Abba the Albums presents- A Benny Andersson /Bjorn Ulvaeus Discography!
The musical partnership of Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus
This page has reviews of most of B&B's work together outside of ABBA including Lycka, 1970's production work, Benny's solo albums, Post- ABBA production work (with Gemini ,Josefin Nilsson, Orsa Spelman ) and their three musicals- CHESS, KRISTINA, and MAMMA MIA ..
One of the most important elements that led to the success of ABBA was probably the songwriting and production talents of Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson.
Björn and Benny wrote over a hundred songs for ABBA but they have written an even larger number of songs outside of ABBA ! Songs written by Björn and Benny are almost guaranteed to provide a rewarding listening experience and so B&B songs are worth seeking out. To view a list of the songs written by Bjorn and Benny click here ... THE SONGS OF BJORN AND BENNY
| WHAT TO GET FIRST : BJORN AND BENNY's BEST |
| Best Studio album : Chess or Kristina Fran Duvemala |
| Compilation album- No real compilation available presently |
Albums reviewed on this page...RANKINGS-
****Essential ***Very Good **Fair or not essential *Poor or Not essential
PRE ABBA /DURING ABBA -RECORDINGS & PRODUCTION WORK (1966-1982)
****Björn and Benny-Lycka 1970
Songs written by Bjorn and Benny for others 1969-1977
**Agnetha
Fältskog-Som Jag Ar 1970 Swedish LP
***Frida-Frida 1971 Out of print Swedish LP
**Hootenanny Singers Vara Vackraste Visor 1971 Swedish Cd
**Lena Andersson
-Lena 1971 Swedish LP
**Frida- ANNI-FRID LYNGSTAD 1971 Out of print Swedish LP.
***Agnetha Fältskog- Nar En Vackar Tanke Blir En Sang 1971
Swedish LP
***Ted Gardestad -Undringar 1972 Swedish CD
***Various Artists-När
Juldagsmorgon Glimmar 1972 Swedish LP
***Ted Gardestad -Ted 1973 Swedish CD
***Agnetha Fältskog-Basta 1973 Swedish LP
***Ted Gardestad --Upptag 1974 Swedish CD
**Svenne & Lotta-Oldies but Goodies 1973 Swedish LP out of
print
**Svenne & Lotta 2 1975 Swedish
LP Out of print
****Frida-Frida Ensam 1975 Swedish CD
*Svenne & Lotta-Letters 1976 Swedish LP out of print
**Ted Gardestad --Franska Kort 1976 Swedish CD
**Ted Gardestad -Stormvarning 1981 Swedish
CD
***Agnetha, Björn, Benny, Anni-frid- Pa Svenska ( 1970-1976)
1994 Swedish Cd
****Anni-Frid
Lyngstad -Frida 1967-1972 2cd set 1997 Swedish CD.
POST ABBA RECORDINGS (1982-2006)
**Various
Artists-Antiligen Somarlov 1983
**Various Artists-(concept album)-ABBACADABRA-
1983
****Andersson,Rice & Ulvaeus-CHESS
1984
****Gemini-Gemini 1985
**Andersson, Rice & Ulvaeus-CHESS
PIECES 1986
****Benny Andersson -Klinga Mina Klockor
1987
***Gemini-Geminism 1987
** Original
Broadway Cast-CHESS Andersson,Rice & Ulvaeus 1988
****Benny
Andersson-November 1989
**Various artists- FIOLIN MIN Sweden's Greatest Hits 1990
Single
for 1990 World Equestrian Championship. UPP TILL KAMP/ STOCKHOLM
BY NIGHT Hard to find Swedish single release July 1990
*Various Birds-Fagelsang i Sverige-1990.
**Kalle Moreaus -1991
Benny 's song for 1992 European soccer Championships....
CHESS-OFF
BROADWAY VERSION (no recording made) Early 1992
***AINBUSK
-FRAN NAR TILL FJARRAN 1993
***Josefin Nilsson -Shapes 1993
Single
from I FRU VENNERMANS FALL. . 1994 Swedish single release.
**Chess-In
Concert 2CD set 1994
****Original
Cast-KRISTINA FRAN DUVEMALA by Andersson-Ulvaeus 3CD set 1996
**Various artists-Latar Av Björn
& Benny 1998
***Various Artists-Fran Waterloo to Duvemala
1998
***Original Malmo Cast-16 Favoriter Ur
Kristina 1999
*Original London Cast Album- Mamma Mia
1999
***Triakel-
Vintervisor med Triakel January 2001
***Benny Andersson-Benny Andersson's Orkester
2001
CHESS Pa Svenska-
Cast Album released October 2002 Swedish CD
**Per
Myberg -Sommernatt Swedish CD 2003
Nils Landgren & Funk Unit -Funky ABBA Swedish CD
***Benny Andersson's Orkester-BAO! June 2004 Swedish CD.
Non-English language versions of MAMMA Mia
****Gemini-Det bästa med Karin och Anders Glenmark
Recent releases 2006 to 2009 :Benny Anderssons Orkester-Pa Turne,Lycka,Florence Anne Sofie Von Otter-I Let the Music Speak, Benny Andersson Orkester-Bao 3, Mamma Mia Soundtrack,Benny Andersson Band-Story of a Heart, Chess In Concert at the Albert Hall
RANKINGS-
****Essential ***Very Good **Fair or not essential *Poor or Not
essential
PRE ABBA /DURING ABBA PRODUCTION WORK (1969-1982)
The early years (1966-69)
Björn and Benny wrote their first song together circa 1966 in the office of Björn's father's papermill in Vastevik, Sweden. That song; "Isn't It Easy To say", was written in English and would be recorded by Benny's 1960's rock group, the Hep Stars, for the Hep Stars excellent self -titled 1966 album. B&B would write three more Hep Stars songs together. (SEE HEP STARS SECTION).
Their songwriting sessons were not a regular thing, however, since B&B didn't get together to write on a regular basis until mid -1969. Prior to 1969 B&B continued to write songs on their own or with other writers.
Benny wrote or cowrote about 20 songs for the Hep Stars . Benny also produced or co-produced some singles for artists who recorded for the Hep Stars record label which was called Hep House.
Björn was less prolific as a song writer for his group ,The Hootenanny Singers but he wrote many songs for the Hootz.
Bjorn also received credit for arranging many of the old folk songs that the Hootenanny Singers recorded ...When the Benny left the Hep Stars in mid 1969 the door was open for B&B's formal songwriting partnership to begin.
From late 1969 till late 1987 nearly every song that Benny wrote would be credited to Björn as well. However, often B&B would get heLP with the lyrics. Many of ABBA's biggest hits up to 1978 were written with manager Stig Anderson's heLP with song titles and or/lyrics.
Björn Ulvaeus & Benny Andersson - Lycka- November 1970 Available on Swedish Cd 1991 This album was reissued on CD with bonus tracks in 2006.
In some ways this is the birth of ABBA.This album features the first track to have all future members of ABBA on it and this is the very first album to have all the music written by Björn and Benny. Björn and Benny wrote the music to all of the songs and some of the lyrics. The whole album is sung in Swedish . Björn doing most of the lead vocals, with Benny providing some backing vocals. Benny actually sings lead on one of the songs here-"Kara Gamla Sol", but's it's hard to tell it's Benny. The original album featured eleven songs. The title translates into Happiness. This album was released in the fall of 1970 on Polar Records. As a whole, this album features some of Björn's best work.
Acoustic and Electric Guitar feature more prominently here than they would on ABBA records. The electric guitar ,in particular dominates on "Kalles Visa" and "Nagonting Ar Pa Vag".This album is a bit more serious in tone than some of the later B&B songs and early ABBA songs that would follow in the early and mid-Seventies. None of the songs here (even in translation) have a bubble gum lyrics or sound.
"Hej Gamle Man" (Hello Old Man) was released as the single from this album and proved to be successful, though the album was not overly successful. "Hej Gamle Man" features Agnetha and Frida on backing vocals. It was the first song to feature all four members of ABBA. "Hej Gamle Man" actually shows up on the ABBA box set -THANK YOU FOR YOU THE MUSIC.
My favorite song on this album is the great acoustic guitar workout "Liselotte " (it features lyrics by Agnetha and Björn). I also love the anthemic "Ge Oss En Chans"(Give Us A Chance) . "Ge Oss En Chans "has some soulful singing and some great organ. A nice little touch can be found at the beginning of "Lilla Du, Lilla Van' which starts with Benny's piano sneaking in at a low volume.
The stark brown cover is telling. It's clear that their is seriousness of purpose and intent in these two young man. Benny's (age 23) trademark beard puts in it's first appearence on a album cover (Benny (he never had a beard on the Hep Stars album covers). Björn (then age 25) looks a little smug but the trademark smile is there. The Swedish flag on the Guitar seems to say ,"We represent Sweden to the world".
The later LP pressings and the Cd versions of LYCKA include a 1971 A -side that wasn't on the original album. That A-side "Tank Om Jorden Vore Ung' features Agnetha and Frida on backing vocals and like a few of the B&B songs has a ever-so slight country twinge to it.The LYCKA album was recorded at Metronome in the Summer of 1970 .
LYCKA was produced by Björn and Benny with Bengt Bernhag and engineered by Michael B.Tretow. Benny and Björn played on the tracks with two Swiss musicians, drummer John Counz -drums and bassist -Gus Horn. S.O.Walldoff was responsible for the orchestral arrangments. I have never confirmed whether another guitarist plays guitar along with Bjorn on this album? Anybody Know for sure?
Agnetha and Frida had joined up with Björn and Benny to change the group from a duo to a quartet.before a planned followup B&B album was anywhere near completion. Björn and Benny continued to release singles through till 1972.Agnetha and Frida had joined up with Björn and Benny to change the group from a duo to a quartet soon to be named ABBA.
| The original LYCKA album track lineup with songwriters listed (AU means Andersson-Ulvaeus) and 2006 bonus tracks | ||
The 1971 Bjorn and Benny A-side "Tank Om Jorden Vore Ung" was included on later LP pressings and the first CD edition. . |
Björn and Benny singles 1969-1972
Björn and Benny released a number
of singles in Sweden, Japan and a few other
places. Although a couple of the singles were drawn from the LYCKA
album,
many of the songs wouldn't appear on album at the time, and some
of the track only made it onto an album in 2006, when the expanded
LYKCA remaster was issued...
Agnetha and Frida sung on many of these songs which makes them prime ABBA collectibles. Agnetha and Frida sing on "Hej Gamle Man","Tank Om Jorden Vore Ung', Pa Brollop, " Det Kan Ingen Docktor Hlapa" , "En Karusell " , "Merry Go Round". and "Ah Vilka tider" .
En Karusell (the Swedish version of "Merry Go Round", " Att Finnas Till" and "Ah Vilka Tider" were made available on on the PA SVENSKA CD.
"Hej Gamle Man, Merry Go Round,She's
My Kind of Girl', and "Santa Rosa" made it onto
ABBA"s box set. "She's My Kind of Girl" also appears
on some versions of the "Ring
Ring" album even though it was recorded in 1969. It became
B&B 's first international
hit in 1972 when it became a big hit in Japan. "Love Has
It's Ways" with music
supposedly by A Japanese songwriter was the one of the followups
to"She's My Kind of Girl" in Japan but did not succeed.
It is a bouncy song with great piano intro by B&B but is was
the last English language track from their B&B days to be
reissued on CD.( Perhaps B&B resented the input of the Japanese
songwriter.!)
Many of B&B's songs were long
available till the release of the 2006 version of LYCKA
The hard-to get tracks were "Inga Theme', "Hey Musikant"
(the German version of
"Hej Gamle Man", "War Die Liebe Sagt "(the
German version of "Livet Gar Sing Gang") , "Pa
Brollop", " Traskofolket'", "Love Has It's
Ways, and the original version
of "Rock N Roll Band".
"Pa Brollop" and "Traskofolket"
are great pseudo- Swedish folks songs.
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1970 She's My
kind of Girl ( RING RING/ These two songs were recorded for the
movie, Seduction of Inga,in late 1969. "Shes
My Kind of a Girl " is a pleasant bouncy track if a bit
stupid lyrically. The "Inga Theme" features chanting
and humming and some interesting ,if not very coherent bits of
melody. "She's My kind of Girl" rather strangely became
a big Japanese hit in 1972. "She's My Kind of Girl"
also appears on some versions of the "Ring |
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1970@Hej Gamle Man / LYCKA Two tracks chosen from the Lycka album - "Hej Gamle Man" was a hit in Sweden. It is the first song to feature al four members of ABBA. |
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1970 @Hey Musikant (German Hej Gamle)NA
German translations of two songs from the Lycka album. |
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1971@Det Kan Ingen doctor Hlapa /NA.
