2. ABBA in New York - January 79
5. The royal dinner/Photo sessions for the new album
6. Videos for Voulez-Vous & Does Your Mother Know
8. Does Your Mother Know/Kisses of Fire/Finn Kalvik
9. The rehearsals before the tour/ABBA in Spain
11. Gimme Gimme Gimme/Estoy soñando - summer 79
14. I Have a Dream/Take A Chance On Me (live)
The recording sessions continue
Recording of the album "Voulez-Vous" took extremely long time. The recording sessions started already in March 1978 and the album containing only 10 songs was ready for release first more than 1 year later. Lots of material recorded during the Voulez Vous-sessions remained unreleased. It was definitely the sign of the first creativity crisis in the group. At the beginning of 1979 Björn and Agnetha decided to go separate ways.
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The first recordings were made at the Metronome studio in Stockholm but from May 18, 1978 ABBA continued in their newly opened, top modern own studios called "Polar Music Studios". Even other Polar artists had a possibility to make their recordings in the new studios in Stockholm - among them Ted Gärdestad. As the Polar Music Studios were the most advances recording studios in the world by that time many famous international artists recorded their albums there.
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1979
The UNICEF-gala
On arrival in New York
The first public appearance of ABBA took place on the Unicef gala in New York on 9 January 1979. The group performed their brand new song "Chiquitita" with Agnetha's lead vocal. At the end of the show all participating artists featuring ABBA sang the group's 1973 hit "He is Your Brother".
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Rehearsals
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Chiquitita/Lovelight - the single
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In Sweden it was announced on January 16th that Björn and Agnetha would divorce. The same day the new, long-awaited single "Chiquitita" from the forthcoming album was released with another new track "Lovelight" on the B-side. "Chiquitita" was released in its full-length version of 5,26 and "Lovelight" in two different edits - on the Swedish issue of the single the track was 3.46 long and on the Polydor version of the single the song was edited down to 3.28. The "Unicef" version of the single released by Polar in Norway contained "Chiquitita" (on Polar label) and "Too much heaven" by Bee Gees (on RSO label). The single entered the British chart on February 4, 1979 and stayed there for 9 weeks reaching #2. In West Germany "Chiquitita" stayed on the chart for 26 weeks reaching #3. Australian chart entry took place on February 19, 1979, the peak position was #4 and the chart life 19 weeks. New Zealand, South Africa and Zimbabwe were the only countries where the single became no 1. In Sweden was "Chiqutita" #2, in Norway #4, in Austria #6, in France #13 and in Italy only #48. In USA "Chiquitita" was released on October 19th and it reached #64.
The photo for the single cover was taken in the autumn 1978 - go.to/ABBA 1978 if you want to see more alternative shots.
In the East Europe "Chiquitita" bw "Lovelight" was released during 1979 both in Poland and East Germany by the record companies Tonpress respective Amiga.
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During the last two weeks in January and the first week in February ABBA members devoted their time to various projects. Björn and Benny tried to find a new inspiration in the Bahamas, Frida acted in a Swedish movie picture "Gå på vattnet om du kan" and Agnetha recorded a new song "När du tar mig i din famn" planned for her new compilation album "Tio år med Agnetha" which would be released later this year.
Chiquitita on 12"
The German maxi single release featured the album version of "Chiquitita" b/w edited version of "Lovelight".
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Frida in the Swedish press
New pictures of Anni-Frid were published by Swedish press at the beginning of 1979.
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In the middle of February ABBA went to Switzerland and made a TV-Show "Snow time Special" aka "ABBA in Switzerland".
go.to/ABBA Voulez-Vous Special to read more about the ABBA show in Switzerland
At the beginning of March "Chiquitita" was re-recorded in Spanish for a release in Spanish language territories. On March 8 ABBA and Stikkan with his wife were participating in the dinner at the Royal Castle in Stockholm - the hosts were King and Queen Silvia.
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Voulez-Vous - the photo sessions
Photo sessions for the new album were taken at Alexandra Disco in Stockholm (go.even.to/ABBA related places)
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Chiquitita - on German TV
On March 22nd ABBA appeared in the German TV show "Musikladen" performing "Chiquitita".
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The "nude" session 1979
One more time it was decided to take fake "nude" photo sessions in 1979. It was the third and the last one. The previous "nude" sessions were taken in 1974 and 1976. The latter one by the BRAVO photographer Wolfgang Heilemann.
