Been mooted (and dismissed) many times before, but with the 40th anniversary coming up something may be on the cards?

They have all said no so many times that it just won't happen.

One of the most overrated and overplayed bands of all time. Abba The Album people go on and on about it, it came out the same year as Sin After Sin by Judas Priest no one ever mentions that album when they talk about 70's music, it's one of their best, Thunder in My Heart by Leo Sayer tremendous album from 1977.

Does Leo still have that Italian manager? They made a strange pair. One of my favourite Abba tracks was 'The Day Before You Came' and it flopped (sort of).

I used to pick the singles from the demos and they went with my choices every time until I told them to release the magical Thank You For The Music... they felt it would imply the end of their careers and released something else (which flopped and was technically the end of their hit singles career).

My favourite and, for me, one of the ten greatest pop records ever made? The Winner Takes It All.

"..technically the end of their hit singles career", eh? Hmmm, a bit economical with the truth there JK. You could argue it was the end of their "Imperial" (can do no wrong) phase, but they still somehow managed to scrabble together ten top 10 hits in the 3 years or so after "The Album", including two numbers 1's...

It was their "The Visitors" album (ironically their best, IMHO) that saw their end as a chart force, though the fact it was their final album made it a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, notwithstanding 2 new tracks on actual swansong "The Singles: the First 10 Years", including the aforementioned (and fantastic) "The Day Before You Came."

I think the single they released instead of Thank You when I suggested it as a single was Head Over Heels and I can't remember them going top ten after then, but I may be wrong. It wasn't crucial to me at the time. They did eventually release Thank You but the moment had gone and it wasn't a huge hit.

Head Over Heels made no 25 in Feb 1982.
Thank You For The Music made no 33 in Nov 1983

The last single of any note was 'One Of Us',it made no 3 in Dec 1981.

Source
everyhit.com/

A bit of a puzzler, this. "Thank You For The Music" was originally on "The Album" in 1977. Abba only released 2 singles from it in the UK, "The Name of the Game" and "Take a Chance on Me", both number 1 hits. However, "Eagle" and "Thank You for the Music" were released as a double-A side across Europe, but for some reason, the UK was left out.

You might be thinking about the release of "The Singles: The First Ten Years" in 1982, months after the release of break-up album "The Visitors". The final single from "The Visitors" was "Head Over Heels", and 2 new tracks were released from "The Singles"; "The Day Before You Came" and "Under Attack". However, just a year later in 1983, another compilation was released, "Thank You for the Music: A Collection of Love Songs", which was a relative flop, but did see the title track finally released in the UK as a single for the first time, though as you say, its time had gone, and it didn't even make the top 30...

I advised them to release Thank You and they decided against it; all I know is that the track they then decided to release wasn't a Top 20 hit. Could be Thank You had been on an album earlier.

Abba quite often had different releases in the UK compared to the rest of Europe. I don't actually know the reason why but always assumed that it was because they were on Epic (through CBS) in the UK and on Polar (nothing to do with CBS) in Europe. The albums sometimes came with different packaging - The Album was in a blue gatefold sleeve in the UK, but a mainly white standard cover in Europe. Also, before Erasure released their Abba EP, you couldn't give Abba albums away. In fact CBS released three collections on the budget Pickwick label before they lost the rights to the albums.

In The Know wrote:
Been mooted (and dismissed) many times before, but with the 40th anniversary coming up something may be on the cards?

Since I posted this, the possibility of a reunion (of some kind) has now been reported in the Daily Star, the Daily Mail and also on Sky News.

We obviously have some influential readers on this site - all in search of a "good story"

ITK reading the Daily Star ? Must be the catchy jingles that's planted in his head 20 years ago.



1993 was a great year for adverts.

andrew wrote:
ITK reading the Daily Star ?

Yes, dear ! I have to ask others what some of the words mean, but need to keep up (or should that be down ???) with the Vicky Pollards, don't I ?

Has anyone ever noticed that Abba & E.L.O. had a very similar career trajectory?

Some success circa 72-75 before becoming global phenomena between 76-81, equal success with singles and albums. And then at the end of 1981, both acts released highly successful albums that only yielded 1 big hit single each - and at the dawn of 1982 they suddenly couldn't get themselves in the Top Twenty again

Abba evaporated with dignity though, whereas Jeff persevered with a stripped-down ELO for another couple of albums

In The Know wrote:
andrew wrote:
ITK reading the Daily Star ?

Yes, dear ! I have to ask others what some of the words mean, but need to keep up (or should that be down ???) with the Vicky Pollards, don't I ?

Riveting stuff.

The fact that Agnetha turned up on stage tonight and performed, albeit with Gary Barlow, will add fuel to then flame.