ABBA single by single thread

Source?

 

I think "You Owe Me One" was the b-side to Under Attack and on several remastered Visitors albums as a bonus track, so it wasn't one they wanted to keep hidden and wouldn't need a bootleg.
B&B thought it was good enough to release three times.

But I agree the rest of it should be released.

 

Carl Magnus Palm mentioned it (including a quote from Phil himself) on the Bright Lights Dark Shadows bio. Phil used the excuse that the various record labels he was on at the time would not allow him to appear on the single.

 

ABBA is usually interesting to listen to in OOPS. Just listen to Lovers Live A Little Longer in the chorus, and you will hear something you didn't think was in the recording. Or Frida's beautiful counter melody in Under Attack.

 

Must finish reading that one. Currently just around when they had won the ESC.

 

You´re right, it was. But it was dropped from one of the remastered reissues, and, it was claimed at the time, this was done at the behest of the two writers. They were ashamed of the song, this source claimed. I don´t remember who the source was, so I have no idea whether this was true.

The bootleg version is not a full version of the song - it´s an excerpt that has most of the many channels of music removed, and mainly the vocals remain. It´s a fascinating listen when you know the song.

 

Looking at 45cat, it seems that in most countries where both were released as singles, "To Turn The Stone" came first, "Here We'll Stay" second. Due to the long chart run of "I Know There's Something Going On", both were likely available by the time Atlantic got to releasing a second single. Atlantic chose to skip over "To Turn The Stone" and go with "Here We'll Stay". I suppose Atlantic could have then gone back and released "To Turn The Stone" later on, but after the poor chart performance of "Here We'll Stay", they released no further Frida singles.

In an earlier post, Tim wrote about Atlantic's Oldies Series of reissue 45s, and listed the various ABBA titles that came out in that series. Atlantic also put out a Frida solo Oldies Series reissue, with "I Know There's Something Going On" on one side and "Here We'll Stay" on the other. By the time it came out, the Oldies Series had begun using the bar code-based 84000 numbers (counting backwards starting at 7-84999), and the catalog number of this one was 7-84987. Accordingly, it probably exists only on the later silver and black Atlantic Oldies Series label. I'm sure the main purpose of this release was to make "I Know There's Something Going On" available as a back-catalog single, and "Here We'll Stay" was used on the other side because 1) something had to go on the other side, and 2) as the only other Frida solo A-side ever released by Atlantic, "Here We'll Stay" was the most logical song to use.

Frida put out another solo album in 1984, Shine, but it doesn't appear to have seen a U.S. release.

 

I hope we are going to get to look at more singles and songs in the near future. I always loved To Turn The Stone, a really atmospheric song, although not as poppy, this would of made a great addition to radio in 1983.
Yup in North America Frida's next album "Shine" was released in Canada only.

 

Not a single but can we pause for sec and hear Frida's beautiful version of Phil Collins' You Know What I Mean:

 

I had forgotten how much promotion went into Frida's first (post-ABBA) solo album!
Frida sang the definitive version of Phil's song. He did a great job on the production of this and the entire album. Too bad he wasn't available for the second one, they made a good team!

 

It's stunning and possibly my favourite track on the album.

 

1983 saw Frida engage in the recording of one song from the musical ABBACADABRA which starred Elaine Paige amongst others. The duet Time with B.A. Robertson featured lyrics sung to the tune of ABBA's 1976 instrumental Arrival. Interestingly the B side to this 7" featured a previously unreleased ABBA tune, although with new lyrics and sung by B.A. Robertson. Frida would later record Arrival in French.


POS 1351
Produced by Mike Batt

 

Maybe we can revive this thread discussing the two Chess singles?

One Night in Bangkok - Murray Head (1984)

Released: October 1984
B-side: Merano
Charts: #3 (US), #12 (UK), #1 (Australia, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland)

 

"One Night in Bangkok" is a song from the concept album and subsequent musical Chess by Tim Rice, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. It was originally rapped by the British actor and singer Murray Head (verses) and sung by the Swedish singer and songwriter Anders Glenmark (in the chorus).

The release topped the charts in many countries, including South Africa, West Germany, Switzerland and Australia. It peaked at No. 3 in both Canada and the United States in May 1985, and at No. 12 in Head's native United Kingdom.

Lyrics and music
The full version of the song begins with an orchestral introduction, entitled "Bangkok", of Oriental style. This serves as the introduction to Act 2 in the original musical album, feeding into the first verse of "One Night in Bangkok" itself with an abrupt change in musical style.

