There are an army of look alike celebs out there working for various agencies...
( not much call for the Jimmy Savile look-alike these days )
They are very popular at clubs and bookings for private parties ...
But Bjorn Again.. the 4 Abba look alikes took things to a new level... they began performing on stage and even filled the Albert Hall .... quite an achievement. !
They must have earned a fortune !

I've finally bought the deluxe editions. Really nice packages and well worth the money. I'm glad to read that their 1975 album is finally getting a deluxe release as well.

Abba are basically a........ 'girl duo' ... if you think
of Benny and Bjorn as just two of the backing guys

....... erm, they were alittle more then that! composers, producers, arrangers...

I think Im right in saying that Bjorn and Benny met up in
a motel ........ in June 1966..........

Abba Radio...........

http://tunein.com/radio/Waterloo-Radio-s191517/

what more do you need ?

We need an Abba Museum in London, it could be a great tourist attraction.

2014 is the 40th Anniversary of ABBA winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.

As such there will be several ABBA releases to celebrate that.

The 'Waterloo' Album will be released in a Deluxe Edition.

Their 1980 Spanish Language Album, ('Gracias Por La Musica'), will also get a Deluxe release.

There is talk of an ABBA 'Live' Album.

And their Studio Albums may get re-issued in Picture Disk form.

Whether the Fans get any Tracks, (that we don't already have), from all of this is another
matter. Benny & Bjorn have the final say in that, & not Universal, ABBA's Record Label.

In the meantime, 'Gold' is at No.55 in the latest UK Top 75. It is its 462nd Top 75 Week,
& 677th Top 100 Week. Both are more than any other Album.

It is also its 1001st Top 200 Week. It is only the 3rd Album to reach 1000 Top 200 Weeks.
The other 2 are 'Greatest Hits' by Queen, (1981) - 1156 Weeks, & 'Legend', by Bob Marley
& The Wailers, (1984) - 1067 Weeks. (Like 'Gold', both are in the latest UK Top 100.
(W/E 18th January). The Queen Album is at No.61, & 'Legend' is at No.96).

Abba should have done a few cover versions. It would be interesting to see their take on songs.
The only covers i have heard were on one of their b sides. Pick a bale o cotton/On top of old smokey/Midnight special. I loved that medley.

Abba were the Beatles of the 1970s.. great albums , great songs
but it all came to a full stop after Visitors

its as though the tap was turned off

In the case of the Beatles the songs did nt stop Lennon wrote some classic songs in the 70s .. Woman... Jealous guy...
Paul and George did too.

What happened to Benny and Bjorn ?

They've done a fair bit since the split. Aside from Abba, they're probably most famous in the UK for the musical 'Chess', which they created together. They wrote another musical in Swedish, 'Kristina från Duvemåla', which was a big success in Sweden, and they were also involved in the development of the 'Mamma Mia' musical a few years ago. They wrote a lot of music for Gemini too, a Swedish pop band.

Benny in particular is still active in music, but he has focused on Swedish-language music for a while now - meaning that most non-Swedish speakers won't pay attention. He released a solo album of Swedish folk music in the 80s, and now has his own band, Benny Anderssons Orkester. BAO have had three number one albums in Sweden, and every album they've made has hit the top 10 over there, so he's still having some success.

side one
"The Visitors"
"Head over Heels"
"When All Is Said and Done"
"Soldiers"
Side Two

"I Let the Music Speak"
"One of Us"
"Two for the Price of One"
"Slipping Through My Fingers"
"Like an Angel Passing Through My Room"

Their last album and some great songs on there
( perhaps I let music speak and slipping thru fingers are a bit below par )


But since then I cant think of any Benny and Bjorn song
Chess had big tv promo when it came out... I was nt impressed...
I know him so well... is all I can think of and that is nothing special .

How can they go from ... Visitors... one mega brilliant album of songs.... to zilch ?
Its a mystery !

Really? That's actually one of their most emotional songs IMO. That could break your heart if you've got a truculent teenage daughter and think back to when she was little... even I get emotional and I have no children!



'Nobody's Side' is very Visitors-like. You could imagine Frida belting this one out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfM6sfc5jeg

I was kind of hoping that Benny and Bjorn, sat in their
shed on that island.... had written the occasional Abba like
song over the years and put them away in box in the corner of the shed.


Then, they had secret sessions at Polar studios to put an album together. ... it might have taken years to get the songs and recordings together....