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Bosse takes Frida in
Swedish TV channel 2 broadcasted an entertainment show "Party at Parnevik" hosted by famous Swedish comedian Bosse Parnevik in 1978. The highlight of each show was a phone call made by Parnevik to various Swedish celebrities. Parnevik is well-known for his imitations and he pretended to be a well-known person during each phone call. One of the offers was Anni-Frid Lyngstad and another ABBA-related person was the manager Stikkan Anderson. Parnevik pretended to be Anni-Frid's old friend and mentor Swedish jazz-musician Charlie Norman. The talk lasted for 5 minutes and 13 seconds and Anni-Frid was all the time sure that she was talking to Charlie Norman. Parnevik pretended to be the prime minister Olof Palme when he called Stikkan Anderson but Stikkan seemed not to be 100% sure that he was talking to Palme. The best 10 phone calls were released on an LP in 1979 and it's probably the most odd ABBA-related record in the history.
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Disco 100
When the popular German TV show "Disco" celebrated its 100th edition ABBA contributed with a greeting taped at the Polar Music Studio. Both Björn and Agnetha were talking German.
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Agnetha & Frida - spring 1979
In the spring Agnetha and Frida met Finnish press and gave an interview which was published in the Finnish press at the end of May.
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Voulez-Vous/Does Your Mother Know - the videos
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At the beginning of this month two video clips were filmed for "Voulez-Vous" and "Does Your Mother Know". The filming was done in Europa Studios in Stockholm.
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Finally the long-awaited new album was released on April 23rd. The 10 songs on the LP represented very different styles from ballad to reggae and disco. The album seemed to be a little bit messy though. It was probably because of some kind lack of new musical ideas or maybe because of the personal problems in the group. The album contains though some of the best ABBA songs ever as "If It Wasn't For The Nights", "Lovers" and "The King Has Lost His Crown". The album was released all over the world in slightly different versions. In the Spanish language territories the album featured the Spanish version of "Chiquitita" as a bonus track.
A wonderful photo of Ola Lager was featured on the cover. The photo sessions for this album had been held at Alexandra disco in Stockholm at the beginning of 1979 and the pictures from those sessions must be the most fabulous ones through all ABBA's career.
Swedish press had a special ad on April 23rd with information that the new ABBA album was out the same day.
Voulez-Vous all over the world
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The Spanish Carnaby release with a bonus track - Chiquitita in Spanish |
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The Czechoslovakian Supraphon release |
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The Bulgarian release with slightly changed lay-out on the back civer |
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Made in Hungary |
The album entered the British chart on May 19th, 1979 on #1 where it stayed for 4 weeks. Totally "Voulez-Vous" stayed on the UK chart for 43 weeks. In USA "Voulez-Vous" was released on June 13, 1979. It stayed on the chart for 27 weeks reaching no 19.
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Czech note book containing three songs: Angel Eyes, Kisses of Fire and As Good As New. |
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The Voulez-Vous cover photo mystery
Since 1979 when I saw the cover of the LP "Voulez-Vous" for the first time I was always irritated at a little black spot to the left of Bennys head. The cover photo was taken at the Alexandra Disco in Stockholm in March 1979 among mirrors and glass walls which are very difficult to handle with if you are photographer. The cover for the "Voulez-Vous" album was created in London and even the cover photo was retouched there and the mystery black spot came up and nobody noticed it before the cover was pressed. There were no "photo shops" programmes in 1979 and not so many computers so it was more difficult to retouche pictures by that time.
A couple years ago I intended to open a brand new section on raffem.com entitled "Small ABBA mysteries" and I even wanted to mention just this little black thing there and ask other ABBA fans for help with finding any idea what it was. The section has never became real and the V-V black spot was partly forgotten.
So imagine my astonishment a couple days ago when I re-scanned the photos from the Voulez-Vous session for new publishing on raffem.com when I suddenly saw something new on the Voulez-Vous promotional postcard issued by Polar. There is NO black spot there as this version of the photo had never been retouched. BUT there is something shining red in the mirror - a little detail but it would without doubt be a little bit annoying on the album cover so the creators of the cover decided to cover it with some black shade. The problem is that the colour is a different to the background. Even on the official Polar Music poster the same kind of effort was made but parts of the red spot can be still seen anyway.
So my big mystery is solved. Now take a look on your Voulez-Vous album and the postcard.
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Does Your Mother Know/Kisses Of Fire
The second single selection from the album "Voulez-Vous" was "Does Your Mother Know" backed with "Kisses of Fire". It was a brave choice as the lead vocal was sung by Björn which made that the "typical" ABBA sound disappeared a little bit even if the girls were heard very clearly in the chorus. The song became though a big hit and it entered the UK chart on May 5, 1979 where it stayed for 9 weeks reaching #4.
