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ABBA-1982 THE SINGLES-THE FIRST TEN YEARS,
ALBUMS THAT FEATURE THE 1982 TRACKS,
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 November 1982 Released on CD but phased out
This was the end. Though we didn't know 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 studio album of new material.
Sadly, however, that 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 collection 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. ABBA's instrumentation had become overly synthesizer dominated, but much of ABBA's great vocal sound remains. Sadly, or not, Bjorn seems to have pretty much disappeared from ABBA's recordings. 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 these 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 place remained loyal-In the Netherlands , TDBYC went to #1. The Low countries showed once again that they 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 catalog
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 Wellander
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 temporally on the first Remasters of THE VISITORS from the late 1990's but not was retained on the 2001 remaster...
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 Wellander
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 rumored 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 Wellander
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 similar 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 arrangement. 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 these version remained in the vault in 1982.
B&B would only allow a small snippet of "JLT" to be released on the 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-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 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". 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 didn't 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 .This record is unusual for ABBA song in that it is really hard to make out some of the words in the chorus.... 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.
"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 & Backing Vocals-,Agnetha Faltskog ,Backing Vocals-Frida
Lyngstad
Backing Vocals-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 the box set
| ABBA-The Singles SESSIONS (May -August 82) ALBUM FIRST RELEASED ON... |
ABBA-THE FIRST TEN YEARS details |
|
* Swedish release November 82 # 19 * Uk release November 82 # 1 * US release December 82# 62 * New songs recorded at Polar May-Aug 1982 * Produced by Andersson-Ulvaeus |
SINGLES RELEASED The Day Before You Came/ Cassandra Under Attack/ You Owe Me One |
|
Track listing for THE SINGLES Side a and Side B |
Track listings for THE SINGLES Side C and D |
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Side A Ring Ring-Ring Ring Waterloo-Waterloo So Long-Abba I Do, I Do, I Do. I Do, I Do-Abba SOS-Abba Mammia Mia-Abba Fernando-Greatest Hits Side B Dancing Queen-Arrival Money, Money, Money-Arrival Knowing Me, Knowing You-Arrival The Name of the Game-The Album Take A Chance On Me-The Album Summer Night City-Greatest Hits 2 |
Side C Chiquitita-Voulez-Vouz Does Your Mother Know-Voulez-Vouz Voulez-Vous-Voulez-Vouz Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!-Greatest Hits 2 I Have A Dream-Voulez-Vouz
Side D The Winner Takes It All- Super Trouper Super Trouper-Super Trouper One of the Us-The Visitors The Day Before You Came-new song Under Attack-new song |
| THE THREE ALBUMS THAT FEATURE the 1982 tracks... |
|
MORE ABBA GOLD rel 1993 worldwide Here are the
hits that didn't fit on ABBA Gold, This CD has gone out of print in most places. Track listing (1982 tracks in italics) 1. Summer Night City |
|
ABBA- Thank You For The Music 4cd set 1994 Available worldwide. THE BOX SET HAS FIVE OF THE SIX 1982 Tracks, but "JUST LIKE THAT' " is in a edited version. This long awaited box set
(or in actuality booklet set) was released after ABBA GOLD proved
that were still a handful people (not many mind you, just a lucky
few) willing to spend money on ABBA records. More significantly, B&B were hesitant to release previously unreleased material. However, a trip to the vaults reminded them that many of the unreleased songs merited official release. So miraculously somebody was able to convince B&B to put out a box set. So, the typical box set formula
was followed-combine hits , album tracks , rarities The track listings of the
