The legendary  "so called" Opus 10 sessions

ABBA-1982 THE SINGLES-THE FIRST TEN YEARS

ALBUMS THAT FEATURE THE 1982 TRACKS,

THE CHESS DEMOS

Also, ABBA's reunions including the 2004 "reunions'...

"...And stopped along the way to buy
some Chinese food to go...
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ABBA-The Singles-The First Ten Years 1982 Released on CD but phased out

This was the end of ABBA!  Though no one knew  it at the time. ABBA's breakup was never announced, they simply never recorded again after this album. There were clues that ABBA was coming to an end-notably the solo albums by the girls, and word of the nascent CHESS musical...This collection of most of ABBA's A- sides was put together when it became clear that the group had no enthusiasm and not enough songs for an entire 1982 studio album of new material.

This "lack of enthusiasm" meant that the six new B&B compositions that were recorded got treated rather badly. Only two of the six songs ("The Day Before You Came" and "Under Attack") made it onto THE SINGLES 2LP collection. These two new songs were released  along with the 21 previously released A-sides from 1972-1982. These two songs were also released as the A sides of ABBA last two singles .

The six new songs recorded are all quite intriguing. They are all good songs, though perhaps as a group of songs not quite as good as the fine songs that can found on Super Trouper, or THE Visitors.. ABBA's instrumentation had become overly synthesizer dominated, Sadly, or not, Bjorn seems to have pretty much dissapeared from ABBA's recordings, and there isn't much other guitar to be found on the 1982 tracks. Still much of ABBA's great vocal sound remains.. Just spend some time listening closely to the backing vocals on any of these tracks and you'll be amazed at how much goes on. Two songs were used as A sides and Two songs were used as B-sides  However, the remaining two other songs recorded ( "I Am the City" and "Just Like That" ) were left in the can at the time...

"The Day Before You Came" and "Under Attack' were the songs chosen to be A-sides. Neither of the A-sides would do well in most places. Neither song hit the the Top 10 in Britain. Neither song even hit the Top 100 in America. However, one territory  remained loyal-I the Netherlands There TDBYC went to #1. The Low Countries showed once again that have ABBA's most consistent fans.

Two more of the six songs, "Cassandra" and " You Owe Me One" were initially released only as B-sides and were left off THE SINGLES collection. Dumping quality songs onto B-sides was a habit ABBA only got into during the latter part of their career. Between late 1973 and mid 1979 B&B only dumped one of their non -LP English language songs onto ABBA b-sides( "Crazy World") But Five non-Lp B&B songs showed up on their post mid 1979 singles.

The A&B side tracks would later be available on the BOX set and on other albums, and CD's. MORE ABBA GOLD, for example, has three of the four tracks. The 2001 remastered version of THE VISITORS is now the official home for the two A-sides as well as "Cassandra ". "You Owe Me One" had been on the prior remastered versions of THE VISITORS. "..

The songs on the 1982 sessions would be dubbed the Opus 10 sessions by a Swedish journalist even though ABBA never had a working album title. Supposedly,according to this journalist Opus 10 would have been ABBA's 10th album up to that time but, in actuality, it would have been ABBA's ninth studio album . It would be the tenth if only if you count ABBA's Spanish album Gracias Por La Musica, but their twelfth if you include their two Greatest Hits albums, and if you exclude RING RING which was not released in most places you get different numbers all together! THE SINGLES -THE FIRST TEN YEARS would be phased out from the catalogue when ABBA Gold was released.

TRACKS RECORDED...

You Owe Me One (Andersson-Ulvaeus)--A&F- first appeared as B-side Recorded May 1982

Lead & Backing Vocals-,Frida Lyngstad , Lead Backing Vocals-Agnetha Faltskog
Backing Vocals-Bjorn Ulvaeus
Keyboards-Benny Andersson
Lead Guitar-Lasse Wallender
Bass Guitar-Rutger Gunnarsson
Drums-Per Lindvall

This b-side for the last original ABBA single was the first track recorded during the 1982 sessions, it seems like a Techno version of "Happy Hawaii". Lyrically it's the weakest of the 1982 tracks but vocally it still interesting to listen to....This track never really was released on any of ABBA's major releases other than the box set...

