UPDATED 23 OCTOBER 2023
After being postponed in 2021 for the release of Voyage, and unable to fit in the schedule last year due to the 30th anniversary of ABBA Gold, the 40th anniversary releases of ABBA’s eighth album The Visitors are coming on 1 December 2023.
Like previous issues, The Visitors will be released as a double half-speed mastered 45 rpm album, picture disc singles, and box set of singles on coloured vinyl in picture sleeves.
The liner notes in the LP are written by Daryl Eastlea. The singles box set is a numbered limited edition of 3,000 copies.
The singles will include One Of Us/Should I Laugh Or Cry and Head Over Heels/The Visitors from the album, plus the two singles released the following year, The Day Before You Came/ Cassandra and Under Attack/You Owe Me One. Though the latter two singles were released a year after The Visitors, they have been included on CD issues of the album since 1997 as part of the album’s era.
Many fans are asking about other songs released as singles in this era, particularly When All Is Said And Done, which had been a single in the US and Australia.
Another suggestion has been the Japanese Slipping Through My Fingers single. This would have even more complications, being a coproduction with The Coca-Cola Company for a promotion in June 1981, and the single emblazoned with the Coca-Cola logo.
All previous anniversary sets have included only singles released by Polar Music in Scandinavia, with just one of exception: the Super Trouper series included Lay All Your Love On Me, based on the UK release in 1981, otherwise there would have been only two singles. To add more singles would be inconsistent with the series.
There’s also some new merchandise available.
Find all the details and ordering links on The Visitors 40th anniversary feature page.
ABBA Omnibus blog 