This is one of the most obscure of B&B's singles-since neither side has been released on LP or CD. The b-side "Pa Brollop (at the wedding) is probably the more enjoyable record.
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1971Tank Om Jorden
Ung Vore Ung LYCKA/ The later LP pressings and the Cd versions of LYCKA include a 1971 A -side that wasn't on the original album. That A-side "Tank Om Jorden Vore Ung' features Agnetha and Frida on backing vocals and like a few of the B&B records has a ever-so slight country twinge to it. "Traskofolket" is a folksky song inspired by Vilhem Moberg's "The Emigrants" and a song about the Wooden clogged people of those books.
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1972@En Karusell (swed-Merry Go Round)
PA SVENSKA / The Swedish version of "Merry Go Round" was actually released as a single, the b-side was the country balladish sounding"Att Finnas Till".Neither song as released on album till the 1990's.For some reason the English version of "Merry Go Round" was not compiled on the original RING RING album . This song was also released in Japan after "She My Kind of Girl"" |
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Björn and Benny's Japanese only singles... 1972 She's My Kind of Girl RING RING/ These two tracks were recorded by B&B for the Swedish /American soft porn movie called "The Seduction of Inga", Somehow, "She's My Kind of Girl" became a surprise breakout hit in Japan in 1972, the b-side is the semi-instrumental musical theme for the movie. |
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1972 Love Has It's Ways NA/ Oddly "Love Has It's Ways' was never released anywhere but Japan."Love Has It's Ways"was a collaboration initiated by B&B's Japanese record company., as a follow up to "She's My Kind of Girl" and the interim single -"En Carousel" . It was a minor hit at the end of the year. The music for "Love Has
It's Ways " was supposedly written by a Japanese songwriter
(K.Morita) |
BJORN AND BENNY'S PARTNERSHIP AFTER ABBA (1983-2003)
Although it was thought that ABBA might get together again after B&B's work on the Chess album was completed, in fact ABBA never recorded again. Since ABBA, B&B have devoted their primary combined efforts on their three musicals. Also, in the post ABBA era, Benny started making solo recordings and continued to write and produce other artists. But Bjorn cut back on many aspects of his musical career. For the most part, Bjorn has stopped playing, singing and producing on records. He continues to work with Benny as a Lyricist .
Chess Demos
In 1983/84 B&B did a number of demos for their 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. This is sometimes mistaken as a ABBA demo . The track is only available on bootlegs.
Two highly dfferent variations of the" Just Like That" melody 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.
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 "Lady
Bird".
Various Artists-Antiligen Somarlov 1983 Swedish LP No longer available
This obscure Polar LP has Benny's first
solo release,and a rare live ABBA recording. Benny recorded a
version of the Swedish hymn-"Den Blomstetid Nu Kommer",which
saw it's first release here.
In a different time, Benny would have been perhaps , working in
a church as a organist and classical composer.
Also find here a 1979 live version of "Summer Night City;' (inexplicably left off the later ABBA 's live album) This live track can also been found on some bootlegs. The live recording of SNC might even be better than the original released single of "Summer Night City". Den Blomstertid Nu Kommer" was later released a second time on the SOMMAR, SOMMAR, SOMMAR CD ,but that is also out of print. It's the sort of track that just waits to be compiled somewhere...Just a side note-Summer compilation albums are a Swedish phenomenom -go into a Swedish record store in the summer and you'll find dozens of titles in this category.
| 1. Benny Andersson-Den Blomstertid Nu Kommer
2. Stikkan och Kontorskoren-Sommar, Sommar, Sommar 3. Nifty's Roadrunners-Sommarvino 4. ABBA- Summer Night City (LIVE) 5. Mats Ronader-Summer Time Blues 6. Fia Nystrom-Sommarrkvall I Stan 7. Pal Ritz and Piccolos-Good Day Sunshine |
1. Buslingarna-Antligen
Somarlov 2. Lars Hoflund-Here Comes The Sun 3. Tomas Ledin-Summaren Ar Kort 4. Low Budget Blues Band-Summer in The City 5. Express-Sommardagar 6 .Tove Naess-Falling In the Love with the Summer Again 7. Rolk Ericksson-Jag Pa Sommaren |
Various Artists-(concept album)-ABBACADABRA- 1983 Out of print French LP , later out of print CD and later English singles
This was the first"musical"
based on B&B music. B&B were not directly involved but
they heLPed with two songs on the English version of this project.
The timing of these musicals were not good, since ABBA was not
very fashionable in 1983.... There were French and English versions
of this
musical, the French version was recorded for
an album . the British version was staged on
the West End.
The idea here was to borrow the melodies
from ABBA songs and rewrite the lyrics so as be able to tell a
story and also so as to be able to do it in French. (this was
a French/Belgian coproduction).
I am not sure but I believe some non-B&B music
was used as well.
Although the French version was not staged
, a TV show and a Concept album were produced and released in
1983. (Produced by Alain Boublil of MISS SAIGON fame). Frida was
involved ,she played
a Princess and sung a duet with Daniel Balavoine called "Belle.'
At the end of 1983 , the thing was apparently
redone in English and performed at London's Lyric Theater. This
production was produced by Cameron Macintosh. The British version
however,
apparently did not result in another album , but two singles were
released.
One of the singles included Frida's duet with B.A. Robertson on
"Time" ,The b-side
of that single featured B.A Robertson doing "I am the Seeker"
which was a B&B song that
ABBA considered but never recorded, The other
single featured Elaine Paige doing a rewritten version of "My
Love , My Life called "Like
an Image Passing Me By" . Oddly, the new lyrics for this
one cowritten by Björn.
Apparently, B&B never saw the play-which seems bizare considering
how many times Bjorn has sat through Mamma mia.. Supposedly, the
French version of this was reissued on CD in 1994.
Sadly, I don't have this album, it 's not easily available. I saw this album in Germany many years ago, but I didn't have the money for it-so I didn't bother getting it-("oh I'll see that again") and I haven't seen it since!
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Track listing side A . QU'EST-CE QUE J'VAIS FAIRE PLUS TARD
(When I Kissed The Teacher) |
Track listing side b CARABOSSE SUPER SHOW (Dancing Queen) |
FULL LIST OF TITLES OF SONGS PRESENTED IN THE BRITISH STAGING....
IT'S ANOTHER WORLD
BATTLE OF THE BROOMS
*I AM THE SEEKER
I CAN PULL SOME STRINGS
GOING GOING GOING
MAKING MAGIC
*WHEN DREAMERS CLOSE THEIR EYES
BELONGING
BACK HOME NOW
CARABOSSE SUPERSHOW
THINK OF SOMETHING FAST
*TIME
*LIKE aN IMAGE PASSING BY
THANK YOU FOR THE MAGIC
*songs released on singles....
Andersson,Rice & Ulvaeus-CHESS Double album October1984 Available worldwide on CD
A work in progress...So said the composers in the liner notes in '84... CHESS is a melodic ,daring, witty , ambitious sung play.
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.
CHESS is A musical about two Chess champions,
one Russian , one American
and the people and politics that surround
them.
Benny and Björn wrote the music,
Tim 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. The musical is varied mishmash of
rock, pop, orchestral music, opera, Rodgers & Hammerstein,
disco, and so forth.
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.
The record"s three main leads all
give
great performances. As the Russian, Tommy Körberg proves
to be a major find vocally , Murray Head is cynically effective
as The American ,but it is Elaine Paige's Florence Vassey who
ultimately ties it all together. Which she somehow does even though
she ,perhaps, fails to make her character as believable as the
other leads. (Elaine is one of London's West End's
biggest stars but she also was lyricist
Tim Rice's girlfriend.) These three performers were also the leads
in the London stage version in 1986.
CHESS was recorded in Stockholm (at Polar) and in London by Michael B. Tretow. ABBA's backing band plays on many of the tracks but They 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.
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. It is most certainly
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 . Well
we say 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 . Even though ,The latter two
songs 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 discarded ABBA medley that become one of B&B's most powerful
songs when performed by Tommy Korberg.
A one album condensed version was released in Europe called Chess Pieces. The songs were performed in concerts throughout Europe in 1984 and the play finally made it to London's West End in May 1986.
Chess arrived on Broadway in a highly
altered version in APRIL 1988. There would not be an official
album per se from the London cast but there would be a Broadway
cast album .
In 1994 a version of the the Concert
recordings came out in Sweden (SEE BELOW)
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 .
However, the use of Rock idioms on stage
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.
Despite the quality of It's score Chess would never be a total success on the stage.The book for the play remained a major if a somewhat, interesting problem in every future attempt to stage the play.
For more on CHESS visit our CHESS page.
Chess track listing -original 2 LP set (with principal performers on each track))
Side 1
1.Merano-Chorus, Head
2.The Russian and Molokov-Korberg,Quilley
Where I want to be-Korberg
3.Opening ceremony-Skifs, Quilley, Chorus
4.Quartet (a model of decorum and tranquility), -Paige, Quilley,
Skifs, Korberg
Side 2
1.The American and Florence-Head, Paige, Chorus
Nobody's side-Paige
2.Chess-instrumental feat. Benny Andersson
3. Mountain duet -Paige, Korberg
4.Florence quits-Paige, Head
5.Embassy Lament-Chorus (Byers.Midgey,Bambo, Fryson)
6.Anthem -Körberg
Side 3
1.Bangkok instrumental featuring Lindh
/One night in Bangkok-Head,Chorus,Glenmark
2.Heaven heLP my heart-Paige
3.Argument-Paige,Korberg
4 I know him so well-Paige, Cook
5.The deal (no deal)-Head,Korberg, Quilley, Paige
6.Pity the child-Head
Side 4
1.Endgame-Chorus.Quilley, Head, Paige, Korberg,Cook
2. Epilogue: You and I-Paige, Korberg
/The story of Chess-Chorus
*The chorus features The Ambrosian Singers as well as Anders Glenmark,Karin
Glenmark and Liza Ohlman
Gemini-Gemini November 1985 Released internationally on Cd ,but out of print- Cowritten and Produced by Andersson and Ulvaeus
Gemini were the sister/brother duo of Karin & Anders Glenmark. The Glenmarks were part of the same family that owned the Glen Studio in Stockholm where ABBA recorded on a few occasions in the 1970's
Anders & Karin (along with Liza Ohlman) were the main backing vocalists for the original CHESS album, but also have had solo careers in Sweden.
This album was the first new project B&B worked on following the completion of the Chess album.Benny and the ABBA band provide the musical backing and B&B coproduced with Anders Glenmark. Michael Tretow only engineered two of the songs here.
Gemini have a more soulful
sound than ABBA due primarily to Anders Glenmark's passionate
singing. Karin
Glenmark is a bit more icy of a singer but she has the more unique
voice of the two.
On the first listen, some of the songs here sound like bad 80's
pop but after a few listens the trademark ABBA hooks start to
sink in. Even the songs that Anders Glenmark wrote start to sound
like B&B songs after awhile.
.
This album has the something of dark, serious tone that Abba had
on the THE VISITORS except that some of the lyrics are not as
good, Björn has written relatively banal lyrics for some
of the songs.Ingela Forsman (who wrote the lyrics for two of Anders'
three songs) does no better .(Ingela has also written lyrics for
Agenetha Faltskog).
There are at least three very good B&B songs here.The legendary partially released ABBA song ,"Just Like That' made it's official debut here on this album and was released as a (failed) single internationally .The version of JLT here is in a minor key and has some additional lyrics that are not on the unreleased ABBA version. JLT certainly seems better constructed here than in the ABBA version.
"Have Mercy" has a intriguing lyric about a fallen leader and some subtle but catchy hooks in it's chorus. This song really suits Gemini well, ABBA probably couldn't have pulled the pseudo -gospel aspects of this song off.
"Slowly" is
done in a duet in a more interesting but less straight forward
version than the version done by Frida a year earlier on her SHINE
album. "Another You, Another Me" (which ABBA song does
that remind you off?) has Karin Glenmark singing in very high
voice. It's yet another Björn lyric about a broken relationship.The
two remaining B&B songs "Slow Emotion" & "Two
Much Love is Wasted "are quite listenable but have boring
lyrics.
"The Middle of Nowhere" is the most memorable of the
three songs written by Anders Glenmark.
This album did not do
well commercially and is remarkably out of print, even in Sweden,
(the only post ABBA B&B album to be out of
print). It's failure to suceed commercially on a international
level meant that
most of the subsequent projects by B&B would not be released
outside of Sweden.
I found this album to be ridiculously hard to find, I found that the only way to obtain it was on bootleg (or if your very lucky you can find a used legimate copy of the LP). Such scarcity is rather annoying considering that we keep seeing rereleased repackagings of ABBA material. This situation was rectified a little in 2005 when the Gemini best of album came out.
