ABBA The Forgotten Legacy

On the 7th of June 2001 the following article appeared in the music business magazine Musikindustrin, the Swedish equivalent of Billboard. Jeffrey de Hart had been asked to write an editorial piece of his choosing, but was stumped to find an appropriate topic. At an album release party in Stockholm, Jeffrey and Peter Palmquist met Claes Olson, MI's Editor-in-Chief, who suggested writing something on the fan club's recent ABBA Day. After discussing the story together, Peter came up with an initial draft enabling Jeffrey to take the idea and run with it.

ABBA - THE FORGOTTEN LEGACY

In April I attended my tenth ABBA convention. It was, as usual, the biggest ever. Every year I keep thinking it couldn’t possibly grow more, that many of the people show up because of the 25th anniversary of the Waterloo Eurovision victory, the premiere of Mamma Mia! or milestones such as the fan club celebrating its 10th or 15th anniversary. However, none of these occasions explain why more and more people keep coming, especially the youngsters who have never seen a vinyl record before but were swept up in the ABBA tsunami following the release of ABBA Gold. The younger fans affectionately referred to as “Goldies” by the “oldies” are now two generations deep.

It’s true ABBA Gold, released nearly a decade ago, has been on the market as long as ABBA itself endured as a group. The elder generation of “Goldies” now has the distinction of being seen somewhat as veterans by the youngsters, whose first memories of ABBA are hearing their parents play Gold at home. In the sleepy village of Roosendaal, nestled on Holland’s southern border a hop, skip and jump from Antwerp, the annual ABBA Day has grown into an ABBA Weekend. It has become a big upswing for hotels, restaurants and shops, and the fact that both national and foreign TV, radio and press cover it makes it all the better.

In recent years acts such as Finn Kalvik and Nanne have been invited to perform following the traditional day-long record fair and prior to the all night ABBA disco. A dinner and drinks night has been added the previous evening and ABBA The Movie shows at the local cinema the day after. Although not quite as elaborate, many other locales around the world also host ABBA conventions. In places like Bristol in the UK there is an annual event, complete with a record fair and disco, and cities in Australia, including Sydney and Melbourne, host spectacular happenings every few years. Conventions are also held in Germany and there are other fan gatherings in many countries, including the USA.

It seems incomprehensible that Sweden doesn’t better use ABBA as a tourist magnet. An Australian took the initiative to produce the video Essential Stockholm, which shows many of the sites an ABBA fan must visit on a pilgrimage and they certainly are a bigger share of tourists than one might imagine like the studio of Julius Kronberg at Skansen where the album cover for The Visitors was shot. “Yes,” a guide there said, “the numbers of visitors to this house has increased and many of them ask about the ABBA photo shoot.”

Following years of American, British and German tourists asking for the ABBA museum not if there was one, but where Nordiska Museet finally decided to create an exhibition. To be sure, the exhibit had to be done in the “Swedish way” with half an excuse of putting ABBA in a 70’s context among the political movements of the time. Even so, they did it. By doing it, the museum scored one of its all-time biggest successes and gained by far the most extensive coverage in the international media it has ever experienced. As a result of its success, the exhibition has been extended and there are plans at hand for it to tour where ABBA exhibits haven’t already been shown.

Yes, there have already been other ABBA exhibits around the world, the closest to Sweden being in Oslo. My partner, a native Swede, tells me of guided tours he has given in the mythical ABBA land where we live, Vallentuna. People from all over the world are curious to see the houses in which Agnetha & Björn and Frida & Benny lived during the early to mid 70’s, the school where they rehearsed for an early tour and among sighs of exultation the windmill featured on the cover of an early Frida single. When he asked the people responsible for marketing Vallentuna about this, the things they wanted to promote were horses, old churches and the rune stones of the Viking burial grounds. He said it is interesting to note that, for some reason, many municipalities in Sweden seem to think the word “kommun” [municipality] attracts tourists. “But ABBA,” he asked them, “do you have ABBA related things?” “There is an exhibition in Stockholm,” came the reply. “We don’t have anything regarding ABBA that could interest anyone.”

He knows that’s not true. “Last summer there were more people than ever before,” he told me. “One week I was out in the pouring rain, dragging people along a two hour route. They asked with an almost religious fervor, ‘Is this really the house where Bosse Carlgren lived and recorded demos with Agnetha for her Elva kvinnor i ett hus album?’ Then they wanted to have their pictures taken in front of the orientation map of the community where ABBA lived. You know they love this.” No brass signs tell of these historic sites, but they sure seem to promote Vallentuna far more than the “kommun” does. One might wonder, then, why is there no ABBA convention in Sweden? “I keep getting that question,” he replied. “There might actually be one in the next year or two. I have talked about the idea with the fan club since this is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and, frankly, I have to hurry a little because I know that people from both Australia and Germany have been thinking about hosting something here.”

