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Chess -The Musical
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  ABBA the ALBUMS and John Bernhardt present reviews and information on....The musical CHESS by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Tim Rice :

Reviews of the various recordings including ORIGINAL Concept ALBUM, CHESS PIECES, BROADWAY CAST , IN CONCERT , THE COMPLETE DANISH TOUR 2001 , and Chess IN SWEDISH VERSIONS

ANDERSSON, RICE & ULVAEUS-CHESS -OCTOBER 1984 Available on 2CD set worldwide (ALSO REFERRED TO AS LONDON CAST,ORIGINAL CAST ,OR CONCEPT album)

"Each game of Chess means there is one less variation left to be played"-Tim Rice on "Chess"


 A work in progress
...So said the composers said ominously in the liner notes in '84....CHESS is a musical about two chess champions, one Russian , one American and
the people and politics that surround them. CHESS is a melodic ,daring, witty , ambitious musical .CHESS was an opportunity for Bjorn and Benny to flex their musical muscles in new way.
Unlike ABBA,-they could bring in any vocalist, any choir, any orchestra
they wanted to make the record. The musical is varied mishmash of
rock, pop, orchestral music, opera, Rodgers & Hammerstein, disco, and so
forth. Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus wrote
the music, Tim Rice wrote the lyrics (with some minor help from Björn). The
idea for Chess came from Tim Rice but the lyrics and the music were melded
together in a joint effort, The music on occasion drives the storyline
through it's subtle repeated themes. Although some thought that Tim Rice's lyrical approach was overly clever, it certainly was refreshing to hear ABBAesque
melodies coupled with clever sardonic lyricism. .CHESS is a great record that so far has turned out to be only a so-so stage musical...



ABOUT THE CAST
The record's three main leads all give great performances. As the Russian,
Swedish pop singer Tommy Körberg proves to be a major find vocally ,Briton
Murray Head is cynically effective as The American ,but it is British
singer Elaine Paige's who ultimately ties it all together. Elaine plays
Florence Vassey the character who links the two chess players together .
Elaine had starred in the London versions of EVITA and CATS ,Elaine was
also lyricist Tim Rice's girlfriend around the time of CHESS. Murray Head
was best known for his work as Judas in the original album-of Jesus CHRIST
SUPerstar.. Körberg had been recording artist in Sweden since the 1970's.
Paige, Körberg and Head were also the leads in the London stage version of
CHESS in 1986.The other main cast members were Bjorn Skifs as the Aribiter,
Barbara Dickson as Svetlana, and the late Dennis Quilley as Molokov.


ABOUT THE ALBUM
CHESS was recorded at Polar Studios in Stockholm (vocals and rock combo) and
in London(orchestra and choir) by Michael B. Tretow. Benny Andersson and
ABBA's backing band plays on many of the tracks but are supplemented by the
London Symphony Orchestra and the Ambrosian Singers (who are also British).
Anders Eljas arranged the orchestrations and conducted the LSO. CHESS was
released originally as a 2 album set in late 1984. More material was
recorded but didn't fit on the dominent vinyl record format of the
time...Most of the work on the songs was sdone in 1983 and the work on the recording in 1984.
This work is where it we start to recognize Benny's talent as a orchestral
and a dramatic composer. Benny's melodies come to the fore in a way that
they couldn't always do in ABBA songs. The melodies were always there of
course, but in the ABBA recordings other elements would compete for
attention.Chess, unlike B&B's later Kristina or for that matter most other musicals,
is fairly unique in the way that rock sensibilities are mixed seamlessly
with musical & opera forms .


Two songs from CHESS were hit singles. The duet between Elaine Paige &
Barbara
Dickson called" I Know Him So Well" became B&B's tenth number one song in
Great Britain. The song was widely covered ...Indeed, it became the only B&B
song to be covered by the likes of American divas like Barbra Streisand and
Whitney Houston.
Murray Head 's "One Night in Bangkok" was a surprising top three hit in
America , and a big seller other places as well.. The song features Murray
Head, but the record also stars Anders Glenmark on backing vocals
and Björn J:son Lindh on flute. A extended remix 12 inch version of
"Bangkok" was released in America.
Attempts to have hits with, "The Arbiter", "Nobody's Side and "Anthem" did
not succeed . "Nobody's Side and "Anthem" may have been the best tracks on
the album. "Nobody's Side" couples a typically
acerbic Rice lyric with one of the most dramatic arrangements B&B ever
unleashed on unsuspecting listeners. "Anthem" was a unused ABBA medley that
become one of B&B's most powerful songs when performed by Tommy Korberg.
The remaining tracks are preety much without exception all
listenable,intelligent songs.


