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Take A Chance On Me / I’m A Marionette

UK pressing



USA pressing with different print style and placings. Label still says “Made in England” in white around the edge.



Dutch pressing, image from Discogs. White surrounding text going around the top rather than the bottom



The first ABBA injection-moulded (plastic) label in the UK. These are believed to be manufactured in France but there’s no evidence of that on the label. Early such labels moved the Epic logo to bottom right. I think these are produced the opposite way to paper labels. The colour is added but the text and graphics are simply the black of the vinyl record, hence the minimalist look (“Music” abbreviated to “Mus” etc)

The Name of The Game / I Wonder (Departure) [Live version]

UK pressing



French pressing, with the usual white surrounding text rendered in black and starting from the right. Image from Discogs



USA pressing. The label still says “Made in England” in white. Image from 45cat

Money Money Money / Crazy World

Original issue. The first ABBA single not to be issued on the yellow label (and therefore the first only on orange). Retains the yellow-era font but adds a small ABBA logo (meaning the label carries the ABBA name twice)



Second issue. Similar to the first but ABBA logo moved to the left

Fernando / Hey Hey Helen

Original issue



Second issue, 1978, with a new catalogue number



Final issue, 1981, retaining previous catalogue number. Another one intentionally damaged to indicate deletion.

Mamma Mia / Tropical Loveland

First issue



Second issue, 1977, still with yellow-era print style but including ABBA logo



Final issue, 1978, with orange-era print style. The punch hole is apparently an indication that the title is about to be (or has been) deleted. Can possibly be found without this hole but very rare if so.

I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do / Rock Me

Original issue, 1975



Second issue, 1976 or later

I answered that question by saying that ABBA weren’t an albums act in the UK until 1976, with Greatest Hits being the launchpad for that and starting proper with Arrival.

Not sure this topic will be of much (if any) interest to anyone other than myself, but back in 2014 when the 40-single boxed set was released, I went on a collecting frenzy and decided to get the UK original singles.

In common with other record companies, the Epic releases had various different label variants. Some issued at the time of the single’s original release, and others later on.

CBS Records (what’s now Sony Music) began life in the UK in 1964 when it took over Oriole Records, a UK company dating back to 1925. It renamed the company to CBS Records, and nine years later became ABBA’s UK licensee. CBS put ABBA onto their Epic label (Epic being little more than a trademark and product of CBS, and not a company or even a subsidiary in its own right).

One of the interesting things about the album is that it didn’t chart in the UK until Mamma Mia reached number one in the same week (w/e 31 January) with its peak position of 13 reached on w/e 14 February 1976.

Assuming the album was released in the UK in April 1975 (perhaps it wasn’t?) it would have spent a lot of time languishing in the bargain bins. Even SOS being a big hit didn’t revive its fortunes.

Future sales of the album were effectively killed off by the release of Greatest Hits - a massive UK seller - which featured five tracks from ABBA including all four singles.

Without wishing to sabotage this thread, someone just sent me this link.

www.thesun.co.uk/sport/22059476/grand-national-corach-rambler-abba/amp/

It’s just so lovely!

I decided to split the Bucks Fizz discussion from the Waterloo Eurovision 49th anniversary thread.

This topic has actually made me get into Bucks Fizz again. Like Dollar, they had a good team behind them and it’s hard to deny the quality of the songs and productions.

They were, of course, the UK’s second attempt (after Brotherhood of Man) at copying ABBA’s two-boy, two-girl line-up. And as with their predecessors, it paid off (largely thanks to the skirt-pulling routine that somehow went over my head at the time - I genuinely thought they won because of the song!).

Aside from the equal line-up, winning Eurovision and one member being younger than the other three, similarities with ABBA ended. They were a cut-price ABBA just as the real thing started to fade into the background. I liked them though. I’d probably single out their third album, Hand Cut, as being the best. The two singles from it, If You Can’t Stand The Heat and Run For Your Life, aren’t their best but the album itself had plenty to offer. Later efforts I Hear Talk and Writing On The Wall were more patchier affairs.

A coach crash in late 1984, which seriously injured Mike Nolan, marked the beginning of the end. And then Jay Aston had an affair with the songwriter husband of the group’s manager, signing off her resignation letter from the group as “The Slut”. They then recruited an even younger new member, Shelley Preston, to replace her, but only had one more major hit (New Beginning in 1986) before ending their recording career in 1988 with Heart of Stone, a song made more famous by Cher.

Shelley left, then Cheryl, with Mike creating his own version of the group with Dollar’s David Van Day (a Three of A Kind parody in 1982 memorably had “David” singing the line “I think I’m gonna join Bucks Fizz” to which Tracey Ullman’s Thereza answers, “Well, you know where your suitcase is”).

It all ended up in court, with Bobby G’s official version of the group having the rights to the name (via his wife, a member of this group). Cheryl and Shelley joined Mike’s rival version before Shelley left and Jay Aston joined, meaning the unofficial version had three original members and the official version just one. An enforced name change resulted in Cheryl, Mike and Jay (and briefly another Bobby, McVey, also a Song For Europe winner) adopting the name “The Fizz”.

The 1980s Bucks Fizz is easy to disregard as throwaway pop, and they certainly weren’t the greatest singers, but somehow it worked. I’d recommend their first three albums to anyone, and even the latter two have their moments.

Ian’s replied. My original assumption was correct:

Hi Alan

Good to hear from you!

I actually wrote the play in 2019 which was before I was aware of your ABBAChat, so yes it isn't based on your forum (not sure if that's a good or a bad thing!)
It is more loosely based on ABBATalk - only in as much as it's a Facebook group rather than a discussion forum. Chris from ABBATalk actually asked if I'd consider renaming the fictional one in the play ABBATalk, but I thought it would be better to make it clear it wasn't based on real life!

Best wishes
Ian