Almost every PolyGram ABBA CD released has some flaw that has caused complaints amongst ABBA fans. This is a catalogue of those errors. It was originally posted to ABBAMAIL in a slightly different form in 1997.

Some people may find this particularly pedantic, while others have found it to be a valuable insight.

Ring Ring

Removing some of the front cover picture; giant orange ABBA name; original LP did not have ABBA logo, and was released under the group title Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida; back cover of LP was black, not brown.

Waterloo

Title in larger green writing, based on the Netherlands LP release; giant orange ABBA name; original LP did not have ABBA logo; reversal of 'Watch Out' and 'What About Livingstone'; colour of back cover is pretty yuck.

ABBA

Possibly the worst repackaging of all the original albums: replacing original writing with Times New Roman style font; reversing B in the name ABBA; original LP did not have ABBA logo; addition of 5 extra songs in 1987 not marked as extra tracks; addition of 2 identified bonus tracks on 1997 Remaster, not deleting the superfluous 5 other extra tracks.

Greatest Hits

Not released by PolyGram, probably because it wasn’t released in Germany.

Arrival

Wrong font for song titles and notes (Helvetica type); inner sleeve photo not used; photo on back only small portion of original back cover; photo on back in square much smaller than available space; lyrics not included.

The Album

Some of the artwork on the back cover removed; inner sleeve photo not used; lyrics not included.

Voulez-Vous

Text removed from original back cover by reversing a part of the picture and covering where the text was; use of photo from 1980 inside; lyrics not included.

Greatest Hits Vol. 2

Not too bad; 'Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!' song title incomplete; song titles written so much larger than other text inside (looks pretty tacky); grey area on back in square much smaller than available area.

Gracias Por La Música

Not released by PolyGram internationally. Replaced by ABBA Oro - Grandes Exitos.

Super Trouper

Wrong font used (Times New Roman style instead of Book Antiqua) large black square where titles deleted on back cover; lyrics not included on later issues; photo on back in square much smaller than available space; sound drop out for a second on 'Super Trouper'; Remaster inclusion of 'Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!' which would be more appropriate on Voulez-Vous.

The Visitors

Wrong font used on song titles listing and some other areas: increase of size of album title covering up large portions of the front cover; photo on back in square much smaller than available space; photo on back only small portion of original back cover.

ABBA - The Singles - The First Ten Years

Photos inside booklet reproduced in black & white; top and right side of 1979 photos chopped off.

Live

Polar originally fucked this one up, so PolyGram aren't entirely to blame: several song titles wrong (Gimme, not Gimme!/Money not Money,/Name Of The Game not THE Name Of The Game); credit for photo montage that isn’t included; front and back covers not printed in a way that the whole picture can be seen together (except on the Remaster); packaging it with the booklet inserted incorrectly, so that people think that BA is on the front cover.

ABBA Gold - Greatest Hits

Changing the ABBA logo forever more; that stupid crown thing also used forever more; getting John Tobler to write the liner notes, probably solely because of his book ABBA For The Record; cover cheap looking.

More ABBA Gold - More ABBA Hits

The same comments as per ABBA Gold apply; the Australian copy getting the pages mixed up in the booklet, so that what should be the centre spread is on the inside front and back covers, and vice versa.

Thank You For The Music

Using the "new" ABBA logo on what is supposed to be the definitive collection; including just about every song that had been on Gold and More Gold (even admitting in the booklet that the primary market for TYFTM was the same people that had bought these 2 CDs); not including alternate versions of the same old familiar songs where available (with a couple of exceptions); seemingly changing the track listing after the booklet had been written; getting Tobler to write an article.

Waterloo budget reissue/The Music Still Goes On/Master Series/Forever Gold/Love Stories: flogging a dead horse.

The Remasters (1997)

Awful disc design; inconsistent artwork on covers, notably on the spine (if you’re going to create a set like this, they should all match); reproducing all the crap cover art and changed albums; some inappropriate bonus tracks; no lyrics (except on Super Trouper and The Visitors, and then some are wrong); notes by Tobler.

Here's my fantasy concept of what should be included on each of the ABBA remastered albums.