VARIOUS VERSIONS
A work in progress...So said the composers in the liner notes in
'84...Despite the quality of It's score Chess would never be a total success
on the stage.The flawed book for the play remained a major if a somewhat,
interesting problem in every future attempt to stage the play .The rock
music in the musical on stage also proved to be more problematic since
middle-aged critics & showgoers of the 1980's often found the rock elements
to be too harsh for their sensitive ears. So, CHESS Has been recycled and
retried many a time ...THE MUSICAL WAS ORIGINALLY RECORDED AS A CONCEPT
ALBUM, AND WAS WIDELY PROMOTED BEFORE IT WAS ACTUALLY BROUGHT TO It's STAGE
premiere in London..The songs were performed in concerts throughout Europe
in late 1984 and the play finally made it to London's West End in May 1986.
There would not be an official stage recording per se from the London cast
but there would be a Broadway cast album .A one album condensed version was
released in Europe called Chess Pieces. Chess arrived on Broadway in a
highly altered version in APRIL 1988. It was revived for a unsuccessful
Off-Broadway version in 1992.
In 1994 a version of the the Concert recordings came out in Sweden .
Finally it was brought to Sweden in all new Swedish language version in
2002. (SEE BELOW).

1983 CHESS DEMOS AND OTHER STUFF

During 1983/84 B&B recorded numerous demos for the CHESS project. These recordings remain unreleased. One song recorded was "Every Good Man" which features Agnetha singing dummy lyrics to what would become the melody of "Heaven Help Heart' proving ,not surprisingly, that Agnetha would have had no problem playing the Florence role in Chess. ""Every Good Man" is sometimes mistaken as a ABBA demo .

Two highly dfferent variations of the 1982 unreleased ABBA song "Just Like That" were recorded by Elaine Paige and Tommy Körberg. B&B attempted to find a use for the "Just Like That' melody in CHESS but made no progress in doing so. In 2002 they tried again, and came up with "Glöm miG om du kan " for the CHESS IN SWEDISH" project.The song is based on the "Just Like That" melody.

It is also interesting to note that 3 of the CHESS songs had their melodic roots in unreleased ABBA tracks." I Know Him So Well" has bits from"I Am a A", "Anthem"comes from "Nationalsang" Finally, part of "Someone Else's Story" comes from a song called "Lady Bird". Some of the CHESS DEMOS have been bootleged..

OTHER STUFF-THE EUROPEAN CONCERT SERIES.

In late October 1984/Early November 1984 a series of half a dozen "CHESS" concerts were given in European cities-London, Paris, Hamburg, Amsterdam , and Stockholm itself. The concerts largely featured the cast heard on the concept album.except, Stockholm where Karin Glenmark pinch hit magically For Barbara Dickson at one point during the show when Barbara missed her cue....These concerts featured a full orchestra and choir and thus were expensive to produce...

Chess Moves (1985) Internationally released VHS video. Out of print..

Official videos of five key songs from the original Chess album.

It all Runs only 25 minutes but the videos are good. Features Elaine Paige and Murray Head, but not Tonny korborg.. Videos directed by David G. Hillier, Ken Warwick

One Night In Bangkok/ Nobody's Side /The aribiter/ I know Him So well / Pity the child

Andersson, Rice and Ulvaeus-CHESS PIECES 1986 released on CD European CD

Released in Europe, but not in the USA, this is a one album abridgement of the original studio concept album. It has 13 of the songs.The versions
of "You and I",and Merano used here are edits. A new alternate version of
"The Arbiter" was used here The extended version of the "The Arbiter"
included new lyrics referring to the mid-eighties Chess match in which World
Champion Kasporov lost a match because of an arbiter's questionable
decisions. This album has a white cover as opposed to the black of the original album.