first three CD'sare chronological. All the songs on the first The Box set's centerpiece
is the 14 song "ABBA Undeleted Medley". B&B were
wary Probably the best tune on
the medley is the lovely "Hamlet III", which is featured
in two versions. At least two songs featured
in "ABBA Undeleted", "Just A Notion" and
"Just Like That" don't seem to benefit from being put
in the medley-they are too truncated compared to the unreleased
versions. It's obvious listening to bootleg versions that B&B
were having problems with "Just Like That" ,they tried
different approaches to the song-and all were good but none was
just right. The version of JLT on the box set is a just snippet
of a longer Sax version. The full length Sax version doesn't
seem to develop the full potential of the song. The slower versions
seem to make more sense but they lack the "hit single energy"
of the sax version. The rest of CD Four features
3 foreign language versions of famous ABBA songs, The liner notes to the box set are lengthyand include essays by USA Billboard editor ,Fred Bronson and British ABBA publicist John Tobler. ABBA memorabilia is pictured and some of Björn's latterday original handwritten lyrics are reproduced.The best part of the liner notes is Carl Magnus Palm's song commentary. As a whole the box set is
pretty good,i t could have been better, but it could have been Disc: 1 1. People Need Love 2. Another Town, Another Train 3. He Is Your Brother 4. Love Isn't Easy 5. Ring Ring 6. Waterloo 7. Hasta Mañana 8. Honey, Honey 9. Dance (While the Music Still Goes On) 10. So Long 11. I've Been Waiting for You 12. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do 13. S.O.S. 14. Mamma Mia 15. Fernando 16. Dancing Queen 17. That's Me 18. When I Kissed the Teacher 19. Money, Money, Money 20. Crazy World 21. My Love, My Life Disc: 2 1. Knowing Me, Knowing You 2. Happy Hawaii 3. The Name of the Game 4. I Wonder (Departure) [Live] 5. Eagle 6. Take a Chance on Me 7. Thank You for the Music 8. Summer Night City 9. Chiquitita 10. Lovelight 11. Does You Mother Know 12. Voulez-Vous 13. Angeleyes 14. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! 15. I Have a Dream Disc: 3 1. The Winner Takes All 2. Elaine 3. Super Trouper 4. Lay All Your Love on Me 5. On and on and On 6. Our Last Summer 7. The Way Old Friends Do 8. The Visitors 9. One of Us 10. Should I Laugh or Cry 11. Head over Heels 12. When All Is Said and Done 13. Like an Angel Passing Through My Room 14. The Day Before You Came 15. Cassandra 16. Under Attack Disc: 4 1. Put on Your White Sombrero 2. Dream World 3. Thank You for the Music 4. Hej Gamle Man 5. Merry-Go-Round 6. Sants Rosa 7. She's My Kind of Girl 8. Pick a Bale of Cotton/On Top of Old Smokew/Midnight Special 9. You Owe Me One 10. Slipping Through My Fingers/Me and I 11. ABBA Undeleted 12. Waterloo [French/Swedish]13. Ring Ring [Swedish/Spanish/German] 14. Honey, Honey [Swedish] |
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ABBA-THE VISITORS 2001 CD and limited edition Digipak You can find 3 of the 6 1982 tracks on the new remastering of the 1981 album ,THE VISITORS. Lars Larsson's photo on the cover is slightly different than the original cover. Apparently, Universal had trouble finding the exact original negative. Features new liner notes by Carl Magnus Palm and four bonus tracks. "Cassandra" replaces ""You Owe Me One' as a bonus track. "Cassandra " had been inexplicably left off the original 1998 remastering of this album .It's Not clear, why we can't have both tracks. Hey and throw in" I am the City" and "Just Like That "as well. Hell why not just make a separate CD for the six 1982 tracks. The photo on the cover is slightly different than the original cover. 1. The Visitors; 2. Head Over Heels; 3. When All Is Said And Done; 4. Soldiers; 5. I Let The Music Speak; 6. One Of Us; 7. Two For The Price Of One; 8. Slipping Through My Fingers; 9. Like An Angel Passing Through My Room; Extra tracks: 10. Should I Laugh Or Cry; 11. The Day Before You Came; 12. Cassandra (new bonus track) 13. Under Attack |
In 1983/84 B&B did a few demos for their CHESS project. One song recorded was "Every Good Man" which features Agnetha singing Björn's dummy lyrics to what would become the melody of "Heaven Help Heart'. The "Every Good Man' demo proves not surprisingly that Agnetha would have had no problem playing the Florence role in CHESS. "Every Good Man" is usually categorized as a ABBA song by bootlegers but strictly speaking it is not.