If young people in Sweden were as interested in Swedish music in general as the visitors of the ABBA conventions, there might not be a crisis for the record companies. The fan club received 50 copies of Nanne’s new single and they sold out within an hour. Marie Fredriksson’s Äntligen [Finally] was just as successful. The demand for Ainbusk seems to be a lot higher there than in Sweden. Even Leila K finds her buyers. The secret is to have a connection to ABBA and, if you look hard enough, many Swedish productions do. Nanne is, of course, married to Benny’s son, Marie Fredriksson has sung duets with Frida, Benny has written for and produced Ainbusk, and Michael B. Tretow has worked with Leila K. The connection doesn’t have to be that direct. It’s enough to have a studio musician that played on an ABBA or solo recording to attract these people.

It’s unfathomable that, despite ABBA basically outselling every other Swedish act worldwide year after year, the music business seems to miss the fact that the most vague of ABBA connections can help sell other acts internationally. The old Polar Music was, of course, aware of that and Stikkan Anderson came up with the idea of Tomas Ledin recording Never Again as a duet with Agnetha. The song wasn’t a big hit outside of Scandinavia, but it was released in other territories around the world. It made enough noise to make it possible to buy to this day Tomas’ Swedish language albums on import in Japan, many Latin American countries, most European countries and even the USA. If an album by a Swedish artist is stickered “worked with ABBA,” it would be of interest to many people around the world. Things of this nature are often left out of promotional material surrounding a new release.

What about ABBA themselves? Surely it must be difficult to look back on their legacy as they all have moved on with their lives. Björn & Benny dabbled in pop projects like Gemini and Josefin Nilsson, Benny has recorded solo albums, produced folk music acts and guested on many other musicians’ work, Agnetha and Frida produced a few albums and side projects in the 80’s, Frida returned briefly to the studio in the late 90’s for her classic comeback album and Agnetha is considering doing the same. Even so, it probably comes as no surprise to those who have closely followed their careers that Björn & Benny were the ones that have consistently stuck with the music.

The “boys” have put most of their post-ABBA energy into Chess and Kristina från Duvemåla [Kristina From Duvemåla], of course, but with the astounding success of Mamma Mia! they have been forced at the very least to glance back at their career in ABBA, all the while with an eye on the future of both the legacy and the musicals. The recent Regeringens exportpris [The Government's Export Prize] awarded to Björn & Benny at this year’s Grammisgala is a testament to that. It is a pity the award wasn’t given to all four members of ABBA, for without those voices… On a remotely related point, it is worth mentioning that with Mamma Mia! steaming toward Broadway, the current retooling of Chess and an English language version of Kristina från Duvemåla on the way, there is a distinct possibility three Björn & Benny musicals could run simultaneously on The Great White Way, turning the American theatre-world on its ear.

To the hardcore fan base and, unknowingly, to the loyal not-so-crazed vast following worldwide the recycling of the ABBA catalogue with all its various reissues is wearing thin on those to whom it should mean the most. It is currently on the verge of being released by Universal in its umpteenth repackaging since the original vinyl releases in the 70’s. Granted, it sounds like the new packaging should be the best attempt yet, offering more than ever before with original album artwork restored, the Polydor-bastardized logo eliminated, previously unpublished photos used, song lyrics printed and new liner notes by ABBA historian Carl Magnus Palm (author of several ABBA books, including the forthcoming Bright Lights, Dark Shadows: The Real Story of ABBA), but unconfirmed rumors have it there still will be flaws. The catalogue, including the limited amount of previously unreleased material made available in the mid 90’s, has certainly placated die-hard fans and “normal” consumers for nearly a decade, as well as provided the Swedish music business with a windfall of income and worldwide publicity.

True, the catalogue strategy has worked well for the past ten years since the revival began and ABBA Gold has topped charts around the world its most recent success has come in Japan where it is an enormous hit along with another compilation titled S.O.S.The Best Of ABBA, both simultaneously placing on the charts in the top three. It is only logical that the release of some kind of new anthology with more of the unreleased material circulating around the world on bootlegs would be appropriate. New ABBA songs would undoubtedly boost sales further and, at the same time, prevent pirate copying.

Be that as it may, short of the ABBA reunion that in all likelihood will sadly never happen, there is more lurking beneath the surface than the re-exploitation of the catalogue. There is, in fact, a wealth of unfinished and, as a result, unreleased material that lies waiting in the vaults. Snippets of some of these tracks surfaced in ABBA Undeleted on the Thank You For The Music box set, along with a few full-length tracks that had either appeared on bootlegs or had not previously been known to exist. Fans clamor to this day for the full-length versions of some of these snippets, including Just A Notion and Just Like That. Not to mention the extended video version of On And On And On that contains an extra bridge, or dance versions of several tracks Björn & Benny asked Micke Tretow to remix in the 80’s. The release of extended dance remixes in particular would guarantee huge waves around the world given ABBA’s legendary status in the gay community. Particularly in the USA where ABBA is bigger now than in their heyday. Approximately one-fifth of the total sales of ABBA Gold at 20 million and counting copies worldwide has been generated in the States. One of the group’s four American #1 records came from Billboard’s dance chart and an official remix of that hit alone, Lay All Your Love On Me, would be certain to go through the roof.