Track listing for Chess PIECES

Merano/ The Arbiter/ Nobody's Side, Chess, Mountain Duet/ Embassy Lament/ Anthem/ One night in Bangkok/ Heaven help my heart/ I know him so well/ Pity the child/ You and I / The story of Chess

 

purple_suv_chessboard.jpeg

The original concept album  of Chess track BY TRACK - (with principal performers on each track)

Side 1
1.Merano-Ambrosian Choir, Head (7.00)

The opening track mostly features the chorus describing the setting for the first act. The "what a scene" middle section is Murray Head solo. The Merano chorus was totally removed for the Broadway version because Merano was no longer the setting. "Merano' is listenable but is seems almost illrelevant to the story..
2.The Russian and Molokov-Korberg,Quilley /Where I want to be-Korberg (6.22)
The backing on this track counterpoints a very faint melodic synthesizer with a cool persussion track.

3.Opening ceremony-Skifs, Quilley, Ambrosion Choir, Backing Vocals-Glenmarks,Ohman (9.20)

Includes "The Aribiter" ,"US vs The USSR" and ""The Merchandisers" .The Aribiter is played by Swedish singer Bjorn Skifs (formerly lead singer of Blue Swede). The merchandisers section features two drum solos by Per Lindvall and a guitar solo by Lasse Wellander. This song goes from disco to marching band to rock and roll to a closing choir piece..Fricking amazing...amd were still on the first side...

4.Quartet (a model of decorum and tranquility), -Paige, Quilley, Skifs, Korberg (2.18)

Various paired duets done with .two singers singing differnet sets of lyrics at the same time..Fricking amazing...Granted, this sort of thing has been done before... But still fricking amazing ...

Side 2
1.The American and Florence-Head, Paige, Chorus/Nobody's side-Paige Backing Vocals-Glenmark-Ohman(5.02)

The first part of this track is a duet between Head and Paige ..."I see my present partner in the imperfect tense '.The rest of the song is Elaine Paige and backing vocalists...The song slowly builds up to a dramatic section that begins with the lyrics "how the cracks begin to show"...


2.Chess-instrumental feat. Benny Andersson ,LSO (5.45)

Cool instrumental -Benny on a very European sounding synth and the Lso....
3. Mountain duet -Paige, Korberg ,(4.43)

Slightly dreary ballad but well sung....


4.Florence quits-Paige, Head (2.54)

The first of at least three arguments on the record...This sort of sounds like a duet between Judas and a member of sixties girl group...


5.Embassy Lament-Ambrosion Choir featuring Byers,Midgey,Bambo, Fryson 1.30

Includes a musical typewriter. A slight song with a cynical lyric....

6.Anthem -Körberg (3.04)

This first act closer is ,probably the best song on the record and the best vocal performance-Körberg was quoted as saying that here he "sings like a bird ". Hard to believe a musical with a song like this could close anywhere.

Side 3
1.Bangkok instrumental featuring Lindh
/One night in Bangkok-Head,Chorus,Glenmark (5.02)

This track opens with Extended intrumental opening that oriental and features Bjorn J:son Lindh 's flute and drumming by Per Lindvall.

One of the two major hit singles on this album-this single sold over 3 million copies... The catchy chorus features Swede Anders Glenmark which makes for a nice contrast from Murray Head's voice. Is this track Rap , or Disco or neither....

2.Heaven help my heart-Paige (3.30)

This is a Beautiful ballad one of B&B's best...Almost lost in the embarresment of riches on this album...

3.Argument-Paige,Korberg (1.51)

Kind of a whiny argument, one of the reason critics thought Chess was a shouting match..

4 I know him so well-Paige, Dickson (4.15)

Actually a slightly cliche ballad -annoying keyboards on it ,but the lyrics are ok.. This was the last new song written by Andersson and Ulvaeus to top the British charts...

5.The deal (no deal)-Head,Korberg, Quilley, Paige (3.54)

Another argument in song with some cool percussive synths at the end... The word "shit' is used. This song like many on the record is preety much rock and roll. Yes, the ABBA band could rock...

6.Pity the child-Head (5.29)

Very dramatic character exposition .More great drumming and synthesizers. The end of the song provides the best Murray Head moments on the Chess album. The song closes with one of Lasse Wellenders best guitar solos.

Side 4
1.Endgame-Chorus.Quilley, Head, Paige, Korberg,Dickson (10.50)

This runs the gamut and has a nice dramatic ending. It starts with a chorus reading off names of Chess champions, which soon becomes melody from "the American and Florence" reappears as Murray Head starts singing with Dennis Quilley..Then a reprise of the Chess instrumental theme, then Körberg comes back with a dramatic section starting to detail his downfall which soons becomes a duet with Barbara Dickson.. Every word in the section in this section merits attention....What follows is another choral section featuring the Glenmarks then Dickson and Körberg return only to start screaming at each other- liar' ..never ...liar ...never never!

