ABBA / Gracias Por La Musica deluxe edition / CD+DVD

I think what is frustrating for fans is Benny & Bjorn’s conflicting logic in regards to unreleased material. “Dream World” went unreleased for years because part of chorus melody was used for “Does Your Mother Know.” Yet in 1976 they released two different songs with the exact same melodies and structure – “Why Did It Have To Be Me?” and “Happy Hawaii.” “Just Like That” was going to be used in the “Mamma Mia” musical but was cut at some point before the show opened. Why would they allow it to be used in the stage show but not allow the recording to be released? They seem to change their minds frequently regarding old material so I can only hope at some point we’ll see more unreleased tracks and alternate versions trickle out.

I have all the re-released deluxe editions and the new one had to be added to my collection mostly for the dvd as I already had the 1999 re-release of Oro with all the audio. I love this album and the tv performances and videos are just great. One thing I would have loved would have been the inclusion of “You Owe Me One” on the b-sides disc of the 40th Anniversary Edition of “Gold”. Other than that I love the re-releases and the extensive liner notes etc.

I am very, VERY pleased that Gracias por la música will be getting the Deluxe Edition treatment as it’s about time this LP was finally acknowledged as an official ABBA album. The bonus DVD looks wonderful and, although the performances, interviews and Promo Clips are available to watch on YouTube, it will be great to own them in HQ.

Unlike many ABBA fans, I am totally supportive of Björn & Benny’s right as the Artists involved to decide what they want to release and what they don’t want to release (as a songwriter myself, I would be utterly furious and totally embarassed were some of my demo’s to be released without my consent! They deserve to remain in the vaults! In that respect, I can ENTIRELY sympathise with B&B on this point! True, I am not ABBA, but the principle is one I feel complete empathy towards). At the end of the day, it is THEIR music. It belongs to THEM & what they have agreed to release, has been wonderful to hear! (the new ABBA – Live at Wembley Arena album is astonishingly good! Even a year ago, no-one would have believed that the former ABBA members would EVER agree to such an album being released, and yet… here it is and it is stunning! The previously unissued “I’m Still Alive” is both moving and beautiful. A true rarity and a wonderful gift for fans of ABBA & Agnetha!).

Yes, I would like Just Like That, Sång till Görel, Fanfare for Ice Hockey World Championships 1981 (instrumental), Hovas Vittne, the original Full Length Version of Dancing Queen (featuring the missing verse) & the original Full Length Version of I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do (first released on a Spanish Greatest Hits compilation in 1988 and also missing a verse) to be released officially, but in all honesty, all but one of these tracks is available on YouTube including various mixes of Just Like That and instrumental demo versions of Slipping Through My Fingers and Two For The Price of One amongst other things.

For me, the highlights of the releases have been the rare early or alternate mixes of a number of tracks that the former ABBA members have allowed to be included on the Bonus DVD’s including several unique versions of songs that were heard on various TV appearances in the 1970’s & early 1980’s (such as the unique mix of SOS on the BBC TV show “Seaside Special” that was featured on [The] ABBA [Album] DVD. This mix is quite extraordinary & something to really treasure!).

The Stereo Mix of the full length version of On and On and On that can be found on the Super Trouper Deluxe CD was also a very welcome addition to my ABBA collection, as was the full length, unedited and fully Remastered version of Dream World included on the Voulex-Vouz Deluxe Edition CD).

I think some people obsess about ABBA’s music to the point where it becomes unhealthy and something that the former ABBA members quite understandably, get annoyed and uncomfortable about. In spiteof this, and the constant anger that so-called ABBA fans show towards them, the former ABBA members ARE mellowing, slowly but surely, and are allowing things to be released little by little, bit by bit.

