Best CD issue of ABBA The Visitors

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Anonymous1111, Aug 16, 2022.

  1. Anonymous1111

    Anonymous1111 Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    United States
    I’ve been researching for a cd of the visitors by the abba and would like to know which CD of the album should I own. Are any of the remastered versions good or have any compression? Thanks.
     
    Jarleboy likes this.
  2. mBen989

    mBen989 Senior Member

    Location:
    Scranton, PA
    Any CD with the original digital master.
     
    sathvyre, blaken123, Merrick and 3 others like this.
  3. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    The old standard worldwide mastering.
    I believe as far as the US goes it was used up to 1995, before the ABBA Remasters were done.
     
    sathvyre, blaken123, Jarleboy and 2 others like this.
  4. Adamjames

    Adamjames Forum Resident

    Location:
    Uk
    Does anyone know if the 30th anniversary of ABBA GOLD is a new remastered version or the same as all the others?
     
  5. andy75

    andy75 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sweden
    I only have the Deluxe CD/DVD version. It's not bad sounding, but I think an older mastering is the way to go. It usually is.
     
  6. NekoM

    NekoM Seriously not serious.

    Found this recently. It’s the room used for the front cover, at Kronberg castle

    [​IMG]
     
  7. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    Found this today in DIGITAL AUDIO magazine, October, 1984, page 86.
    IMG_20230405_001024~2.jpg
    (The largely-positive review goes on for seven paragraphs.)
    Any idea what-the-heck Atlantic CD they are referencing in 1984? When did the Canadian CD on Atlantic get released? Discogs shows it as 1987.
    R-10379244-1496308402-9711.jpg
    I am confused.
     
    Jarleboy and c-eling like this.
  8. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    Praxis I believe was 1986, Cinram/Disque Americ started in 1987 in Canada for CD manufacturing.
    Unfortunately whomever submitted that entry left off important hub details.
    The 10032 cat# is from the UK Epic LP, from that article. Maybe there was a Germany for Canada CD made that isn't discog'd yet.
     
    Last edited: Apr 5, 2023
  9. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    Calling @princesskiki. Any ideas on the 1984 disc? Major typo?
     
  10. princesskiki

    princesskiki Kiki's Mom

    Hi. :wave:

    Like many other early CD's, there is a lot of valuable and erroneous information out there on ABBA CD pressings released in the 80's. To make things worse, there apparently was some confusion which company had the rights to distribute ABBA on CD in the UK at the time of the CD launch in Europe (cir. Spring 1983). Although certain music periodicals in the UK and Ariola had been told that ABBA CD's would be released in the UK with CBS as the distributor, when the CD format was launched in Spring 1983, ABBA CD's were released with Polydor as the distributor in the UK.

    By the time of that Digital Audio magazine article (cir. October 1984), there were only the following CD pressings of Visitors that had been released worldwide:
    Polar "blue face" CD made by WG Polygram for Sweden: ABBA - The Visitors
    The same "blue face" CD was also released in France with "Vogue" stickers over the Polar name/logo on the back insert.
    Polydor "red face" CD made by WG Polygram for various other European countries/regions: ABBA - The Visitors
    Polydor "red face" switched to this design: ABBA - The Visitors
    Polar "blue face" switched to this design: ABBA - The Visitors
    (Some of the CD's above were imported by certain music importers in the U.S.)
    Discomate CDP-101, made by JVC Japan for the Japanese market (cir. middle of 1984): ABBA = アバ - The Visitors = ザ・ビジターズ
    Some early pressings of the following may have been released before October 1984: ABBA - The Visitors
    (There are also similar looking CD pressings on the Polar label which may have been released before October 1984.)

    There were NO OTHER CD pressing of Visitors released anywhere in the world by October 1984.