2. Epilogue: You and I-Paige, Korberg /The story of Chess-Chorus  (10.30)

"You and I" is a little cliche sounding and like much of the musical is depressing...The duet sections come in two parts one before and one after "The story of Chess . ' "The story of Chess" is a sung by the Ambrosian singers .The string intro to the Story of Chess-is worth the price of admission. This learned dissertation about the orgins of the game of Chess seems a little out of place up near the end of the record -and thus in the later Broadway version it was moved to the beginning.


*The chorus features The Ambrosian Singers as well as Anders Glenmark,Karin Glenmark and Liza Ohlman

 

 

 

Original Broadway Cast Album-CHESS- 1988 American CD Released Internationally

B&B AND TIM called themselves "the Three Knights"- and that's about how long they lasted on Broadway..no, no ,that's not true. I am just teasing!!!!
This is the cast album from the heavily revamped Broadway version of CHESS
which ran at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway from April to June 1988.
THE BROADWAY STAGING
There were problems with getting permission AND CLEARaNCES TO USE members of the
original London cast, so none of those actors could be used in the Broadway
version so an entirely new cast of American actors was brought in.
The original high-tech-London production was also thought to have been too expensive
to stage on Broadway, so the sets were scaled back . Les Miserables director, Trevor
Nunn who had directed the London
version was also called in to direct the Broadway version OF CHES
The musical that emerged was almost unrecognizable, the plot had BEEN
changed, lyrics were changed, songs removed and new songs put in their place.
Well, at least by this time, each of the characters
has a full name and fuller developed characters..

Judy Kuhn best known for her later work in the Disney
cartoon, POCAHANTUS, put in a emotionally genuine performance as Florence
Vassey. The late David Caroll brought incredible dignity to his portrayal of
the Russian chess player, Anatoly Sergievsky. though truth is that Carroll was not as good as singer as Tommy Körberg, but few people are....
An actual American actor, Phillip Casnoff, plays Freddie Trumper,the
American. (TRUMP-er, oh which famous American does that remind you of )
Philip Casnoff had appeared in the the TV miniseries NORTH AND SOUTH and
would later appear in the SINATRA mini series. The new comers ' acting was of a high quality for a musical,but the new material they had to
work with was questionable. The book for CHESS (it's script) was more
problematic,it lacked believability,but more importantly it was hard to care
about the characters.
CHESS, on Broadway was not well received
by most critics, notably Frank Rich of the New York Times The dislike of
Chess was not a universal opinion- TIME magazine referred to CHESS as the
greatest Rock N roll musical ever written. That Chess was partly a rock
musical was part of the problem, in 1988 there have not been that many
genuine rock musicals staged on Broadway
and it was harder for middle aged theatre criitics or audiences of the time to relate
to something like Chess. hat Chess was
partly a rock musical was part of the problem, in 1988 there have not been
that many genuine rock musicals staged on Broadway
and it was harder for middle aged theatre criitics or audiences to relate
to somethinglike Chess. The Bad reviews alone were not enough to kill the musical
.There was such a large advance booking that the musical continued PAST
OPENING. There was such hostility to Chess that the play's music was not
nominated for any Tony awards, only the two American lead actors received
nominations. Not surprsingly, David Carroll and Judy Kuhn did not win! The poor showing at the Tony awards sealed the musical's fate.
It closed after two months, despite having a large advance booking that would taken the musical through the summer.The original cast reunified to perform the songs
live for benefit concert a short time after the closing. (the actor, David
Carroll who played the Russian ,reassembled the cast). The score in
particular is still revered by Broadway stagefolk...