Andersson, Rice & Ulvaeus-CHESS PIECES Summer to Fall 1986 Available on on CD
Released in Europe but not in the USA, this is a one album abridgement of the original studio concept album. It has about 13 of the songs.The versions of "You and I",and Merano used here are edits. I am not sure if the the extended version of "The Arbiter" was used here or the original version. 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.
Gemini-Geminism April 1987 Available on Swedish CD. Cowritten & produced by ANDERSSON-ULVAEUS
The second duet album by Karin Glenmark
and her bearded brother -Anders. The formula was the same as on
their 1985 album Anders and Karin sing, Benny and the ABBA band
play,and Björn and Benny write and produce most of the songs
(leaving the remainder for Anders) . The main differences between
this album and the first Gemini album is that the songs on this
album are a little lighter, less soulfful and
and the lyrics have more of that early ABBA simplicity to them
(i.e. some of the songs don't appear to be about anything!).
Nevertheless, a few of songs are depressing
or at least less than peppy.This album has the English version
of Gemini's
big Swedish hit "Mio Min Mio". In English it's called
" Mio My Mio" It was featured in a Swedish movie. A
soundtrack album (not easily obtainable) was made for the film
featuring instrumental music by Anders Eljas as well the Swedish
version of "Mio Min Mio." Karin Glenmark reprised "Mio
Min Mio" on the B&B tribute album "Fran Waterloo
till Duvemala".
The other songs are listenable, though
I didn't care for "I am a Bitch When I
See Red" which has Karin using her tough voice which is wretched
compared
to her more elegant "ballad voice".
Original Soundtrack album
for MIO MIN MIO"
Hard to find Swedish release Late 1987
Performed by THE SOVIET FILM SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Composed and arranged by Anders Eljas except
a few of the tracks which were written by Benny.
Track listing...
This is yet another very hard to find ABBA related record release,this album features Bjorn and Benny's compostion -'Mio Min Mio". Most of the tracks are written by Benny''s orchester/conductor Anders Eljas. It was big hit in Sweden...You can also get "Mio Min Mio" in it's English version on the hard to find Gemini CD.
Track listing
| MIO
OVERTYR
(Anders Eljas) DRAKFLYGNINGEN (Anders Eljas) HEMMA VÄNTAR TANT EDLA... (Anders Eljas) BOSSE RYMMER (Anders Eljas) RESAN TILL LANDET I FJÄRRAN (Anders Eljas & Benny Andersson) HERDENS FLÖJT #1 (Musik: Benny Andersson) KATOS VIND (Anders Eljas) MORGONLJUSETS BRO (Anders Eljas) LANDET UTANFÖR (Anders Eljas) MIRJAMIS TILLFÅNGATAS (Anders Eljas) |
JATKEN
PÅ MIO OCH JUM-JUM SVÄRDET
TILLFÅNGATANA HOS KATO |
Benny Andersson -Klinga Mina Klockor November 1987 Available on Swedish Cd
"Sweden is an accordion country"- Björn Ulvaeus
After 23 years in the music business Benny finally put out a album with just his name on it. Surprisingly or not this album was very successful in Sweden. Swedes were open to the traditional folk music that dominates this album.
About two thirds of this album is accordion/violin based music written by Benny (or B&B) in a Swedish folk music style. Benny's friends, Orsa Spelman play the violins on the album.The Stockholm's Radiosymfonikerna also receives credit as co-players on the CD cover.
Although, accordion music is certainly an acquired taste, hearing a master like Benny play the accordion might make you want to acquire a taste for it. In any case, Benny does play the piano here as well. The other joy in hearing this album is that it it so freshingly non-commercial sounding.
Björn had moved to England by the time this album was being made, so for the first time in many years, Benny began writing songs with out Björn and even worked with an alternative lyricist (Benny's brother -in-law , Mats Norlkit ) on one song, the lovely , "Efter Regnet". Björn didn't play at all on this album or coproduce any of the tracks. Even so, Björn cowrote 4 songs on the album. ( Björn lived in England from 1984-90).
Benny dragged up an unsued B&B song rejected by ABBA called "Hamlet III" (which would appear in a partial version on the ABBA box set -THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC). Here it is called " Lottis schottis".
Two songs were written
for members of
Benny's family. Firstly, there is the whimsical "Ludvig's
Leksakspolka" written for his son,, while a more homey theme
called "Födelsedagsvals till Mona" was written
for Benny's wife Mona.
Two of songs are similar
to the music in CHESS or KRISTINA. "Efter Regnet" (After
the Rain) is a elegant duet sung by Tommy Korberg & Karin
Glenmark. The title track is an ambitious four part choral orchestral
piece that features a chorus and the Stockholm Radio Symphony.
Frida sings on the chorus -the only time one of the ABBA girls
has appeared on the same record
as one of the ABBA boys in the post ABBA period. Part of the melody
of the title track was used in places on Kristina.
This album ranks just after Kristina and Chess, amongst Benny's best post- ABBA work..
Every true ABBA fan should have at least one of Benny's solo albums..Every true ABBA fan should have a million dollars also...and a puppy and some chocolate...
Track listing for Klinga Mina Klockor
Inledningsvisa, Lottis schottis, Födelsedagsvals till Mona, Om min syster, Efter regnet (featuring Tommy Korberg & Karin Glenmark), Ludvigs leksakspolka, Gladan, Långsammazurkan, Tittis sång, Trolskan, Klinga mina klockor
Original Broadway Cast-CHESS by Andersson,Rice & Ulvaeus Fall 1988 Available on American CD.
This is the cast album
from the heavily revamped Broadway version of CHESS which ran
on Broadway from April to June 1988. Their were problems with
using the
London cast so none of those actors could
be used in the Broadway version and because The original London
production was also
thought to have been too expensive to stage
on Broadway, so changes were made....
Trevor Nunn who had directed the London
version(after Michael Bennett had to drop
out) also directed the Broadway version.
The orchestra was conducted by Paul
Bogaev.
Benny and Björn
went to NYC to produce the Broadway cast album whilst the play
was running.A whole new group of actors is featured here..
Judy Kuhn ,best known for her work
in the Disney cartoon, POCAHANTUS, puts
in a emotionally genuine performance in as Florence Vassey. David
Caroll brings dignity to his portrayal of the Russian chess
player, Anatoly Sergievsky. Phillip Casnoff plays Freddie Trumper,the
American. (his last name appears to be
reference to Donald Trump).Casnoff had appeared in the the TV
miniseries NORTH AND SOUTH and SINATRA.
Their acting was of a high quality for
a musical. CHESS' book (it's script) though was more problematic,it
lacked believability. it more importantly it was hard to care
about the characters.
The singing performances
are fairly good,but not usually not as good as the 1984 studio
album. This version has a very different lineup of songs and many
of the lyrics are different from the 1984 studio album. In this
version,for example, The American wins the Chess match instead
of 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.
Four totally new songs
are featured "Someone Else's Story " sounds more like
an old fashioned great Broadway song than anything else written
for Chess. Strangley it was actually cut from the production towards
the end of it''s short Broadway run.
The other new songs were "Prologue", "Hungarian
Folk Song" , and "Lullaby (apukad eros Kezen) ".
Yes,Tim or Björn or somebody spent a year in Budapest learning
Hungarian to write these two songs.
. 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 similiar
to the one Tim Rice had included in Jesus Christ Superstar.)
CHESS, on Broadway was
not well received
by most critics, notably Frank Rich of the New York Times. This
was not a universal opinion- TIME referred to
it as the greatest Rock N roll musical
ever written. That Chess was partly a rock musical was part of
the problem,
there havent been that many rock musicals staged on Broadway
and it was hard for middle aged theatre
criitics or audiences to relate to something
like Chess. However, the musical itself,
was not perfect or it would have been
more successful on London's West End,
where far more ideal circumstances,
prevailed. As it was, CHESS only lasted
a few years in London, barely making back
the huge money invested.
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.
but the actors, David Carroll and Judy Kuhn did not win!
The music is performed by the actual Broadway stage orchestra , Benny manages to sneak in a bit of work on keyboards. The album has stayed in print for a long while in America despite the plays' limited Broadway Run.
The original cast performed
the songs live
for benefit concert a short time after the closing -the actor,David
Carroll who played the Russian reassembled the cast..
This album was released
on a vinyl LP
in a abbreviated version. The album was engineered by Chuck Cavanaugh
and recorded at the Record Plant. It's the only album with B&B's
involvement
to have been recorded in the USA
Recent reports indicate the B&B and Tim Rice will attempt a English retranslation of the 2002 CHESS in Swedish prodction, for possbile revival on the London and Broadway stage.
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
Benny Andersson-November 1989 Released
yes you guessed it -November 1989 Available on Swedish
Cd
Benny's second solo album features a
lot more piano and lot less accordion.
Orsa Spelman is on here but they play
a lot less than they do on KLINGA.As result it's a easier listen
but also a less interesting album. It's doesn't jump out at you
the way
KLINGA does. What this album does offer
is lots of unadultearated Benny Andersson..
Björn cowrote only one song here, "The Conducator' which had been written for a special concert. The song features Tommy Korberg singing.The lyric sounds like a Chess lyric, it full's of cynicism! It seemingly describes some horrible bureaucrat.Apparently though, the song was from inspired by Romanian Doina Cornea's letters to her daughter during the Communist dictatorship . "The Conducator" is the only vocal track on the album.
This album's most haunting song is is
the closer "Stockholm at Night".
It's melody was recycled for use in KRISTINA FRAN DUVEMALA.
Skallgång, Machopolska, Vals efter Efraim Andersson. Sekelskiftesidyll, Dans på vindbryggan, Stjuls, Tröstevisa, Målarskolan, Novell #1, The conducator (featuring Tommy Korberg) ,Stockholm by night
Single for 1990 World Equestrian Championship. UPP TILL KAMP/ STOCKHOLM BY NIGHT Hard to find Swedish single release July 1990
The A side of this single was sung primarly by Tommy Körberg , It was essentially the teamsong for the Swedish equstrian team (the horseman even sing backup) In English the song title means "Up to The Fight".Benny and Bjorn produced and wrote the song. Why did Benny occupy his time doing this kind of thing? I dont really know, but it was probably because Benny was a racehorse owner, and because the 1990 world Equestrian Championships were held in Stockholm. This is evidence that Benny after ABBA did most projects simply to make himself happy. The b-side is a track from Benny's November 1989 album.
Supposedly, there was also a whole album of songs inspired by the 1990 world Equestrian Championship.
Various artists- FIOLIN MIN Sweden's Greatest Hits November 1990 Available on Swedish CD
Produced by Benny and including Benny as a artist on Swedish Cd
"Can folk music survive in a time
when
people are constantly confronted by global
mass media culture?
-from the liner notes to FIOLIN MIN
by Gunnar Ternhag
Well maybe, if they would stop rereleasing
ABBA GOLD, people might stop and buy this.
This is collection of 20 Swedish folk music standards released
by Benny's Mono Records label. It's sounds very like "KLINGA
MINA KLOCKOR or one of the Orsa Spelman albums but with the disadvantage
that none of the songs are written by Benny. However, that's not
the point.The idea of the album is to collect some great old folk
melodies onto one album. Playing along with Benny on this album
are Orsa Spelman,Dalarnas Spelmansforbund and Asa Jinder &
Peter Hedlund. The liner notes refer to to one of the bands coming
from the traditional folk music scene in Dalecarlia. It is of
interest to note that the original title of the ABBA song -"Arrival"
was "Arrival at Dalecarlia".
This album was engineered by Bernard
Lohr
and recorded at various studios using ancient
time honored Swedish recording methods.
The album was released in November 1990.
Track listing for FIOLIN MIN
1.Dalarnas Spelmansförbund
- Gärdebylåten
2.Orsa Spelmän - Hjortingen
3. Benny Andersson & Orsa Spelmän - Bränd-Pers Vals
4.Orsa Spelmän - Spare fars polska
5. Dalarnas Spelmansförbund - Frisells gånglåt
6. Leif Göras och Olle Moraeus - Brudmarsch från Jämtland,
7. Benny Andersson & Orsa Spelmän - Horgalåten
8. Benny Andersson & Orsa Spelmän - Fryksdalsdans nr.
2
9. Benny Andersson & Orsa Spelmän - Brudmarsch från
Delsbo
10. Dalarnas Spelmansförbund - Trettondagsmarschen
11. Benny Andersson & Orsa Spelmän - Fiolen min
12. Orsa Spelmän - Blickuspolska nr. III
13. Benny Andersson & Orsa Spelmän - Trollens brudmarsch
14. .Åsa Jinder och Peter Hedlund - Spelmansglädje
15. Dalarnas Spelmansförbund - Rättvikarnas gånglåt
16. Orsa Spelmän - Barkbrödslåten
17. Dalarnas Spelmansförbund - Äppelbo gånglåt
18. Benny Andersson & Orsa Spelmän - Solskenslåten/Kullerullvisan
19. Perra Moraeus - Gråtlåten
20. Dalarnas Spelmansförbund - Karis pers polsk
Various Birds- Fågelsång i Sverige- Available on Swedish Cd November 1990 Swedish Cd.
