The legendary "so called" Opus 10 sessions
ABBA-1982 THE SINGLES-THE FIRST TEN YEARS
ALBUMS THAT FEATURE THE 1982 TRACKS,
THE CHESS DEMOS
Also, ABBA's reunions including the 2004 "reunions'...
"...And stopped along the way to buy
some Chinese food to go...
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ABBA-The Singles-The First Ten Years 1982 Released on CD but phased out
This was the end of ABBA! Though no one knew it at the time. ABBA's
breakup was never announced, they simply never recorded again after this album. There were clues that ABBA was coming to an
end-notably the solo albums by the girls, and word of the nascent CHESS musical...This collection of most of ABBA's A- sides
was put together when it became clear that the group had no enthusiasm and not enough songs for an entire 1982 studio album
of new material.
This "lack of enthusiasm" meant that the six new B&B compositions that were recorded got treated rather badly. Only
two of the six songs ("The Day Before You Came" and "Under Attack") made it onto THE SINGLES 2LP collection. These two new
songs were released along with the 21 previously released A-sides from 1972-1982. These two songs were also released
as the A sides of ABBA last two singles .
The six new songs recorded are all quite intriguing. They are all good songs, though perhaps as a group of songs not quite
as good as the fine songs that can found on Super Trouper, or THE Visitors.. ABBA's instrumentation had become overly synthesizer
dominated, Sadly, or not, Bjorn seems to have pretty much dissapeared from ABBA's recordings, and there isn't much other guitar
to be found on the 1982 tracks. Still much of ABBA's great vocal sound remains.. Just spend some time listening closely to
the backing vocals on any of these tracks and you'll be amazed at how much goes on. Two songs were used as A sides and Two
songs were used as B-sides However, the remaining two other songs recorded ( "I Am the City" and "Just Like That" )
were left in the can at the time...
"The Day Before You Came" and "Under Attack' were the songs chosen to be A-sides. Neither of the A-sides would do well
in most places. Neither song hit the the Top 10 in Britain. Neither song even hit the Top 100 in America. However, one territory
remained loyal-I the Netherlands There TDBYC went to #1. The Low Countries showed once again that have ABBA's most
consistent fans.
Two more of the six songs, "Cassandra" and " You Owe Me One" were initially released only as B-sides and were left off
THE SINGLES collection. Dumping quality songs onto B-sides was a habit ABBA only got into during the latter part of their
career. Between late 1973 and mid 1979 B&B only dumped one of their non -LP English language songs onto ABBA b-sides(
"Crazy World") But Five non-Lp B&B songs showed up on their post mid 1979 singles.
The A&B side tracks would later be available on the BOX set and on other albums, and CD's. MORE ABBA GOLD, for example,
has three of the four tracks. The 2001 remastered version of THE VISITORS is now the official home for the two A-sides as
well as "Cassandra ". "You Owe Me One" had been on the prior remastered versions of THE VISITORS. "..
The songs on the 1982 sessions would be dubbed the Opus 10 sessions by a Swedish journalist even though
ABBA never had a working album title. Supposedly,according to this journalist Opus 10 would have been ABBA's 10th album up
to that time but, in actuality, it would have been ABBA's ninth studio album . It would be the tenth if only if you count
ABBA's Spanish album Gracias Por La Musica, but their twelfth if you include their two Greatest Hits albums,
and if you exclude RING RING which was not released in most places you get different numbers all together! THE SINGLES -THE
FIRST TEN YEARS would be phased out from the catalogue when ABBA Gold was released.
TRACKS RECORDED...
You Owe Me One (Andersson-Ulvaeus)--A&F- first appeared as B-side Recorded May 1982
Lead & Backing Vocals-,Frida Lyngstad , Lead Backing Vocals-Agnetha Faltskog
Backing Vocals-Bjorn Ulvaeus
Keyboards-Benny
Andersson
Lead Guitar-Lasse Wallender
Bass Guitar-Rutger Gunnarsson
Drums-Per Lindvall
This b-side for the last original ABBA single was the first track recorded during the 1982 sessions, it seems like a Techno
version of "Happy Hawaii". Lyrically it's the weakest of the 1982 tracks but vocally it still interesting to listen to....This
track never really was released on any of ABBA's major releases other than the box set...
It also showed up temporarily on the first Remasters of THE VISITORS from the late 1990's but not was retained on the 2001
remaster...It can be found on the box set.
I am the City (Andersson-Ulvaeus)-A&F- first appeared on More Abba gold Recorded May 1982
Lead & Backing Vocals-,Frida Lyngstad , Lead Backing Vocals-Agnetha Faltskog
Backing Vocals-Bjorn Ulvaeus
Keyboards-Benny
Andersson
Lead Guitar-Lasse Wallender
Bass Guitar-Rutger Gunnarsson
Drums-Per Lindvall
"I am the City" was a fine techno-pop song that finally surfaced in 1993 on MORE ABBA Gold. " It's Hard to see why ABBA
did not release back in the 1982 although it has been rumoured that it was being saved for a possible post-Chess ABBA album.