THE CAST ALBUM
Prior to the musical's demise ,Benny and Björn, went to NYC to produce the
Broadway cast album whilst the play was running.
The singing performances are fairly good,but usually not as good as the 1984
studio album. This version has a very different lineup of songs and as I
stated before, many of the lyrics are different from the 1984 studio album.
In this version,for example, The American wins the Chess match instead of
standing around being a spectator in the second act as he was in the London
version.Many of the lyrics to the song had been
rewritten to help tell the new story.Although many of the changes seem to
have brought on with the cooperation of B&B and Tim
it's clear that some were not. The restaurant had too many cooks in the
kitchen.
Four totally new songs are featured in this version.THE BEST NEW SONG WAS
"Someone Else's Story " and it sounds more like an old fashioned great
Broadway song than anything else written for Chess. Strangely, it was
actually cut from the play towards the end of it's short Broadway run.
The other new songs were" Prologue", "Hungarian Folk Song" , and" Lullaby
(apukad eros Kezen)" . The latter two songs had some lyrics in Hungarian,
Yes,Tim or Björn or somebody spent a year in Budapest learning Hungarian to
write these two songs. (No I am just joking-I dont how the Hungarian lyrics came
about.)The album doesn't include all the songs that were performed on the
Broadway stage but it has most of them ,one interesting omission is a Press
Conference sequence similar to the one Tim Rice had included in Jesus Christ
Superstar, which had also been left off the original concept album.
The music is performed by the actual Broadway stage orchestra.The orchestra
was conducted by Paul Bogeav , Benny Andersson manages to sneak in a little
bit of work on keyboards.


This album was released on a vinyl SINGLE Lp in a abbreviated version. The
original
CD version of this was issued in a double CD box not because there were two
CD's but simply to accommodate the large booklet(with lyrics )
that was included with the CD. The album was engineered by Chuck Cavanaugh
and recorded at the Record Plant. THIS IS the only album with B&B's direct
involvement to have been recorded entirely outside of Sweden.The album
stayed in print in America for a long time despite the plays limited
Broadway Run.
Subsequent licensed US stagings at colleges, high schools or community theatres would be required to use the flawed Broadway version.

Chess Broadway Cast album track listing (and principal performers)

1.Prologue -Orchestra
2.The story of chess -Ben -Ari
3.Where I want to be-Carroll
4,,How many women -Kuhn, Casnoff
6.Quartet (a model of decorum and tranquility)
-Goz, kuhn, Harman, Carroll
7.You want to lose your only friend -Kuhn, Casnoff
8.Someone else's story-Kuhn
9.One night in Bangkok-Caroll, Chorus
10.Terrace duet-Kuhn, Carroll
11.Nobody's side-Kuhn
12.Anthem-Carroll
13.Hungarian folk song-Company
14.Heaven help my heart-Kuhn
15.No contest-Casnoff
16.You and I-Kuhn, Carroll, Mitzman
17.I know him so well-Kuhn, Mitzman
18.Pity the child-Casnoff
19..Lullaby (Apukád er s kezén)-Ben-Ari, Kuhn
20.Endgame-Carroll, Casnoff, Kuhn
21.You and I (reprise)-Carroll, Kuhn

CHESS-The Sydney Version 1991 (no recording released )

The failure of CHESS on Broadway, cause some to wonder what could possibly be done to CHESS to make it work. So changes were made yet again...

Richard Sharman directed the much-delayed Australian staging of Chess...It turned out to be yet another version . This is set in the post cold war world -and features a bigger part for Sveltvana (she is given "Someone Else's Story" t o sing...This version starred Jodie Gillies as Florence, David McLeod as Freddie Trumper and Robbie Krupski as the Russian!

CHESS-OFF BROADWAY VERSION (no recording made) Early 1992

Changes were also in the offing for this off broadway version was concocted and performed by Artists' Perspective at the MASters Theatre... Tim Rice made changes in the book that now the The musical it in 1972. in this version-the Richard Nelson Book (script) used for the Broadway version is dropped. This version is closer to the London version at least in that is sung through.. This version starred Mark McVey ,Kathleen Rowe McAllen and Ray Walker. The is OFF-Broadway version was not particularly successful-it had limited run from February1st to February 23. For those who dont know Off-broadway is a term for shows that run in New York Cities theatres that are not actually one of the 30 or 40 so theatres located around Brodway. Often uncomercial works are performed off-Broadway...

 

CHESS -(The Complete Cast Album for the Danish 2001/2002 Tour Of Chess)
November 2001 DANISH 2 CD set REISSUE IN 2003 with revised track listing....

This Danish project produced by Nigel Wright (An Andrew Lloyd Webber Music producer) attempts to includes most, though not all , of the songs from the first few English language versions of CHESS. It is being released by Scanbox entertainment , it stars Stig Rossen and Emma Kershaw. Reports are that this is a fairly good recording. But so far this has only been released in Denmark.

