ABBA single by single thread

Rosalind Knight was in a recent episode of the sitcom Friday Night Dinner. Do you get that show? Ms Knight played “Horrible Grandma” in the episode.

 

Bought this early GHV2 CD last year. Sounds very good, though the channels are reversed on it for some reason. Good selection of tracks though including I Wonder (Departure) was cheeky as the song was never (and would never be) a hit.

 

We do get it, but I find it a bit too stressful to watch! I wasn´t aware that Rosalind Knight was in the cast - maybe I´ll give it another try.

 

She was only in one episode of the recent series. She hasn’t changed much from 20 years ago when she was in Gimme Gimme Gimme.. Must be in her eighties now.

 

It´s interesting - well, for an ABBA nerd like me - that both "GREATEST HITS" albums from ABBA included songs that were never released as singles. The first volume added "DANCE (WHILE THE MUSIC STILL GOES ON)" to the running order, which is one of the best tracks on there, but it was never a single. They repeated the "trick" with "I WONDER (DEPARTURE)" on the second volume. I happen to like this very melancholy, very "showtune"-like song, but I wouldn´t categorise it as a hit in any kind of a way. A strange inclusion, but it does the sequencing of the album no harm. Providing a quiet moment after the dynamo that is "SUMMER NIGHT CITY", and providing a good starting point for the impressive "THE NAME OF THE GAME".

 

"Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man after Midnight)"

It's a sign of the period when a song of this calibre can be used as bait on a greatest hits album, albeit one already packed with some choice cuts.

You can hear the group's sound mutating from disco headed for the synthpop to come. Also, how often do you hear Agnetha singing about wanting a late night booty call?

 

Always found it strange that Rock Me was on this. I remember hearing this album back in 1979 once or twice and that was it, however when I got the Thank You For The Music Box set in the late 90s I heard the song "Baby" and remembered it, and wondered what album Rock Me was on (at this point I didn't have Ring Ring or Abba) and it confused the heck out of me how I knew the song, but didn't have it. It wasn't until a few years later when I finally got Abba that I got Rock Me and later still when I realised it had been on this compilation and that's how I knew the song.

 

I understood that you meant she was a "guest star". I´d still like to see her, only to see what she looks like. You mention she had hardly changed since the days of "GIMME! GIMME! GIMME" - I feel she has hardly changed since the days of the "CARRY ON"s she did back in 1959 and 1960! She may not have been a conventional beauty, but she aged well.

 

I actually heard the Erasure version of this before I heard ᗅᗺᗷᗅ's, much later.

 

Lovely, ain´t she? I see that she changed a bit, but I like her face. She can play the strict governess/aunt/head master etc. like noone else. I sooo wish she would play one of P.G. Wodehouse´s aunts. She´d be perfect for aunt Agatha! (Hope I remembered the name correctly - I love my Wodehouse, but I haven´t read him for years.)

 

How strange that 'Voulez-Vous' was left out and 'I Wonder' made the cut.

 

My top 25 so far (A-sides & B-sides):

01 Knowing Me, Knowing You
02 SOS
03 Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
04 The Name of the Game
05 Dancing Queen
06 Money, Money, Money
07 Eagle
08 Thank You for the Music
09 Voulez-Vous
10 The King Has Lost His Crown

11 Kisses of Fire
12 Fernando
13 Angeleyes
14 Lovelight
15 Chiquitita
16 Take a Chance on Me
17 Mamma Mia
18 Summer Night City
19 Hasta Mañana
20 Another Town, Another Train

21 So Long
22 Ring Ring
23 I'm a Marionette
24 Does Your Mother Know
25 I've Been Waiting for You

 

Maybe because they already had 3 songs from the Voulez-Vous album on there?

 

Yeah I'm a big fan of her in the Harry Enfield show as Perry and Waynetta Slob. Just I never really liked Gimme Gimme Gimme for some reason.

P.S. the British are taking over this thread

 

Yeah but more than half of The Album is on GHV2. Since Stig Anderson was credited as one of the writers of this one, I wonder if it was his idea to make it part of GHV2... You know... More publishing $ for Stig. The inclusion of this song in a Greatest Hits collection makes no sense whatsoever. Or maybe they were fond of the song. Heck, they could have used That's Me. At least that was a hit in Japan!

