ABBA single by single thread

Honestly, I didn't even think of the NTSC/PAL thing. My expertise is in records. I mostly went by the Atlantic logo at the start and the consistent (to my ears) tape hiss.

Atlantic definitely sent a promo medley video to retail outlets to promote the 1986 live album. Because it wasn't meant for broadcast, it could have been thrown together from different sources. The clip of "Dancing Queen" has a small Polar Music International AB copyright notice on it...I guess I'd want to see the actual VHS case...

 

While on the subject of PAL speed-up ...
Some years ago, Polar/Universal released ABBA In Japan on DVD - but while the original was actually filmed on film and shown in NTSC in Japan at the time, Polar/Universal for some reason screwed up, and used a PAL version with speed up and then converted that to NTSC, to make it watchable in all the world. Sigh.

 

I Know There's Something Going On (1982)


B-side: Threnody
Released: August 1982
Charts: #13 (US), #43 (UK), #3 (Sweden)

 

Surprise!

 

Well, she sure landed on the right producer for her solo record - you couldn't get more cutting edge or hotter in the pop space at that time than Phil Collins and those gated drums.

 

Love "There's Something Going On". Was surprised when I heard it on the "classic rock" station in my area during the 80's (I'm sure it was the Phil Collins factor). Love the whole album as well and still listen to it several times a year.

 

'I Know There's Something Going On' is one of two solo singles by the ABBA women that I really love (the other one is Agnetha's remake of 'If I Thought You'd Ever Changed Your Mind' from 2004).

 

I thought about opening a single-by-single thread for the Bee Gees, but I don't know if there would be enough interest around here.

 

Count me in!

 

Shouldn't we continue with the ladies' singles?

 

This is awesome!!!
I actually grew up more-so with the solo work of the ABBA ladies than ABBA itself. The first solo albums by each were released here in the USA by Atlantic (Frida) and Polydor (Agnetha.)
Then I discovered the rest of ABBA and their pre-ABBA solo careers.

 

I would join in for the discotheque years which is when I started to love the Bee Gees......

 

This was a hit in Canada a little earlier than it the States. It peaked at #30 on the RPM Singles Chart in December, 1982. I could have sworn it was a bigger hit because I do remember hearing it on the radio frequently at the time. It still sounds fantastic all these years later.

 

The solo careers were not high profile in the US, but this song in particular has made the most impact. Oddly at rock stations where I still hear it on occasion, when the artist was clearly a pop act and coming off a career from a pop band! But who cares.
This song traveled up the Hot 100 for months. With an obvious production twist and a great song, Phil Collins and Frida made a great statement. Rock stations got to play the 12" single with the album version, and an edited version was serviced to radio stations and as a retail single. We didn't get the picture sleeve though (have you ever seen one @tim_neely ?) It's a great summer song to drive to, one I don't mind having on when working out, and the video was available here for a time on "VHS" along with a few of the 80's ABBA tracks on a compilation called "ABBA Again" which also had a solo Agnetha track. Perhaps it was released to promote solo sales, and the Atlantic compilation, "I Love Abba?"

ABBA - ABBA Again

 

Since we are talking "Frida" we finally got an official remix of this great song. I personally like it as an update to the original, but the album version is still "the classic" way to hear this song!

 

I thought you might like to know that non-SHF members read this stuff, too. I have a confirmed correction/update to part of the final discography, in the 12-inch promo-only singles section. The update is in bold.


Atlantic DSKO 81 (1977): Dancing Queen s/s <LP version on both sides; counterfeits exist>
Atlantic DSKO 202 (1979): Voulez-Vous s/s <6:05 version on both sides; counterfeits exist>
Atlantic DMD 259 (2/1981): Lay All Your Love on Me/On and On and On <LP versions on both sides; bootlegs exist with The Day Before You Came on the B-side>
Disconet MWDN 401 (Volume 4, Number 1, dated 5/1981): Lay All Your Love on Me <7:50 Raul Mix; Side A of the first of a two-record set; heavily counterfeited and bootlegged>
Atlantic DMD 308 (12/1981): The Visitors/ When All Is Said and Done <LP versions on both sides; some copies have incorrect matrix number of 40667 on A-side instead of 40661>
Atlantic DMD 329 (3/1982): The Visitors l/sh <5:45 on one side, 4:22 on the other>
Hot Tracks Volume 1, Issue 3 (1982): The Visitors <8:05 Greg Silva remix; B-side by Sister Sledge and Lipps Inc.; bootleg with The Visitors on both sides exists; this has been legitimately reissued by Hot Tracks several times but with different accompanying tracks>

 

I'd be in, from their first Australian 45 to the This Is Where I Came In single(s).