To allay any concerns ABBA may have, it should be no problem for Universal to clearly label and market such recordings as “unfinished,” “incomplete,” or “unapproved.” Obviously, Björn & Benny’s professional standards are much higher than those of their record buying public, but it is nonetheless quite a shame they seem content to have the ABBA legacy only consist of Gold and Mamma Mia! However, the remaining unreleased ABBA recordings, even in their raw and “unfinished” form, would show yet another angle and give additional insight into Björn & Benny’s amazing songwriting, production and musical genius. It could truly educate the public and students of their music by further exposing the process used to create the songs and the sounds. It would also, obviously, satiate the hunger of the fans.

The possibility of newly released live material is also a very exciting prospect. Many thought the soon to be deleted, studio-doctored ABBA Live album an injustice to ABBA’s limited live performances. Record buyers would welcome such a project with open arms in conjunction with Universal’s future plans to release a DVD version of ABBA - The Movie. A full-length concert album, albeit a daunting possibility since the live shows were allegedly not properly recorded, or, at the very least, a compilation of previously released live recordings including B-sides and rare live material a version of Hole In Your Soul on RCA Records in Argentina and a Polar Music only release of Summer Night City, for example are distinct possibilities.

Going further back, there are also obvious ABBA-related releases that have not, for reasons unknown, been issued on CD. A colleague of mine pointed out that a box set of recordings of Björn & Benny's compositions by other artists would be an important historical document.

However, the most obvious example would have to be the solo recordings by Agnetha Fältskog. Agnetha, undoubtedly, is the most famous of the members of the group, and her work released on CBS/Cupol in the 60’s and 70’s including five studio albums has gotten nothing more than the Cinderella treatment. It is interesting to note that nearly all of the recordings by Frida, Hootenanny Singers and The Hep Stars from this time period have been officially released on CD. One exception being The Hep Stars album, It’s Been A Long Long Time from 1968, produced by Steve Clark. Incidentally, this album was also recorded for Cupol. How long must a worldwide ABBA revival last before Sony Music wakes up and smells the roses?

Indeed, two of Agnetha’s albums have been released in digital format, but sadly in a limited number of pressings and a painstakingly slow process (one album every two to three years). As admirable an effort Royal Records, a one man German/Dutch company, has made, there has been little promotion and distribution other than through the fan club.

Despite this, and the actuality that the artwork and the CD sound quality leaves something to be desired, the demand for the product is high. The first record has, in fact, sold more copies than there are members of the club. Still, Micke Tretow, aghast when he heard the sound quality of that album mastered from vinyl, stepped in to remaster the second album. It is because of the second album, however, that the ongoing project has been jeopardized. Wrangling occurred over the unauthorized use of bonus tracks taken from televised performances and the continuing release is in danger. Should manufacturing go forward, there are still two albums to go before the CD most fans have been waiting for, Agnetha’s self-penned 1975 masterpiece Elva kvinnor i ett hus [Eleven Women In A House]. At this rate, it would be at least six more years before that happens, unless one dares to hope that Sony will send Cinderella to the ball and give Agnetha’s solo work the treatment it truly deserves. The prospect of these eleven women remaining forever homeless would indeed be a tragic event in the history of Swedish recorded music.

In sum, it is interesting to note that when the film Tillsammans [Together] was launched in Holland, the film distributor sent free tickets and promotional material to the fan club. The fact that it’s a Swedish movie, it takes place in the 70’s and that ABBA’s S.O.S. is featured in the film is enough to make this rather influential group love it and start a buzz. Australian movies like Muriel’s Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert used the same shortcut to worldwide success, but in Sweden it seems like the selling power of ABBA is sadly forgotten except for their catalogue, of course even if one finally realizes that ABBA consistently made the best pop music ever, setting the standard for the entire world.

JEFFREY DE HART

Jeffrey de Hart is correspondent for Sweden to Billboard and Programming and Editorial Manager for Musicbrigade.com. He moved to Vallentuna in June 2000 after working for five years in A&R and Business Affairs at Sony Music’s Relativity Entertainment division in New York City. There he worked Josefin Nilsson’s Shapes album through TriStar Music and for Relativity’s Repeat imprint he produced ABBA A Tribute, The 25th Anniversary Celebration, which features artists such as Mike Love, Peter Cetera, The Real Group, Bananarama, Evan Dando, Ash, Army Of Lovers and Sofia & Michael B. Tretow. Since the early 90’s Jeffrey has volunteered as the American correspondent to the Agnetha Benny Björn & Frida Fan Club, the official international ABBA fan club, headquartered in Holland. It was through the club that he met his partner, Peter Palmquist, the Swedish correspondent, who graciously assisted with this article. Jeffrey and Peter are editing Premium Publishing’s forthcoming book ABBA The Worldwide Discography. Jeffrey can be reached at jeffrey.dehart@telia.com.