ABBA Voyage: General Discussion 2022 Sept - Dec

Hi Alan,
I will dig out my old magazines. I have the complete set of magazines from one all the way through to the final one. I will work my way through them especially the ones in 1978. I will check old fan club newsletters too. Might have read it there. Will let you know my findings.

I guess we should have been able to predict that Universal would want to make more of the 30th anniversary of Gold than the 1st anniversary of Voyage and I think the window for the announcement of a Deluxe edition of Voyage before Christmas is now passing. I'm not sure how successful the celebration of Gold has been - I received a pretty desperate e-mail yesterday telling me to grab my copy and I note that the horrid anniversary-edition CD from Amazon UK that is limited to 1992 copies is still available. Back to Voyage, if they don't do a Deluxe edition for this Christmas, I'm not sure when there will be an opportune time - perhaps 2024? In the meantime, I'm wondering what has happened to The Visitors 40th anniversary release, which would have been a far more interesting release than Gold. Is it still possible that this will appear before the end of the year, as 2023 will certainly be way past the anniversary.

Indeed. We may forget now, but the announcement of the two new songs was made on 27 April 2018. It was over three years and four months until we finally heard them. If we’d heard just one in September 2021, many would have been asking for the other.

I think they wanted maximum impact for the two songs. Releasing DSMD a bit later may have been detrimental to its chart success. ABBA’s return was big news but it was only going to happen once.

Putting both songs on one vinyl single would have split sales in half. This may have benefitted DSMD very slightly but would have affected ISHFIY negatively. It’s possible that the vinyl production delays meant that a separate DSMD 7” wasn’t possible at that time. A video would have been nice but it seems that record companies don’t want to spend money on them these days and decided that one was enough.

I don’t really have any complaints. By getting two songs at once it was like the old days of getting an A and B side (or in this case a double A-side).

I’ve lost all hope for a Voyage deluxe now. I think they are happy just focussing on the residency and extending it and taking it to other markets too. I don’t expect we will hear any more ABBA material (old or new).

I don't suppose there was any ulterior motive in Benny mentioning the two unreleased songs and saying that they are "quite good" - just naive matter-of-factness, without his thinking about the likely reaction. Mind you, if these songs have choruses as wonderful as some of us regard JLT's as being, it would be a pity if we never got to hear them.

I've had another thought... they could mark the 30th anniversary of More Gold in 2023. I tend to overlook Gold and More Gold, as I see them as add-ons and not part of ABBA's core career - in fact, I can't believe they are 30 years old (it must mean that I'm getting old). Given the relative failure of More Gold in comparison to Gold, could they give More Gold one final big push in 2023?

Gamleman - it would be nice if one more push was given to More Gold.

The tracklist would have to be changed to reflect Voyage. Add I Still Have Faith in You and Don't Shut Me Down and discard The Way Old Friends Do and Lovelight for example. I always thought "Gold 2" would have been a better title than More Gold.

Or maybe another double CD in 2024 which includes those Voyage songs.

I think a rejig of more gold tracklisting is a great idea. It could incorporate the new singles, songs from voyage and the films that have gained popularity since 1993.

I must be the only ABBA fan who has never had a copy of ABBA Gold!

Gold 2 is a good idea. That title should be commercial. With some promotion, it could sell well.

More ABBA Gold is so hard to track down on Vinyl plus its the only way to get 'I Am The City' on Vinyl so a re-release of More ABBA Gold on Vinyl would be fantastic its one of two ABBA albums I don't have on Vinyl the other being 'Voyage'. I am planning to buy the Half Speed Master of The Visitors when it finally gets released.

^ABBA sold more in the UK than Germany, actually. Fact. They sold more singles in the UK.
It is true ABBA's chart performance was better in Germany immediately after Waterloo and in 1982 with TDBYC. But better chart placings in UK at other times. Overall singles sales were higher in the UK. Fernando sold more than half a million in both countries. ABBA went on to a further 9 singles selling over half a million in the UK and no more in Germany.
Gold has sold more than twice in UK than Germany - over 6m vs under 3m Studio album sales about the same for both.