Benny produced this collection of 90 Swedish birdsongs, yes that's right 90 birds recorded outdoors. Lars Svensson wrote the text and heLPed compile the album and Dan Zetterstrom drew the pictures. Dan zetterstrom and Lars Svensson were the bird experts involved.
A boy , Benny's son Ludvig, states each of the birds
names
on the CD in between the birdsongs.There were two editions of
this recording. The deluxe version includes a detailed booklet
with drawings of the birds and the cheap version that has just
the CD and a two page booklet. Released by Benny's label
, MONO. The allbum was surprsingly successful , it has sold over
64,000 copies...
A deluxe edition of the CD includes a 200 page book with pictures of all the birds...the album package was designed by Rune Söderqvist
This often is labeled as a Benny solo album but strictly speaking it is not. There is no music played or sung by humans on this album! I wll spare you a list of the the ninety plus birds recorded.
Benny produced this collection
of 90 Swedish birdsongs, yes that's right 90 birds recorded outdoors.
Lars Svensson wrote the text and heLPed compile the album and
Dan Zetterstrom drew the pictures.
A boy states each of the birds names
on the CD in between the birdsongs.There were two editions of
this recording. The deluxe version includes a detailed booklet
with drawings of the birds and the cheap version that has just
the CD and a two page booklet. Released by Benny's label , MONO
in November 1990.
Kalle Moreaus - May 1991 Available on Swedish CD Features Björn and Benny
This is the first solo album by Kalle Moreaus,the leading member of Orsa Spelman.. On this album Kalle sings a bit more than he does with Orsa Spelman, and the song lineup is not strictly violin/accordion songs. (For example there is a Swedish version of Chuck Berrys "Maybelline". Of the the violin songs my favorite is "Schottis fran Lima".
This album is of interest to B&B fans because it has the new B&B Swedish language song "Beatrice' which Benny and Björn both play on. It is sung by Kalle. It's a good song. It was released as a single in April 1991.
This seems to be the first documentated
appearence by Björn playing a instrument on record since
the breakup of ABBA. Björn plays a 12 string guitar on "Beatrice'.
Benny plays on a total of three songs.
If you like Benny 's work with Orsa
Spelman this is worth getting ,but
otherwise it's not worth it for the one song.
This album was produced ,but not engineered ,by Michael B.Tretow.It was recorded at Polar Studios.
Benny 's song for 1992 European soccer Championships....(not commerically released) Premeired June 1992
In 1992 a instrumental Benny wrote a song for the European Soccer Championships. These were held in Junbe 1992 in Gothenberg, Sweden.,.. This song was not released commerically, and it continues Benny's small side business of of writing obscure theme songs for sporting events...
I read somewhere that ithe song was twas called "More Than A game" but that appears to another song wrirtten by others that was the official song used for the game....
CHESS-OFF BROADWAY VERSION (no recording made) Early 1992
The failure of CHESS on Broadway, Caused many to consider what could be done to improve CHESS to make it work. This was the spirit in which this off broadway version was concocted. The musical is now set in 1972. in this version-the Book (script) used for the Broadway version is dropped. This version is closer to the London version at least in it's brevity. Tim Rice was a major player in the prodcution of this version but Bjorn and Benny were not.... This version starred Mark McVe and Ray Walker. The OFF-Broadway version was not particularly successful-it closed later in 1992.
Josefin Nilsson -Shapes March 1993 Available on Swedish CD and in some other territories, SONGS BY ANDERSSON-ULVAEUS, Produced by Benny Andersson
This is the closest we
get to a ABBA album in the 1990's. Benny wrote the songs for the
album with Björn and produced the record. This is a pop record,
there are no excursions into accordion music, birdsong, or the
works of Vilhem Moberg!
This is the solo debut
album of Swedish singer
Josefin Nilsson , who is also a member of the
Swedish singing group called Ainbusk.
Her voice is generally high ,she sounds sort of like restrained
Bjork.
Benny and Björn
interrupted their work on their musical,
Kristina to write the songs for this album. Like the two 1980's
albums by Gemini this is a pop/rock record. Unlike the two Gemini
albums, all the songs here were written by Benny and Björn.
Indeed, this was the first original album since ABBA's THE VISITORS
to have all the songs bear the Andersson-Ulvaeus credit. Thus,
this album is more cohesive sounding album than either of the
Gemini albums. SHAPES has some of rhythmic sensibiltites of the
second Gemini album. SHAPES occasionally sounds like Gemini because
Gemini's Anders Glenmark is the primary background vocalist.
What's left of the ABBA
band-Benny, Per Lindvall, Lasse Wallender and ever faithful Rutger
Gunnarson play on SHAPES, (but there is no sign of Björn's
voice or guitar). This is a surprisingly percussive album for
two old fat guys to have put together.
Benny even has started to use a synthbass
on the some of the tracks (leaving poor Rutger out in the cold).
The lyrics are hit or miss-occasionally good, occasionally only
so-so.
The album opens strongly
with the energetic &
rhythmic "Surprise, Surprise". There are some
great grooves also to be found on "Midnight Dancer"
and "Now You See Him , Now You Don't which also, has some
highly original backing vocals (some of which done are by Ainbusk)
."Midnight Dancer " has an annoying but memorable electric
organ riff. Josefin almost saves a stupid song "I Leave it
to Love" with a over-the top vocal performance, it's interesting
how she sings the later verses
progressively deeper and richer.
The boys have also come
up with some great ballads for Jo to sing, especially the evocative
"Where the Whales I have ceased to sing" and "The
film I'd like to see".
"Film" closes the album somewhat bombastically
but the lyric is surprisingly tender.
This CD is a must have for fans of the songwriting of Andersson-Ulvaeus.
|
DETAILS FOR SHAPES Produced by Benny Andersson Recorded at Polar Studios, 1992-93 Stockholm Engineered by Bernard Lohr Released first in Sweden March 1993 |
1. Surprise, Surprise 2. Heaven and Hell 3. We Won't Be Going No Anywhere 4. Where The Whales Have Ceased To Sing 5. High Hopes and Heartaches |
6. Midnight Dancer 7. Leave It to Love 8. When I Watch You In Your Sleep 9. Now You See Him, Now You Don't 10. The Film I'd Like To See |
AINBUSK -FRAN NAR TILL FJARRAN October 1993 Available on Swedish CD. Produced by Benny Andersson
Benny Andersson first
saw Ainbusk ,a Swedish the singing/ theatrical quartet in the
late 1980's. By 1992 Benny would produce this CD and cowrite three
of the songs with Marie Nilson. Ainbusk's resident comedian and
pianist. (Björn had no involvement!). The three songs Benny
cowrote are "Drommarnas Golv", "Alska Mej "
and "Lassie".
"Lassie" was a Swedish hit. And yes, "Lassie is
a song about a dog!
All four of the ladies
of Ainbusk members sing: most notably Josefin Nilsson, who would
record her solo debut ,SHAPES, album under Benny's direction.
Josefin shows off her vocal chops on "Lover Man", and
"Alska Mej".
The other three members
names are Birgitta Jakobsson, Marie Nilsson and Annelie Roswall.
The Cd booklet has some interesting photos
of the ladies dressed up in strange costumes.
Josefin shows off her vocal chops on "Lover Man", and
"Alska Mej".
This album was drawn primarlly from one of Ainbusk's highly theatrical Swedish stage shows .Apparently, some of the songs date from a couple years before. "Lassie' was released as a very successful single in October 1990, and "Alska Mej" was released as a single in April 1991.
Although most of the
songs are in Swedish this is a very entertaining album, even the
songs not written by Benny are worthwhile, largely due to Ainbusk's
innate charm.
This album was released on Benny's Mono label. Björn and
the ABBA band have no involvement on this album.
This is the closest we
get to a ABBA album in the 1990's. Benny produced Shapes,
which is the solo debut album of Josefin Nilsson who is also a
member of AINBUSK. What's left of the ABBA band-Per, Lasse,
and ever faithful Rutger play on SHAPES,
but there is no sign of Björn's voice and guitar.
Unlike the two Gemini
albums, all the songs
here were written by Benny and Björn. In fact,this is the
first original album since ABBA's THE VISITORS to have all the
songs bear the Andersson-Ulvaeus credit.
Benny and Björn
interupted their work on
Kristina to write the songs for this album.
This is is a surprisingly percussive album for
two old fat guys to have put together.
You'll be surprised by
"Surprise, Surprise"
and "Now You See Him , Now You dont"
The latter song in particular is very
rythemically interesting.(Ainbusk does some
great backing vocals on this song) .
The boys have also come up with some great ballads for Jo to sing, especially "Where the Whales have ceased to sing" and "The film I'd like to see".
Single from I FRU VENNERMANS FALL. . March 1994 Hard to find Swedish single release.
FRU VENNERMANS SÅNG/DUO JAG Mono single release
These two songs (the first cowritten by Benny , the second written soley by Benny) were released as a single. The A-side was performed by Kent Andersson, Gösta Ekman, Dan Ekborg, Johannes Brost and Lakke Magnusson. The A-side was used in a comedic play by Marie-Louise Ekman and the b-side was used as an instrumental from a 1993 TV version of I FRU VENNERMANS FALL, also a Marie-Louise Ekman project .This is one of the most obscure of Benny 's recordings.
Chess-In Concert 2CD set November 1994 Available on Swedish Cd.
Chess since it's release has often been performed as a concert piece.
This 2cd set was released
in Sweden by Benny's label MONO. This set was drawn from
concerts held in Gothenberg,Sweden in 8-94.
This set features an all Swedish cast SINGING IN ENGLISH . Tommy
Korberg ( ONCE AGAIN) STARS as the Russian. Anders Glenmark IS
The American, Karin Glenmark IS Florence,and Lena Ericsson IS
Sveltana.THE GLENMARKS are here PROMOTED FROM THEIR ROLE AS BACKGROUND
SINGERS in orIginal 1984 album.
Benny produced the album and played Grand Piano and Accordian. ABBA band members Rutger Gunnarsson, Lasse Wallender and Per Lindvall (all of whom played on the original Chess album,), also play here and for the first time are actually pictured in the liner notes. Björn does not seem to be present here, but Tim Rice rather kindly wrote some introductory notes.
THE ABBA BAND IS JOINED HERE BY THE GOTHENBERG SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA & CHORUS.
The track listing is
basically similar to the
original studio album but includes "Someone
Else's Story" and "The Soviet Machine"
(a song not available on record previously).
I found Karin Glenmark a little dissapointiing
as Florence . Some of the songs benefit from
slight embellishments in the arrangements. BUT MANY OF THE SONGS
SUFFER FROM SIMPLY HAVING UNFAMILIAR VOICES SINGING THEM.This
album is worthwhile for the CHESS completest,BUT IS NOT ESSENTIAL.
A NEW SWEDISH LANGUAGE stage VERSION OF CHESS Has been PREPARED BY KRISTINA's DIRECTOR , . Lars Rudolfson , it Features Helen Sjoholm, josefin Nilsson, and Tommy Korberg singing new lyrics in SWEDISH TO TELL a new version of the everchanging CHESS STORY. Apparently a few new songs will be included. It premeired in February 2001 at the Cirkus Theatre in Stockholm.
KRISTINA FRAN DUVEMALA by Andersson-Ulvaeus 3CD set October 23, 1996 Available on Swedish CD.
This is the original cast recording to the Malmo production of the musical "Kristina från Duvemåla". Benny and Björn wrote the music and lyrics for this musical version of Vilhem's Moberg's classic UTVANDRARPOS. Or as the books are known in English- THE EMIGRANTS.
On this record ,the lengthly EMIGRANTS
saga is distilled into 39 songs covering three CD's. The stage
musical itself was almost four hours..It premiered in October
1995 in Malmo. It moved to Stockholm in 1998,
and closed there in June 1999. (This run was shorter than a Broadway
run
because of the smaller size of the Swedish market.) A million
ticket buyers saw KRISTINA.
KRISTINA is the culmination of Björn and Benny's careers. KRISTINA is by far, their most ambitious work,a brave effort to adapt a Swedish classic into a musical .The whole process took five years.
Unlike CHESS ,KRISTINA is somewhat removed
from ABBA and rock n roll. Most of the songs feature a full orchestra
accompianment .KRISTINA does not generally attempt to meld rock
with musical forms. Still, there about five songs
that have rock instrumentation. Nor does, this exactly sound like
a broadway musical. It's more like opera.Perhaps
it could best described as Swedish folk opera.
