ABBA Arrival Poll & Appreciation Thread.

Love ABBA. Never thought this was any better or worse than their others though.
Always confused as to why Happy Hawaii and Why Did It Have To Be Me have the same melody, though? Really werid thing to do.

 

Pretty sure that Happy Hawaii was an earlier iteration of Why Did It Have To Be Me.

 

It was. They would always try their songs in very different styles and arrangements and finally chose the version that they were happiest with.

 

I quite liked when they did this. I enjoyed hearing bits of Does Your Mother Know in Dreamworld.

 

Me too, and believe it or not they were not the only ones to do this.
If you listen very carefully to the single Figaro by Brotherhood Of Man you can detect a slight hint of Angelo released the previous year.

 

Actually, I was listening to Cilla Black's version of Knowing Me Knowing You yesterday.
Its on her 1980 album Especially for You. For those Abba fans who want to hear a erm..different version of this song it is on Spotify..

 

I still haven’t plucked up the nerve to listen to this.

 

Actually, remember a while back we were joking about how Cilla missed a trick by not going disco or there could be a unreleased lost classic disco album in her archives (or something like that). Well I have been browsing her website that gives a review of her albums and look at this.
It would seem that Cilla did go disco after all and we just didn't notice...

Modern Priscilla’ is the title of Cilla Black’s tenth solo studio album and her last to be completed before the end of her 15-year contract with the EMI group. The release of this album with its two singles completed the long-term partnership with the recording giant. For Cilla’s final project EMI drafted in producer Mike Hurst who at the time was setting the charts alight with a series of Top 5 singles which he had produced for Rock ‘n’ Roll revival octet Showaddywaddy. Mike initially was drafted in to produce a recording session for Cilla’s standalone single release “I Wanted To Call It Off”. The disco tinged single from July 1977 was a sign of things to come as for the album project Mike further exploited this genre. The album notably featured three songs by songwriters Dominic Bugatti and Frank Musker who had written disco anthems for The Three Degrees (“Giving Up, Giving In”, “Woman In Love”) and Bonnie Tyler (“Married Man”).

 

Dear old Cilla. She really did do it all.

 

Whoa. A K-Tel release. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It just has a certain “released straight to video” vibe about it.

 

I love the handwritten sleeve notes to the album, so heartfelt and sincere....

 

Looking at those UK and US Top 50 Albums, I discover I have 11 and 17 respectively. Thought I'd have had more....

Always thought Dancing Queen should have kicked off Arrival. Sequencing was always unusual on their albums.

 

I think ABBA did quite well when sequencing their albums. Side A is perfect - opening with the quirky, folksy and utterly charming 'When I Kissed the Teacher' was a masterstroke, i think. Opening with a strong song and up the game with Song no two... Masterful. Side B could have been improved upon in terms of running order, but it works. They used the same opening gambit with 'Voulez-Vous' - The two first tracks det the tone for the rest of the album.a

 

That's more what I meant by 'unusual', not front loading. The tour opened every night with Tiger, for that matter. That's a win in my book!

 

I agree 100%. Smart move.

 

I've always liked ABBA very much. Beautiful voices, and music.

 

Born and raised under Iron Curtain so English is my 2nd language. This is important to understand the story.

I've heard it first in 1977, a friend of mine, a classmate, had a cassette. We were 12 at the time. I was familiar w/ some songs, but this was the first proper album. For some reason I was captivated by Money, Money, Money, so one day we took his portable cassette player and the cassette to school and I asked our English teacher to listen and translate it. She listened, then paused and said - you really don't want to know. When I insisted she said - this is the story of how to get yourself a rich man. I was devastated, this was the saddest day of my life up to that point. I often ask myself, what exactly did I expect and what was I hoping for? I really don't know. A satire on a capitalist society maybe? No idea.

RIP Olga Moiseevna Zinger - my favorite teacher forever.

I voted for all songs except When I Kissed the Teacher. By the time the chorus starts and the line repeats for the 5th time I want to run to another room. This is one of 4, maybe 5 songs in their entire catalog I don't like. Thankfully it's the 1st song on a side, easy enough to skip.

 

Just wondering if you have received the Japan P33P version and had a chance to compare to it to the German Polydor?

 

Wow...When I Kissed The Teacher is probably in my top 5 and I love almost every song they ever recorded. And it’s really well done on the Mama Mia Here I Go Again soundtrack...it actually opens the album. Sorry to hear you don’t like it. The lyrics are a little weird, maybe, but I sure love the music and the quirky sound on the guitars.