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Mexico |
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France |
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In West Germany it came up on the single chart on May 21 where it stayed for 15 reaching reaching top 10. In Canada the single was released at the end of July and entered the local chart on August 8 where it stayed for 14 weeks reaching # 8. In USA on May 19 for 14 weeks with the peak position 19. The Australian release on June 4 brought the single to no 7 and the chart life lasted for 16 weeks. The highest position #3 "Does Your Mother Know" reached in Irland. In Mexico the single entered the chart in August 79 where it climbed up to #17. In USA the single was released on May 4th and it was quite successful on the US chart reaching #19.
Voulez-Vous/Kisses of Fire - the Spanish single
The Spanish record company was not so "brave" as the other record companies representing Polar Music. "Does Your Mother Know" was too risky for release in Spain and that's why more "traditional" ABBA song "Voulez-Vous" was chosen for the A-side backed with "Kisses of Fire". The single entered the Spanish hit chart in May and reached #9.
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MAY
Finn Kalvik
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At the beginning of May Benny started a collaboration with Norwegian singer Finn Kalvik. They recorded together an album "Kom ut kom fram" with Agnetha and Frida as background singers on some of the songs. All ABBA musicians were engaged in this project and Rune Söderqvist designed the album cover.
ABBA demonstrate in Stockholm
On May 3rd Agnetha, Frida, Benny and Björn took part in a demonstration against the goverment's action to stop the creation of an agency aimed at finding work for artists. (source ABBA The Book by J-M Potiez).
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The "Frida feet" session
Probably one of the biggest photo mysteries. The photo was manipulated in order to add the part with Agnetha in the TV. In one version of the picture which was published in many newspapers Frida's foot under the TV stand in a wrong direction! Fascinating that Polar Music missed this mistake and released the photo.
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Honey Honey -the LP in West Germany & Holland
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The album "Honey Honey" was released in 1976 and re-released in May 1979 in West Germany and Holland. The content was almost the same as "Ring Ring" the only difference was that "She's My Kind Of Girl" replaced "I Saw It In The Mirror". If you know Dutch read the original review of the LP from "Hitkrant" (June 1979)
The rehearsals before the tour 79
go.to/ABBA The World Tour 1979
In Spain
On May 27 ABBA went to Spain and appeared in two TV shows presenting new songs in "Applauso" and "300 Millones".
go.to/Gracias Por La Musica for details
JUNE
On June 7 ABBA and Stikkan recorded "Sång till Görel" (Görel Hanser, Stikkan's secretary) who would celebrate her 30th birthday on June 21. The single was a gift to her and the lyrics were talking about Görel's importance at Polar Music. The single was released in 50 copies and is one of the rarest ABBA items.
Chiquitita (in Spanish)/Lovelight
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Spanish version of "Chiquitita" was released in the Spanish language countries in the mid-June. It was a tremendous success peaking charts in Spain and South America.
Voulez-Vous in Africa
In June the LP "Voulez-Vous" was released by Sunshine Records in South Africa and Zimbabwe. ABBA was extremely popular in those countries and nobody was surprised that the album reached top on the South African and Zimbabwian album charts.
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"Stikkan hos Hagge"
Stikkan Anderson participated in the TV Show "Gäster hos Hagge" on Swedish TV. The ABBA members contributed to the show with pre-recorded video where they were talking in a funny way about Stikkan and his importance for ABBA. Stikkan became so touched that he started crying in front of TV cameras...
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JULY
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The third single from the album "Voulez-Vous" was released in July. The single had 2 A-sides containing "Voulez-Vous" and "Angeleyes". The single entered the British single chart on July 14, 1979 and stayed there for 11 weeks reaching # 3. In West Germany it entered the chart on August 20 where it stayed for 16 weeks reaching only #14. The single was quite successful in other European countries: Irland #3, Holland #4, France #9 but not in Canada (#43) and Australia (#79).
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The West German single contained an edited version of "Angeleyes" (3.47) | |
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Voulez-Vous/Kisses Of Fire
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Japan chose in their own way again and a different song selection for the second single from the album "Voulez-Vous". "Does Your Mother Know" with Björn doing lead vocal was a very good rocky number but the Japanese preferred the girls and their voices. The second single from the album "Voulez-Vous" released in Japan featured the title track backed with "Kisses of Fire". The single was released by Discomate Japan on July 5, 1979.
Maxi single
The West German maxi single featured the full-length album version of "Voulez-Vous" and the 4.20 version of "Angeleyes" (different to the 7" release).
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