ABBA Voyage: General Discussion 2020

 Justin --  I now see that, (in 1978), South Africa was the only Country - that released 'Eagle' - to
 have made 'Thank You For The Music' the 'A' Side and 'Eagle' the 'B' Side. Regarding my saying
 that 'Eagle' reached No.2 in South Africa - I was going by what Wikipedia says. It also, (correctly),
 says that 'Thank You For The Music' reached No.2. Therefore, Wikipedia must think that it was a
 Double 'A' Side in South Africa.

  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_(song)#Chart_positions

  Madonnabba -- Queen's 8 UK Million Selling Singles, start with 'Bohemian Rhapsody' - of course.
  Queen had 6 UK No.1 Singles. However, none of the other 7, even reached No.1. (There are 8 and
  not 7. I missed one). 2 of the 8 never even reached the Top 5! 2 of them are from 1984. Bear in 
  mind, that Queen had such a bad Year, in 1982, that they could have split up. Instead they returned
  in 1984 and were huge again. I just wish that ABBA had done that too...

'We Are The Champions' & 'We Will Rock You' can't be far from 1 Million UK Sales.

'Somebody To Love'  had a very odd 1st 2 Weeks, in the UK Charts. It entered at No.4 - and was still there,
 the next Week! Then it rose to No.2. 'We Are The Champions' made 2 big jumps - 30 to 13 - in its 1st 2
 Weeks. It then rose from No.13 to No.6. But, it was still at No.6, in Week 4. It looked like it would not get
 into the Top 5, but it rose from No.6 to No.2 in Week 5. It was at No.2 for 3 Weeks. The first 2 Weeks, saw
 it held at No.2, by ABBA's 'The Name Of The Game', in its 3rd and 4th No.1 Weeks. Week 3 at No.2, saw it
 held at No.2, by 'Mull Of Kintyre' by Wings. It all reminds me of 'Fernando', in the German Top 100. That
 entered at No.5. Then was still at No.5 a Week later. Then it got to No.1 - for 7 Weeks - with 22 Weeks in
 the Top 10. It became ABBA's Biggest German Hit Single...

Queen's other 7 UK Million Selling Singles - In UK Sales Order - (Highest to Lowest):

Don't Stop Me Now -- Only reached No.9 in 1979,
I Want To Break Free -- No.3 in 1984 
Somebody To Love  -- No.2 in 1976 
Another One Bites The Dust -- Only a UK No.7 Hit in 1980 
Radio Ga Ga -- No.2 in 1984 
Killer Queen -- No.2 in 1974 -- (One of my favourites - but not a big World Hit)
Crazy Little Thing Called Love  -- No.2 in 1979

I don't think any apology is needed! In these dark days its great to be able to chat with fellow ABBA lovers!

Because Angeleyes, in both the UK and Ireland, reached number 3. This was a higher chart position than Voulez-Vous achieved in any country other than Belgium (and pretty much every single they released there was number one). Also, in the US, the two have separate chart positions. Angeleyes reached number 64 and Voulez-Vous number 80. This more than justifies its position on Greatest Hits Vol 2. Both the 1970s Greatest Hits albums included tracks only released as singles in certain markets, and Rock Me was in that category.

They could have left off I Wonder and included Voulez-Vous instead though. Five tracks from The Album made it onto Vol 2, against just three each from Arrival and Voulez-Vous, so they could have balanced it out better. Guessing they didn’t want to harm sales of the V-V album and therefore deliberately left off a single. I Have A Dream was more of a last-minute release, probably not planned for when Vol 2 was released. A calculated move though - by not including it on the compilation, sales of the single and album didn’t harm each other, and also meant there were two reasons (V-V and IHAD) to still get that album. All worked out rather well.

I guess the only thing that can stop the rumours once and for all is the actual release of the new material (no matter how many songs there really are). They'd better do it as soon as possible...

You could say the same about Lay All Your Love on Me on Gold. It was released on 12” in a few countries but only the UK and Ireland made it a substantial hit. In any case, Voulez-Vous has got its revenge over Angeleyes since by its inclusion on both The Singles and Gold, which has had the effect of re-writing history in the UK, with most people not realising it was the primary A-side in 1979 and assuming Voulez-Vous was.

Also - regarding 'Lay All Your Love On Me' - I always concluded that its appearance on 'ABBA GOLD' was due to the fact that Erasure took it to number 1 in the UK in 1991 as part of their 'ABBA-esque' EP. Thus ensuring that all 4 tracks on that EP were included...

That sounds entirely plausible, as it was the Erasure EP that paved the way for the release of ABBA Gold (I don't believe the release would have happened without it). I do think we have to count "Voulez-vous" as a No 3 single (so one of 16 Top 4 hits on the album), as it can't be extricated from that double-A-side. Here, it was probably chosen over "Angeleyes" because of Erasure's version and it being the dominant A-side elsewhere. I imagine "Thank You For The Music" was considered a fitting necessity and "Summer Night City" lost out because of one of those Benny & Bjorn decisions in that they didn't like it (judging by comments reported on the Wikipedia page for the song).