Just Like That (sax vers.) (Andersson-Ulvaeus first appeared in 1994 on THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC
BOX SET
Just Like That (Full-sax vers.) (Andersson-Ulvaeus) Anna- unreleased
Just Like That (LA-LA versions)
(Andersson-Ulvaeus) Anna- Unreleased.. all versions Recorded May 1982
Lead & Backing Vocals-,Agnetha Faltskog,Backing Vocals-Frida Lyngstad
Backing Vocals-Bjorn Ulvaeus
Keyboards-Benny
Andersson
Lead Guitar-Lasse Wallender
Bass Guitar-Rutger Gunnarsson
Drums-Per Lindvall
Sax on some mixes-Raphael Ravenscroft
The holy grail of unreleased ABBA songs, since this song is perhaps the best completed ABBA song not to see a full uncut
release . There were at least two versions of JLT. One version-the "La La" version of "Just Like That' is similiar to the
later "Day Before You Came" -it features Agnetha's singing about yet another neglected woman, this version has a busy but
laidback synthesizer arrangment. Another version is the peppier mix found in an abridged version on ABBA's boxset. This version
features Raphael Ravenscroft on sax-and sounds more like hit single material, but B&B were unable a produce a mix that
they were comfortable with .And so all the versions remained in the vault in 1982.
B&B would only allow a small snippet of "JLT" to be released on the 1994 box set.. The main reason given that ABBA's
version of "JLT" has not been fully released is that B&B regard their 1985 production of a version of JLT by Gemini to
be definitive (SEE GEMINI section.). Ironically, the Gemini version is out of print, anyway! The melody was borrowed again for use on a song in the
2002 Swedish language version of Chess.
Cassandra (Andersson-Ulvaeus)--Frida- first first appeared as B side Recorded August 1982
Lead & Backing Vocals-,Frida Lyngstad ,Backing Vocals-Agnetha Faltskog
Guitar & Backing Vocals-Bjorn Ulvaeus
Keyboards,effects,
accordion?-Benny Andersson
Lead Guitar-Janne Schaffer
Bass Guitar-Rutger Gunnarsson
"Drums-Per Lindvall
Originally just a b-side. "Cassandra" features a intriguing lyric and a rich production. "Cassandra's "packing your bags"
section (at 2;15) is one of the best 5 seconds in the ABBA ouvre. (even if the swelled voices effect was originally used by
the Beach Boys ) Some of the arrangement of the song is borrowed from the then unreleased 1980 ABBA recording-"Put On Your
White Sombrero". To be honest, the song hasn't aged well for me...I loved this song at first-"the oh this is a cool
b-side effect" But it's not a great song-just a very good one.. "Cassandra first showed up on some of the ABBA "love
song" LP collections of 1983,but didnt really make it onto a wide release on CD till MORE ABBA Gold was released. It can now
be found on THE VISITORS remaster and on the box set.
Under Attack (Andersson-Ulvaeus)- first appeared on THE SINGLES Recorded August 1982
Lead & Backing Vocals-Agnetha Faltskog Lead & Backing Vocals-,Frida Lyngstad
Guitar & Backing Vocals-Bjorn
Ulvaeus
Keyboards-Benny Andersson
Lead Guitar-Janne Schaffer
Bass Guitar-Rutger Gunnarsson
Drums-Per Lindvall
ABBA's last original single and the second A-side, pulled from "THE SINGLES' "Under Attack" ,was actually a fairly good
pop song -but the world was cooling on ABBA . The video for "Under Attack" is ominous, at the end the four members walk away
grimly with their backs to the camera. Ominous, since this was the last ABBA video. "Under Attack" was ABBA's last original
single. It is a surprisingly peppy number for a swan song. But it was one ABBA's least successful singles.
This record is unusual for ABBA song in that it is really hard to make out some of the words in the chorus....
"Under Attack"can now be found on THE VISITORS remaster and on the box set.
Interestingly,ABBA brought back Lead Guitarist Janne Schaffer for this session,he had been there in 1972 when it all started...He
had not been available for THE VISITORS sessions but appeared on every other ABBA album on at least some of the songs...
The Day before You Came (Andersson-Ulvaeus) first appeared on THE SINGLES Recorded August 1982
Lead & Backin,g Vocals-,Agnetha Faltskog ,Backing Vocals-Frida Lyngstad
Backing Vocals,Acoustic Guitar -Bjorn
Ulvaeus
Synthesizers & drum machine -Benny Andersson
Snare Drum -Ake Sundqvist
This was the last studio track ABBA ever made. IT came 10 years and five months after ABBA's first recording -People
Need Love". It was leadoff single for THE SINGLES collection. TDBYC was a five minute laundry list of a person's day that
is either boring or profound depending on your prospective.The song features Benny on the synthesizer and Aggie on vocals.
Listen closely to the breathtaking "Ahhhhs" at the end of the song. The video produced for the TDBYC features Agnetha and
has the most story of any ABBA video clip. This song was covered by the British act-Blancmange. ". Bjorn and Benny deserve
some respect for taking chances with this their the last recording they made for ABBA...
"The Day before You Came" can now be found on THE VISITORS remaster and on both of the box sets...