More ABBA Gold: More ABBA Hits

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For the 10th anniversary of Gold: Greatest Hits, an updated version of the 1999 disc was released, containing a new cover art featuring the correct ABBA logo and updated liner notes. In fact, such was the band’s disappointment in its performance that when UK electronic band Blancmange proposed a near-identical (and near-pointless) cover version in 1984, ABBA publicly endorsed the track to the degree that they even allowed the band to hijack parts of their video, with Agnetha now appearing to share a train with Blancmange’s Neil Arthur, rather than her nameless love interest in the original. Famously, Stevie Wonder used it for the strings on Pastime Paradise, bluffing journalists at the time that the track featured the London Symphony Orchestra, such was their realism. A true rich vinyl record has to be engineered and recorded from the tapes, and could be also re-mastered from the source targeting even better audiophile experience.

More ABBA Gold by ABBA on Apple Music ‎More ABBA Gold by ABBA on Apple Music

It was preceded in early 1992 by Erasure's Abba-esque EP, which saw the synth-pop band cover four songs including Lay All Your Love On Me and SOS. The album sold particularly well in the United Kingdom and remains the longest charting album in the territory, becoming the first and only album to have spent 1000 weeks on the UK Albums Chart in July, 2021.Another latecomer, Under Attack was also birthed during the band’s final 1982 sessions alongside the aborted and unreleased Just Like That, which shares Under Attack’s chords and verse melody (listen carefully to its unfinished, unreleased mix here). However, the celebratory IIWFTN was deemed too upbeat for the occasion, and the multi-million strong US TV audience were pointed at the moodier, more suitable, written-just-weeks-earlier Chiquitita - Spanish for ‘little one’ - instead.

ABBA - Gold: Greatest Hits Lyrics and Tracklist | Genius ABBA - Gold: Greatest Hits Lyrics and Tracklist | Genius

Of special interest are tracks recorded during ABBA’s final 1982 sessions, particularly the previously unreleased “I Am the City,” a sleek and otherworldly tune reflecting the influence of techno-pop groups like Depeche Mode and OMD.It’s therefore ABBA’s most overlooked single release, even being excluded from the following year’s The Singles: The First Ten Years - the only genuine omission. It’s all over The Visitors album, bringing the swinging, sawing strings and flickering brass to Head Over Heels. It not only highlights [Abba's] incredible popularity, but just how closely they have connected with a succession of new generations. Earmarked as a single during the Voulez-Vouz sessions, it was picked out as the obvious choice for the band to announce the album and perform at the 10 January 1979 televised UNICEF concert, an early pre-cursor to Live Aid, raising money for UNICEF’s 1979 ‘Year of the Child’ campaign, organised by music mogul Robert Stigwood who managed the (also on the bill and similarly gigantic) Bee Gees. Head Over Heels - which had a working title of Tango (a fact it shares with super-smash Fernando) - teams the feel with opera and stomping and the Michael Tretow ‘wall of sound’ rock ‘n’ roll, complete with delayed, ping-ponging synths and lush analogue strings and brass provided by the highly elite Yamaha GX-1.

Abba Gold reaches record-breaking 1,000 weeks in UK album Abba Gold reaches record-breaking 1,000 weeks in UK album

And to get a real fix on such a delicate and rarefied melody, do check out this version from Benny’s exemplary 2017 album Piano.

The Swedish foursome’s follow-up anthology combines their biggest remaining singles with assorted rarities and alternate mixes. Fact is we’d quite happily include the entire contents of the Voulez-Vouz album here as the by-now bloated disco monster gets treated to a perfect last gasp in the late-70’s limelight via a little ABBA magic. When ABBA evaporated, Benny and Björn segued seamlessly into bed with prolific lyricist Tim Rice who was similarly left in the lurch when his longstanding tunesmith Andrew Lloyd Webber buggered off to do Cats.

ABBA - More ABBA Gold: lyrics and songs | Deezer ABBA - More ABBA Gold: lyrics and songs | Deezer

IKHSW was a UK number one for four weeks in 1985 and remains the biggest selling UK single by a female duo. Released in 1993, it was the follow-up to the highly successful Gold: Greatest Hits, released the previous year, and went on to sell 3 million copies. This vinyl album may be fine for those who never heard these ABBA hits printed on true vinyl or even officially released brand audio cassettes. It tells the story of the boring, repetitive day to day of the protagonist before the interference of a new romance.Finally in 2014, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of ABBA winning Eurovision in 1974, a new Gold: Greatest Hits package was released containing 3 discs: Gold: Greatest Hits, More ABBA Gold: More ABBA Hits and a new disc, 40th Anniversary Edition B-sides, all newly remastered again by Henrik Jonsson.