2012

A....



2012


January:
2012-01-13  Agnetha
receives ELLE’s Fashion Legend award at Grând Hotel in Stockholm. http://elle.se/staende-ovationer-for-agnetha-faltskog/

    

2012-04 -23  Release of The Visitors Deluxe Edition, including the demo medley ‘From A Twinkling Star To A Passing Angel’, the first previously unreleased ABBA recordings since 1994! http://abbasite.com/articles/news/the-visitors-deluxe-edition-released-in-april!

From 'The Complete Recording Sessions' by Carl Magnus Palm:
26th May, 1981:
Polar Music Studios: Recording 'Another Morning Without You' (a working title of 'An Angel Walked Through My Room', a working tittle of 'An Angel's Passing Through My Room', a working title of 'Like An Angel Passing Through My Room (version 1)'.
Benny Andersson (keyboards), Lasse Wellander (guitar), Mike Watson (bass), Ola Brunkert (drums).

Surely the most difficult track on the new album, the ballad 'Like An Angel Passing Through My Room', would be subject to a number of different attemps before the group finally settled on the released version. This first recording featured contributions from both Agnetha and Frida, as well as keyboards, guitar, bass and drums, presumably a far cry from the bare synthesizer and vocals arrangement that was featured on the album.

3rd June, 1981:
Polar Music Studios. Recording 'An Angel's Passing Through My Room (working title of 'Like An Angel Passing Through My Room (version 1)'.
A drum overdum by Roger Palm

5th June, 1981:
Polar Music Studios. Mixxing 'Like An Angel Passing Through My Room (version 1)'
Four different miexes of this recording that ultimately would remain unreleased. The first one was named 'flash', the second 'normal', the third 'amazon', and the fourth 'combination'.

23rd October, 1981:
Polar Music Studios. Recording 'Twinkle Twinkle' (working title of 'Like An Angel Passing Through My Room, No.2').
Benny Andersson (keyboards), Lasse Wellander (guitar), Rutger Gunnarsson (bass), Ola Brunkert (drums).

Exactly why this remake of 'Like An Angel Passing Through My Room' was named 'Twinkle 'Twinkle' on this day is not known. However, extensive overdubs were made, including vocals, but apparently something was still unsitisfactory about this version, since a third and final version would be recorded a few weeks later.
'I seem to remember that this was an attempt at turning it into a disco track,' says Benny. "It didn't work out, though, because we ended up with a 'Lay All Your Love On Me' sound-alike, It's never any fun to repeat something that you've already done - we always tried to avoid that."


8th November, 1981:
Polar Music Studios. Recording 'Like An Angel Passing Through My Room, No.3' (working title of 'Like An Angel Passing Through My Room').

With less that a month to go before the album was due to be released, a final attempt at recording a satisfactory version of 'Like An Angel Passing Through My Room was made. Thus, this day saw the recording of the bare synthesizer-and-vocals only version that was eventually released on the album.
The sound of the ticking clock actually came from Benny's mini-moog, and Michael Tretow remembers Benny trying for hours to figure out just how to get the right ticking sound. "I remember the recording of almost every track on the 'The Visitors' album as an uphill struggle, and this was no exception,' says Benny. "When we finally hit on the arrangement with the tick-tock sound and that strange echo on Frida's voice, we thought that we at least had found something that gave the song its own identity.

Frida also vividly remembers the problems with the recording of 'Like An Angel Passing Through My Room', and she is not completely satisfied with her own vocal performances. "It was very difficult to find the right mood, and I remember trying several different ways of singing it before we landed on the final version. It turned out okay, but it's not a favourite." Perhaps Agnetha summed it up best when she said that the track left the listener "waiting for something that never comes." (International ABBA Magazine, April 1982).

10th and 11th November, 1981:
Polar Music Studios. Mixing 'Like An Angel Passing Through My Room'.
Two mixes made over two days, both of which remain unreleased.

13th November 1981:
Polar Music Studios. Mixing 'Like An Angel Passing Through My Room'. This mix was included on the album.


Additional info found on http://agnethannifrid.blogspot.com/
However the biggest surprise is the inclusion of the previously unreleased track, ‘From A Twinkling Star To A Passing Angel’. This track (there are in fact 4 different versions!) was recorded during the sessions for 'The Visitors'. We are proud to say that we have had the uptempo version of the song in our own vaults for years and it is truly a gem! It features clear vocals by Agnetha backed up by Frida. This makes for an interesting sound as the melody later on developped into 'Like an angel passing through my room
' which features only Frida. 'Twinkle Twinkle' is perhaps the 'even better version'. For fans: you should keep in mind ' Why did it have to be me' versus 'Happy Hawaii'. This is how these two song compare aswell. The release of unreleased ABBA material on 'The Visitors deluxe' marks the first time since the 'Thank You For The Music' box set in 1994 that ABBA have opened their private vaults to release a previously unreleased track.

THE VISITORS – DELUXE EDITION

DISC 01: CD
1. The Visitors
2. Head Over Heels
3. When All Is Said And Done
4. Soldiers
5. I Let The Music Speak
6. One Of Us
7. Two For The Price Of One
8. Slipping Through My Fingers
9. Like An Angel Passing Through My Room

Bonus Tracks:
10. Should I Laugh Or Cry
11. I Am The City
12. You Owe Me One
13. Cassandra
14. Under Attack
15. The Day Before You Came

Extra Bonus Track:
16. From A Twinkling Star To A Passing Angel (demos)


DISC 02: DVD: 1.
Two For The Price Of One (Dick Cavett Meets ABBA)
2. Slipping Through My Fingers (Dick Cavett Meets ABBA)
3. When All Is Said And Done (Original Promo Clip)
4. ABBA In London, November 1982 (The Late Late Breakfast Show, BBC)
5. ABBA In Stockholm, November 1982 (Nöjesmaskinen, SVT)
6. The Visitors TV commercial I (UK)
7. The Visitors TV commercial II (Australia)
8. The Singles – The First Ten Years TV commercial I (UK)
9. The Singles – The First Ten Years TV commercial II (Australia)
10. International Sleeve Gallery