Thank You For The Music

PolyGram 1994

How it all began:

page 32: "My memories of Sven-Olof Waldoff, the conductor of the Eurovision orchestra, wearing his Napoleonic hat… are all second-hand, from sleeves and video clips…" So many wrongs: his name is Sven Olaf Walldoff, he was conductor of the orchestra only for ABBA’s performance, and he is not on the Waterloo album sleeve and many other photos from the album cover session - it is bass guitarist Mike Watson, though Walldoff does appear in photographs with ABBA dressed as Napoleon at the Swedish Melodian festival (heat for Eurovision) and the contest itself.

page 32: "It is more likely that Stig’s refusal to credit them as Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Frida… led to his starting to refer to them as ABBA." It is exactly the reason why, and has been told many, many times, especially in interviews by Stig.

page 32: "…before [Björn] joining Benny in the Hep Stars…" Not entirely right. Björn did play with the Hep Stars while touring late in their career, but never actually joined the group.

page 34: "Their follow-up single, ‘Ring Ring’…" only in the UK and Australia - in many other countries, the follow up single to ‘Waterloo’ was ‘Honey, Honey’.

Continuing: "The CBS A&R boss in London, Paul Atkinson… did a slight remix [of Ring Ring]…" Wrong. Additional recording was done in Stockholm on 8 May 1974.

page 34: ".. the next single, a double A-side in retrospect if not at the time, of ‘So Long’ and ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’…" It was always mentioned as a double A-side, especially in the UK.

page 36: ".., it is probably accurate to claim that their ‘Greatest Hits’ LP… was the first with such a title to include only six hits among its 15 tracks (40%), and to feature four tracks which had never been released in Britain at all before, one of them the group’s third chart-topper, ‘Fernando’. SO much wrong here, but it all hinges on the phrase "in Britain". Many of the "never before released in Britain" songs had indeed been hits (or at the very least, singles) in many other countries, including the USA, which had seen ‘Another Town, Another Train’ as a single in 1973. Additionally, ‘Fernando’ was not on ‘Greatest Hits’ when it was originally released, but added later.

page 36: "… "why Benny and Frida threw in the marital towel is less clear." Wonderful bit of speculation from the "officially authorised" author.

page 36: "… the musical ‘Chess’, which.. play[ed] in London’s West End for many months…". Three years actually.