From Polar With Love
The Canadian version of The Visitors is probably the rarest Abba CD issued by Atlantic. Copies appear to be few and far between and this is the first website to ever feature images of the release.
Like its sister release, The Singles: The First Ten Years, the Canadian version of The Visitors is notable for a reason other than its rarity: it reveals remarkably close co-operation between Atlantic Canada and Abba’s record label Polar.
For a start, the Canadian packaging is almost identical to the then current European release. It essentially employs the 1982 PolyGram CD’s artwork, complete with such oddities as the enlarged front title and the large white space to the right of the back cover, which is a distinctive feature of the earliest PolyGram releases.
The Canadian CD shares the same front cover as its European cousins…
… and it’s back is only slightly different too.
The back cover image is even cropped slightly to remove the “CD is manufactured by PolyGram in Hannover, West Germany” text featured on European releases. Oddly, although the Polydor/Polar logo has been removed, there is no Atlantic logo on the back cover.
The sense of déjà vu regarding the release is only heightened by comparing the CD’s tracklisting to that of the uncoated Polar CDs sold in Europe at that time.
The logos and colours may be different but the CD definately uses Polar’s 1983 design
Basically, the design of the text on the CD is identical to European releases bar changes in the copyright information and the replacement of the Polar logo with an Atlantic one. The CD itself is a clone of the European Polar release.
Despite these strong similarities between the Canadian release and its more common European cousin, it is still a much sought-after release due to its extreme rarity. Again, as with The Singles: The First Ten Years, it is impossible to value because it rarely appears for sale.
Images courtesy of Pepe
First issued: 1987. Reissue: None. Deleted: 1988. |
Abba on CD 