Then , just when we all thought its all over they release a brand new Abba album .... as amazing and brilliant as all the others ... and we are all amazed ....


but it aint gonna happen is it ?

Loved to have heard the girls singing all the chess songs. I know him so well would have been brilliant

That's strange. Until now I always believed that it was an Andrew Lloyd-Webber song. Very disappointed to learn that that awful schmaltz was written by Benny and Bjorn.

Got to admire Bjorn and Benny, they wrote some of the most brilliant songs of the 1970s .... and English is nt their first language !

Agree they wrote better songs than many english writers. I mean chinnichap who wrote 48 crash, devilgate drive, blockbuster stuff.
Abba wrote a lot of throwaway pop with banal lyrics like dum dum diddle and bang a boomerang, supertrouper. But a lot of great lyrics like Knowing me knowing you, Winner takes it all, Name of the Game.

Dont call dum dum diddle ... throwaway pop
it is the most wonderful song... lyrics and melody
.... just brilliant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtu-LeUJ1Kk

I think those songs were some of their more personal songs. I'm pretty sure Knowing Me, Knowing You is about divorce. Even Super Trouper is kinda personal in a way. It's about someone's life as a singer. I prefer some of those songs to really cheesy ones like Dancing Queen, which seems to be overplayed by radio

Schubert was a chubby... dreamy kind of guy...

Benny is a chubby... dreamy kind of guy... he was very lazy too in his earlier pop years.

Meeting Bjorn transformed him, Bjorn was a live wire... very ambitious... very animated.

His friendship and writing partnership with Benny transformed the dreamy lazy Benny and they became a songwriting .. Dynamic Duo ...

1) Benny & Bjorn will not allow old ABBA Songs to be remixed, which is why we
never get anything different done to the old Hits - just re-issues of them on endless
ABBA Compilations, that Universal put out to keep making money from ABBA.

2) Benny & Bjorn say that remixes of the old Hits would be like admitting that they
never got then sounding right the first time they were released.

3) Nor will they allow 'Alternative Versions' of old ABBA Songs to be released. They
do have such ABBA Tracks stored away in Sweden. They will not let the Fans have
them however.

4) Nor can we have the full version of the unreleased ABBA Song 'Just A Notion', as Benny & Bjorn don't really like it. And they say we can't - ever - have the complete 'Just Like That' either. They say that they think the Gemini version is best, & we can listen to that instead. They also say we cannot have ABBA's version as part of the melody was used in a song on the 1984 'Chess' Musical Album. (Releasing the 2 ABBA Songs to reward ABBA Fans clearly means Zero to Benny & Bjorn. Far less generous to their Fans than Queen are to theirs. Queen are letting their Fans have 3 rare/remixed Tracks on November's Compilation 'Queen Forever').

A RECENT BENNY INTERVIEW

(No more unreleased ABBA Songs, as they are not willing to 'share' them with Fans).

"According to the Dutch journalist that spoke to Benny today, "Just Like That" by ABBA will NOT be officially released. Benny is quite clear that he does not want the song to be out. The ultimate version has been released by Gemini, fans can listen to that.

Benny said that he does feel Agnetha should record her own music and would be willing to help, if Agnetha would ask him. But she has not asked him, he said with a smile. According to Benny chances are that Agnetha will record more music in the future "Why not, she still has a great voice", he said. Frida has no plans to record again.

Benny looks forward to the release of 'his' film and sees himself create a new musical in the future. He works in the studio every day. Obviously ABBA is a thing of the past, but Benny realizes Universal will do anything to keep ABBA alive. "We will see what happens, but I do not think we will ever release unreleased material again as there is very little left to release that we are willing to share."

It's a shame, only because we will never hear anything 'new' again, but I understand

The Abba Live At Wembley 1979 CD and vinyl that's finally released next week sounds good and the deluxe CD/DVD Gracias Por La Musica on 10th November also sounds brilliant. Presumably there isn't anything left to release after all the deluxe editions of recent years have now all been released.

I finally got Abba Gold on vinyl. I've been after that album for so long! Have all their studio albums on CD. My favourite is Voulez Vous (I got it on tape one Easter)

I grew up listening to my mum's old Abba albums on vinyl (she had greatest hits volume 2, Super Trouper, The Visitors and The First Ten Years) I used to get slagged at school for liking Abba.

They had some great songs and I don't just mean the singles. I love songs such as If It Wasn't For The Nights, Me and I, Hole In Your Soul and Tropical Loveland