More ABBA Gold at 30

The “sequel” to 1992’s phenomenally successful ABBA GOLD – Greatest Hits was released on 24 May 1993.

ABBA fans were pleased when 1992’s multi-million selling ABBA GOLD was followed eight months later by a second CD, MORE ABBA GOLD – More ABBA Hits, featuring hit singles that hadn’t made the cut on the first album, B-sides, album tracks, and the first release of “new” ABBA music in over ten years, the shelved 1982 track ‘I Am The City’.

The original concept was apparently something very different. The album was to be called The Other Side Of ABBA, which would highlight B-sides and fan-selected album tracks, along with unreleased music. Several UK fans had been canvassed for track selections.

The album concept was changed to the more commercial tie-in with ABBA GOLD. The final product ended up with a bit of a split personality, from both the original concept and the idea of a “more greatest hits” album. It featured hits that hadn’t been included due to space on ABBA GOLD – early European and Australian hits ‘Ring Ring’, ‘Honey, Honey’, ‘So Long’, and ‘I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do’, mid-period singles ‘Eagle’ and ‘Summer Night City’, and the final singles ‘Head Over Heels’, ‘The Day Before You Came’, and ‘Under Attack’.

In between there is a hodge-podge of tracks. Songs that had limited single release such as ‘Angeleyes’, ‘On And On And On’, ‘When All Is Said And Done’, and ‘The Visitors’; songs deemed as “singles that never were” like ‘When I Kissed The Teacher’; and album tracks that seem to have been favourites of the compilers of the album like ‘Out Last Summer’ and ‘The Way Old Friends Do’.

Pleasing to fans was the inclusion of non-album B-sides ‘Lovelight’ and ‘Cassandra’, which at the time were hard to find on CD. The original 1993 issue of MORE ABBA GOLD featured a previously unheard alternate mix of ‘Lovelight’, which though fascinating to hear, was frustrating at the time as the original 1979 single version was unavailable (it would be replaced on a 1999 reissue of the CD). The original CD also included an unsatisfactory edit of ‘The Visitors’, from a 1982 US promotional single, about a minute and a half shorter than the full album version. The complete song was included on the 1999 reissue.

Plans were to include the two unreleased tracks from ABBA’s final recording sessions in 1982, ‘I Am The City’ and ‘Just Like That’, until the latter was vetoed by Benny and Björn.

Perhaps the strangest inclusion is the studio version of ‘I Wonder (Departure)’. A live recording had featured on the B-side of ‘The Name Of The Game’ in 1977, which was planned to be included on this disc, until ABBA sound engineer Michael B. Tretow vetoed it, as he was not happy with the sound of the recording. The live version eventually appeared on the 4CD box set Thank You For The Music the following year. Instead of including the freely-available version from ABBA – The Album, perhaps it could have been replaced by one of the remaining singles that hadn’t been included on MORE ABBA GOLD, such as the first singles ‘People Need Love’ or ‘He Is Your Brother’, some other international hit, another non-album B-side (‘Crazy World’, ‘Happy Hawaii’, ‘Medley’, ‘Elaine’, ‘Should I Laugh Or Cry’, or ‘You Owe Me One’) , or one of the songs that appeared in the accompanying video cassette (‘Bang-A-Boomerang’, ‘One Man, One Woman’, ‘That’s Me’ or ‘Happy New Year’).

MORE ABBA GOLD hasn’t been subjected to as many reissues as ABBA GOLD, but it was repackaged a couple of times, in 1999 (along with GOLD for the 25th anniversary of ABBA’s Eurovision win and the opening of the musical Mamma Mia!), and in 2008 (again, along with GOLD for the opening of the movie version of Mamma Mia!).

Of course, it hasn’t sold anywhere near the number of copies of ABBA GOLD, but it has reportedly sold a healthy 3 million copies worldwide.

Happy 30th anniversary to MORE ABBA GOLD – More ABBA Hits!