It also showed up temporarily on the first Remasters of THE VISITORS from the late 1990's but not was retained on the 2001 remaster...It can be found on the box set.

I am the City (Andersson-Ulvaeus)-A&F- first appeared on More Abba gold Recorded May 1982

Lead & Backing Vocals-,Frida Lyngstad , Lead Backing Vocals-Agnetha Faltskog
Backing Vocals-Bjorn Ulvaeus
Keyboards-Benny Andersson
Lead Guitar-Lasse Wallender
Bass Guitar-Rutger Gunnarsson
Drums-Per Lindvall

"I am the City" was a fine techno-pop song that finally surfaced in 1993 on MORE ABBA Gold. " It's Hard to see why ABBA did not release back in the 1982 although it has been rumoured that it was being saved for a possible post-Chess ABBA album.

Just Like That (sax vers.) (Andersson-Ulvaeus first appeared in 1994 on THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC BOX SET

Just Like That (Full-sax vers.) (Andersson-Ulvaeus) Anna- unreleased
Just Like That (LA-LA versions) (Andersson-Ulvaeus) Anna- Unreleased.. all versions Recorded May 1982

Lead & Backing Vocals-,Agnetha Faltskog,Backing Vocals-Frida Lyngstad
Backing Vocals-Bjorn Ulvaeus
Keyboards-Benny Andersson
Lead Guitar-Lasse Wallender
Bass Guitar-Rutger Gunnarsson
Drums-Per Lindvall

Sax on some mixes-Raphael Ravenscroft

The holy grail of unreleased ABBA songs, since this song is perhaps the best completed ABBA song not to see a full uncut release . There were at least two versions of JLT. One version-the "La La" version of "Just Like That' is similiar to the later "Day Before You Came" -it features Agnetha's singing about yet another neglected woman, this version has a busy but laidback synthesizer arrangment. Another version is the peppier mix found in an abridged version on ABBA's boxset. This version features Raphael Ravenscroft on sax-and sounds more like hit single material, but B&B were unable a produce a mix that they were comfortable with .And so all the versions remained in the vault in 1982.

B&B would only allow a small snippet of "JLT" to be released on the 1994 box set.. The main reason given that ABBA's version of "JLT" has not been fully released is that B&B regard their 1985 production of a version of JLT by Gemini to be definitive (SEE GEMINI section.). Ironically, the Gemini version is out of print, anyway! The melody was borrowed again for use on a song in the 2002 Swedish language version of Chess.

Cassandra (Andersson-Ulvaeus)--Frida- first first appeared as B side Recorded August 1982

Lead & Backing Vocals-,Frida Lyngstad ,Backing Vocals-Agnetha Faltskog
Guitar & Backing Vocals-Bjorn Ulvaeus
Keyboards,effects, accordion?-Benny Andersson
Lead Guitar-Janne Schaffer
Bass Guitar-Rutger Gunnarsson
"Drums-Per Lindvall

Originally just a b-side. "Cassandra" features a intriguing lyric and a rich production. "Cassandra's "packing your bags" section (at 2;15) is one of the best 5 seconds in the ABBA ouvre. (even if the swelled voices effect was originally used by the Beach Boys ) Some of the arrangement of the song is borrowed from the then unreleased 1980 ABBA recording-"Put On Your White Sombrero". To be honest, the song hasn't aged well for me...I loved this song at first-"the oh this is a cool b-side effect" But it's not a great song-just a very good one.. "Cassandra first showed up on some of the ABBA "love song" LP collections of 1983,but didnt really make it onto a wide release on CD till MORE ABBA Gold was released. It can now be found on THE VISITORS remaster and on the box set.

