More ABBA Gold - More ABBA Hits
PolyGram 1993
2nd paragraph: "…included here are several tracks that might easily have been chart successes had they been released in single form…" All bar two of the songs described were released on single somewhere in the world.
3rd paragraph: "…’Ring Ring’ was issued in Britain as a follow-up hit to the Eurovision winner." Fails to mention that it was a remixed version of the song, and that even the reissued single is usually described as a flop since it only got to number 32 in the UK.
4th paragraph: "…[‘Honey, Honey’], written by group members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus with lyrical assistance from their manager, Stig Anderson..." Typical latter-day belittling of Stig’s contribution to ABBA.
5th paragraph: "’So Long’, ABBA’s follow up to ‘Ring Ring’…" Only in the UK. Many other countries followed up ‘Waterloo’ with ‘Honey, Honey’ and did not re-release ‘Ring Ring’.
Same paragraph: "Next came ‘I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do’, a hit all over the world which reached the top 3 in Australia…" Wrong. It was Abba’s first number one single (out of six) in Australia.
Same paragraph: "…in Australia… at one time in 1976, ABBA had four Top 20 singles… and three Top 20 albums simultaneously." Wrong. There were four top 20 albums, and though this sort of fact has long been reported, I can only trace some weeks when there were a maximum of three ABBA singles in the Australian top 20 at any one time, though there were several weeks with up to five ABBA singles in the top 100.
7th paragraph: refers to "The Girl With The Golden Hair" as an "unfinished work". In all likelihood, contrary to contemporary interviews, the four songs performed on the 1977 tour (and associated linking music and narration) were probably all that was ever intended for the mini-musical.
Same paragraph: "… ‘Eagle’, which was accompanied by a stunning video." Hardly stunning, though it has its fans, the clip was typical of the 1978 cheap approach to promotional films - with not very well done chromakey (blue screen) to boot.
Same paragraph: "It was felt at the time that this song [‘Eagle’] was an oblique reference to Californian country/rock group The Eagles…" Another often quoted chestnut, probably appeared in an early review of the album and has never gone away, even though the song sounds nothing like a tribute to The Eagles, and Björn has since said that the lyrics were inspired by the book Jonathan Livingstone Seagull.
8th paragraph: "’Summer Night City’ was somewhat of a departure for ABBA - for the first time, a potential hit single featured more prominent vocals by one of the male members of the group, in this case Björn Ulvaeus, who shared the track’s lead vocals with Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad." Wrong. On many early singles the boys’ vocals were as prominent as the girls were. And vocals are not just by Björn - Benny’s vocals are also present. This statement also contradicts Tobler’s statement about ‘Does Your Mother Know’ on ABBA Gold.
Continuing: "…and the single [Summer Night City] was a Top 5 hit in Britain and Germany during 1978, also charting strongly in Germany…" Typo. Germany sneaks in twice.
Continuing: "…and especially Australia, where it reached the Top 3." Wrong. In Australia the single peaked at number 16.
9th paragraph: "’Lovelight’… has never previously appeared on CD." Wrong. The original mix was on the Pickwick CD The Love Songs released in 1989. Nowhere do the notes mention that the featured version is an edited remix, nor has it ever been clarified when or why or by whom this remix (also included on the Thank You For The Music box set) was done.
Same paragraph: "…’Angeleyes’, a Top 20 hit in Australia…" Wrong. The song was the b-side of ‘Voulez-Vous’ which only got to number 79 in Australia, and ‘Angeleyes’ never charted individually.
10th paragraph: "’On And On And On’… was a Top 3 hit in Australia…" Wrong. Its highest charting point was number 9.
Same paragraph: "…[‘Our Last Summer’] was also released as the B-side of ‘Thank You For The Music’, a posthumous hit for ABBA in late 1983." Only in the UK. Comments like this are likely to be the source of the story that this was ABBA’s "farewell" single, when in fact it (and similarly titled compilation album) was released by CBS/Epic to fill the void left without a new ABBA release.
11th paragraph: nowhere is it mentioned that the version of ‘The Visitors’ included on this CD is an edited version, first released as a promotional single in the USA in 1982.
13th paragraph: "…’Cassandra’, which has never appeared on CD before now." Wrong. It was on the Polydor CD From ABBA With Love released in The Netherlands in 1984 (and possibly a similar West German compilation I Love ABBA), and a four-track CD EP released in West Germany circa 1988.
14th paragraph: "Two [new tracks] in particular were mentioned, ‘Just Like That’ and ‘I Am The City’." These two songs were recorded in May 1982, before three of the four songs that were released on the final two singles at the end of 1982.
Also: "They were reportedly planned for inclusion in what would have been ABBA’s tenth album, which had the appropriate working title of ‘Opus 10’…" And thus a myth is born. Opus 10 was never a working title for an ABBA album in 1981, 1982, 1986 or any other time, but a (probable) joking reference made by a Swedish journalist who interviewed ABBA in the studio during 1981 sessions for what became The Visitors album. Visit the Recordings FAQ page on Carl Magnus Palm.com for the full story.
16th paragraph: "Roxette… were joined onstage by Anni-Frid for an encore of ‘Money, Money, Money’ when they played in Zurich in January 1992…" Wrong. This didn’t happen, but it was reported that Frida visited them backstage after this concert, and it has been said that they sang an improvised version of ‘Money, Money, Money" then.