 

So you are confirming Tim that this "does" exist with a 2 second variation on side one? Thank you.

 

That’s one killer hit list!

 

I've mentioned this before on other threads, but I have an ongoing CD-R series that I call A Few of My Favorite Things. Its roots are in a series of cassettes I started in 1995 that I called The Goose Bumps Tapes. Originally, the idea was to record songs, mostly hits but sometimes misses, that literally gave me goose bumps. That became too limiting, so I expanded it to songs I really, really liked. In 2001, I got my first CD burner, so I decided to go back to the original vinyl or CD sources (or upgrades thereof) and re-create the tapes for CD, changing the name of the series in the process.

As of the time I write this, A Few of My Favorite Things has 46 volumes, featuring around 1,000 songs, and I still have a list of a couple hundred more tracks I wish to include in the future. (I also have an accompanying set, A Few of My Favorite Things: Christmas, which has 22 volumes and counting.) I have only two rules with these compilations: First, no artist appears more than once on any given disc, though I can include a group and solo on the same disc (e.g., The Beatles, John Lennon). And second, each disc is at least 79 minutes long.

I bring this up now because "I Know There's Something Going On" by Frida is on my "to add" list and has been for years. (As a point of reference, six ABBA group songs have been used, and one more is on the list. They are my Super Seven, and after this thread I may add to the future list.) The problem is that I prefer the LP length to the single edit, and the only place I knew of to get the album version was, well, on the album. And in 1983, I rarely could afford albums. Happily, I finally got a copy of Something's Going On in the early 2000s, so at some point, "I Know There's Something Going On" will appear on a future edition of A Few of My Favorite Things.

I liked the song from the first time I heard it, which was probably in early 1983. I took my time getting the 45, again because of my limited budget (and because it didn't have a picture sleeve), but I did while it was still on the charts. For some reason, it doesn't sound as powerful on 45 as it did on the radio. Perhaps it's because radio played it from the promo 12-inch single, which almost certainly was cut louder because of the additional space on the wax.

I know the "gated snare" sound gets lambasted on this forum, but I loved it. Drums, whether real or machine-based, were back! If there's one thing wrong with much pop music released in the 1970s, it's that, in many cases, mixing decisions rendered drums almost inaudible. They're obviously there, you can feel the beat, but they're buried. British glam and L.A. rock seem to be the most guilty of this; it's no wonder that the Quiet Riot version of "Cum On Feel the Noise" (sic) was more popular in the States than the Slade original, because the 80s production, with the loud drums, allows one to actually feel the noise!

So, from the first time I heard this record, with the Phil Collins/Hugh Padgham drum sound, I was enthralled. (I loved the LP version of "In the Air Tonight" before it was stolen by Miami Vice. It was one of my highlights of 1981, but today I can't stand it any more.)

---

Billboard predicted the Frida song would make the top 30 in its Top Single Picks of September 25, 1982, writing, "The Abba songstress breaks out on her own in a daring collaboration with Phil Collins, whose production builds on his own thundering drum riffs. Nodding to techno-pop in its phased vocals, the track still boasts rock muscle and enough pop lyricism to span AOR and pop neatly." Cash Box, in its September 25, 1982 issue, put the song in its singles review section under "New & Developing" and wrote, "One-fourth of Sweden's ABBA takes solo flight in this heavily echoed, percussive production directed by Genesis' Phil Collins. Staccato drum bursts and squealing guitars mark the title track from Frida's LP, a sharp Russ Ballard composition."