Under Attack (Andersson-Ulvaeus)- first appeared on THE SINGLES Recorded August 1982

Lead & Backing Vocals-Agnetha Faltskog Lead & Backing Vocals-,Frida Lyngstad
Guitar & Backing Vocals-Bjorn Ulvaeus
Keyboards-Benny Andersson
Lead Guitar-Janne Schaffer
Bass Guitar-Rutger Gunnarsson
Drums-Per Lindvall

ABBA's last original single and the second A-side, pulled from "THE SINGLES' "Under Attack" ,was actually a fairly good pop song -but the world was cooling on ABBA . The video for "Under Attack" is ominous, at the end the four members walk away grimly with their backs to the camera. Ominous, since this was the last ABBA video. "Under Attack" was ABBA's last original single. It is a surprisingly peppy number for a swan song. But it was one ABBA's least successful singles.

This record is unusual for ABBA song in that it is really hard to make out some of the words in the chorus....

"Under Attack"can now be found on THE VISITORS remaster and on the box set.

Interestingly,ABBA brought back Lead Guitarist Janne Schaffer for this session,he had been there in 1972 when it all started...He had not been available for THE VISITORS sessions but appeared on every other ABBA album on at least some of the songs...

The Day before You Came (Andersson-Ulvaeus) first appeared on THE SINGLES Recorded August 1982

Lead & Backin,g Vocals-,Agnetha Faltskog ,Backing Vocals-Frida Lyngstad
Backing Vocals,Acoustic Guitar -Bjorn Ulvaeus
Synthesizers & drum machine -Benny Andersson
Snare Drum -Ake Sundqvist

This was the last studio track ABBA ever made. IT came 10 years and five months after ABBA's first recording -People Need Love". It was leadoff single for THE SINGLES collection. TDBYC was a five minute laundry list of a person's day that is either boring or profound depending on your prospective.The song features Benny on the synthesizer and Aggie on vocals. Listen closely to the breathtaking "Ahhhhs" at the end of the song. The video produced for the TDBYC features Agnetha and has the most story of any ABBA video clip. This song was covered by the British act-Blancmange. ". Bjorn and Benny deserve some respect for taking chances with this their the last recording they made for ABBA...

"The Day before You Came" can now be found on THE VISITORS remaster and on both of the box sets...

ABBA-The Singles SESSIONS (May -August 82) ALBUM FIRST RELEASED ON...	ABBA-THE FIRST TEN YEARS details
* Swedish release November 82 # 19 * Uk release November 82 # 1 * US release December 82# 62 * New songs recorded at Polar May-Aug 1982 * Produced by Andersson-Ulvaeus	SINGLES RELEASED The Day Before You Came/ Cassandra Under Attack/ You Owe Me One
Track listing for THE SINGLES Side a and Side B	Track listings for THE SINGLES Side C and D
Side A Ring Ring-Ring Ring Waterloo-Waterloo So Long-Abba I Do, I Do, I Do. I Do, I Do-Abba SOS-Abba Mammia Mia-Abba Fernando-Greatest Hits Side B Dancing Queen-Arrival Money, Money, Money-Arrival Knowing Me, Knowing You-Arrival The Name of the Game-The Album Take A Chance On Me-The Album Summer Night City-Greatest Hits 2	Side C Chiquitita-Voulez-Vouz Does Your Mother Know-Voulez-Vouz Voulez-Vous-Voulez-Vouz Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!-Greatest Hits 2 I Have A Dream-Voulez-Vouz   Side D The Winner Takes It All- Super Trouper Super Trouper-Super Trouper One of the Us-The Visitors The Day Before You Came-new song Under Attack-new song

THE THREE ALBUMS THAT FEATURE the 1982 tracks...

MORE ABBA GOLD rel 1993 worldwide Though out of print in most places now--- Here are the hits that didn't fit on ABBA Gold, a few interesting ABBA album tracks, some B-sides,and one never before released track -I Am the City (rccorded in 1982). This has 4 of the 6 1982 songs on it. This is a very listenable collection. It went out of print in some territrories but has been reissued in 1999 in some territories ,with a different song lineup, new liner notes and some longer song edits. MORE GOLD has a white cover in contrast to ABBA GOLD 's black cover. The now obsolete Spanish album MAS ORO has a similar color scheme to More ABBA Gold but obviously a different song lineup . The original version of this had liner notes by UK ABBA press officerJohn Tobler, but the recent remastered editions has liner notes by Carl Magnus Palm. A recent Australian ressissue of this CD bizarrely throws out "Cassandra" and "Lovelight". This CD has gone out of print in most places. Track listing (1982 tracks in italics) 1. Summer Night City 2. Angeleyes 3. The Day Before You Came 4. Eagle 5. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do 6. So Long 7. Honey, Honey 8. The Visitors 9. Our Last Summer 10. On and on and On11. Ring Ring 12. I Wonder (Departure) 13. Lovelight 14. Head over Heels 15. When I Kissed the Teacher 16. I Am the City (previously unreleased) 17. Cassandra 18. Under Attack 19. When All Is Said and Done 20. The Way Old Friends Do