More examples of this include the alternate, early Rock Mix of Does Your Mother Know (Voulez-Vous DVD), the wonderful, stripped down early mix of If It Wasn’t For The Nights (without the strings overdub, again on the Voulez-Vous DVD), various live or semi-live versions of songs (a couple of stripped down, unique acoustic versions of Thank You For The Music on both the ABBA – The Album DVD & The Visitors DVD respectively spring to mind), the “cold ending” unreleased single mix of “Under Attack” (again, on The Vistiors DVD)… the list goes on and on. I am grateful and delighted to own all of these at long last and to be able to listen to these mixes & live performances with the bonus of the rarely seen TV footage that acompanies them is both a joy and a delight!

For the record, my only real dissapointment as far as the Deluxe Edition DVD’s go, is the absence of the incredible performance of three songs on the TV show “Show Express” from 1982 where unique “cold ending” mixes of “The Day Before You Came” & B Side “Cassandra” were heard. It’s a fantastic performances in every respect and it’s absence was, for me, hugely dissapointing.

Apart from that though, I am delighted with the Deluxe Edition releases and have pre-ordered this final one to complete my collection :-)

Benny & Bjorn used part of the melody of ‘Just Like That’ on a Track in their 1984 ‘Chess’ Musical. They also recorded a version of it with the Swedish male/female duo Gemini, in 1985. (Their version is much slower than ABBA’s, & most ABBA Fans, (who hear it), really do not like it). Because of the ‘Chess’ & Gemini uses of ‘Just Like That’, Benny & Bjorn feel that there is no need – at all – for ABBA’s original version to be released. Indeed, Benny recently said that if ABBA Fans want to hear the song, they can listen to Gemini’s 1985 version of it. He re-confirmed that the ABBA version will never be released. They have always been reluctant to release ABBA Tracks that they used part of the melody for another ABBA Track. This is why they never recorded ‘Get On A Carousel’, (1977), in the Studio. They used part of its tune for ‘Hole In Your Soul’, which was on ‘The Album’. So, we can only hear ‘Get On A Carousel’, (part of it), as they perform it on Stage, in Australia, in ‘ABBA The Movie’. Nor could we have ‘Dream World’ in 1979, as ABBA used part of the melody from that for ‘Does Your Mother Know’. In 1977, RCA Australia begged ABBA to let them release ‘Hole In Your Soul’ as an Australian Single. They felt that it was a better choice than ‘The Name Of The Game’. But, ABBA refused, and
‘The Name Of The Game’ only reached No.6 in Australia. Indeed. the UK was the only Country where ‘The Name Of The Game’ was a No.1 Hit. (It was RCA Australia who persuaded ABBA to release ‘Mamma Mia’ as a Single. ABBA were not going to release any more Singles off the ‘ABBA’ Album. ABBA gave in, & it was a 10 Week No.1 in Australia, & a Global Hit). In 1979 ABBA almost released ‘If It Wasn’t For The Nights’ as a Single, instead of ‘Chiquitita’. They then changed their minds.

The ‘Gracias Por La Musica’ Album was recorded in 1980. ABBA had
released ‘Chiquitita’ & ‘I Have A Dream’ in Spanish in 1979 & they had
both been Hits in Spain, & several Latin American Countries. ‘Chiquitita’
being so successful in Mexico that it was No.1 for 32 Weeks!. Due to the
success of those two 1979 Tracks Agnetha & Frida went into the Studio to
record 8 further ABBA songs in Spanish. Benny & Bjorn did not work
on this Album at all. ABBA’s Studio Audio Engineer, Michael B. Tretow,
produced & mixed it. The translations from English to Spanish were done
by a couple who worked at RCA in Argentina – Buddy & Mary McCluskey.
And helping Agnetha & Frida with their Spanish pronunciations was a
journalist called Ana Martinez. Michael B. Tretow overdubbed Agnetha &
Frida’s Spanish vocals onto ABBA’s English language backing Tracks. His
‘Mixes’ are not quite the same as the English ABBA Hits. He altered drum
sounds etc. In 1980 ‘Gracias Por La Musica’ was only released in the UK
in very small numbers, by Epic Records, which is why it failed to Chart.
(Had it been released in bigger numbers, (& promoted), it would certainly
have been a UK Hit. ABBA were huge in 1980, & in November of that
Year, the ‘Super Trouper’ Album became the first to have a Million UK
Advance Orders). In 1986 Benny & Bjorn allowed Mr. Tretow to extend & Remix ‘Take A Chance On Me’ & ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’, but then decided not to release them, & they were stored away. I recently heard that Bjorn Remixed ‘Dancing Queen’ in 1992, & it was going to be on ‘ABBA Gold’. Other ABBA Hits were also to be Remixed. Then he lost interest in the ‘Project’ & we just got the usual versions of the 19 Tracks, that appeared on ‘Gold’, in September 1992. So, there is quite a lot that Benny & Bjorn refuse to allow Universal to have to release for the Fans.

