ABBA Live
Encyclopedia
ABBA Live is an album of live recordings by Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 pop group ABBA
ABBA
ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog...

, released by Polar Music
Polar Music
Polar Music is a Swedish record company founded in 1963 by Stig Anderson and his friend Bengt Bernhag. The first act that it signed was the Hootenanny Singers featuring Björn Ulvaeus. Polar eventually gained prosperity producing Ulvæus' next group, international superstars ABBA...

 in 1986 (see 1986 in music
1986 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1986.-January-June:*January 23 – The first induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame takes place...

).

A live album was something that many ABBA fans had demanded for several years. ABBA themselves had toyed with the idea on a couple of occasions, but always decided against it. Finally, four years after the members went their separate ways, a live collection was released after all. The tracks on the album were mostly taken from ABBA’s concerts at Wembley Arena in London in November 1979, with a few additional songs taken from the tour of Australia in March 1977 and the "Dick Cavett Meets ABBA" television special, taped in April 1981.

When this LP/CD was released, the band's popularity was at an all-time low and none of the members themselves were involved in the production of the album. ABBA Live contains recordings from 1977, 1979 and 1981 – much to the dismay of both music critics and ABBA fans it also had 80's synth drums overdubbed on most tracks, taking away the true live feeling of the performances. Neither did it feature any of the tracks that the band had performed live on their tours but never included on any of their studio albums, such as "I Am An A", "Get On The Carousel", "I'm Still Alive", or the original live versions of the songs from the 1977 mini-musical The Girl With The Golden Hair; "Thank You For The Music", "I Wonder (Departure)" and "I'm A Marionette", all of which had slightly different lyrics and/or musical arrangements to the subsequent studio recordings included on The Album. Several tracks had also been heavily edited, in the case of the 1979 live recording of "Does Your Mother Know" by as much as five minutes since it originally was performed on that tour as a medley with "Hole In Your Soul".

ABBA Live was the first ABBA album to be simultaneously released on LP and CD, the CD having three "extra tracks". The album did not perform very well, internationally or domestically, peaking at #49 in Sweden and only staying in the charts for two weeks. Nevertheless, it still remains the only official live album by the group. It was remastered and rereleased by Polydor/Polar
Polar Music
Polar Music is a Swedish record company founded in 1963 by Stig Anderson and his friend Bengt Bernhag. The first act that it signed was the Hootenanny Singers featuring Björn Ulvaeus. Polar eventually gained prosperity producing Ulvæus' next group, international superstars ABBA...

 in 1997, but is currently out of print.

Side A

  1. "Dancing Queen
    Dancing Queen
    "Dancing Queen" is a pop song recorded by Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released in August 1976, but was first performed two months earlier, on 18 June 1976, during a Royal Variety Show in Stockholm the evening before the Swedish royal wedding. It was the follow-up single to the hit "Fernando"...

    " (Andersson, Anderson
    Stig Anderson
    Stig 'Stikkan' Erik Leopold Anderson was born in Hova, Sweden, and is best known as the manager of the pop group ABBA.- Polar Music:Anderson was the founder of the Polar Music record label in 1963...

    , Ulvaeus) – 3:42
  2. "Take A Chance On Me
    Take a Chance on Me
    "Take a Chance on Me" is a song by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released in 1978 as the second single from their fifth studio album, simply called The Album. The song has been featured on a number of ABBA compilations such as ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits.-History:The working title of "Take a...

    " – 4:22
  3. "I Have A Dream
    I Have a Dream (ABBA song)
    "I Have a Dream" is a song by Swedish pop group ABBA. The song was written by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus and was taken from the group's 1979 album, Voulez-Vous. Anni-Frid Lyngstad sang the lead vocals. It was released as a single in December 1979 with a live version of "Take a Chance on Me"...

    " – 4:23
  4. "Does Your Mother Know
    Does Your Mother Know
    "Does Your Mother Know", originally "I Can Do It", is the name of a song recorded in 1979 by Swedish pop group ABBA and was the second single to be released from their album Voulez-Vous. The B-side was "Kisses of Fire", also taken from the album.-History:...

    " – 4:09
  5. "Chiquitita
    Chiquitita
    "Chiquitita" was the first single release from Swedish pop group ABBA's Voulez-Vous album, their sixth for Polar, and their fifth for Epic and Atlantic...

    " – 5:21

Side B

  1. "Thank You For The Music
    Thank You for the Music
    "Thank You for the Music" is a song by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was originally featured on the group's fifth studio album ABBA: The Album and was released as a single on November 6, 1983, to promote the Epic Records compilation album Thank You for the Music: A Collection of Love Songs...

    " – 3:40
  2. "Two For The Price Of One" – 3:31
  3. "Fernando
    Fernando (song)
    "Fernando" is a song by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was the group's first non-album single and was released in November 1975 through Polar Music. Lead vocals were sung by Anni-Frid Lyngstad...

    " (Andersson, Anderson
    Stig Anderson
    Stig 'Stikkan' Erik Leopold Anderson was born in Hova, Sweden, and is best known as the manager of the pop group ABBA.- Polar Music:Anderson was the founder of the Polar Music record label in 1963...

    , Ulvaeus) – 5:22
  4. "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
    Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
    "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! ", originally titled "Been and Gone and Done It", is one of Swedish pop group ABBA's biggest disco hits. It was recorded and released in 1979 with "The King Has Lost His Crown" as the B-side. It appears on ABBA's Greatest Hits Vol...

    " – 3:17
  5. "Super Trouper
    Super Trouper (song)
    -A-Teens version:"Super Trouper" was A-Teens' second single from their 1st album The ABBA Generation, a cover of ABBA's song. When the single came out in the fall of 1999, it became a hit around the globe, just as its predecessor "Mamma Mia", also an ABBA cover...

    " – 4:23
  6. "Waterloo" – 3:34

Extra tracks on CD

  1. "Money, Money, Money
    Money, Money, Money
    "Money, Money, Money", originally "Gypsy Girl", is a song recorded by Swedish pop group ABBA. The song, like most ABBA songs, was written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. It was released as a single on November 1, 1976, as the follow-up single to "Dancing Queen, both from the album Arrival...

    " – 3:20
  2. "The Name Of The Game
    The Name of the Game
    "The Name of the Game" is a 1977 song by Swedish pop group ABBA, and was released as the first single from the group's fifth studio album, The Album...

     / Eagle
    Eagle (song)
    The song "Eagle" was recorded in 1977 by Swedish pop group ABBA. It was the first track on the group's fifth album, simply titled The Album and the longest track they ever recorded...

    " (Andersson, Anderson
    Stig Anderson
    Stig 'Stikkan' Erik Leopold Anderson was born in Hova, Sweden, and is best known as the manager of the pop group ABBA.- Polar Music:Anderson was the founder of the Polar Music record label in 1963...

    , Ulvaeus) – 9:37
  3. "On and On and On" – 4:01
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK