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Post by ed on Jan 30, 2024 18:25:46 GMT
One of my favourite ABBA compilations was released on 26 October 1998. The collection titled "Love Stories". It is an awesome collection showcasing the band's incredible versatility in exploring all aspects to love and human emotion
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One question which often I find myself asking again and again. Which of ABBA's love songs are genuine love songs ? "I've Been Waiting For You", "Gonna Sing You My Lovesong", "My Love My Life" and "One Man One Woman" are prime examples of wholesome love. While "Fernando", "Chiquitita" and "I Have A Dream" are reflective and rousing ballads.
Next are the break up songs. Would you class them as love songs ? Yes, as they relate to lost love, failing and end of relationships and also, a glimmer of reconciliation. ABBA always convey a multitude of diverse traits of emotion and feeling with powerful and heartrending melodic testimonies of marital strife, separation and divorce ie "Knowing Me Knowing You", "The Winner Takes It All", "One Of Us" and "When All Is Said And Done".
The beautiful "Happy New Year" is a reflection of the birth of a new year while "Our Last Summer" is a joyous reminiscence of a love affair. "Slipping Through My Fingers" a poignant ode to fleeting childhood. "Andante Andante" a sensual affirmation ( oh I say ! ).
Would you add "Move On " and " The Name Of The Game" to this category. Again, yes as both define another perspective to love. Uplifting yet wistful. However "Eagle" is not a love song at all but a soaring anthem. The same can be said of "Thank You For The Music" a celebration of love and gratitude rather than a love song.
"The Day Before You Came", "I Let The Music Speak", "Like An Angel Passing Through My Room" are theatrical epitaphs rather than odes to love showcasing the band as masters of their craft. Occasionally I have stumbled across several compilations with bizarre inclusions of "Lay All Your Love On Me", "Gimme Gimme Gimme ( A Man After Midnight )", "Voulez-Vous" and wait for it "Head Over Heels". These are not love songs but disco giants with the exception of the last which is a delightfully amusing romp. Why are they featured on a love song collection ? Maybe there is a straightforward reason which I cannot find. Maybe love can be perceived in a whole manner of guises.
Maybe the answer lies in the fact there are many kinds of love songs expressing countless facets of human emotion and ABBA explored all avenues and maybe I can't find an answer to define a genuine ABBA love song as there are so many classics.
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Post by Alan on Feb 2, 2024 8:12:12 GMT
Always loved the Thank You For The Music release from 1983, lovely flow of songs, loved the fade in/out of songs. I even loved the album cover, so 80’s and all four look amazing. Quoting this from another thread as it relates to your post, ed. “Love Stories” was a more modern take on the love songs theme that had already been explored in the 1980s on several different European compilations. The UK one, which lamont describes here, features 11 of the tracks that were later included on Love Stories. However, Fernando was the Spanish version for some reason (perhaps to make it more enticing to fans as Gracias Por La Musica had a somewhat limited UK release). There was also one b-side, Should I Laugh Or Cry. The tracklisting was: Side 1 - My Love My Life, I Wonder, Happy New Year, Slipping Through My Fingers, Fernando (Spanish version), One Man One Woman, Eagle. Side 2 - I Have A Dream, Our Last Summer, The Day Before You Came, Chiquitita, Should I Laugh Or Cry, The Way Old Friends Do, Thank You For The Music. A single, Thank You For The Music/Our Last Summer, was used to promote the album and was issued in an unusual shaped picture disc and a poster sleeve as well as a regular picture sleeve. Happy New Year, Should I Laugh Or Cry and Thank You For The Music were the only three tracks that did not later appear on Love Stories. Several similar compilations were released in Europe, so I can only assume the licensees were given the option of releasing such a collection as no new album was in sight. One version even included solo hits by Agnetha and Frida. Thankfully the UK issue spared us that! I think that in all these cases, it would have been better to promote them as ballad compilations rather than as love songs as some of the choices aren’t truly the latter. The Love Songs theme has since been used for albums by many acts. I liked Madonna’s Something To Remember from 1995 as that did specify “ballads” rather than love songs. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2024 9:48:22 GMT
Well yes, there are many kinds of love songs and ABBA covered an awful lot of the bases. Flipping the question round, how many ABBA songs definitely AREN'T any kind of love song? Take the Super Trouper album, for instance - you only really get 'Me and I' and 'The Piper'. And so with the other albums, apart from The Visitors where non-lovey songs actually outnumber the lovey tracks (in all their different guises).
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Post by ed on Feb 2, 2024 14:25:28 GMT
Alan, I bought " Thank You For The Music " on cassette back in 1983. I don't think it was ever released on CD format as probably this collection was deleted. I do remember listening to it from time to time. However, I was lucky to have purchased " From ABBA With Love " on CD from eBay a couple of years ago. Originally it was released in The Netherlands and Germany in 1984. The track list as follows, One Of Us, Lay All Your Love On Me, Eagle, The Winner Takes It All, Head Over Heels, To Turn The Stone ( Frida ), Voulez-Vous, My Love My Life, Wrap Your Arms Around Me ( Agnetha ), Cassandra, The Day Before You Came, Elaine, Slipping Through My Fingers, Thank You For The Music. 14 songs in all. Actually I prefer this one to the above mentioned other. Quite a memorable collection. This is what lead me to query which of ABBA's recordings are genuine love songs. Lay All Your Love On Me and Voulez-Vous are disco floor fillers rather than ballads. Both Head Over Heels and Elaine should not be classed as love songs at all. Both are polar opposites. I do agree " Love Stories " is an updated and modern compilation of both these predecessors.
Gary, Tiger is another great example of a non love song.
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Post by Michel on Feb 2, 2024 19:02:14 GMT
I prefer the compilation From ABBA With Love as well. Although the word "love" was featured in the album title, that doesn't necessarily mean it was a collection of love songs or marketed that way. It was very well put together, also including several tracks that were omitted from either Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (Voulez-Vous) or from The Singles (Lay All Your Love On Me, Eagle, Thank You For The Music and Head Over Heels). Also it included several tracks that (at the time) could not easily be found elsewhere on CD: Eagle (single edit), Wrap Your Arms Around Me (single edit), To Turn The Stone (single edit), Elaine (B-side) and Cassandra (B-side).
In 1989 a collection actually titled "Love Songs" was released in The Netherlands. That CD had 18 tracks, among them Agnetha's Wrap Your Arms Around Me (single edit), as well as Dancing Queen and Take A Chance On Me which I wouldn't consider love songs.
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Post by Alan on Feb 2, 2024 19:38:07 GMT
Michel, the single edits of To Turn The Stone and Wrap Your Arms Around Me are still difficult to find on CD even today, as neither appeared on their respective 2005 solo album remasters and, in the case of To Turn The Stone, was not included on the deluxe issue of Something’s Going On in 2015. I suppose my preference for the UK’s Thank You For The Music was because that was the only one I knew of at the time. Also, it was one of the very few ABBA albums I owned myself as my brother had all the studio albums and first two Greatest Hits. It therefore got played to death by me! Also, I did like the cross-fades or seques. Haven’t heard them in decades but can still remember them.
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Post by clumsylikeaclown on Feb 3, 2024 0:09:52 GMT
How could you forget those truly majestic love songs 'Should I Laugh Or Cry?' and 'The King Has Lost His Crown'?  Jokes aside, it depends how rigid your personal definition of 'love song' is. For me the most 'quintessential' love songs of ABBA would be I've Been Waiting For You, Gonna Sing You My Love Song and Tropical Loveland. But then if you count breakup songs too of course there's an enormous range to choose from... |
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Post by Alan on Feb 3, 2024 13:55:28 GMT
The various love songs-themed albums released on CD. Have I missed any? From ABBA with Love, with the rare single edits of To Turn The Stone and Wrap Your Arms Around Me.  ABBA Love Songs. Again, single edit of Agnetha’s song but no sign of anything from Frida.  I Love ABBA. Another compilation but again with both solo single edits.  ABBA The Love Songs. Cheapo UK compilation from Pickwick, from a time when UK licensee CBS was sub-licensing ABBA out to anyone that was interested. It followed three “The Hits” compilations. As with the 1983 UK collection, Should I Laugh Or Cry is present but no solo hits.  Love Stories as already discussed in this thread.  And for completeness, Thank You For The Music. Never released on CD, which is a bit of a pity as the cross-fades or segues are unique to this compilation.  |
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Post by lamont on Feb 3, 2024 15:59:09 GMT
It’s a shame Universal couldn’t issue the TYFTM CD from 1983, I’d love it!
The only true love song ABBA did was I’ve Been Waiting for You, I think all others have a tinge of melancholy in them.
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Post by Alan on Feb 3, 2024 16:20:01 GMT
It’s a shame Universal couldn’t issue the TYFTM CD from 1983, I’d love it! I think they easily could, but have no interest in doing so. From what I understand, Polar held the rights to all compilations and any artwork used by licensees. The cross-fades/segues were probably Polar’s work too. (The nine none-Polar singles in the 2014 40-singles box all used their original artwork. Also the UK album artwork has been re-used on Universal releases over the years). |
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Post by lamont on Feb 3, 2024 17:01:18 GMT
It’s a shame Universal couldn’t issue the TYFTM CD from 1983, I’d love it! I think they easily could, but have no interest in doing so. From what I understand, Polar held the rights to all compilations and any artwork used by licensees. The cross-fades/segues were probably Polar’s work too. (The nine none-Polar singles in the 2014 40-singles box all used their original artwork. Also the UK album artwork has been re-used on Universal releases over the years). Be easy money for them ! It’s the only compilation I listen to, I have playlist on my phone. I don’t particularly listen to running order of Gold, I do quite like the 1976 Greatest Hits compilation, it reminds me of my parents constantly renting it out the library for me as a child. The cross fade on TYFTM was a nice touch, I also thought it nice that TDBYC and SILOC had a home. Fernando was great too as I never had heard that before this release. |
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Post by HOMETIME on Feb 3, 2024 18:01:05 GMT
It’s a shame Universal couldn’t issue the TYFTM CD from 1983, I’d love it! Agree. I've been replaying my vinyl since getting a new deck recently and I'm afraid the sound on this compilation is a little subpar. I wonder if it has to do with the sides being overcrowded? A CD would accommodate things far more efficiently. And, ideally, they could/should crossfade Eagle/I Have A Dream. That Pickwick compilation from the late 80s was a handy set at a time when the albums had yet to appear on CD. Especially for the B-sides included. The only true love song ABBA did was I’ve Been Waiting for You, I think all others have a tinge of melancholy in them. Well, there's Andante, Andante too: all horn and no melancholy! I think most ballads about relationships, new love, and breakups tend to be considered love songs when it comes to compiling things. With ABBA, the labels seemed (lazily) to think that anything downtempo was a de facto lovesong, with the likes of Eagle and STMF miscast as kissy-smoochy soundtracks. |
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Post by lamont on Feb 3, 2024 21:16:03 GMT
Yes Andante Andante too, just because IBWFY has “I love you” in the lyrics, and I felt AA was more erotic (‘till I read it was Benny’s love of the piano.)
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