This was the first time The songs -"Press Conference", "commie Newspapers", "Talking Chess" and "Der Kleine Franz" have Been released officially. These were tracks that had only been used in stage versions of the musical, that had never been heard on records. This Is As close as we have got to a "CHESS COMPLETE" recording. Sadly , This is no longer the case. In the fall of 2003 B&B or their representives asked Scanbox to remove these Previously Unreleased songs from the album. B&B continue to show little concern for the desire of their fans to hear theIr music. If you want to hear all the songs Chess musical you have to go out and buy bootleg recordings of the actual London or Broadway stagings...

IT WOULD BE Exciting if a CHESS box set was released that included each and every song (and alternate Version) THAT B&B recorded for the original CAST , LIVE and BROadWAY albums (including the unreleased demos done for the project in 1983). That will probably never happen....

 

TRACK LISTING FOR CHESS -The Complete Cast Album for the Danish 2001/2002 Tour Of Chess) TRACKS removed and not to found on revised edition in bold type.

ACT ONE/DISC ONE
1. The Story of Chess
2. Merano
3. Commie Newspapers REMOVED
4. Press Conference REMOVED

5. Anatoly & Molokov/Where I Want To Be
6. Diplomats
7. Arbiter
8. Hymn To Chess
9. Merchandisers
10. Chess #1
11. Arbiter Reprise
12. Quartet A Model of Decorum and Tranquility
13. Florence & Molokov
14. 1956 Budapest Is Rising
15. Nobody,'s Side
16. Der Kleine Franz REMOVED
17. Mountain Duet
18. Chess #2
19. Florence Quits
20. Pity The Child
21. Embassy Lament
22. Heaven Help My Heart
23. Anatoly and the Press(REMOVED
24. Anthem

ACT TWO/DISC TWO
1. The Golden Bangkok/ One Night In Bangkok
2. One More Opponent (REMOVEDYou And I
3. The Soviet Machine
4. Interview
5. Someone Else's Story
6. The Deal
7. I Know Him So Well
8. Talking Chess (REMOVED)
9. End Game
10. You and I (Reprise)
11. Finale

bonus track-.One Night In Bangkok -remix

 

CHESS Pa Svenska (CHESS IN SWEDISH ) October 2002 Released on 2cd set in Scandanavia.

The newest version of the CHESS saga, .Benny produced a cast album during 2002 that was finally released in October 2002. the album is based on the NEW SWEDISH LANGUAGE stage version of Chess that was was prepared by KRISTINA's DIRECTOR , . Lars Rudolfson. This version stars Helen Sjoholm, Josefin Nilsson, and Tommy Korberg They sing new lyrics in SWEDISH ( written by Rudolfson, Jan Marks and Bjorn) to tell a new version of the everchanging Chess story. .A few new songs have been included (Chess continues to be a work in progress.) This version premeired in February 22, 2002 at the Cirkus Theatre in Stockholm, but closed in June 2003 due to the small size of the swedish markert, and the desire to maintain a high quality of cast and perfomance, A recent attempt to bring the musical to Malmo ran into venue problems This new version has been praised by Swedish critics , but perhaps not as lavishly as Kristina. .Benny produced a cast album during 2002 that was finally released in October 2002.

Ouvertyr (overture)

Historien om schack(the Story OF CHESS)

Där jag ville vara(where I want TO BE)

Merano(merano)

Anatolij & Molokov,(ANATOLY & MOLOKOV)

Ungern 1956 (HUNGARY 1956)

Lämna inga dörrar på glänt(NOBODY's SIDE)

Jag vill se schack(THE ARBITER)

Kvartett (En förebild för dygd och högsta ambition), Chess-A QUARTET (A MODEL OF DECORUM AND TRANQUILTy)

Inte jag(SOMEONE's ELSE STory)

Möte på en bro (MOUNTAIN DUET)

I mitt hjärtas land (AMTHEM)
Florence lämnar Freddie( ARGUMENT)

Vem ser ett barn (PITY THE CHILD)

Ni dömer mig(ENDGAME)

Om han var här,

Han är en man,

han är ett barn,

Vem kunde ana(THE DEAL)

Drömmar av glas,(YoU AND I_

Jag vill se schack, (ARBITER REPRISE)

jag vet vad han vill(I KNOW HIM SO WELL)

Glöm miG om du kan(MELODY FROM JUST LIKE THAT)

Capablanca(CAPABLANCA)

Drömmar av glas (YOU AND I)

Historien om schack)STORY OF CHESS)

 

CHESS Pa Svenska (CHESS IN SWEDISH ) SACD edition...Fall 2003 Released on 2cd set in Scandanavia.

