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I could not resist this column this month especially after my recent Boney M. columns touched such a nerve amongst many!

Well, he's at it again. Yeah, you guessed right, Mr. Frank Farian!

I managed to grab 10 minutes one afternoon this week before my Daddy Day-Care activities commenced, and hit a CD Store. To be honest, I actually headed straight to the ABBA section to see if 'Arrival 2006' had arrived as well as 'Number One's' on any format. Needless to say there was neither, although there were plenty of fresh placements of 'ABBA -Gold' in the rack.

I ended up browsing through the new release section, very quickly I might add, given my time restraint. I came across a CD of nothing other than 'The Magic of Boney M.' I picked it up, scanned the track list and decided I had to have it. Simply because the last track on the CD caught my eye, there was a new song recorded by Liz Mitchell this year! Besides, it was half the price of all of the other new releases!

I must say Mr. Farian has taken the cake this time. Once again the package just smacks of an ABBA release soooooo many times over. This time, with another Boney M. re-re-release (sounds like Universal with ABBA), he's decided to play it safe. The front cover uses the original Boney M. logo just like with ABBA ‘GOLD’, and subsequent countless other ABBA releases, with a nice picture on the back of Boney M. in their heyday. In other words, this is how they were, so enjoy it! Their looks have changed but their music has not.

The other thing that was so ABBA obvious, was on the last page of the insert, there is heavy plugging for 'Daddy Cool - The Hot New Musical based on the songs of Boney M. and Frank Farian Productions.' There is also a nice little blurb about the show, a la Mamma Mia. Obviously the man must own a copy of either ‘ABBA –GOLD’ or any other ABBA CD release since Mamma Mia! premiered, where the show is quite heavily publicised, otherwise he’s got some PR person advising him who does not have an original idea in their head!

Incidentally one of the people involved in Mamma Mia! is involved in Daddy Cool, can't recall which part. This is not mentioned on the booklet, but on the ‘Daddy Cool’ website, where Mamma Mia! is mentioned quite a few times, so at least an ABBA/Benny and Björn reference is made! Talk about a flashback to the 1970’s when ABBA and Boney M. competed for chart success. Not much has changed in 2006!

When ‘ABBA – Gold’ and ‘More ABBA Gold’ were initially released in the early 1990’s, quite a few artists jumped on the ‘Gold’ bandwagon and issued their greatest hits as a ‘Gold’ package. Boney M. was no different with their ‘Gold’ and ‘More Gold’ packages. This time, this Boney M. release is more of a re-release of ‘The Magic of Boney M.’ from the early 1980’s with a few track changes. I was wondering if Mr. Farian was hoping to catapult Boney M. back to the top of the charts with this release back on back with his musical? If so, it does not appear to have worked, I have not seen the compilation in the album charts yet.

There is not much to this CD, with so many songs owned over and over again. What irritates me the most is that quite a few of the songs on the CD are severely shortened, which I’ve come to realise over the years is a typical Frank Farian trait. Not all the tracks on the CD were album tracks and it would be nice to replace some of my old vinyl tracks onto CD, which is not the case this time. What a raw deal, for once I was hoping to get them in their original format! The back of the CD does not list the running times of each track, which infuriates me. And there is nothing much to the booklet, no history of the group or any mention of their success, there are a couple of pictures here and there of the group with a mention of where the pictures came from - "Boney M. - A book of photographs by Didi Zill". It’s simply the same product re-packaged and marketed all over again.

At least with ABBA, and whatever ‘official’ compilation you are looking at, you get the correct track listing and a decent booklet with a proper history of the group and how they came about and where they are at today. No wonder this Boney M. CD was half price in the “new releases” section! There is also a mention made of the DVD that is available to accompany this release, although with a different track listing! It’s the same tracks as the last Boney M. DVD that was released a few years ago, so nothing new there.

I must give the man credit where it is due though, he’s managed to release another compilation album in conjunction with his musical, but this time he was one step ahead of Benny and Björn. He’s engaged the services of none other than Liz Mitchell, Boney M.’s main lead vocalist, to record a new track for this set and it’s heavily made note of. The last time we were privileged to get this from the ABBA team was in 1993 with ‘I Am The City’ from ‘More ABBA Gold’ and the few other gems from 1994’s box-set ‘Thank You For The Music’.

I must say, it is so lovely to hear Liz singing again. Her voice was always amazing and it is so nice to hear her singing under Frank's production. Let’s face it, like her, her voice has matured, but so have we all, but yet, you can still hear that wonderful talent Liz Mitchell has always had. I somehow don’t think it will justify a single release, well not in today’s terms anyway. The voice of Liz Mitchell today is not what it was in Boney M.’s heyday. I must hand it to Frank Farian though, he got his biggest and brightest star to help him promote a project, his musical.

I’m sad to admit, this is more than Benny and Björn ever did with their brightest stars, Agnetha and Frida. These two voices, along with the wonderful compositions they dreamed up, put them on the map as musicians, and yet, their collective force as ABBA far outdid that of Boney M., and today their musical Mamma Mia! has no offering of a possible original recording by any ABBA member. For the first time in many years, Mr. Farian has managed to outdo the forces of Benny and Björn by producing a greatest hits package with a new recording by an original band member.

Like I’ve written before, I’ve always seen Frank as a copyist of ABBA with Boney M. Their many hits competed for chart success in the 1970’s and the early 1980’s, but it seems ABBA have stood the test of time and achieved greater success long after their demise. The last time the Boney M. albums received any re-release in a remastered format was in 1994, the ABBA albums have gone through two rejuvenations since then alongside many other compilations that have topped the charts the world over and not to mention the 30th Anniversary album releases of ‘Waterloo’ and ‘Arrival’.

At least ‘Number 1’s’ has charted in many places, maybe not as successful as other ABBA compilations, but at least it has charted which this Boney M. collection has yet to do, maybe their supposed 800 million record sales has saturated the market.

I somehow still think the ABBA product will be a lot more marketable in the future! We can be grateful that the four ABBA members appeared in Stockholm last year for the Mamma Mia! premiere, I doubt this would ever be the case with the four Boney M. members, there is too much animosity and mud slinging between the four of them.

I think I can still safely say, I’ll put my money on ABBA and their related projects any day!

Neil