Agnetha of ABBA returns

After writing about Jamie Cullum’s nostalgic Twentysomething last Monday, it just didn’t seem right to do another album of old songs today. More so, when there are new albums by Alanis Morissette, Avril Lavigne and the Eraserheads’ greatest hits collection all waiting for their turn on the machine. Titled My Colouring Book, it was a CD I was actually glad to put on the wait list. Although I like the title track and had not heard the song in a long time, the name of the singer is Scandinavian, Agnetha Faltskog, and did not initially ring a bell.

Then, all of a sudden, there was this light bulb over my head and surprise! It is Agnetha, the blonde girl from ABBA! She was the first A in that name. The other letters stood for Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Synni-Lyngsted. Agnetha and Bjorn were married. So were Benny and Anna. So ABBA was actually made up of two married couples. They have both since divorced and ABBA was put to rest in the early ’80s while still on top of the hit charts. Agnetha and Anna later made solo recordings while Bjorn and Benny continued writing and producing. Their most famous work together is the rock musical Chess with lyricist Tim Rice, which included the hit songs One Night in Bangkok and I Know Him so Well.

Now, I know that the music of ABBA, the most popular Swedish group in music history, is still often dismissed as merely bubble gum. Then although fine-timbered, Agnetha’s kind of singing is not likely to raise fireworks the way Alanis or Avril could. On the other hand though, ABBA’s songs have grown in appeal over the years and it is a fact that hers was one of the voices behind one of the most definitive sounds of the ’70s.

Just think ABBA was responsible for hits like Waterloo, Hasta Manana, Honey, Honey, SOS, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, Mamma Mia, Fernando, Dancing Queen, Money, Money, Money, Chiquitita, Knowing Me, Knowing You, The Name of the Game, Take a Chance on Me, Voulez-Vous, The Winner Takes It All, Super Trooper, etc. etc. So I do not think you will blame me for dropping all others and listening to this. I just had to find out what Agnetha is up to these days. In fact, I am sure many of you out there will also find this one impossible to resist.

Agnetha’s My Colouring Book is her first recording after 17 years. She recorded for ace producers Mike Chapman and Peter Cetera after leaving ABBA. She has been singing for over 30 years. It is a very personal collection, made up of songs that evoke memories of her growing up years from the ’60s. That was an innocent time. All that mattered to kids then were for whom they would save the last dance and where to go for moonlight swims.

Agnetha goes beyond that for her choices. She chose to cover the more passionate tunes that were big with teen-aged listeners of that period. But you will still have to agree, the sentiments they manifest, so life or death situations then now seem paltry in the light of how we have survived and what is now happening in this world. Agnetha brings back those old days and I am happy to say her singing has the right sort of sweetness and naiveté that makes the songs once more believable.

All cuts in the album were arranged by Agnetha, also the producer. The first single release is If I Thought You’d Ever Change Your Mind, which Cilla Black first recorded in 1969. What I like best though is her soft take on My Colouring Book, a hit for Sandy Stewart in 1963 and which I last heard in one of Barbra Streisand’s early albums.

Other cuts are When You Walk in the Room, Sealed with a Kiss, Love Me with All Your Heart, which she does with Spanish lyrics, Fly Me to the Moon, a narrated Past, Present and Future, A Fool Am I, I Can’t Reach Your Heart, Sometimes When I’m Dreaming, The End of the World, Remember Me and What Now My Love. Most of the songs do sound like ABBA recordings. That cannot be helped and it is really quite nice.