Alternative picture of Agnetha at the hotel opening in November

Flashback to 1981, just before the release of The Visitors

 

I found these pictures in my collection. The first is a nice alternative shot, I believe. These pix bought back memories of how serious ABBA looked around this period. I remember being delighted to see the first genuine smiles a few month after this shot was taken. Mystery around the ' new' Agnetha compilation is solved. This was a bootleg. Shame!

A new mysterious Agnetha compilation released

It seems there is a new Agnetha compilation CD released called "The Collection of the Best Hits 1968-2004" 
The collection includes three CD's featuring Agnetha's English solo material as well as a few ABBA hits on which Agnetha sang the leadvocals. We have been receiving a lot of ' google alerts' about this CD but have not been able to figure out it's origin. Still we do not want you to miss out on this news so hereby I print the sleeve, the CD labels and the tracklisting. Does anyone know more about this CD?

CD1 :
01. The Winner Takes It All [0:04:56.01]
02. Sealed With A Kiss [0:02:34.41]
03. Can't Shake Loose [0:04:20.67]
04. Shame [0:03:37.42]
05. One Way Love [0:03:37.24]
06. You're There [0:03:29.68]
07. Burned, Twice Shy [0:03:44.57]
08. Take Good Care Of Your Children [0:03:44.51]
09. When You Walk In The Room [0:03:36.29]
10. The Angels Cry [0:04:25.07]
11. Stand By My Side [0:04:19.33]
12. Sometimes when I am dreaming [0:03:35.23]
13. That's Me [0:03:15.66]
14. I Won't Be Leaving You [0:05:33.72]
15. It's So Nice To Be Rich (7' Version) [0:03:41.31]
16. We Move As One [0:04:07.10]
17. Love Me With All Your Heart [0:03:11.71]
18. Mr. Persuasion [0:02:43.43]
19. Fly Like The Eagle (with Ola Hakanson) [0:03:03.30]


CD2 :
01. The Heat Is On [0:03:52.00]
02. I Wish Tonight Could Last Forever [0:04:14.13]
03. Never Again (with Tomas Ledin) [0:03:53.18]
04. I Won't Let You Go [0:03:38.31]
05. Slipping Through My Fingers [0:03:54.23]
06. It's So Nice To Be Rich [0:03:14.18]
07. If you need somebody tonight [0:03:32.72]
08. Man [0:03:34.28]
09. I Can't Reach Your Heart [0:02:39.32]
10. P&B [0:04:04.03]
11. I Keep Turning Off Lights [0:03:40.44]
12. Fly me to the moon [0:02:49.42]
13. The Way You Are (with Ola Hakanson) [0:03:46.12]
14. To Love [0:03:51.31]
15. We Should Be Together [0:03:58.65]
16. What Now, My Love [0:04:49.57]
17. A Fool Am I [0:03:32.29]
18. Eyes Of A Woman [0:03:55.15]
19. Here For Your Love [0:02:56.58]


CD3 :
01. I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind [0:03:15.39]
02. Wrap Your Arms Around Me [0:05:15.21]
03. Let It Shine [0:03:59.42]
04. Little White Secrets [0:04:06.16]
05. The Queen Of Hearts [0:03:21.09]
06. Love In A World Gone Mad [0:04:08.72]
07. Stay [0:03:19.55]
08. Past, Present And Future [0:03:12.00]
09. Thanks For A Wonderful Day [0:02:42.20]
10. S.O.S. [0:03:23.13]
11. The Last Time [0:04:13.71]
12. Golliwog [0:02:59.02]
13. I Stand Alone [0:04:49.27]
14. I Wasn't The One (Who Said Goodbye) (with Peter Cetera) [0:04:10.07]
15. Click Track [0:02:51.52]
16. Maybe It Was Magic [0:04:07.70]
17. Just One Heart [0:03:46.08]
18. My colouring Book [0:03:47.41]

Flashback: ABBA at the beginning and at the end

 

Lovely new article from the UK newspaper The Guardian.

Thank you for the solo music!

An ABBA reunion may be on the cards, but I'd be   content with Ms Fältskog's last collection, the best album of the noughties

Solo star ... Agnetha Fältskog has hinted that she would be interested in an Abba reunion, but is she better off making music on her own? Photograph: IBL/Rex Features

So Agnetha Fältskog has said yes to an ABBA reunion. Or at least she has intimated that she would not, in the right circumstances, be averse to coming out of seclusion to participate in an event that would be worth millions. Those who have spent the last six years listening to her most recent solo album would claim, however, that Agnetha can do very well indeed without whatever a reunion with Björn, Benny and Frida might bring. The collection of songs titled My Colouring Book, which she conceived, produced and released in 2004, provides all the evidence anyone could need that she is an independent, free-standing artist of great imagination and resource, who has no need of the ABBA formula in order to thrive.

I like all sorts of stuff, some of it quite "difficult", some not. But if I had to nominate the one album that made the first decade of the 21st century completely worthwhile, it might very well be Agnetha's effort, the product of a perfectly attuned old-school pop sensibility and the default setting in many different iPod situations.

In the tradition of Bryan Ferry's These Foolish Things and David Bowie's Pin-Ups, My Colouring Book is a collection of songs that meant a great deal to Fältskog during her adolescence. She is 60 now, which means that they come from the 1960s – but the 60s of a young girl who was falling in love with music before the Beatles came along.

This is the purest of pop, beautifully realised, and it is very easy, when listening to her versions of If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind, Love Me With All Your Heart, The End of the World, Remember Me or the album's title track, to summon up a poignant image of the young Agnetha at home in her bedroom, spinning the versions by Cilla Black, Petula Clark, Skeeter Davis, Sandie Shaw and Dusty Springfield, letting every note and every word engrave itself on her heart, identifying with seemingly evanescent emotions and imagining life and loves to come.

Maybe you need a sweet tooth to get full value from this, but there is nothing soft-centred about her versions of What Now, My Love or the Shangri-Las' epic Past, Present and Future. Jackie DeShannon's When You Walk in the Room would be a great song in almost any hands (not least for my all-time favourite couplet: "I close my eyes for a second and pretend it's me you want / Meanwhile I try to act so nonchalant") and Agnetha's definitive reading trounces not only the composer's original but subsequent versions by the Searchers, Bruce Springsteen (in concert) and Paul Carrack.

This is the music of the girl who grew up, sadder and wiser, to sing The Day Before You Came, Benny and Björn's masterpiece. And I'd rather have a Volume 2 of My Colouring Book than any number of ABBA reunions.

Agnetha in M-magazine. The best quality pix here on this blog. How gorgeous!

We mostly look forward to a new CD from Agnetha. This seems to be a realistic option now that Agnetha has written so much strong melodies herself. We hope a good, international, producer will pick up these songs and work with Agnetha to record a fantastic new CD. Agnetha has revealed she is open to the idea. 

The ABBA reunion idea is fantastic too of course. News about ABBA performing at the British Royal wedding seems highly unlikely however! But other venues  and opportunities might occur..