For the first time, officially, Benny
and Björn
roles have been spilt into distinct parts. Benny wrote all the
music and Björn all the lyrics. Also, Benny was the sole
producer of the recording. Benny and Björn were involved
in the production of the play itself.
When B&B began writing together in
the 1960's both had a hand in the writing the lyrics & the
music. But this has changed over time.Benny, stopped writing lyrics
in the mid -seventies, Benny had always
given more of the music in their songwriting
partnership, but Björn's musical role seem
to begin to diminish with ABBA's 8o's synthesizer dominated music.
By the late 1980's Björn was no longer involved with producing
the albums
The ABBA band and Björn do not play much of a role here musically
since the music primarily is scored for an Orchestra ,not a rock
band. Björn, Rutger Gunnarson, and
Lasse Wallander do appear on the album,
as The Three Boys.
Most interestingly, Björn and Benny
chose to
write Kristina largely in Swedish,, their first album length work
together since LYCKA to be recorded in Swedish. This has meant
that the musical has had a special resonance in Sweden,but this
also meant that the musical is not not widely known outside Sweden.
The preparation of an English language text proved to be arodus
task that lasted till 1995....
The EMIGRANTS saga is actually four books
written in the late 1940's and early
1950's. The four parts are titled in English: THE EMIGRANTS, UNTO
A GOOD LAND, THE SETTLERS, and LAST LETTER HOME.
As a whole the four tell the story of
bandof Emigrants who leave Southern Sweden
to move to Minnesota about 1850. The town
nearest to where the emigrants end up is called Taylor Falls.
Taylor Falls ,Minnesota is an actual town on the Wisconsin Border
near Minneapolis. The books spent a lot of time explaining why
the Emigrants leave, a lot of time showing the hardship of the
ship journey, and then the remainder of the time showing the fates
that befall the former Swedes when they live in America. The lyrics
are surprisingly faithful, this isn't any Hollywood adaption.
The Kristina of the title is Kristina Nilson who was born in Duvemala.
The role is played on the album by the highly likable previously
unknown Helen Sjoholm. It is her face that
graces the stamp on the album cover.
The book of the play includes lots of
dialogue and unlike CHESS the dramatic parts of the play are usually
just as interesting as the music. However ,musically Kristina
is perhaps not quite as a interesting
a work as Chess. Kristina is more conventional .
Many of the musical numbers stand out-notably
"A Sunday in Battery Park""Min Astrakan "Du
Maste Finnas" and "Guldet Blev till Sand" In a
"Du Maste Finnas" there is a juxtaposition
of the Americans with the Swedes in
"A Sunday in Battery Park" where we actually get to
hear the chorus singing in English and Swedish in counterpoint;,
"Min Astrakan" the incredibly touching and powerful
lament for a apple tree that closes the first act.
The musical has two second act showstoppers;
"Du Maste Finnas"" (You must Exist")-A song
in which Kristina question's existence (try to imagine ABBA doing
a song like that) . Sjoholm drags incredible reserves of emotion
out of this song .
The other big song in the second act
is
"Guldet Blev till Sand" was sung by young
Peter Joback who played Kristina's brother-in-law Robert. The
song would prove to be a monster
hit in Sweden where it set the record for
the longest time on the singles chart-(nearly
two years).
Anders Eljas conducted the orchestra
as he
had on CHESS. Benny and Anders Eljas were the main arrangers on
this album .Lars Rudolfson directed the play and cowrote the play's
book with Jan Mark.The album was recorded in Malmo and in Stockholm
by Bernard Lohr. Polar and Mono Studios were used.
This is a challenging album and an expensive one. Triple CD imports are not cheap.It is probably the most important of the ABBA solo records.
The next step for KRISTINA is to bring it to Broadway in a English language version. Björn has been worked on the English language translation of 'Kristina från Duvemåla' with Herbert Kretzmer (who translated 'Les Miserables'). That version is ready and was worked shopped but found to be too sad by prospective investors,so the status of the English version is uncertain.
CD1-
Prolog/ Duvemåla Hage/ Min Lust Till Dej, Ut Mot Ett Hav/
Missväxt/ Nej/ Lilla Skara/ Aldrig/ Kom Till Mig Alla/ Vi
Õppnar Alla Grindar
CD2-
Bönder På Havet/ Löss /Stanna/Begravning Till
Sjöss/ A Sunday In Battery Park/ Hemma/
Från New York Till Stillwater/
Tänk Att Män Som Han Kan Finnas/ Kamfer Och Lavendel/
Drömmen Om Guld/ Min Astrakan
CD3
Överheten/ Ljusa Kvällar Om Våren/ Präriens
Drottning/ Vildgräs/ Jag Har Förlikat Mej Till Slut/
Guldet Blev Till Sand/ Wild Cat Money/ Ut Mot Ett Hav/ Vill Du
Inte Gifta Dej Med Mej/
Ett Herrans Underverk/ Down To The Sacred Wave/ Missfall/ Du Måste
Finnas/ Skördefest/ Här Har Du Mej Igen/ Red Iron/HjäLP
Mej Trösta/ Var Hör Vi Hemma/ I Gott Bevar
Various Artists-Latar Av Björn & Benny Early to Mid 1998 Available on Swedish CD
A t tribute album devoted specifically to the songwriting talents of Björn and Benny. The CD features obscure Swedish artists. NONE OF THE ORIGINAL VERSIONS are used and B&B had no involvment with this album...All of the 18 songs are in Swedish , and there is only one ABBA song- a Swedish version of "I have a Dream". If this were the original versions this would be the ideal sampler of B&B's non ABBA music, even as a tribute it's preety good.
Instead of attempting to cover all those
overexposed ABBA songs the producers of this tribute decided to
dig up songs songs from B&B's Swedish language repertoire.
Songs from KRISTINA, Benny's solo albums, Ainbusk, Gemini
the Hep Stars etc. are covered here. Lots of rare B&B songs
are performed here including "Pa Brollop" (a rare B&B
side) ," Valkommen til Varlden". a song originally written
& produced for the Lili-babs
by B&B , and "Sag Det Med En Sang" originally written
by B&B for Lena Anderson.
The rare Hep Stars song "Sagom Om Lilla Sofie" is also
performed here.
Omnipresent, ABBA bassist Rutger Gunnarsson plays bass on the
recordings. This album was
produced by Micke Littwold.
Track listing
Tibble barnkör - Jag
Har En Dröm ( "I Have A Dream")/ Resarna - Hej
Gamle Man/Viktoria Krantz - Duvemåla Hage/Elle - Jag Mötte
Lassie/Gitte Littwold - Säg Det Med En Sång,/Camilla
Lundstedt - Tänk Om Jorden Vore Ung/ Vicki Benckert - Min
Egen Stad/ Hubbe Algovik - Sagan Om Lilla Sofie/Gitte Littwold
- Älska Mig/ Tibblegänget - På Bröllop/Tibble
barnkör - Speleman/ Viktoria Krantz - Hemma/ Therése
Juel - Välkommen Till Världen/Micke Littwold - Beatrice/
Gitte Littwold - Efter Regnet/Tibblekören - Klinga Mina Klockor,/Viktoria
Krantz - Mio Min Mio/ Lennart Wärmell - Födelsedagsvals
Till Mona
Original Malmo Cast-16 Favoriter Ur Kristina LATE 1999 )Available on Swedish CD
This single- CD highlights
of KRISTINA Cd was issued in Sweden just a week or two before
the release of the MAMMIA MIA cast CD, but three years after the
original KRISTINA album.
It includes the following tracks.
It has a darker cover than the original set.
| Track listing | |
| Prolog
Duvemåla Hage Ut Mot Ett Hav Lilla Skara Aldrig Vi Öppnar Alla Grindar Stanna Hemma |
Tänk
Att Män Som Han KanFinnas Min Astrakan Vildgräs Guldet Blev Till Sand Du Måste Finnas Här Har Du Mej Igen Var Hör Vi Hemma I Gott Bevar |
Various Artists-Fran Waterloo to Duvemala Late 1998 Available on Swedish Cd
A loving and elaborate tribute to the songs of Björn and Benny and ABBA. This was staged at Stockholm's Globus Arena with Benny's involvement. He didn't play on the album, but he did play in one of the shows.
Tommy Körberg, Anders & Karin
Glenmark, and Helen Sjoholm provide the lead singing here and
also make up a ersatz ABBA on occasion. Instrumentation is provided
by Orsa Spelman
and the Goteborg Symphony . The Goteborg
choir provides vocals. The original concert was considerably longer
than this album, and it has been repeated many times at different
locations most notably in Beijing, China.
The Cd has 16 songs. Ten Abba songs are
attempted . Six non-Abba songs are done. As good as this CD is
it must be have been more exciting to hear these songs done live.
The ABBA songs sound a little more dramatic than in their original
renditions because of the use of the orchestra and choir.
The song choices are a little strange,
sometimes even a little annoying-
but maybe that's because we may all be getting sick of hearing
yet another
version of "Thank You For the Music." Indeed some of
the more interesting song choices were were sung in concert but
not released on the LP. Among the songs from the concert that
were left off the CD was a version of "Dum Dum Diddle with
Orsa Speleman actually playing violins.
Ring Ring is done in it's Swedish version.
"Honey Honey' is done in English.Why we need both "Honey
Honey" and
"Ring Ring" is beyond me. The girls do a fine job with
"Fernando'
"Thank You For the Music" is done with some humour.
"The Winner Takes it all'
is done in a odd but daring version by Tommy Körberg . The
Swedish folk group Orsa Spelman do a version "Arrival"-which
is an inspired song choice.
The non ABBA tracks are a little closer
to their original versions. Tommy does "Anthem " from
Chess.
Helen does "Du Maste Finnas" , Karin does "Mio
Min Mio" blah blah
Three of the non-Abba songs are not done
by their original artists. Anders Glenmark does a charming version
of the Hep Stars -"Sunny Girl" .Of course, it would
have made a lot more sense to pick to pick a Hep stars song that
was actually written by both Benny and Bjorn,but the song was
actually suggested by Anders Glenmark. Of course Benny would tell
you that the Hep Stars did country and western with a German beat.
Maybe Benny did do drugs during the 60's after all.
Tommy Korberg gets a shot at "Guldet
Blev til Sand"
from KRISTINA (It's great to see how Tommy would do this song.)
Orsa Spelman and the Orchestra/Choir do a medley of " Inledningsvisa/
Klinga Mina Klockor " from Benny 's solo album.
The B&B tribute concert was sort of a precusor to the BAO band in that Tommy Korborg, Helen Sjoholm, and
Orsa Spelman all played with both the ABBA tribute concert and the BAO...
Track listing with soloists
| 1. Inledningsvisa/Klinga Mina Klockor 2.Ring Ring 3.Fernando Helen Sjöholm & Karin Glenmark 4.Honey, Honey 5.Money, Money, Money Helen Sjöholm 6.Guldet Blev Till Sand Tommy Körberg 7.Sunny Girl - AndersGlenmark 8.Mio Min Mio - Karin Glenmark |
9.The Winner Takes It All
- Tommy Körberg 10.Arrival 11.Du Måste Finnas Helen Sjöholm 12.Anthem - Tommy Körberg 13.Take A Chance On Me 14.Does Your Mother Know 15.On And On And On 16.Thank You For The Music |
Original London Cast Album -Mamma Mia November 1999 British CD
Mamma Mia is an original musical based on the songs of ABBA. This is the original cast album for the smash hit London West End version that premiered on April 6, 1999 at the Prince Edward Theatre - Edward is the same theater that the West End version of CHESS was performed at. The production moved to the Prince of Wales Theatre in May 2004.. Mamma Mia is Bjorn and Benny's third musical , CHESS was their first musical, and KRISTINA FRAN DUVEMALA was the their second musical.
This is the musical they didn't know they had written -(gag me!)!
Within two years , the
musical had traveled to North America and Australia. culiminating in
a successful Broadway premiere in October 2001. Worldwide, it
has been the most commercially succesful musical of the early
part of the century.... By late 2005 there more than a dozen productions
of Mamma Mia running at the same time...People are beginning to
wonder if Bjorn and Benny are going to pocket more money from
Mamma Mia then they did from their time with ABBA.
Catherine Johnson wrote
the clever Book (script) and the musical is directed by Phyllida
Lloyd. The lead producer was Judy Craymer. The songs obviously
were by Björn Ulvaeus,Benny Andersson and Stig Anderson. MAMMA
MIA uses about
two dozen ABBA songs to heLP tell a totally non-ABBA storyline
about a mother and a daughter.The mother ,Donna Sheridan is played
by( London) Chess veteran, Siobhan McCarthy*. Her daughter, Sophie
Sheridan is played by Lisa Stokke* these are the original cast
members who have all since been replaced)
and musical revolves around the mystery of who is Sophie's father.(*these
are the original cast members who have all since been replaced)
Hey isn't that interesting that that the producer, director, and playwright or all of the feamle persuasion... the distaff side..