ABBA- Thank You For The Music 4cd set 1994 Available worldwide. THE BOX SET HAS FIVE OF THE SIX 1982 Tracks, but "JUST LIKE THAT' " is in a edited version. This long awaited box set (or in actuality booklet set) was released after ABBA GOLD proved that were still a handful people (not many mind you, just a lucky few) willing to spend money on ABBA records. B&B ,( who always seem disdainful of their fans wishes) were skeptical that any one would want to buy a ABBA box set. More significantly, B&B were hesitant to release previously unreleased material. However, a trip to the vaults reminded them that many of the unreleased songs merited official release. So miraculously somebody was able to convince B&B to put out a box set. So, the typical box set formula was followed-combine hits , album tracks , rarities into one big smorgasbord. About half of ABBA's official output was compiled in this box set.-66 tracks on four Cd's. The track listings of the first three CD'sare chronological. All the songs on the first three CD's had been released before in some form or the other.ABBA's non-album B-sides are treated with respect. Most of the B-sides can be found on thebox. They are spread throughout all four CD's. The selection of the previously issued tracksis fairly sane, there were no worldwide hits left out, and all the albums are well representated, with ARRIVAL drawing the highest rate of selection with six songs. The Box set's centerpiece is the 14 song "ABBA Undeleted Medley". B&B were wary of giving these songs official sanction 'cos they didn't regard them as finished, polished material. In a way, B&B are correct, some of the songs are unfinished, most are unpolished.-but most of the songs are chock full of great ABBA hooks. So,It is not illogical to put unfinished songs in a medley format. Probably the best tune on the medley is the lovely "Hamlet III", which is featured in two versions. The first version was a fast instrumental, thesecond a gentle ballad. Neither amounted to a finished song, but it's still a great melody. The song actually saw it's initial release when Benny dragged up the tune for his 1987 solo album and recorded it as an accordion tune called "Lottis Schottis". At least two songs featured in "ABBA Undeleted", "Just A Notion" and "Just Like That" don't seem to benefit from being put in the medley-they are too truncated compared to the unreleased versions. It's obvious listening to bootleg versions that B&B were having problems with "Just Like That" ,they tried different approaches to the song-and all were good but none was just right. The version of JLT on the box set is a just snippet of a longer Sax version. The full length Sax version doesn't seem to develop the full potential of the song. The slower versions seem to make more sense but they lack the "hit single energy" of the sax version. B&B went back to "Just Like That' during the CHESS sessions and again on The first Gemini album where the finally finished the song. The biggest flaw with the medley is that it is not indexed on the CD , so it's hard to get to a particular song if want to listen to that song repeatedly. The rest of CD Four features 3 foreign language versions of famous ABBA songs, a b-side 1982's "YOU OWE ME ONE" and 4 songs originally released before the group was called ABBA. The liner notes to the box set are lengthyand include essays by USA Billboard editor ,Fred Bronson and British ABBA publicist John Tobler. ABBA memorabilia is pictured and some of Björn's latterday original handwritten lyrics are reproduced.The best part of the liner notes is Carl Magnus Palm's song commentary. As a whole the box set is pretty good,i t could have been better, but it could have been far worse.The box set was compiled by Chris Griffin,and remastered by Michael B. Tretow. The photograph on the cover was originally used on the Voulez-Vouz Angeleyes single. Disc: 1 1. People Need Love 2. Another Town, Another Train 3. He Is Your Brother 4. Love Isn't Easy 5. Ring Ring 6. Waterloo 7. Hasta Mañana 8. Honey, Honey 9. Dance (While the Music Still Goes On) 10. So Long 11. I've Been Waiting for You 12. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do 13. S.O.S. 14. Mamma Mia 15. Fernando 16. Dancing Queen 17. That's Me 18. When I Kissed the Teacher 19. Money, Money, Money 20. Crazy World 21. My Love, My Life Disc: 2 1. Knowing Me, Knowing You 2. Happy Hawaii 3. The Name of the Game 4. I Wonder (Departure) [Live] 5. Eagle 6. Take a Chance on Me 7. Thank You for the Music 8. Summer Night City 9. Chiquitita 10. Lovelight 11. Does You Mother Know 12. Voulez-Vous 13. Angeleyes 14. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! 15. I Have a Dream Disc: 3 1. The Winner Takes All 2. Elaine 3. Super Trouper 4. Lay All Your Love on Me 5. On and on and On 6. Our Last Summer 7. The Way Old Friends Do 8. The Visitors 9. One of Us 10. Should I Laugh or Cry 11. Head over Heels 12. When All Is Said and Done 13. Like an Angel Passing Through My Room 14. The Day Before You Came 15. Cassandra 16. Under Attack Disc: 4 1. Put on Your White Sombrero 2. Dream World 3. Thank You for the Music 4. Hej Gamle Man 5. Merry-Go-Round 6. Sants Rosa 7. She's My Kind of Girl 8. Pick a Bale of Cotton/On Top of Old Smokew/Midnight Special 9. You Owe Me One 10. Slipping Through My Fingers/Me and I 11. ABBA Undeleted 12. Waterloo [French/Swedish]13. Ring Ring [Swedish/Spanish/German] 14. Honey, Honey [Swedish]