As has been stated before, "I Know There's Something Going On" was a very slow breaker. It didn't enter either the Billboard or Cash Box top-100 chart until November 6. It finally made the CB top 40 in its 12th week (January 22, 1983) and the BB top 40 in its 15th week (February 12, 1983). I had stopped listening to American Top 40 by 1983, but I still followed the charts intensely, and I watched as "I Know" inched up the charts. It peaked at #13 in Billboard, spending 29 weeks in the Hot 100, and #14 in Cash Box with 28 weeks on its Top 100 Singles chart.

The song also made the Radio & Records CHR/Pop Top 30 chart, the functional equivalent of the older trades' main singles charts, and had a higher peak than in BB or CB, spending two weeks at #9.

Interestingly, and likely because of the "heavy" production, "I Know There's Something Going On" made its first Billboard chart appearance on the album-oriented Top Tracks (later Top Rock Tracks) chart! Debuting on October 16, 1982, three weeks before its Hot 100 debut, it eventually peaked at #17 and spent 17 weeks on the chart. Also interestingly, this single came out mere weeks before Phil Collins' second solo album, Hello, I Must Be Going, and of the five songs that made the Top Tracks chart from that LP, only one ("I Don't Care Anymore," #3) peaked higher than the song he co-produced for Frida.

"I Know" did not make either the dance or adult contemporary charts. The belated 45 rpm release of ABBA's "One of Us" in January 1983 was targeted specifically toward the AC charts at the same time Frida was on the album-rock and pop charts.

---

Atlantic had the U.S. rights to the Something's Going On LP and the two singles released from it. According to 45cat, the first 45 from the album was released in October 1982, but the trade papers' reviews indicate a September 1982 release.

Right off the bat, Atlantic made a boo-boo on the first pressing of "I Know There's Something Going On." Those early copies have the credit line "Produced by Phil Collins" on both sides; second pressings from Specialty (SP), and possibly all Allied (AR) stock copies, have the corrected credit "Produced by Phil Collins and assisted by Hugh Padgham" on both sides.

All copies have the catalog number 7-89984 and have the 4:06 single edit on the A-side. "Threnody" (4:16) is on the B-side. This 45 was not issued with a picture sleeve.

Atlantic issued two different stereo/stereo 45 rpm promos, each with the same 7-89984 number. The first one features the 4:06 version on both sides; one can tell this was the original promo because of the uncorrected "Produced by Phil Collins" credit on both labels. Atlantic re-serviced the 45 some time later; this one has the "long" 4:06 version on one side and an even more severely edited 3:18 version on the other. This one has the revised "Produced by Phil Collins and assisted by Hugh Padgham" on the labels.

Atlantic also issued a promo-only 12-inch single, catalog number DMD 361, which it certainly sent to rock radio and may also have sent to club DJs. It features the single edit, listed as 4:08, on both sides. If album rock stations played the full 5:25 version, they did so off the LP.

The Canadian 45 (Atlantic 98 99847) includes the full LP cut on the A-side.

 

The confirmation is that a long/short promo 12-inch single exists at all. (My first listing didn't have the times.) Also, the catalog number I originally listed was incorrect; it is DMD 329 as noted on the revised entry.

 

Well, it sure was a very low profile release, and Agnetha’s was pretty much a US non-event even with the super hot production team she had. I was a huge ABBA fan and pretty aware of new releases. I had absolutely no idea either of them had released a solo album until a friend told me at least a couple years after they were released.

 

I checked my 12" single and you are right, it is the edit version both sides! So they were actually playing an album cut, which I know they used to do on AOR radio. I'm surprised the full album version was not on this 12".
Thanks for sharing your memories on this great song and I hope you can stay with us while we (hopefully) discuss the solo singles from the ABBA gang!

Also does anyone know where you could listen to the short edit (3:18) promo 7". Did not know this existed until........now.

 

Tim I found this in Discogs concerning the above. (Couldn't get it to link.)
Notes
Side A states a running time of 3:18 on the Label - in fact it is 3:31
Side B is referred to as "Long Version" - in fact it is the standard single version released most everywhere running 4:07

 

Bee Gees single by single thread