Even most of the people buying the tickets to see the thing are woman .Oh, and hey!- get this most of the lead characters are also woman-I THINK I SEE A PATTERN HERE!!!
The actors sing often truncated versions of ABBA songs sometimes timed for comedic effect. The songs used in the musical were mostly drawn from ABBA singles. Almost all of the songs on ABBA GOLD were used in the musical. Indeed , Benny complained that "Waterloo" wasn't included so "Waterloo"was added in at the end as encore number. "Fernando" was the largest hit not used-it is only sung in a quick 10 second snippet..
The musical concept didn't sound very promising but somehow audiences have been happy with the stage musical and critics have been no worse than lukewarm. The show's success appears to be due to the witty way the musical was written and staged combined with the already proven appeal of the songs. Unlike Chess or Kristina this is a decidedly peppy,cheerful musical. You will walk out of theatre happy or else, Björn will drag you back in the theatre for another encore of "Dancing Queen"
MAMMA MIA'S original commercial success, is was also partly due to to the undying loyalty of British and World ABBA fans who traveled to London to see the musical. Swedish fans in particular traveled by the thousands.
Björn came out of
a long period of retrenchment to coproduce the musical with Judy
Craymer and Richard East . Björn was said to be to have been
most heavily involved in insuring the accuracy of the musical
presentation. Benny, ( perhaps, because no new music was needed)
was
brought in only for just a short time only for about a week or
two prior to the premiere. (Benny is also said to have heLPed
with the all important job of cashing royalty checks.)
Björn and Benny had little to do with coming up with idea for the musical or with writing the book, which after all were the only new things about the "musical".B&B (mostly Bjorn) simply approved this particular idea. There certainly seems some irony to the fact this the least important of B&B's musicals,is the one with the least creative input from them but yet is likely to be B&B's most successful musical.
This cast album was recorded at Angel Studios in Britain and was released on Polydor in November 1999. The album is attractively packaged with lyrics and photos from the musical. All 24 tracks are crammed unto one CD. This is the cast album that is sold thoughout the world....
B & B were only executive
producers of the album. The cast album was produced by Martin
Koch and Nicholas GiLPin. (Martin also worked on the arrangements.)
It is logical that B& B were not directly involved with the
recording since their is little point in them attempting to recreate
what the have done already.
I did read somewhere that Benny wasn't entirely happy with some of the orchestrations done for Mamma Mia though, he of course did ultimately approve of the work that was done..Many of subleties of the original arrangements are still there even if the songs themselves have been chopped up.. . Listen for example to "Chiquitita" and you'll find that nmany of the original recordings subtle vocal effects and keyboard bits are still there.
Neither Björn( no surprise) nor Benny play on the album.( This was one of the first times Benny has avoided playing at least some keyboards on one of his projects).
Musically there isn't much new on this album, with the exception of the act overtures which are simply creative instrumental rearrangments of ABBA music. Some of the dialogue that is interspersed with the songs is included. Musically, it's not really that interesting, Vocally, the songs where the chorus joins in work are the most interesting,
The general consensus seems to be that this is one B&B musical that works much better onstage than on record.
The WORD in 2006 IS THAT THERE MAY BE SEQUEL IN THE WORKS FOR MAMMA MIA.... There have also been vague threats to make a movie of the original musical....
| Track listing for MAMMA MIA ACT 1 | ACT 2 |
| Overture/prologue Honey Honey, Money money money Thank you for the music Mamma mia, Chiquitita Dancing Queen, Lay all your love on me Super trouper, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!, The name of the game Voulez-Vous |
Entr'acte Under attack |
Emma Härdelin- "Innan Gryningen"- Late 1999 Swedish CD single
"Innan Gryningen"was Benny Andersson 's new millenium single cowritten and instigated by lyricist Ylva Eggehorn." Innan Gryningen" is performed by vocalist Emma Härdelin. The song's title translates in English to "Before The Dawn'. Benny plays on the record. The hymn was performed live on January 5, 2000 . This has only been released in Sweden by Benny's Mono label. This song was later made available on a Triakel's recent studio album.
Benny Andersson -Promo single -Sang 1 (Sången från andra våningen )/ Sang 2 / Sang 3 (Tösabiten) 2000 Cd
This obscure release features Benny's music
for Roy Andersson film' "Sången från andra våningen".
(Songs from The Second floor) .Recordings of the three songs can
found on Benny's solo album -"Benny Andersson's Orkestra.
or on the BAO album....
M2M -Shades of Purple March 2000 Internationally
released CD
This Norwegian girl duo somehow managed
to get Benny to play French accordion on this album..
I suppose all you have to do is ask....
Triakel- Vintervisor med Triakel January 2001 Available on Swedish CD
Finally , a year after the single came the full album featuring Benny's millenium song" Innan Gryningen" performed by Emma Härdelin with Triakel .
The rest of the album features songs by Swedish songwriters such as Evert Taube and Dan Andersson.
Anne Sofie Von Otter Meets Elvis Costello-For The Stars April 2001 CD Available on released worldwide
The album is produced by Elvis Costello and features him occasionally singing . Elvis even cowrote or wrote eight of the songs. Most of the lead vocals are done by Ms. Otter a renowned Swedish opera mezzo-soprano. This album includes a cover of ABBA's "Like An Angel Passing Through My Room". Benny Andersson was actually invited to play some great piano/synclavier on that track and accordion on "Broken Bicycles/Junk". Benny is even pictured twice in the liner notes. In general , The album is listenable, tasteful, but perhaps a trifle boring. It has been a commercial success. in 2006, she recorded a whole album album of Benny's songs...
| ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST -MAMMA MIA -No cast album released as of yet. .. |
|
Mamma Mia made a successful Broadway premiere in October 2001 at the Winter Garden theatre. The musical was largely unchanged from the London version. None of the London cast was brought over to play in the Broadway version. An even older actress than Siobhan McCarthy. Louis Pitre was chosen to play the lead role of Donna Sheridan. Unlike Chess ,which foolishly was sent straight to Broadway, a number of advance tryout runs were staged in Los Angeles, Toronto , Boston and elsewhere to heLP work out the bugs and promote the musical. The buzz generated heLPed increase the advance sales so much so that MAMMA MIA had the second highest advance gross in Broadway history. It soon became obvious that there were lot of closet ABBA fans out there in the American public, In one small way, ABBA had finally conquered America. Drama critics reviews for the Broadway version of Mamma Mia were mixed , but knowledgable fans said the Broadway version improved on London version. The musical was solid enough to become the Broadway hit of 2001-02. It appears to have been decided that an actual Broadway cast album may not be released--since a Broadway recording would preety much be a carbon copy of the London version-albeit with different singers. The play's owners didn't think it worth the additional the expense of recording the Broadway cast. Why lower the profitablity of the London Cast album by stealing sales from it? Oh why indeed? |
Benny
Andersson-Benny Andersson's Orkester Available
on on Swedish CD June 2001
Benny's first solo album in over ten years! This album was released in late June 2001 on Mono records. Here the at age 56, Benny appears finally to be slowing down as a composer. This is his first full album of original compositions since the release of Kristina Fran Duvemala in 1996. From 1969 till 1996 Benny averaged at least 10 new songs a year.The emphasis here is on a dance band sound albeit with aSwedish folkish twist. Thus there are considerably morehorns on this album than on Benny's other solo work .Supposedly the album was recorded with the whole bandplaying at the same time live in the studio at Atlantis Studios.The album has a much more lively sound than much of what
of Benny has recorded.Some mixed opinions on this so far, but generally it's been favorably reviewed. This album is a harder listen, if you dont like dance band music-but there is too much going on here to sayit's just a dance band music. The album is (as is usually the case with Benny), quite varied in style, tone and instrumentation...
The album features vocalist Helen Sjoholm (from KRISTINA FRAN DUVEMALA) on two tracks.The dance band torch song "Var Sista Dans" (Our Last Dance) sung by Helen Sjoholm is the first single released off this album.. Something about the melody sounds almost too familiar-overly deriative. The other song by Helen -"Latt Som En Sommarfjaril" (Light as a Summer butterfly) is more akin to what she sings on "Kristina". It almost sounds like a Christmas melody. Björn wrote lyrics to the two songs sung by Helen..
The album sold slowly at first but then "Var Sista Dans" became a sleeper Swedish hit in the late summer and drove the album into the #1 spot on the Swedish album charts, Benny's first #1 album since ABBA's The Visitors.
Five of the songs were used in movies. Sång Från Andra Våningen, "Lauren ", and Tösabiten are from "Sangen Fran Andra Vanigen" (Songs From The Second Floor). "Cirkus Finemang" and "PS "are from "Nu Ar Pappa Trott Igen (Daddy Is Tired Now)." Benny and the band actually played a small number of concerts to promote the album.
Benny
1. Hadangervidda
2. Snedseglarn
3. Cirkus Finemang
4. Vår Sista Dans (with Helen Sjöholm)
5. Briggens Blåögda Blonde Kapten
6. Knäslovan
7. Anitas Polska
8. Schottis I Tyrolen
9. Sång Från Andra Våningen
10. Lauren
11. Tösabiten
12. Nya Månvalsen
13. Lätt Som En Sommarfjäril (with Helen Sjöholm)
14.PS
The aborted Paige/Dickson reunion project 2002
B&B wrote and had Helen Sjoholm sing a demo version of a song they wrote in 1999. The demo was of song called "The Day the Walls Came Tumbling Down" that Barbara Dickson was supposed to record. Barbara actually sang it live in 2002 . The song is about the fall of the Berlin wall.
A stuido recording of the song was supposed to appear on a Barbara Dickson/ Elaine Paige duets album, This song never saw fruition partly due to label clearance problems and perhaps because B&B were not totally happy with the song. Elaine and Barbara had originally worked together on Chess...Elaine and Barbara were the duo on B&B's #1 British hit "I Know Him So Well"..But hey, if you are actually reading this page-you probably already know that...(thanks to Paul Carter and ABBAmail for this info).
CHESS Pa Svenska- Cast Album released October 2002 Swedish 2cd
CHESS PA SVENSKA -CHESS IN SWEDISH Cast Album released October 2002 Scandinavian release only!
The first Swedish language stage version of
Chess was prepared by Kristina's director, Lars Rudolfson. This
version stars Helen Sjoholm as Florence Vaszi. Josefin Nilsson
as Svetlana Sergievskaja, Tommy Korberg as Anatolij Sergievskij,
Anders Ekborg as Freddie Trumper and Per Myrberg as Alexander
Molokov.
The cast sing new lyrics in SWEDISH ( written by Rudolfson, Jan
Marks and Bjorn Ulvaeus) 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
2002 at the Cirkus Theatre in Stockholm. The Stockholm staging
has already closed-due to the small size of the Swedish markert,
and the desire to maintain a high quality of cast and perfomance.
An attempt to bring the musical to Malmo ran into venue problems.
This new version has been praised by Swedish critics, though not
as lavishly as Kristina Fran Duvemala. Benny produced the
a cast album that was finally released in October 2002.
TRACK LISTING (With former English title of song-where applicable)
| CD 1 | CD 2 |
|
Ouvertyr (Overture) Lämna inga dörrar på glänt
(Nobody's Side) |
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 Jag vet vad han vill (I know Him So Well) Glöm mig om du kan (includes melody from " Just Like That") Capablanca Drömmar av glas (You and I)) |
Per Myrberg -'Sommernatt Available on Swedish Cd June 2003
This album features Benny Andersson and his orchestra on two of the tracks and Benny heLPed with producing the record.
The arrangments on the album are by Martin Östergren. The songs are Swedish folks songs by Evert Taube. Per Myrberg sang in CHESS PA SVENSKA. The album has received mixed reviews
| Track listing | More track listings.(continued) |
| 1. Calle Schewens vals 2. Så länge skutan kan gå 3. Fritiof i Arkadien 4. Den lycklige nudisten 5. Fragancia 6. Vals ombord 7. Här Rosmarie, syns blåa Nämdöfjärden |
8. Gammalvals i Roslagen 9. Ronsard och herdinnan 10. Den glade bagarn i San Remo 11. Brittisk ballad 12. Dansen på Sunnanö 13. Som stjärnor små 14. Sommarnattf |
Nils Landgren & Funk Unit -Funky ABBA Swedish CD March 2004
ABBA and the word funky- I just dont know....but it kinda works. This album by Swedish trombonist Nils Landgren, and his Funk Unit was coproduced /and coproformed by John Coltranes' son Magnum Coltrane Price. Nils Landgren is known to ABBA fans for his work playing on the "Voulez-Vous' album..Some of the singing on the album is done by female guest vocalists..