ABBA-THE VISITORS 2001 CD and limited edition Digipak You can find 3 of the 6 1982 tracks on the new remastering of the 1981 album ,THE VISITORS. Lars Larsson's photo on the cover is slightly different than the original cover. Apparently, Universal had trouble finding the exact original negative. Features new liner notes by Carl Magnus Palm and four bonus tracks. "Cassandra" replaces ""You Owe Me One' as a bonus track. "Cassandra " had been inexplicably left off the original 1998 remastering of this album .It's Not clear, why we can't have both tracks. Hey and throw in" I am the City" and "Just Like That "as well. Hell why not just make a separate CD for the six 1982 tracks. The photo on the cover is slightly different than the original cover. 1. The Visitors; 2. Head Over Heels; 3. When All Is Said And Done; 4. Soldiers; 5. I Let The Music Speak; 6. One Of Us; 7. Two For The Price Of One; 8. Slipping Through My Fingers; 9. Like An Angel Passing Through My Room; Extra tracks: 10. Should I Laugh Or Cry; 11. The Day Before You Came; 12. Cassandra (new bonus track) 13. Under Attack

THE CHESS DEMOS

In 1983/84 B&B did a few demos for their CHESS project. One song recorded was "Every Good Man" which features Agnetha singing Björn's dummy lyrics to what would become the melody of "Heaven Help Heart'. The "Every Good Man' demo proves not surprisingly that Agnetha would have had no problem playing the Florence role in CHESS. "Every Good Man" is usually categorized as a ABBA song by bootlegers but strictly speaking it is not.

Also,three highly different variations of the" "Just Like That" melody were recorded by Elaine Paige, Tommy Korborg and Benny alone doing an instrumental version. These alternatives were called "When The Waves Roll out to Sea" and "When the Stars Are Up in The sky".

Supposedly there are several other interesting unreleased Chess demo recordings, most of which have never been heard outside of Polar Studios.
It is also interesting to note that 3 of the CHESS songs had their melodic roots in unreleased ABBA tracks. " I know Him So Well" has bits from" I Am a A". Secondly, Anthem" comes from "Nationalsang". Finally, parts of "Someone Else's Story" comes from "Lady Bird".

For more about CHESS click here

Reviews of the various Chess albums

ABBA'S RARE REUNIONS

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