ABBA blog

These days, when a book of mine is published, the most frequent questions are usually, "why doesn't book have the ABBA logo?" (you need permission, and it costs money) and "is the book going to be published in German?" (probably not, due to insufficient demand). With the publication of ABBA On Record, however, I've noticed a new query vying for a top spot in the Most Frequent Questions chart: "Why isn't ABBA Gold discussed in the book?"

ABBA Gold is the group's biggest-ever release, so it's a valid question, and I guess I could have been clearer about my "system" for the discographical aspects of ABBA On Record. The book is a bit of a hybrid: it is a discography, but I don't concern myself so much with different pressings and matrix numbers, as my main interest is to tell stories.

This is the basic system: As regards the years 1972–1982, the period when ABBA were active as a recording entity, I've included all the singles and albums from the official Scandinavian Polar Music catalogue. In addition, I've also included discs from other countries that feature the first release of unique recordings or mixes – tracks that weren't made available by Polar in Scandinavia at the time, such as the 1974 remixes of Ring Ring or the 1979 remix of Voulez-Vous.

For the years 1983–2020, I have applied the "other countries" system exclusively on everything: if something features the first release of a unique piece of ABBA music, then it's included in the book. If it contains no new music, then there's no room for that particular disc. And there you have the answer to the question: ABBA Gold does not contain any previously unheard music, so there was no room for it in ABBA On Record.

With the book's coverage of the 2021 release of the Voyage album and its singles, I naturally reverted to the 1972–1982 system, not only discussing the recording sessions (Complete Recording Sessions style) but also the packaging, the promotion, the reviews, the chart success, and so on.

I hope that answers the ABBA Gold conundrum!

Learn more about ABBA On Record and order your copy at abbaonrecord.com.