ABBA – Ring Ring – deluxe edition – CD review

ABBA
Ring Ring
Polydor

And … the ABBA reissue programme reaches the runt of the litter. But only in comparioson to what was to come later. After all, there was no such thing as ABBA when this came out. No, they were Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Frida, and this was just one of the many projects they were involved with at the time. Which is why when they had a hit single in Sweden, they patched together an album of old, new, borrowed and blue tunes to make up the numbers. Even after their worldwide success a wee bit down the line, this still went unissued.

But nothing remains unissued in the modern world, and what was a 15 track expanded edition, has now transmogrified into a double disc deluxe edition, with 13 bonus tracks, four of which are new to CD. Mind, the original album only had 12 tracks, so it’s doubled in size. And even though no-one is going to rate this BBAF album ahead of any of the ABBA albums, it does have a quaint charm all of its own. Heck, Benny & Björn were still taking a lot of lead vocals back then, with Agnetha & Anna-Frid merely harmonising. Which was a bit mad, but how were they to know!

Back then, they didn’t know whether they were folk singers, pop stars or putative rockers, so it’s an odd mix of material, as they try to find their feet. And in amongst the bonus tracks are some real treats. From 1970 you get ‘There’s A Little Man’, with Agnetha’s backing vocals heralding her first appearance on a song written and produced by Björn and Benny, and ‘Man vill ju leva lite dessemellan’, a 1972 hit by Frida featuring the rest of ABBA on backing vocals. The DVD is a bit skimpy, as it only has old TV performances of ‘People Need Love’ and ‘Ring Ring’ from Swedish and Austrian TV shows, along with a 2012 Swedish TV feature, where Benny tells the story of the writing and recording of ‘Ring Ring’. There’s an international sleeve gallery, and the whole thing is wrapped up with a 20 page illustrated booklet with an essay on the making of the album.

It’s not essential, but die hard ABBA fans will lap it up.

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Pre Abba Ring Ring

The ladies