I will be definitely getting this, I never thought this was a real official album. Also happy if they never ever reform. There is a certain mystique that will be broken if they ever did. I hope they stick to their guns.

I’m hoping this will improve on the CSR remasters substantially, so all the Spanish tracks can be available with consistent – and hopefully high – quality!

When it comes to unreleased materiale, I understand and support that the final decision concerning releasing it lies by the artists themselves – not by some record company official who eyes the opportunity to earn a quick buck by releasing material that more or less trashess the reputation of one of their affiliated artists.

Then again, I don’t understand why Björn & Benny in general oppose releasing outtakes, which are complete or almost complete, while they seem to more willing to release edited “medleys” of outtakes of known or unknown songs.

For instance we got a more or less interesting medley of parts of different versions of “Like An Angel Passing Through My Room” named “From A Twinkling Star To A Passing Angel”, which is fun to listen to one or two times, instead of a completed version of “Just Like That” that one could listen to again and again. It does not make any sense to me.

Benny & Bjorn still have control over all ABBA ‘material’ that has not already been released. Universal can only release ABBA songs that have been released in the past – unless Benny & Bjorn let them have more unreleased stuff. There is a completed version of the 1979 Track ‘Just A Notion’. But Benny & Bjorn say we cannot – ever – have it. We just got part of it in the 1994 ‘Thank You For The Music’ Box Set. I’m told that they were going to let us have the full version on ‘More ABBA Gold’ in 1993, but they then changed their minds, & we got ‘I Am The City’ instead. There are at least 2 ABBA versions of the 1982 Track ‘Just Like That’, & they almost put it on ‘The Singles’ Compilation in November 1982, but then gave up on that idea. We got part of it in the 1994 Box Set. Benny & Bjorn say we can never have the full version. Only a few Weeks ago Benny was interviewed by a Dutch journalist. Benny told him that ABBA now have very little left in ‘The Vaults’. And what they do have they ‘don’t want to share’ with ABBA Fans. This is despite the fact that there are also unreleased ‘Alternative Versions’ of several ABBA Hits, including ‘The Winner Takes It All’, & ‘Dancing Queen’ with an extra verse. Benny says that if Fans want to hear ‘Just Like That’ they can listen to the Gemini version from 1985. So, it looks like all future ABBA releases will mainly be what we usually get – the same old Tracks being re-packaged & re-issued, with very little – if anything – that we don’t already have.

boring. boring. boring.
again. again. again.
the same money-making-machine: ABBA
bring some unreleased material from the large vaults
( of Benny, Björn & Michael Tretow )
or leave the “stage” of re-releases forever!
we wait of the full : “Just Like That” – now since 20 years.
enough time to find the ( minimum ) 3 different versions.
Not the same re-re-release again with some “unreleased”
tv performances… boring.

“No Hay a quien Culpar”, “”Se me esta escapando” & “Felicidad” has been previously released on 2002’s Edition of “Oro”, the espagnol version of “Abba Gold”… Anyway, those tracks were also available on the “complete studio recordings” 2006 box set…

Yes, I never ever forget about the highly-unanticipated ‘International Sleeve Gallery’ :-) That been said, been an ABBA completist I will likely order this deluxe edition.