The Funk unit includes Henrik Janson who played with Gemini and ABBA drummer Per Lindvall plays on one track.
The album is sort of jazz/funk fusion-and it works surprisingly well-it's rare to hear covers that bring out the high quality of ABBA songs. This works because it doesnt' sound at all like ABBA. But still I'm not sure I'd recommend unless you are open to jazz or are open to rap/funk...
This album features Benny Andersson playing piano on one track-a version of "When All is Said and Done. which features vocalist Viktoria Tolstoy. This track was recorded in September 2003 in Polar studios....This is a good track-put that on a Benny compilation album, please! The track is similiar to the Annie Sofie Otter version of "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room" which Benny also guested on piano for..Both songs are stripped down versions of tracks orginally sung by Frida on THE VISITORS.... .
A British reader ,Mike Auber,
gives this quick review-"The funky
arrangements go
together quite well with tracks like "Name Of The Game",
"Gimme Gimme
Gimme" and "Voulez-Vous". But even if you
don't like jazz trombone or
rapping, Benny's unaccompanied piano/vocal version of "When
All Is Said
And Done" melts the heart".
Track listing:Money, Money, Money
/Knowing Me, Knowing You/Voulez-Vous
Thank You For The Music / Super Trouper /Summer Night City /Gimme!
Gimme! Gimme!
The Name Of The Game/ Dancing Queen /Take A Chance On Me/SOS/When
All Is Said And Done
Original Cast album MAMMA MIA Special Edition April 2004 British version.
New edition with bonus tracks recorded in 2004 of three songs found on the encore, which were not included in the original cast album, partly because the encore was something of last minute edition. The encore was partly suggested by Benny who was thought "Waterloo" should be included in the musical.
Those songs are - Mamma Mia , Dancing Queen , Waterloo
Benny Andersson's Orkester-BAO! June 2004 Available on Swedish CD.
Similiar formula to Benny's three previous Benny albums , nine instrumentals ,as well as five songs with Helen Sjoholm vocals.... Bjorn wrote two lyrics for this album- "Du Ar Min Man", and " Midnattsdans". Midnattsdans" is a duet featuring Helen Sjoholm and Kalle Moreaus.. Lyrics to two other songs s "Saknadens rum" and "Kärlekens tid are written by Ylva Eggehorn, (who cowrote Benny's Millennium song,) .The two Ylva songs were originally used in the movie -Sanger Fran Andra Vanigen. Finally, the lyric to one song -Skenbart' is by Peter Dalle. "Du är min man" has been released as a single. This is the 20 studio album in row that Benny has worked with Bjorn on at least one song .
As usual this album was only released in Scandinavia, though it is available as an import on the net. Once again Benny and his orchestra will be playing a short tour in Sweden in August 2004 to support the album and to have fun! If only one could simply walk to Sweden for those weekends...
TRACK LISTING
Glasgow Boogie
En dans på rosor,
Du är min man (,vocals - Helen Sjöholm)
Vitalins vals
På en solskenspromenad
Jehu
Midnattsdans ( vocals Helen Sjöholm & Kalle Moraeus),
Riks1:an
Julvals
Skenbart ( vocals Helen Sjöholm)
Trettondagspolkan
Stora skuggan
Saknadens Rum (vocals Helen Sjöholm)
Kärlekens tid ( vocals - Helen Sjöholm & Duvemalakören)
| MAMMA MIA IN Swedish, German, Dutch, Spanish, Swahili, Esperanto and some Middle Earth languages |
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MAMMA MIA!
Original version des deutschen musicals German release June 2004 Yup,a German language version! First staged in Stuttgart, and then also in Hamburg -. Frida and Bjorn appeared on stage for one of the openings...Benny had knockwurst and lots of beer! TRACK LISTING !!!!! |
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MAMMA MIA Dutch Cast album Netherlands CD Released Summer 2004 Yes, now the Dutch have their very own version of Mamma Mia in their own language...The Dutch are loyal ABBA fans and deserve such treatment, they happily handed over their Euros to see a cheap set and 15 unknown actors sing chopped up ABBA songs...
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MAMMA MIA IN SPANISH.. This was staged Spain in November 1994 Oh my god!!!!!AY CARUMBA!!!!!!The translations used here are not based on the original Spanish versions.,but are new translations... MAMMA MIA en Espanol 2005 Spanish CD Track listing Obertura/Prologo, Honey Honey, Money Money Money, Gracias Por Dejarme Cantar Canciones (Thank You For The Music), Mamma Mia, Chiquitita, Dancing Queen, Fija Tu Amor En Mi (Lay All Your Love On Me), Super Trouper, Dame! Dame! Dame! (Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!), Como Puedo Jugar (The Name Of The Game), Voulez-Vous, Entreacto, No Habra Cuartel (Under Attack), Quien A Veces Llora (One Of Us), No Lo Ves (SOS), Sabe Tu Mama Donde Estas? (Does Your Mother Know), Para Mi Para Ti (Knowing Me Knowing You), Un Verano (Our Last Summer), Siento Que Se Aleja (Slipping Through My Finders), Va Todo Al Ganador (The Winner Takes It All), Te Has Fijado En Mi (Take A Chance On Me), Que Si Que Si (I Do I Do), Ayer Sone (I Have A Dream) |
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The Swedish cast version- Mamma Mia -Swedish CD June 2005
Remarkably, or not Mamma Mia had yet to be staged in Sweden, prior to 2005, so here it comes, in a Swedish language version ... ABBA originally only translated a handful of their songs into Swedish-so this will be the first time many of the songs (especially the later ones) have been presented in the Swedish language...The Swedish version of the song lyrics were written by Niklas Strömstedt along with Bjorn. Peter Dalle translated the spoken parts in "Mamma Mia" into Swedish. The musical premiered at Stockholm's Cirkus in Stockholm in February 2005. It will close in 2007. Both Bjorn and Benny had some involvement with this production. This version stars Gunilla Backman as Donna and Nina Lundsie as Sofie. Old ABBA bass player, Rutger Gunnarsson plays on the album.The cast album was produced by Niklas Strömstedt and Engineered by Bernard Löhr. The cast album was recorded in March and April of 2005. Mamma Mia!
is a Mono Music AB production distributed by Universal Music
In Sweden only ! |
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Mamma Mia! 5th Anniversary Special Edition
October 17, 2006 American CD/DVD Disc 1 - CD: Original 1999 London Cast recording Finale bonus tracks recorded 2004 Disc 2 - DVD: MAMMA MIA in Klingonese... IS IT
TRUE IS THEIR FINALLY GOING TO BE LINKING OF THE STAR TREK and
ABBA franchsises!!!! Apparently not..... |
Recent releases -Bao live, Florence, Lycka reissue.
Gemini - Det bästa med Karin och Anders Glenmark- Swedish Cd OCTOBER 2005
In English, the title reads
Gemini - The Best Of Karin And Anders Glenmark", but you
knew that... Gemini is the group that Bjorn and Benny wrote and
produced the better part of two albums for...in 1985 and 1987.
This is the oft-promised Gemini collection that compiles seven
songs each from those two 1980s albums. Rumours had been that
this collection would have bonus tracks, and those rumours were
correct...There are six tracks not found on the two original
albums, as well as the Swedish version of "Mio My Mio".
Tracks on new release
1. TLC (1987)
2. Mio min Mio(1987)
3. Sniffin' Out The Snakes (1987)
4. When I Close My Eyes ( unreleased recording Song by Andersson/Ulvaeus)
5. Den som sa det var det (new Swedish version of 'Too Much Love
Is Wasted')
6. Live On The Love (1985)
7. Just Like That (1985)
8. Copy Love (remixed version of a track featured on the Another
Me, Another you 12" single, previously unavailable on CD)
9. Slowly (1985)
10. Beat The Heat (1987)
11. Another You, Another Me 1985)
12. Too Much Love Is Wasted 1985)
13. Falling (1985)
14. I Am The Universe( 1987)
15. There's No Way To Fool A Heart (1987)
16. I'm A Bitch When I See Red (1987)
17. Have Mercy (1985)
Bonus tracks:
18. Kall som is (1984, performed by Karin and Anders in the Swedish
heats for the Eurovision Song Contest)
19. Flyga fri (the B-side of the 'Kall som is' single)
Äntligen (with Benny Andersson on keyboards, originally featured on Anders Glenmark's 1993 album Boogie i mitt huvud) was supposed to be on the CD but was not on the CD when it came out.
Benny Andersson's Orkester-BAO På Turné (BAO LIVE) May 2006 Swedish CD
A new release of live recordings
from the summer of 2005 . Recordings were made
at the Stadsparken in Örebro and at the Samildalsgropen
in Leksand. The tracks recorded included two new B&B
songs..Helen Sjoholm, Tommy Korborg, and Kalle Moreaus sing...
A new promo single "Det Är Vi Ändå "
was released in Sweden as a taster for the album. The rest
of CD includes song from BAO's live repertoire including a few
covers of songs not written by Benny Andersson...
Track listing ( with album that
studio version of song is found on,if any)
Glasgow Boogie(Andersson) BAO
Vitalins Vals (Andersson) BAO
När Tvenne Hjärtan Slå(Jules Sylvain/Gösta
Stevens)
Klinga Mina Klockor--(Andersson-Ulvaeus)Klinga Mina Klockor
Födelsedagsvals Till Mona(Andersson)Klinga Mina Klockor
Tobakshandlarvisa(perne-paddock)
Lätt Som En Sommarfjäril--(Andersson-Ulvaeus) Benny
Anderssons Orkerster
Aj Aj Aj Vilken Röd Liten Ros(Jules Sylvain/Gösta Stevens)
Slängpolska Efter Bysskalle-(trad.)
Gamle Svarten(Michael Carr/Hamilton Kennedy/Sven-Olof Sandberg)
Hjortingen-(trad.) Fiolin Min trad
Det Är Vi Ändå-(Andersson-Ulvaeus)'Det är
vi ändå' (It's Still Us)
För Dig-?'För dig'-(Andersson-Ulvaeus)
Bälter Svens Paradpolkett-(Olle Moreaus) Orsa Spelmän
Moon River(Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer)
Bachs Badinerie-(Johann Sebastian Bach)
O Sole Mio(trad.)
Jehu -(Andersson)BAO
Du Är Min Man-(andersson-Ulvaeus) BAO
True Love(Cole Porter)
Vår Sista Dans-(andersson-Ulvaeus) Benny Anderssons Orkerster
Medley:
Ett Glatt Humör (Sven Arefeldt)
Säg Det Med Ett Leende (Nils Perne/Sven Paddock/Helge Roundquist)
Vårat Gäng (Nils Perne/Sven Paddock)
Bättre Och Bättre Dag För Dag (Mark Strong/Karl-Ewert
Christensson/S.S.Wilson)
Florence-FEEL Mid 2006 Swedish CD
A New album produced by Benny Andersson and released on Mono records. No involvement from Bjorn....
The group is a female trio that takes it name from the CHESS character, Florence Vassey. The girls in the group sung in the Swedish version of Mamma Mia. Florence,is a trio featuring Benny Andersson's daughter-in-law Lisa Östberg and her friends Anna Granath and Sara Jangfeldt.
Both Benny and Ludvig Andersson play on this CD.. The album does not include any new Benny Andersson songs
Track listing: Give
me the part/Noel v/s Art/Verklig/Vintertid/For Iris/Feel/Sakta
/Stjärnor och himlar/Kvar/Misfit /Mauritius
Bjorn Ulvaeus & Benny
Andersson -LYCKA May 2006 reissue Swedish CD (May also be released in Austria, Germany,
The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland)
The original 1970 album plus 14 bonus tracks including one never
before
released track-"To Live With You" which is the English
language version of "Lycka":...
Lycka album tracks
1. Lycka
2. Nånting är på väg
3. Kära gamla sol
4. Det där med kärlek
5. Välkommen in i gänget
6. Lilla du, lilla vän
7. Hej gamle man!
8. Liselott
9. Kalles visa
10. Ge oss en chans
11. Livet går sin gång
Bonus tracks
12. She's My Kind Of Girl
13. Inga Theme
14. Det kan ingen doktor hjäLPa
15. På bröllop
16. Tänk om jorden vore ung
17. Träskofolket
18. En karusell
19. Att finnas till
20. Hey, Musikant
21. Was die Liebe sagt (German track)
22. Love Has Its Ways
23. Rock'n Roll Band
24. Merry-Go-Round
25. To Live With You (previously unreleased)
Anne Sofie Von Otter-I Let the Music Speak International CD August 2006
Anne recorded a dozen songs from Benny Andersson/Bjorn Ulvaeus songbook for this album. The recordings were actually made in 2004 at the the Atlantis Studios, Benny plays on a couple of tracks on the album..Benny's friends -Anders Eljas and Kalle Moreaus also play on the Cd..Benny is pictured in the jacket in the liner notes and he looks like a old man.... Three of the songs have new lyrics..."Walk With You, Mama" has some cool lyrics...