Also,three highly different variations of the" "Just Like That" melody were recorded alternatley by Elaine Paige (When The Waves Roll out to Sea,) Tommy Korborg("If The Stars Are In The Sky ) Finally Benny alone did an instrumental version. of "When The Waves Roll out to Sea" - The melody for When The Waves Roll out to Sea" was reclyed again for Chess PA Svenska and released as part of the song "Glöm mig om du kan,"
Supposedly there are several other interesting unreleased Chess demo recordings, such as "The Wild Heart" and "Agadir till Bergshagen" .
There were a number of songs heard either in
the 1986 London staging or the later Danish staging that were
not heard on the 19784 concept album, these songs were
Commie Newspapers, Press Conference,One More Opponent."
Talking Chess , Anatoly and the Press and Der Kleine franz"
-it's not clear whether these recorded onto song demos....
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". Secondly, Anthem"
comes from "Nationalsang". Finally, parts of "Someone
Else's Story" comes from "Lady Bird".
For more about CHESS click here
Reviews of the various Chess albums
ABBA'S RARE REUNIONS
Since their breakup in 1983. ABBA has never recorded together or done a live concert in front of paying audience, there have however, been a few get-togethers of a limited nature. This list also details who showed up at the premieres of the various Andersson-Ulvaeus musicals.
October 1984
Chess in Concert Stockholm Bjorn
, Benny and Agnetha attended
ACTUAL REUNION! January 1986 TIVIDSHAMBO (Swedish TV only
)
The only public reunion of ABBA was for the taping of Stig's song
"TIVIDSHAMBO' for a TV special on January 16, 1986. The
song is basically Benny on accordion, Bjorn on guitar and everybody
singing lead together in a somewhat rough fashion. The roughness
of the recording probably explains why it was not released officially
even though this is ABBA's last public singing appearance together.
The recording is available only on bootleg. Nobody would have
guessed that this was to be ABBA's final performance...The Palm/Hanser book -From Abba to Mamma Mia
describes the taping as having been a bittersweet occasion
,.
OTHER ABBA REUNIONS 1986-2005
Since then ABBA reunions have all fallen short of a full-scale second coming...
February 1986 Claes af Geijerstam. Birthday party
Abba had a little known private reunion during February? 1986 at the 40th birthday party for their friend Claes af Geijerstam.. Claes' birthday is in February so I assume the party was around that time...They may have actually sung at this party too...
May 14, 1986
Chess premiere London. Only Bjorn and Benny
attended.
April 1988
Chess premiere Broadway.Only Bjorn and
Benny attended.
Oct 17, 1995 Malmo, Sweden
B&B and Agnetha all attended the
premiere of Kristina Fran Duvemala.
September 1997 Stig Anderson's funeral
Only three members of ABBA attended manager Stig Anderson's Funeral in 1997. Agnetha did not attend, it was said she was sick.
August 1998 Thomas Johannson's birthday party
All four members of ABBA showed up in the one place at the same
time as ABBA tour manager Thomas
Johannson had his 50th birthday.
Björn, Benny and Frida sang "With A Little Help
From My Friends". Frida sang "Shine On You". ... No bootleggers were present.
April 6,1999 London Mamma Mia premiere
Only Bjorn and Benny attended.
Mid 1999 Gorel' Hanser's 50 the birthday
A,B,B & F also were in the same room for
Gorel Hanser's 50th birthday party in 1999. At the party for Mrs.
Hanser A,B,B & F sang
a old standard called "Med En Enkel Tulipan' (With a Single
Tulip).
B&B also wrote a minor tribute to Gorel called Briggens
Blåögda Blonde Kapten performed by a choir that
translated from the Swedish to English would be called "Briggens'
Blue eyed Captain". As far, as we know neither song was
recorded for the benefit of bootleggers. The second song however
can be found in an instrumental studio version on the album Benny
Andersson's Orkester.
2000 Reunion offer
In early February 2000 it was disclosed that ABBA had received at least one offer, possibly multiple offers to reunite for a concert tour.The exact offer or offers were never clearly spelled out-the Swedish press said they were offered One billion krona (very possible) the international press said it was one billion dollars (less likely) Some reports said the consortium was a British-American, other reports said they were Japanese. Some of the reports said the promoters wanted ABBA to perform 100 concerts... In any case, the former members of ABBA declined and continue to decline all offers to reunite, after all, they never enjoyed touring, look a lot older, and they don't need the money. Indeed they are oneof the few major superstar acts of 1960's/1970's that has not reunited or continued to operate as a working unit.
