 million, and stillrun at two to three million copies a year.

Although essentially a studio musician, Brunkert also toured in Abba’s backing group between 1977-80 and was in the band when Abba gave six sell-out performances at Wembley in October 1979. When Abba broke-up in 1982 Brunkert continued to drum behind various Swedish artists until he retired to Majorca, where he played for fun in a jazz band.

Ola Brunkert, drummer, was born on September 15, 1946. He died after an accident on March 16, 2008, aged 61