The Day Before You Came (ABBA)
I Let The Music Speak (ABBA)
When All Is Said And Done (ABBA)
Walk With You, Mama (vocal version of "Stockholm at Night")
The Winner Takes It All (ABBA)
Butterfly Wings (the English version debut of BAO's Lätt
Som En Sommarfjäril)
Heaven HeLP My Heart (from Chess)
Ljusa Kvällar Om Våren (from Kristina från Duvemåla)
I Am Just A Girl (ABBA)
Ut Mot Ett Hav (from Kristina from Duvemåla)
After the Rain (English version debut of Benny's Efter Regnet)
Money, Money, Money (uncredited hidden track) (ABBA)
Anders Ekborg - Äkta vara
2006 CD+DVD November 10, 2006 Swedish CD/CVD
New album by star of Kristina and Chess Pa Svenska that features
a new song by B&B called " Han som vunnit
allt".
1. Två
2. Tåget
3. När man vågar älska
4. Vinden i min själ
5. För dig
6. Vackra utan själ
7. Det var nästan som jag visste
8. Änglarna vill ha det så
9. Han som vunnit allt
10. Det borde vara jag
11. Intill
Benny Andersson Orkester-Bao 3, UNI MMCD 023, Swedish
CD 24 October 2007
This is the new Bao Studio album with
at least 12 new songs, including five written by Andersson-Ulvaeus.
Tommy Korborg and Helen Sjoholm are featured singers."Fait
Accompli" and "Bonde
söker fru" (Farmer seeks wife) have been featured
at Skansen. "Crush On You' is an unfinished song dug up from
the late 1970's. "För dig" (For
you) is tune that the Bao have playing live for awhile.
"Upp till dig" (Up to you) is similiar to
the 1982 B & B composition "I Am The Seeker" , which
was part of the english version of the ABBACADABRA musical. This
is sung by Helen. Kristina Lugn wrote the lyrics to
"Nu mår jag mycket bättre" (I feel much better
now) , this song is sung by Tommy and Helen.
Track listing (with songwriters, time, translated title and lead singer)
1. Marsch Pannkaka (Andersson) 3.39 (Pancake March)-instrumental
2. For Dig (Andersson-Ulvaeus) 3.49 (For You) -
Tommy Korberg
3. Du Fralste Mig i sista stund (Andersson-Ulvaeus) 3.56
(You saved me at the last moment)- Helen Sjoholm
4. Fait Accomplit (Andersson-Ulvaeus) 4.00- Tommy Korberg
5. Crush On You (Andersson-Ulvaeus) 3.38 - Helen Sjoholm
6. Calle J:s Vals (Andersson) 2.53 (Calle's J. Waltz)-instrumental
7. Helens Brudvals (Andersson) 3.13 (Helen's Wedding Waltz)-instrumental
8. Upp Till Dig (Andersson-Ulvaeus) 4.03 (Up to You)-
Helen Sjoholm
9. Bonde Soker Fru (Andersson-Ulvaeus) 3.04 (Farmer
Seeks Wife) - Tommy Korberg
10. Nu Mar Jag Mycket Battre (Andersson-Lugn) 5.00
(Now I feel much Better) - Helen Sjoholm
11. Wienerbrot (Andersson) 3.36 (Vienna Bread)
-instrumental
12. Godnattvisa (Andersson) 3.48 (Good Night song) -instrumental
Original Soundtrack Recording, Mamma Mia-Decca
label 177 418-4 ,
International CD -July 2008
The movie soundtrack album was released in
the summer, around the
same time as the release of the movie, The CD was released in
the US on Tuesday July 8, 2008 (and in the UK on Monday July 7,
2008 ). The album proved to be quite successful, charting higher
than of ABBA's original albums in the USA and going to number
1 in some countries, including the USA and GREAT Britain
The music was recorded before the movie was
filmed with the vocals sung in London by the original actors in
the movie. Some live vocals recorded during the
filming were also thrown in the mix. The musical backing tracks
were
newly recorded mostly in Febuary 2007 at Atlantis Studios in Sweden
by Benny Andersson
with the help of veterans of the original ABBA band ( Rutger Gunnarsson
on bass, Lasse Wellander on guitar, Per Lindvall on drums , .An
orchestra was used for parts of the backing track, and the chorus
parts of the vocals were
recorded by the Stockholm ensemble cast of Mamma Mia.
Two songs that were in the original musical either are not sung
in
the movie- "Under Attack" and "Knowing Me, Knowing
You" . "Knowing Me,
Knowing You " has been replaced by ""When All is
Said And Done' . For
reasons not clear yet, the following songs are not included in
the
soundtrack album track listing -Overture / Prologue, Chiquitita,The
Name
Of The Game,Entr'Act, One Of Us, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do,
and
Waterloo. There was be to a two-disc
version of this album. The two disc version was to include instrumental
versions of
songs that underscore the action in the movie, the end credits
medley
and god knows what else, but it doesn't seem to be seing release.
Honey Honey
Money, Money, Money
Mamma Mia
Dancing Queen
Our Last Summer
Lay All Your Love On Me
Super Trouper
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!
The Name Of The Game
Voulez-Vous
S.O.S.
Does Your Mother Know
Slipping Through My Fingers
The Winner Takes It All
When All Is Said And Done
Take A Chance On Me
I Have A Dream
Thank You For The Music (hidden track)
ADDENDUM: This is the first English language album
to be released by the Benny Anderssons Orkester who are retitled Benny Andersson Band for the purposes of international release.
This CD is mostly a compilation of previously recorded songs ranging back as far as 1987. Nine of the fourteen songs
are instrumentals. Four of the songs- “Fait Accompli”,“Our Last Dance”, “You Are My Man”,
“ The Stars” feature never before released English language vocal tracks. The album features one totally new song
“Story of a Heart”, which is a Andersson-Ulvaeus song that is more ABBAesque than the usual
BAO stuff. I think "Story of a Heart" is good recording if not a great song,and not necessarily a good vehicle
for Helen's voice. The English lyrics to "Our Last Dance"
and "You Are My man" come off as kind of cliche. It is often to do literal translations of songs to another
language. "The Stars" works well, and is my favorite of the new recordings on this CD. The album was released a couple of days
after the band's first appearance in in Hampstead, Britain on July 4, 2009. Track listing with songwriter(s), tracktime,
year of original release, and lead singer if any… 1. Glasgow Boogie (Andersson) 3.35 2004 2. Trolska [Trolskan] (Andersson) 2.07 1989 3. Story Of A Heart (Andersson-Ulvaeus) 5.08
2009 Lead Vocals-Helen Sjoholm 4. Bed Of Roses [En dans på rosor] (Andersson)
3.04 2004 5. You Are My Man [Du är min man] (Andersson-Ulvaeus)
3.36 2004 Lead Vocals-Helen Sjoholm 6. Circus Finemang (Andersson) 4.18 2001 7. Fait Accompli (Andersson-Ulvaeus) 3.57 2007
Lead Vocals-Tommy Korberg 8. Song From The Second Floor [Sång från
andra våningen] (Andersson) 3.46 2001 9. Birthday Waltz For Mona [Födelsedagsvals till
Mona] (Andersson-Ulvaeus) 2.23 1987 10. [If This Is] Our Last Dance [Vår sista dans]
Andersson) (Andersson-Ulvaeus) 4.46 2001 Lead Vocals-Helen Sjoholm 11. Jehu (Andersson) 3.44 2004 12. Tirolan Schottis [Schottis i Tyrolen] (Andersson)
2.51 2001 13. The Stars [För dig] (Andersson-Ulvaeus) 3.48
2007 Lead Vocals-Helen Sjoholm, Tommy Korberg 14. P.S. (Andersson) 1.01 2001 Bonus track (Sweden only): 15. Sommaren du fick (Swedish vers.- Story Of
A Heart] (Andersson-Ulvaeus) 4.27 2009 Lead Vocals-Helen Sjoholm BAO-Sommaren
du fick, Swedish single/download June 2009 A Swedish version of "Story
of a Heart", called "Sommaren du fick", will be a bonus track on the Swedish version of the Story of a Heart album.
It's also being released as a single in Sweden.
Various
Aristts-Highlights From Chess in Concert single CD An abridged
version of the Albert Hall Concert CD, a common practice in Tim Rice cast albums. In
this case totally pointless, since much of the reason for the concert was to have a new unabridged definitive version.
1. The Story Of Chess
2. Merano
3.
Where I Want To Be
4. The Merchandisers
5. Chess Game #1
6. Quartet (A Model Of Decorum And Tranquility)
7. Nobody's
Side
8. Mountain Duet
9. Embassy Lament
10. Heaven Help My Heart
11. Anthem
12. Golden Bangkok
13. One Night
In Bangkok
14. You And I
15. Someone Else's Story
16. Pity The Child #2
17. I Know Him So Well
18. You And
I (reprise)
19. Walter And Florence
20. Anthem (reprise)
1. Prologue 2. The Story Of Chess 3. Merano/What a Scene! What a Joy! 4. Commie Newspapers/Press Conference 5. Molokov and Anatoly/Where I Want To Be 6. Difficult and Dangerous Times 7. The Arbiter 8. Hymn To Chess 9. The Merchandisers 10. Chess Game #1 11. The Arbiter (reprise) 12. Quartet (A Model of Decorum and Tranquility) 13.
Florence and Molokov 14. 1956 - Budapest Is Rising 15. Nobody's Side 16. Mountain Duet 17. Chess Game #2 18. Florence Quits/Pity The Child #1 19. Embassy Lament 20. Heaven Help My Heart 21. Anatoly and the Press 22. Anthem ACT 2 CD 2
23. Golden Bangkok 24. One Night In Bangkok 25. One More Opponent 26. You and I 27. The Soviet Machine 28. The Interview 29. Someone Else’s Story 30. The Deal (No Deal) 31. Pity The Child #2 32. I Know Him So Well 33. Talking Chess 34. Endgame 35. You And I (Reprise) 36. Walter and Florence 37. Anthem (Reprise)
Benny Andersson's Orkester
Story of A Heart, O Klang Och Jubeltid
\Two albums by BAO not listed here as yet
THE MAESTRO AT WORK! THE MAESTRO AT WORKA CHRONILOGICAL LIST OF BENNY'S MAJOR Studio WORKS.ALBUMS IN WHICH BENNY WAS A MEMBER OF THE BAND OR THE PRIMARY CREATIVE PLAYER ...
**Hep Stars WE AND OUR CADILLAC 1965
****The
Hep Stars -The Hep Stars 1966
**The
Hep Stars -Jul Med Hep Stars 1967
***The Hep Stars-It's Been a Long Long Time 1968
***Hep Stars -Songs We Sang '68 1968
****Björn and Benny-Lycka 1970
***ABBA(Björn,Benny,Agnetha&Frida)-RING
RING 1973
***ABBA-Waterloo
1974
****ABBA-Abba
1975
*****ABBA-Arrival
1976
*****ABBA-The
Album -1977
****ABBA-Voulez-Vous
1979 -
*****ABBA-Super
Trouper 1980
****ABBA-The
Visitors 1981
****Andersson,Rice & Ulvaeus-CHESS
1984
****Gemini-Gemini 1985
****Benny Andersson -Klinga Mina Klockor
1987
***Gemini-Geminism 1987
** Original
Broadway Cast-CHESS Andersson,Rice & Ulvaeus 1988
***Benny Andersson-November 1989
***Josefin
Nilsson -Shapes 1993
****Original
Cast-KRISTINA FRAN DUVEMALA by Andersson-Ulvaeus 3CD set 1996
***Benny Andersson-Benny Andersson's Orkester
2001
Benny Andersson's Orkester-BAO! June 2004 Swedish CD.
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| MONTIEF'S HANDY GUIDE TO ABBA THE ALBUMS!!! |
| HOME-ABBA-THE ALBUMS | All ABBA Albums 1972-1982 | All Abba Albums 1983-2006 |
| 1970-1972 The Early Years (Lycka, Pa Svenska, Early singles) | 1973 Ring Ring | 1974-Waterloo |
| 1975-ABBA'S 1975 studio album | 1975/1976 ABBA's first Greatest Hits album | 1976/1977-Arrival |
| 1977/1978- The Album | 1979 Voulez-Vous and Greatest Hits Volume 2 | 1980-Super Trouper |
| 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
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ABBA THE ALBUMS - GROUP & SOLO ALBUM REVIEWS LISTED IN ODER OF YEAR OF RELEASE
Chart revised by Montief OR SOMEONE WHO LOOKS LIKE HIM... |
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