Broadway October 18, 2001
Only Bjorn and Benny attended the Broadway
premiere of Mamma Mia..
November 3, 2002 Hamburg
Mamma Mia had its premiere in Hamburg, sung in German. It was
the very first translation of the musical. Only Bjorn and Benny
attended...
USA-Las Vegas 2003
Another premiere of "Mamma Mia" took
place on February 14, 2003 in Las Vegas (USA) Frida and Benny
Andersson attended
April 2004 Mamma Mia near Reunion
A near reunion occurred at the fifth anniversary performance of Mamma Mia in London's West End. It was hoped that Agnetha might induced to come out of hiding due to the need to promote her album. Instead only Bjorn, Benny and Frida showed up, on stage in a semi-reunion. Frida had attended performances before but had never gotten up on stage with B&B before....This reunion can be seen inthe Super Troupers DVD.
July 2004
Stuttgart -One more premiere of Mamma Mia in Germany this one
was attended by Björn and Anni-Frid in July 2004
July 2004 again "OUR LAST VIDEO'
All four members of ABBA agreed to appear briefly and separately in a short but clever and entertaining video clip broadcast during the 2004 Eurovision song contest...It originally been hoped that the four members might agree to make a non-singing appearance together, but instead this near reunion was agreed to....Of course, all four members had also appeared separately in interviews for The WInner Takes It All (1999) and Super Trouper (2004) documentaries.
September 9th, 2004 in Dublin
Björn & Anni-Frid attended
one more premiere of "Mamma Mia" on Thursday night ...
November 2004 Madrid
Björn and Frida attended the premiere
in Madrid on November 18th, 2004
February 2005 ABBA REUNION Stockholm performance - Mamma Mia
Up to this point ,various combinations of one, two or three ABBA members (but never four at one time,) attended the premieres' of many of the various PRODUCTIONS of Mamma Mia, between 1999 and 2004. Finallly for the first time ,A,B,B & F all attended the Swedish premiere of Mamma Mia in February 2005...They did not appear on stage together., but they all attended the premiere. and had dinner at the Cirkus restaurant.....Benny heard that there would be food so he came, of course....
Mamma Mia closing Stockholm
B&B and Agnetha again
appeared though not all together on stage or all three together
in any public fashion. Agnetha and Bjorn were photographed
together. Agnetha sang "True Love" with Tommy Korborg
at after the show party. Frida skipped this one....
FINALLY ALL FOUR! Mamma Mia-the movie Stockholm premiere July 4, 2008
B&B , Frida and Agnetha all showed up and this time they actually managed to show up on the same balcony for a photograph with Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and other stars of the movie. Conspiciously, they declined to stand all together, instead they were interspersed amongst the actors. Frida and Agnetha appeared together on the red carpet in a photo op with Meryl Streep.
January 22, 2009 Stockholm
Frida and Agnetha get an Lifetime Achievement Award at the Rockbjornen Gala, Stockholm. This appearence featured just Frida and Agnetha. This was first time since the ABBA days that Agnetha and Frida made an appearence together in public without one or both of the ABBA boys.
March 15, 2010 New York City
Benny and Frida appeared together to be inducted into the Rock and Roll of fFame. Bjorn was said to be detained by a family get together, and Agnetha could not make it because she does not fly. Benny played piano for a rendition of "The Winner Takes it all' that was sung by country star-Faith Hill, Frida did not perform.
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Shh!!To come out of the cloud click here...
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| MONTIEF'S HANDY GUIDE TO ABBA THE ALBUMS!!! |
| ABBA THE ALBUMS -SITE INDEX -REVIEWS OF ALBUMS SORTED BY ARTIST |
|
ABBA THE ALBUMS - GROUP & SOLO ALBUM REVIEWS LISTED IN ODER OF YEAR OF RELEASE Chart revised July 2006 by Montief OR SOMEONE WHO LOOKS LIKE HIM... |
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