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December 2018

On some songs, like the chorus in 'Head Over Heels' and the 'Voulez Vous' part in the chorus I hear a very high classical kind of soprano voice. Who sings this, Agnetha could belt her high notes but these phrases are sung with a falsetto voice. Can you give the answer, please??? Thanks!

Best wishes,
Gerard, Delft, the Netherlands 

 

  

All the voices you hear on ABBA's records are the four ABBA members, except for the International School of Stockholm Choir singing on 'I Have A Dream', and another choir on 'Estoy Soñando'. Agnetha and Frida can sing quite high in falsetto. You can hear how high Frida can go at the end of her debut solo single 'En ledig dag',a nd Agnetha hits high notes clearly heard in 'Hole In Your Soul'.

 

I have the 1999 US re-release of Something's Going On and the track 'To Turn the Stone' clocks in at 5:18 while the original LP version and the 2015 Deluxe Edition has it as 5:25. When doing a side by side comparison, the 1999 version is noticeably running at a faster speed. Are you aware of this and if so is this an alternate mix or simply an error when pressing the CD?
I just discovered that the sped-up mix is also on The Voice of ABBA compilation which indicates that it may not be a pressing error?

Thanks!
Dusty

 

  

Hmmm. I've never noticed this before. I haven't heard that US CD, and haven't played The Voice Of ABBA for many years. Unfortunately I don't have the technoology to do a side-by-side comparison. The original 1983 Something's Going On Polar/Polydor CD also runs 5.18. The earliest appearance of the song running at 5.25 seems to be the remastered Something's Going On CD released in 2005, then again on the Deluxe Edition in 2015. Well spotted Dusty, and very curious indeed.

 

I noticed in recent photos of the lovely Frida at wedding, she had a walking cane. Do you know if she had an accident, or if she has any other concern such as arthritis?

Cheers for now,
Tony, Australia

 

  

Why Frida has the cane is not officially known. There was some scuttlebut in the fan forums of recent surgery.

 

Is it just or or the Album Version edit (as seen on most ABBA DVDs now) of the 'When All Is Said And Done' music video out-of-sync? I notice Agnetha and Frida's mouth are moving even when it's instrumental for a bit. I think the might've slowed down the video to fit it. Could you explain your opinions on this?

Love Aaron, Australia. 

 

  

The original video had a alternate mix of 'When All Is Said And Done'. It did not have the full introduction, and the vocals were slightly different in the final phrase "there's no hurry anymore when all is said and done". On most DVD appearances the album version has been overdubbed, so the vocals seem slightly out of synch in that part. The original video can be seen on The Visitors Deluxe Editon DVD. As for mouths moving when there is no vocal, I have never noticed that.

 

Regarding the film-clip for 'That's Me' ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP_dk429rbc ), I was wondering if someone else other than Lasse Hallström directed it?, as it's always looked a bit clumsy to me (although I'm sure that I remember reading somewhere that the clip was put together quickly for Japan's Discomate label that wanted to release of 'That's Me' instead of 'Dancing Queen'). Apart from bits of the 'Money, Money, Money' and 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' film-clips and out-takes in it, parts that stick-out like it may not have been directed by Lasse are:
* where A, B, B and A 'sprout-away' from each other - they all look bored / fed-up / uninspired (from 0:04 to 0:06) (similarly with Frida and Agnetha, from 0:47 to 0:48)
* a part where you can see that Frida's having a brief problem remembering the words (from 1:01 to 1:03)
* and the trademark close-ups of Frida & Agnetha in this clip look way too close, looking more like an advertisement for a skin-pore cleansing product.
No matter how Lasse directed his film- and video-clips with ABBA, it always looked like he wanted to showcase ABBA in the best way possible, thus I assume that he'd do more than one take whenever something would look a bit iffy.

Cheers form Tony, Australia.

 

  

Tony, you've certainly watched that video more closely than I ever have! Discomate issued 'That's Me' as a single in 1977 (instead of 'Money, Money, Money', not 'Dancing Queen', which had already been issued as a single), so indeed this clip was quickly thrown together. It looks very much like someone pointed a camera at ABBA, they ran through the song a couple of times, then went on with their day. The DVD releases credit the clip to Hallström.

 

Did ABBA ever give the true story of 'Chiquitita' ? I happen to have it.

Brad from Canada 

 

  

If you mean did they ever explain the meaning of the lyric, no they never gave the "true story".

 
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