 

Wow, that is a lot of Abba - The Album!

 

It's kind of funny because this Gimme Gimme Gimme thing you've been talking about, I have no clue what it is, obviously a "British" thing! But that's what makes a thread interesting, those little detours in the road!

 

Here is the UK chart for the week Gimme Gimme Gimme peaked at #3. Being edged out of the #2 slot by Lena Martell must have hurt.



Note the GHV2 album entered the charts this week at #8.

 

With hurt like that it is just one day at a time....

 

Not how the chartfile column is talking about the decline of disco records in the charts.
And Chin & Chapman are still having hits even at the very end of the decade, I had no idea...

 

Oh my gosh!! Number 15 in the charts. Oh the humanity!

 

There’s a bit of everything in that chart. Exactly how I remember 1979.

The US one is quite bland by comparison.

 

Nice amount of Two Tone stuff too.

 

Meanwhile, back in the States:

Rather than issue "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" as the new single, Atlantic finally released "Chiquitita" as a 45. My thought was, "It's about time!"

Several pages ago in this thread, ABBA's performance of the song at the Music for UNICEF Concert was posted. I hadn't seen it since 1979, and I wasn't prepared for my reaction: I got goosebumps and even a little teary-eyed as I watched and listened. "Chiquitita" has a certain majesty to it that I can't fully explain. I'd forgotten just how much I liked the song. It's not one of my Super Seven, but it's just under it.

I am of two minds about its single release. The first is that, had it come out when it did in the rest of the world, it either would have drowned in the dance domination of the U.S. charts of the time, or it would have been a refreshing alternative, a la "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits, which made the top 5 despite sounding closer to Dylan than disco. The second is that, by the time "Chiquitita" finally was released, the UNICEF hype and attention was gone. It would have to stand on its own merits. I was happy to see it finally come out -- I bought the 45 when it was popular -- but some of my initial enthusiasm was gone.

Billboard seemed to agree with my lack of fervor. For the first time since "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do," the magazine gave "Chiquitita" only a Recommended rating in the November 3, 1979 Top Single Reviews column. In the same week's Record World, the song received the usual front-page review. It wrote, "International hitmakers create a distinctive Latin flavor here with all publishing royalties donated to UNICEF." Cash Box was the most effusive in its praise, again in the November 3 issue: "Vintage ABBA, featuring a bouncy tune and the soaring harmonies of Frida Lyngstad and Agnetha Faltskog, this cut from the Voulez-Vous LP should continue the group's pop success. Already an international hit, a Spanish language version (5:24) is also available. One final note: all royalties from this cut go to UNICEF's 'International Year Of The Child' program."

The best that can be said about the song's chart performance is that it was a measurably bigger hit than "Angeleyes" or "Voulez-Vous." Billboard gave "Chiquitita" its best peak at #29; it got up to #36 in Cash Box, but to only #47 in Record World. Generally, it peaked in early January 1980 and dropped off the charts quickly thereafter, swept away by the flood of new releases that typically show up after the first of a new year. On the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, "Chiquitita" peaked at #15.

The 45cat database says that "Chiquitita" was released October 29, 1979; based on when the single review appeared in the trades, October 22 might be more accurate. The 10- to 11-week gap between it and "Voulez-Vous" was unusually short for Atlantic. Perhaps reflecting the relatively hurried nature of the new single, it was not issued with a picture sleeve. The label also still promoted the Voulez-Vous album rather than the forthcoming Greatest Hits, Vol. 2.

Identically to non-U.S. 45s, Atlantic 3629 had the non-LP cut "Lovelight" on the flip side. Copies were pressed on vinyl by Specialty (SP) and on styrene by Monarch (MO). A 4:38 short version (matrix number ST-A-37684) appeared on one side of promo copies, with the full-length 5:26 version on the other, both in stereo; again, these came from both Specialty and Monarch.

Note that the quoted Cash Box review mentions the Spanish-language version. Atlantic indeed released it in the U.S., only one number later than the English edition (3630) and with an appropriate B-side. More on this 45 ahead...