The Australian Discography
Updated 28 May
2000
Recent additions or corrections marked by
INTRODUCTION
A NOTE ON THIS DISCOGRAPHY A NOTE ON RCA RECORDS
RECOMMENDED READING
ABBA are among the biggest selling artists to have records released by RCA Records in Australia. In the years 1975 and 1976 ABBA sold more records in Australia than anyone else, and set new sales records that it is unlikely will ever be broken. The four members, Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad, Benny Andersson, Bj�rn Ulv�us and Agnetha F�ltskog (billed as Anna on early record releases for non-Swedish audiences), achieved a degree of fame in this country that will probably never be equaled. They were merchandised in every imaginable way, their publicity reaching such saturation by the time of their concert tour in 1977 that an unfortunately inevitable backlash turned many Australians against them. From that point ABBA’s popularity in Australia plummeted, ironically at a time when it was still rising in most other countries, especially the UK and USA. Their records were still released, but without the enthusiasm of 1976 and their chart positions in later years reflected this alarming drop in popularity.
After ABBA stopped recording together in late 1982 all four members released several solo records, while ABBA compilation albums were released by a variety of record companies to little sales and no chart success until 1990, when PolyGram assumed control of the ABBA catalogue and started their own campaign of reissues. Due to the efforts of dedicated ABBA fans throughout the country general interest in ABBA slowly rose again, culminating in the stage where the 1992 compilation ABBA Gold reached number 1 on the Australian album chart at Christmas 1992, and then re-entered the chart almost two years later, again reaching the top 10.
This discography is an attempt to catalogue every ABBA release in every format on every label in Australia, noting variations between releases to create the only complete Australian ABBA discography ever compiled. It is not the intention of this discography to cover the complete history of ABBA, as there have already been a plethora of books, both excellent and execrable, on this subject. Go to Recommended Reading for other sources of this information. If you find any corrections, omissions or additions to this discography please e-mail me.
The Discography is broken up into two sections: the first being this text piece, chronicling the story of ABBA’s record releases in Australia, as well as related history, and also detailing ABBA’s two visits to this country; the second is a full discography of album (including compact disc), single and EP releases, including catalogue numbers and full track listing of all albums and videos. The second section also includes listings of all ABBA songs that were not included on original albums, or were never released in Australia, plus details on film clips which featured a different version of the song to the released record, and unavailable clips. Links will take you between the two sections, so that you can check out track listings and other details at any time.
There is a separate page detailing Cover Versions of ABBA songs that have been released in Australia.
It should be noted that ABBA songs have been included on several "various artists" compilation albums. These have been included in the text where known, however details of these albums may not be complete. These have not been included in the discography section.
The release dates used here are either from news reports of the day, fan club newsletters or discographies, date code numbers on picture sleeves or when I first found an item in a local record store, so some dates may not be the exact release date of a record.
At the end of both sections are details of the solo recordings released in Australia by each of the group members, including Bj�rn and Benny’s musical Chess. As all four members of ABBA have released a huge number of recordings in their native tongue (not to mention French, German and Spanish) in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe over the past thirty-odd years, understandably many of these records have not been released in Australia, and so are not included. Go to Recommended Reading for other sources of this information.
RCA (now BMG) held the licence to release ABBA’s records in Australia, until PolyGram purchased Polar Music in 1990. RCA’s ABBA singles were all released in generic paper sleeves until 1976. There were a variety of colours and designs for these sleeves over the years, and many singles appeared in more than one type of sleeve. ‘Dancing Queen’ in 1976 was the first ABBA single to have a full colour picture sleeve, after which most ABBA singles were released in picture sleeves. All of RCA’s ABBA singles had yellow labels until 1976, when ‘Money, Money, Money’ and its follow up in early 1977, ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’ had tan labels, but initial pressings of the following single ‘The Name Of The Game’ reverted to the yellow labels. Later pressings of this single had the tan label, as did all subsequent RCA ABBA singles. Picture sleeves up to ‘Eagle’ in 1978 were cardboard, but for ‘Summer Night City’ and subsequent singles the picture sleeve consisted of a 7 by 14 inch piece of paper, folded in half and inserted into a plastic bag. RCA discontinued this practice in 1983, with the release of Frida’s ‘Here We'll Stay’. Many singles from 1978 and later initially appeared in picture sleeves, then later in plain paper sleeves.
All ABBA albums released by RCA of course came in picture sleeves, though they did not always feature the inner sleeves and other artwork as on the original Swedish releases. All albums had yellow RCA labels until ‘The Album’ in January 1978, which had a tan label. All subsequent ABBA albums released by RCA had tan labels, except for the 1980 Summit reissue of ‘Ring Ring’, which had a blue RCA label, and the 1988 reissues of ‘The Best Of ABBA’ and ‘Greatest Hits Vol. 2’ which had black labels with silver text. Repressings of earlier ABBA albums after 1977 also had tan labels. All Chess related albums and singles had white RCA labels with the Chess logo prominent.
Most RCA picture sleeves (LP or single) had the release date in a code number on the back of the sleeve. For example, The Best Of ABBA, which was released in November 1975, has the code number A1175F.
All ABBA albums were also released on cassette, and the albums Waterloo, ABBA, The Best Of ABBA, Ring Ring (1975 reissue) and Arrival were also released on 8-track cartridge. RCA usually shuffled the order of songs on these formats in an attempt to create sides of equal length. Though the track order of these formats has not been included, their catalogue numbers are listed.
A good source for information on ABBA’s formative years and an insight into ABBA up to the release of Arrival is the book ABBA By ABBA as told to Christer Borg (a.k.a. The ABBA Phenomenon) (Horowitz 1977). For a complete overview of ABBA’s career, the reader is directed to ABBA Gold - The Complete Story by John Tobler (Century 22, 1993 and revised edition 1994) and ABBA The Name Of The Game by Andrew Oldham, Tony Calder and Colin Irwin (Sidgewick & Jackson, 1995). Neither of these books is 100% accurate, but they will provide the reader with much information, from initial solo recordings to the members’ careers after ABBA. The best source for information on every ABBA song recorded and released is ABBA The Complete Recording Sessions by Carl Magnus Palm (Century 22, 1994), an excellent guide to ABBA’s recording history from the first recordings of Bj�rn and Benny, Agnetha and Frida in the mid Sixties to the final ABBA sessions in 1982. This outstanding book for some reason has been hard to find in Australia, but it has been available. Finally Agnetha's autobiography, As I Am: ABBA Before & Beyond (Virgin Publishing 1997) is a unique and personal look inside the hectic ABBA years.
For more information about the chart positions achieved by ABBA's various singles, albums and CDs in Australia and many other countries, visit the ABBA Worldwide Chart List.
ABBA
After ABBA
ABBA Solo
The Track Listings
Cover Versions
The Singles Gallery
The Albums Gallery
The Compact Discs Gallery
The Videos Gallery
The Solo Singles Gallery
The Solo Albums Gallery
� 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 by Ian Cole, Sydney Australia