    Now, it is possible that U.S. Atlantic (WEA) and WEA Canada were thinking about releasing Visitor on CD in the US and/or Canada around the time of that Digital Audio article. For one, Barry Diament seems to remember doing a lot of digital transfers of ABBA while he was at WCI Group (WEA) in the 80's but none of that appears to have made it to the market. Perhaps, Barry did the digital transfer of Visitors that was planned for release on CD around that time but the plan got reversed. But as Cory points out, what puzzles me is the cat. no. attributed to the phantom Atlantic CD "10032-2". That number would make sense for a CD pressing of Visitors hypothetically released in the UK by EPIC (i.e., CBS Europe) since Visitors was originally released in the UK in 1981 by Epic (CBS) with the cat. no. 10032. Dash 2 ("-2") was used to designate the CD format. It is possible that the Digital Audio article in question was actually written BEFORE Spring 1983 (when it was unclear whether Visitor on CD was going to be on Epic/CBS or Polydor in the UK) and only got published in October 1984. After all, it looks like October 1984 issue was only the second issue of Digital Audio ever! Perhaps the launching of the magazine got delayed.

    Anyway, US Atlantic (WEA) ended up releasing ONLY THREE ABBA CD's:
    Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (initially a "target" made by WG Polygram, using the same glass master as the "red face" Polydor and "blue face" Polar)
    Greatest Hits (this was the only unique ABBA CD release in the US)
    Super Trouper in 1988 or 1989 (this was a unique mastering worldwide for this album)

    WEA Canada ended up adding ONLY TWO ADDITIONAL ABBA CD's:
    The Singles - The First Ten Years in 1987 or 1988: ABBA - The Singles - The First Ten Years
    Visitors in 1987 or 1988: ABBA - The Visitors
    (You may have noticed that ABBA CD's released in the U.S. or Canada all had cat. nos. that were used by WEA in the U.S./North America. Therefore, "Atlantic CD 10032-2" in the Digital Audio magazine just does not make any sense for the CD release in the US or Canada.)

    I am not sure whether I adequately answered your question. I hope I did not confuse you even more. :hide:
     
    Last edited: Apr 5, 2023
  11. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    @princesskiki -- no, that was good!

    I have all of the US & Canada Atlantics, except the Canadian THE VISITORS, which is why that magazine blurb had me vexed. The Epic catalog number thing is one more oddity in the puzzle.

    Thanks!
     
    c-eling and princesskiki like this.
  12. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    [​IMG]

    Any idea who actually manufactured the Atlantic version? Interesting (?) that its catalog number contains three of the same digits as the UK Epic release, 1xx32. That inner ring is somewhat similar to JVC Japan.
     
    c-eling and princesskiki like this.
  13. princesskiki

    princesskiki Kiki's Mom

    Although I cannot see the matrix from that photo, that looks like a 80's Cinram Canada CD pressing. All of the early Canada CD pressings of Led Zeppelin look just like that and were made by Cinram. Cinram became operational in 1987. Disque Americ Canada opened within a couple of months also but the matrix area does not look like that. Praxis Canada was already operational at that time but their discs are unique looking with a wider "mirror band" looking outer edge.

    Also, "19332" comes from "SD 19332" which was the cat. no. assigned to The Visitors LP in the U.S. by Atlantic (WEA) back in late 1981. It is, however, interesting that "1xx32" part of the number is shared with UK Epic (CBS)! I never noticed that before. :cool::righton:
     
    c-eling and MLutthans like this.
  14. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    The mirror ring does look slightly different than my earliest Cinram. Did they use that typeface in 87? (The WEA Blurb). I've only seen it on 90's manufacture's.
    No barcode where their actually should be one and next to zero info given- I'm wondering if it's a counterfeit.
     
  15. princesskiki

    princesskiki Kiki's Mom

    It was a legit release in Canada in the late 80's. The back insert was a copy from the original "blue face" Polar CD released in Sweden and France. They just whited out some Polar credit and replaced with WEA Canada credit.
     
    c-eling likes this.
  16. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    No barcode and until I see the hub matrix I'm keeping my suspicions :magoo: :laugh:
     
    princesskiki likes this.
  17. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    Always good to see that I'm not the only cynical old crankpot on the forum! :laugh:
     
    princesskiki and c-eling like this.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine