Agnetha & Frida

The European CD versions of four solo albums released by Agnetha and Frida between 1982 and 1985 are somewhat unusual among Abba CDs due to various quirks in their packaging, which can help collectors distinguish early pressings from later ones.

Original CD copies of Frida’s Something’s Going On can be identified from just the front cover through careful examination of the album’s title. On all copies until the 2005 remaster, the text is set in a different font to the original LP version.

fridaclose2There’s definitely something going with the album title on the 1982 CD…

fridaclose1… the LP and the 2005 remaster

The dating of copies of the album can be narrowed down even further because all 1980s copies contain a small record company logo on the bottom left of the front cover and a digital recording symbol in the top right corner.

Agnetha’s Wrap Your Arms Around Me can also be easily identified because of a more obvious case of typographical carelessness. The accompanying packaging uses the wrong font for the album title on the cover and the title is also set in mixed caps whereas the original was all lower case. Again, this doesn’t seem to have been corrected until the 2005 remaster.

wrap83

The original 1983 CD version of Wrap Your Arms Around Me: note the use of capitals in the album’s title

wrap2005 The 2005 remaster on the other hand corrects this typographical error

Agnetha also gets a small record company logo, a digital recording symbol and multiple catalogue numbers on original copies of Eyes of A Woman:

eyespolar

As with all Abba CDs issued in Europe during this era, all four solo albums come in both Polar and Polydor packaging with minor changes between the two. In general, the Polar artwork appears to be an adaptation of the Polydor versions as can be seem through the messy handling of the barcode space on the back covers.

eyesbackpol

The original Polydor CD back cover artwork

eyesbackpolarThe Polar version – note the record company logo obscuring the barcode space and the crude removal of the Polydor symbol

Early versions of Eyes of A Woman can also be easily identified from their spine, which lists the album’s name as ‘Eyes of A Women’.

3 thoughts on “Agnetha & Frida

  1. I read that the first pressing of the 2005 remaster of Frida’s Something’s Going On was erroneously issued with an alternate previously unissued mix of “Here We’ll Stay” (track. 11), and later replaced with the original album mix on later pressing. Anyone have more info on this? Especially on how to know which version is which?

  2. Also you will notice on the spine of Agnetha’s Eyes Of A Woman CD it says Eyes Of A WOMEN!

  3. I had a CD catalogue circa 1983/84 that showed Wrap Your Arms Around Me with the original LP font. Never saw that on an actual CD though until the 2005 remaster.

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