Well, they can expand the ABBA Gold album with a bonus EP too. I hope they won't but I wouldn't be surprised if they did...

I'm sure you are right that PolyGram would have released "ABBA Gold" in the absence of the Erasure EP... eventually. I suppose it's possible that they encouraged Erasure but that seems somewhat speculative. Without Erasure's injection of interest in ABBA, I am doubtful that "ABBA Gold" would have seen the light of day in 1992. "Absolute ABBA" had been pretty much a failure in the UK only four years earlier.

In both late 1991 and early 1992, Polydor Staff, were telling the UK Media that 'Gold'
was going to be released, sometime later, in 1992. That was several Months before the
Erasure ABBA EP was released, in June 1992. 'ABBA Gold' was planned Months before its
release, in September 1992. There were rumours that its 1st Single - 'Dancing Queen' -
was a Remix. So, some Fans believed that - even though, it was obvious, that it was just
the 1976 version, on CD. I noticed it, the 1st time I heard it. The Official UK Charts
Company, still think that it was a Remix. In their ABBA 'Section', they don't add it to
the 'Chart Run' of the 1976 Hit. They call the 1992 release, 'Dancing Queen (1992). They
do regard its 5 Top 100 Weeks as being by the 1976 'Dancing Queen', and they allow them
to be combined. In later Years, Benny revealed that he had worked on, a 'Dancing Queen'
Remix, a few Years after ABBA split up. However, he didn't like the Remix, and it was
decided, never to release it.

I think that the 2 follow-up Singles, to the 1992 'Dancing Queen', were wrong. I recall,
being terribly upset, at the time, as I knew that neither would reach the UK Charts. The
2nd 'ABBA Gold' Single, was 'Voulez-Vous', which failed to reach the Top 75. The 2nd one
was 'Thank You For The Music' and 'Happy New Year', but the CD Cover and the Label, made
it confusing, as to which was the 'A' Side. That had no chance, to be a Hit. On the Monday,
that it was released, I went into several Record Stores, to see where they had placed it, in
their 'Predictive' Charts. It wasn't in any of their Charts. It was in all of their 'Bargain Bins'.
Which meant: 'This will not be a Hit'. It wasn't. It flopped. I would have made a couple of
ABBA's No.1's, the 2nd and 3rd 'Gold' releases. Singles, that were regarded as 'Classics'.
Probably, 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' and 'The Winner Takes It All'. I'm pretty sure, that
they'd have been Hits once more. (As would 'Fernando' and 'Take A Chance On Me'). I
decided, that whoever chose 'Gold' Singles, 2 and 3, had no idea, what they were doing...

I had forgotten that there were 3 single releases to accompany the release of 'ABBA GOLD'. I remember buying a 7-inch and a cassette version of 'Dancing Queen' and then a 7 inch version of 'Voulez-Vous' later on. I have no recollection of seeing a 'Thank You For The Music' single in the 1990s, although I think I have seen a photo of the cover.

It was good to see 'DQ' in the charts again, but in hindsight I can't really see why Polydor bothered with the other 2 singles.

In that case, I think the Erasure EP was heaven-sent (or possibly part of the plan), as I don't believe "ABBA Gold" would have had its initial No 1 success without it. I'm so glad they didn't release a remix of such a classic as "Dancing Queen". Remixes are not usually as good as the original. It's my view that the Spanish version of DQ isn't as good as the English version - its updated backing-track doesn't sound as energetic as the original.

I am absolutely with you on those follow-up singles from Gold. I didn't understand them either. They probably thought VV would tap into ABBA's appeal on the dance-floor. And perhaps they thought TKFTM didn't get a fair hearing the first time around in 1983 (IMO, it should have been released in the UK as a single in 1978 as the follow-up to TACOM, possibly as a double-A with "Eagle"). I don't think there was really any need for two follow-up singles from Gold. If any, a Christmas/New Year single may have been appropriate of "I Have A Dream" / "Happy New Year" / "The Way Old Friends Do", especially with IHAD having been a previous Christmas hit (not that I'm a fan of this song).

Yes, that would have been a nice combination, but I guess they wanted a lead-song that was on the Gold album, hence TYFTM. But why TYFTM was more appropriate than HNY for the singles chart in the early 90s is beyond me.

I still cannot believe the immense success of " Gold " after all these years. I am so glad that ABBA are finally appreciated as one of the greatest pop bands of all time. The minority of people who dislike them do not know what they are missing. The Spice Girls, Girls Aloud and whoever else are not in the same league and will never be. ABBA have enduring appeal and a timeless quality to their music. Let's hope there is a prospect of a brand new album soon.