I take your point that Gold is a bit UK centric. I used to think it should have been more global and included Honey Honey and I Dox5. But now think the tracklist was the right one. It isn't very pro US tracklist. No Honey Honey, I Do or When All is Said and Done. The bosses at their Polar Music and then record company Polydor (UK), now part of Universal thought up the idea along with the tracklist for Gold
abbasite.com/articles/abba-gold-at-30/


The Singles is a bit UK centric with So Long but no Honey Honey. I prefer compilations to be in chronological order. The Singles from SOS up to and including SNC are ABBA's best by far. After that, their single were a bit patchy. There wasn't quite the high standard or consistency. The best single in later ABBA years was imo LAYLOM - which is not on The Singles.I think both Eagle and When All is Said and Done should have got UK single releases.

Anyway this is meant to be about Voyage not compilation albums.

As for Greatest Hits 3 there is a thread on that

abbachat.com/thread/1154/greatest-hits-vol-3

ABBA-Esque was released on 1 June 1992 and ABBA Gold on 21 September. That really wouldn’t be anywhere near long enough to do all the work required for a worldwide release of a major compilation.

I’d actually say it’s the other way round. The team behind ABBA Gold probably wanted a current act to cover some ABBA songs so that the stage was set for Gold. Deals were likely done behind closed doors. Erasure had previous on ABBA, and they were still a top selling band, so what better choice? There may even have been a provision in the agreement that the songs must be from the intended Gold tracklisting (likely already decided before Erasure even entered the frame).

Of course, this would all look quite calculating, hence why no one has admitted it, but we know record companies will go to all sorts of lengths to sell units. It makes perfect marketing sense. If it really was just a lucky coincidence then why did Erasure do it at that time, three months ahead of an ABBA re-launch?

Nah, they wanted people to think Erasure helped inspire it as it’s a good story. A happy coincidence that turned out very well for all concerned. Nice little fairytale but not real.

I was about 14 in 1992 and remember the release of ABBA-esque very well. There is no way that Gold would have sold so well initially without Erasure, they really made ABBA cool again.

I am sure there were already plans for a compilation in the works, but I suspect those plans were probably accelerated. I also think that the choice to include Lay All Your Love on Me and Voulez-vous over, say, Angeleyes was influenced by the Erasure track listing.

We’ll never know for sure but at the time it felt like ABBA Gold was a cash in on the Erasure success.

Erasure never had the same success again. Funny how ABBA became cool partly because of Erasure, and consequently Erasure became really uncool, partly because of ABBA.

Just as an aside, I think ABBA-esque is really the only successful set of Abba cover versions anyone has done. Erasure really
managed to get under the skin of the songs and make them relevant.

Re: Erasure

Universal were very likely considering a compilation before the release of Erasure's ABBAeaque EP. So I agree with Alan on that point. But not on his conspiracy theory about a deal with Erasure.

But Gamleman is also right about the 3 month gap between Abbaesque and Gold. There was plenty of time to slot LAYLOM on GOLD given its success as lead song from the Erasure EP.

I wonder if SNC had been considered but the success of LAYLOM for Erasure made then switch? 🤔 Or maybe SNC wasn't considered at all as ABBA didn't seem to like it.

LAYLOM was given a high placing in the running order, perhaps reflecting its new found popularity.

The tracklist order for GOLD seems to be based on popularity (from a British perspective) with Waterloo and TYFTM as encores at the end. Note I am saying 'popularity' not 'success' so that is why The Name of The Game is near the end and Fernando mid-way. I guess if a future edition of Gold changed the running order GGG would be second and KMKY not in the first ten songs.



Scaramouche - yes, Erassure never really had the same success again!

Gambleman - that Sweet Dreams duo consisted of a white woman and black man. The woman would black up - as it was deemed by some unacceptable to have mixed raced couples. Different times. Totally out ot order now.