This is superaudio CD version of CHESS IN SWEDISH. SACD provides the ability to hear 5 Speaker tracks instead of just the standard 2. This is the first ABBA Related record to be released iin this format . Frankly, It would be far more interesting to Hear Old ABBA Records (which are some the BEST and most densely arranged recordings of the 1970's and 1980's) in a SACD format-but that's not going Happen is it?!!.

Chess- The Actor's Fund of America benefit concert, held on 22 September 22 2003 (unreleased)

For at least the third time Chess was peformed as a benefit concert in New York.

The concert was staged at the New Amsterdam theatre and directed by Peter Flynn.

This one is notable for featuring the soon to be famous JOSH GRoban as Anatoly..

CHESS Pa Svenska (CHESS IN SWEDISH ) DVD .NOVEMBER 2003 Released on 2cd set in Scandanavia.

Surprisingly ,CHess Pa Svenska was actually taped in MArch 2003 for this DVD. Which is great of course, there is even a bonus DVD with a documentary about the musical actually hosted by Benny's lastest wife-Mona Norklit. This was shown on Swedish Tv in 2004. The main drawback, and an unforgivable one at that , is that there are no subtitles for those people who dont speak SWEDish...

 

To play at another venue, Iceland, the Phillipines or these places...

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  1981-The Visitors   1982-The Singles-The First Ten Years and other 1982 sessions  1986-ABBA Live
  ABBA's Spanish &Non English recordings   ABBA Box sets  ABBA Rare and Unreleased
 1970's& 1980's ABBA Compilations and Reissues  1990's/2000's ABBA compilations   Index of all albums on the site

 

 ABBA THE ALBUMS -SITE INDEX -REVIEWS OF ALBUMS SORTED BY ARTIST
 HOME-ABBA-THE ALBUMS ABBA -Group Career

 

ABBA, Group& Solo -100 Great Records

  AGNETHA SOLO CAREER  FRIDA SOLO CAREER

 BJORN AND BENNY incl.

their musicals and productions

 Benny SOLO CAREER   TRIBUTE ALBUMS & COVER GROUPS   RELATED ARTISTS
  BJORN AND THE HOOTENANNY SINGERS

  BENNY &

THE HEP STARS

 Latest RELEASES
 ABBA GOES TO THE MOVIES  ABBA GOES TO THE Theatre  INDEX TO ALBUMS REVIEWED ON THIS SITE

 ABBA THE ALBUMS - GROUP & SOLO ALBUM REVIEWS LISTED IN ODER OF YEAR OF RELEASE
 HOME-ABBA-THE ALBUMS ALBUMS YEAR BY YEAR 1960's  ALBUMS YEAR BY YEAR 1970-1975
 ALBUMS YEAR BY YEAR 1976-1979  ALBUMS YEAR BY YEAR 1980-1984 ALBUMS YEAR BY YEAR 1985-1989
  ALBUMS YEAR BY YEAR 1990-1994 ALBUMS YEAR BY YEAR 1995-1999 ALBUMS YEAR BY YEAR  2000's

Chart revised by Montief!

ABBA the Albums History/Acknowledgements

ABBA THE ALBUMS was an Web-TV website from July 22, 1999 to April 4, 2000. ATA has been brought to you by the loverly folks at Tripod since June 13, 2001. THANKS TO: Crystal, Pookie, Bubba ,Baby,  my one-time roommates -The Odd Couple, Jimsb, Edsel Felpin, Montief and the people of  the late lamented ABBAMAIL!       Yours in Stig, Johnny!

This website is Copyrighted to John Bernhardt. 2010

If you have a question or comment about ABBA-The Albums, please email me

at abbafred@hotmail.com

The Web address for ABBA-THE ALBUMS is https://felpin80.tripod.com/ata/

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ABBA The Albums is brought to you by TAB Cola!

My fantabulous blog is called New Felpin's Pond, and be found at Blogspot!

Felpin's Pond -The Old version of my blog

My European travel journals can be found at https://felpin80.tripod.com/europa86/index.html


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