The main song has a pop styling, whose lyrics compare the Thai capital city and its nightlife with the game of chess. In the original concept album for the musical, Swedish artist Anders Glenmark sang in the chorus, whereas the verses are a rap originally performed by Murray Head as the American chess grandmaster, a character known as Frederick "Freddie" Trumper in the staged versions. In the staged versions, a musical ensemble performs the choruses. Whereas the choruses extol Bangkok's reputation and exciting atmosphere, the American's verses ridicule the city, describing its attractions—Soi Cowboy, Chao Phraya River ("muddy old river"), Wat Pho ("reclining Buddha")—as less interesting to him than a game of chess. These sarcastic denunciations led to Thailand's Mass Communications Organisation issuing a ban on the song in 1985, saying its lyrics "cause misunderstanding about Thai society and show disrespect towards Buddhism".

In the original London production of Chess, the setting for the song is an interview by Freddie, who is in Bangkok to serve as a TV analyst for a match involving his rival, world champion and Russian defector Anatoly Sergievsky. In the original Broadway production of the musical, the song appears not at the start of Act 2, but rather in the middle of Act 1, whereas in this version, the world championship of Freddie vs. Anatoly takes place in Bangkok.

The lyrics mention actor Yul Brynner, about six months before his death, who had famously played the King of Siam in the Broadway musical and the 1956 film The King and I (and for which Brynner received several Tony awards and the Oscar for best actor). Other Thai-related references in the lyrics include ones to "Siam" (Thailand's former name), the Oriental Hotel (the "Somerset Maugham suite"), ladyboys ("You'll find a god in every golden cloister — And if you're lucky then the god's a she"), and to Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing). The "Tyrolean spa" mentioned early in the song refers to Merano in the South Tyrol region of Italy, the site of Act 1 of the musical. It also mentions three places where chess tournaments were previously held: Iceland; the Philippines; and Hastings, UK.

Robey version
While Head's "Bangkok" was just starting to climb the Billboard Hot 100, Canadian singer and actress Robey hit the charts with her own version. It spent three weeks on the Hot 100 in March 1985, peaking at no. 77. Robey's version fared even better on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, peaking at no. 5.


Vinylshakerz version
In 2005, German group Vinylshakerz remixed the song. It was released in March 2005 as the lead single from their debut album, Very Superior. It was a hit across Europe, charting in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

One Night in Bangkok - Wikipedia

 

I’m surprised there’s never been an ABBA album by album thread on here. Not that I can find anyway. Could be fun, though it obviously wouldn’t be a massively long thread. Though I suppose the solo albums could be added...

 

I thought about that as well! There are so many great album tracks that weren't discussed when we talked about the singles and their B-sides.

 

If B & B hadn't done the Chess musical and ABBA had stayed together until the mid 80s, they would have probably recorded their own version of 'One Night in Bangkok', the same song but with different lyrics (presumably titled 'One Night in Stockholm'). Just imagine Agnetha and Frida singing the chorus!!!

 

Totally agree. Things like Should I Laugh Or Cry, Cassandra, Lovelight and Dreamworld. I’d never heard these until I bought the remasters in the early 2000s.

 

I bought a CD in the early 90s called 'The Love Songs' which featured both 'Should I Laugh Or Cry' and 'Lovelight'. I still play it nowadays from time to time!




https://www.discogs.com/de/ABBA-The-Love-Songs/release/1200187

 

Don’t remember that one. Great tracklist. In the 90s it would have made sense for me to get that as I only had a few ABBA CDs (From Arrival onwards) at that point.

 

The first album I bought (= the first ABBA album I bought) was 'The Hits Box' from the 'Pickwick Music' label, that was in 1991, I was 11 years old back then.
It contained 3 CDs featuring all the hit singles plus some great album tracks. 'The Love Songs' was the 4th Pickwick album with ABBA songs.



ABBA - The Hits Box

 

You chose well!

My first ABBA CD was The Singles The First Ten Years. I liked it so much I created a thread about it.

ABBA - The Singles The First 10 Years Poll. Pick Your Favourites


After that I bought Arrival. It was the Polydor WG edition. I later sold it when the ‘superior’ remasters came out only to re-buy it again a few years ago.

 

After 'The Hits Box' and 'Love Songs', I bought 'More Gold' in 1993, because it featured a couple of other songs and a brand new one ('I Am the City').

After that I bought 'Gold', in order to have all their big hits on just one CD.

For Christmas 1994, I received the 'Thank You for the Music' box set as a present.

I also bought 'ABBA Live' in the first half of the 90s, an album which isn't available anymore.

After that I started to buy all their studio albums ('Super Trouper' was the first one I got, 'Ring Ring' the last one).

I still listen to all of these CDs regularly, except for 'ABBA Live'.

 

I also bought 4 VHS videos in the first half of the 90s:

'Gold' and 'More Gold' (which I both watched many times, I had never seen most of their videos before!!!), 'ABBA Live in Concert' (a documentation about their 1979 tour) and 'ABBA The Movie'.

In 2002, I purchased 'The Definitive Collection' on DVD.

And then came YouTube in 2005...