 

I knew nothing about ABBA albums (all the music) back when they were new, only the singles on the radio... though I did used to hold this one in my hands in the record store to look at Agnetha, having really noticed her on the Greatest Hits parkbench ...
But as of three years ago I really love this entire album now, and I voted for everything on it, including ... "Happy Hawaii"

"Knowing Me Knowing You" is a particular favorite .... the phased keyboard, somewhat more 'mature' lyrics, a bit of a Mamas & Papas feel in the chorus, and the harmonized guitar that sounds a bit like Tom Scholz of Boston.... And the bass playing has a clever bounciness to it that is kind of the secret sauce.
I do love "Dum Dum Diddle" despite its quirky/clumsy topic, it's still great music.
Reeally love "That's Me", fantastic track, amazing vocals... the brief but awesome keyboard solo ... it's only flaw is the awkward lyric "I'm Carrie, not the kind of girl you marry" ...(blame it on Stig ?)
"My Love My Life" is like being in some kind of a dream .... sleepwalking ....
"Arrival" is amazing; it's got that Scandinavian/Scottish quality and the vocals suddenly become like a wall of superheroes ... This could've been a good opening track imo.
"When I Kissed The Teacher" is a great track ... The up-front acoustic guitar intro... more excellent bouncy bass ... But lyrically it seems to be from a far more innocent age, a rather 'touchy' subject these days ...
"Money Money" sounds like it could be in Cabaret .... I like the guitar... and the rubbery bass ... and the chord modulation for the final chorus.
and "Dancing Queen".... well, it's greatness goes without saying !

Some confusion there ? I think one guy was referring to the consumer player format, in regard to the previous youtube post with the extended 8-track version of the song .... then the second guy responds by talking about recording on 8 track machines, which I doubt was the case in '75/76 , even in Sweden .... (?)

 

Their accent makes me not like the music as much. Kind of makes me laugh how they pronounce some words.
The only album i own is arrival. mostly to have something in my disco collection. Although dancing queen was the only disco song.
However that song fernando i had heard before and always liked it. Didnt know it was on an australian press. So i just bought it. Which means i bought this record 3 times. a regular usa, a nautulis superdisc press, and now the australian.

 

Nov.15 : today is FRIDA's 73rd birthday...

 

It doesn’t seem possible, does it?

Though even when I was a kid, I thought Frida looked the oldest in ABBA.

 

Since this thread got bumped and even though I already mentioned what I voted for, I'll recycle what I said in a previous thread.

Arrival

Let's be honest, if this is the only album of the Swedes to crack "Best album evah" lists, it's because of "Dancing Queen", clearly derivative of "Rock Your Baby" by George McCrae but always welcome to hear. (Let's mention again how the song inspired "Oliver's Army" and also how Shania ripped it off for "C'est la Vie")

But note how "When I Kissed the Teacher" leads off the album instead of the obvious and its acoustic guitar and stacked vocal harmonies make an immediate and strong impression. Note also the album had two more hits (Frida's bowler hat and suspenders number "Money Money Money" and "Knowing Me, Knowing You" the first sign of despair) to keep it top of the pops. Note it also has enough quality album tracks (I already mentioned "When I Kissed the Teacher" but also "My Love, My Life", "Tiger", "Why Did It Have to Be Me") that you don't wonder why "Fernando" wasn't included (except Down Under).

 

You´re right. Even though it´s not my favourite ABBA album, it´s one of the six more or less perfect ABBA albums. From the great artwork via the perfect singles to the fantastic deep cuts and the terrific B-sides... Well, "CRAZY WORLD" excepted, IMO. It is an album for the ages. The singles haven´t lost their lustre yet - not even "DANCING QUEEN", a track we hear somewhere most days, nor do the great album tracks shine less brightly than they did in 1976. Not even the silly lyrics of "DUM DUM DIDDLE" can sink this ship. I have heard the composers criticise "MY LOVE, MY LIFE", which they like as a song, but feel they never nailed in the studio. (I sort of see what they mean, though it was my favourite ABBA track in the early days.) Björn is embarrassed by "DUM DUM DIDDLE", and while the lyrics may be a bit iffy, the melody and the production work is great! Some people think the fade-out of "THAT´S ME" is a bit abrupt, and, again, I see what they mean, but it´s a great album track, and it´s one of Agnetha´s favourite songs.