"Chess" album should have sung by the ABBA girls?

Good question..

However the answer for me is No, obviously history dictates, there are to many choral/ male lead tracks, and above all it wouldn't have been " that project called Chess" it would have been another ABBA album.

Off the top of my head, Merano, wouldn't work, One Night In Bangkok, no , plus many others. That all said and it has been said many many times before, "I Know Him So Well " is the only obvious track that would have worked, and could've been ABBAs 10th number one here in the UK, but they were all going there separate ways, and as far as I know the girls never sang a note!!

Here's a link to the 1985 article I mentioned above, in which Agnetha apparently stated that Bjorn asked her to play Svetlana. Around that time, a number of press stories about Agnetha were fabrications. I'm not sure how reliable this Dutch journal magazine was/is; maybe Erwin knows?

abbaarticles.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/veronica-1985-you-never-get-used-to.html

Ditto. Amazing, amazing clip. Quite extraordinary. World-class-plus from Karin G, there. And what a piece of music that is. You know, in my weaker moments, I actually think that B&B peaked with 'Chess'!!! (Apologies if that's heresy.) I remember when it first came to London's West End, at (very roughly) the same time as Les Mis. I thought Les Mis was overrated bigtime and couldn't work out why 'Chess' wasn't accorded the same accolades. Still can't! Going to have to listen to it all the way through again tomorrow. Exceptional piece of work. It's back at London's Coliseum (never did like that spelling!) later this year, of course. I hope they do it justice. Not sure the casting's been announced yet.

Well, I don’t think that B&B peaked with Chess (that happened from 1975 to 1978 - that is, from SOS to Take A Chance On Me - the best run of singles by anyone ever) but I do think that Chess is a fantastic piece of work, particularly musically. The story isn’t so great, although Tim Rice does his usual excellent job, but there are more good songs in it than any other musical (with the possible exceptions of Evita and The Sound Of Music). But I have a pretty low tolerance for musicals in general.

Thisboycries - 'Sorrow' should not count. it was not a David Bowie Song. It was first recorded by USA Group,
The McCoys, in 1965. (Best known for 'Hang on Sloopy'). In 1966 The UK Duo, The Merseys, took it to No.4,
in the UK. David Bowie covered it in 1973 & took it to No.3 in the UK - but it was a virtual note by note copy
of The Merseys version.

Regarding 'Chess', I know a lot of people into Classical Music & all regard 'Chess' as inferior to 'Kristina'. I agree.
I feel that 'Chess' is over-rated & 'Kristina' is hardly known outside Sweden & Finland etc. But, I hear far better
consistency when I listen to 'Kristina'. If Benny & Bjorn had only written it in English & about something that had
a Global connection, it would have been huge in the West End & Broadway. However, it is about Swedish Emigrants,
to the 'New World' & it was just too obscure to be a Global success.

In the 1980's, Sir Tim Rice claimed that 'One Night In Bangkok' had outsold every ABBA Single, around the World. That was just
not true. It sold about 3,000,000 to 3,200,000. 'Money, Money, Money' had similar Sales. But both were outsold by several ABBA
Singles. Such as: 'Mamma Mia', (around 3.5 Million), 'S.O.S.', (about 4 Million), 'Waterloo', (5.5 Million), 'Fernando',(about 6 Million),
'Dancing Queen', (well over 6 Million) etc. Sir Tim Rice just wanted people to think that his 'Project', with Benny & Bjorn, was even
bigger than ABBA. The 'Chess' Album barely sold a Million Globally, and 'Arrival' alone sold 10,000,000 to 11,000,000, for ABBA.

Excellent idea - will do so immediately!

Here's a better upload of it, clearer and with the sublime prelude to the vocals

Regarding whether I Know Him So Well could have been ABBA’s 10th UK number one, the jury is still out. Anyone watching repeats of Top of the Pops on BBC Four at present will know that this song is the “current” number one.

I haven’t seen all the episodes yet but on the ones I have seen, there has been no mention of ABBA or Bjorn and Benny whatsoever. Tonight, Simon Bates introduced the video as “Tim Rice’s song” so it was apparently more cool to name-check him than ABBA or B&B.

This is as I remember it, and in some ways I’m glad my memory serves me well, but hearing it again makes it all the more brutal. At this point, ABBA had been written out of pop history. Not to be mentioned and as quickly as possible forgotten about.

Therefore my opinion remains that I Know Him So Well would not have been a hit for ABBA. Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson certainly weren’t “cool” in 1985, and Tim Rice even less so, but ABBA were lower still. They were the unmentionables.

^^^ Interesting take, and my memory isn't that good !!   

I must admit, I found it very disappointing that Frida and IKTSGO failed to make the top 40, such a good track for the time and with Phil Collins producing and heavily influenced, it should've been a top 10, and everything else failed miserably. Agnetha deserved much more as well, particularly WYAAM, again not even making the top 40. Were the media that harsh back then on anything ABBA related.

If so surely IKHSW, would not have been number one for 4 weeks. B&B must have been mentioned at some point on the TV or radio, or was it just a quirk of fate that it was number 1, The UK has a tendency to get the more unusual track to that position.

as for Barbara and Elaine, well as good as they are in there own genre, they never made the big time single wise....

Ironically today , radio 2 here in the UK, play IKTSGO , once in a while, never anything else from Frida, and occasionally the odd Agnetha track, but the last time for IKHSW, apart from the odd yesteryear count down .....never.. a twist of fate....


So perhaps and of course we will never know, if IKHSW had been ABBA, it wouldn't have made it...emmm interesting thought...

 1982 was an even worse Year for Queen, than it was for ABBA. They too released 3 Singles that all failed
to reach the UK Top 10. But, at least ABBA's most recent Studio Album was a UK No.1 - 'The Visitors'. 
Queen could not even reach the UK Top 3 with 1982's 'Hot Space'. It stalled at No.4.

Had Queen split at the end of 1982, I'm sure that we'd now have some Queen Fans predicting that nothing
Queen could do after 1982 would have been a success. That they were 'right' to split in 1982. That they'd
become too unfashionable to be big in the rest of the 1980's. 

The same old arguments that some ABBA Fans give as to why it was 'right' that ABBA gave up in 1982.

Both Queen & ABBA first Charted in the UK within 6 Weeks of each other. Queen in March 1974 and
ABBA in April 1974. Both had a truly awful Chart Year in the UK in 1982.

Queen decided to try again - which they did in 1984. Guess what? Their 1984 'comeback' was a huge
success - a No.2 Single, a No.3 Single & a No.6 Single. A No.2 Album, with 'The Works', & it was their
longest stayer in the UK Top 10 - 25 Weeks. 

Had Queen split up at the end of their awful 1982, we'd have some Queen Fans saying that it was 
the 'best thing they could have done'. That any 'come backs' would have been failures. That 'no-one
liked Queen any more'. The same old - pointless - arguments that we hear from those who say the
same things about ABBA, had they tried to make a 1984 or 1985 'come back'. With ABBA's talent,
I'm sure that they too would have ended up big again - just like Queen.

Incidentally - It was Queen's 1984 'comeback' that eventually saw them over-take ABBA in UK 
Singles & Albums Sales. Between 1974 & 1982 ABBA sold more UK Singles & Albums than Queen.
Then, Queen had a 2nd Career, from 1984 on-wards & they outsold ABBA. Of course, by ending
in 1982, ABBA did not have a 2nd career. Both Acts have been huge via 'Hits' Albums in the 1990's
& beyond, of course.

Then we have the Myth that ABBA could not sell Records after they split up. This is nonsense. 
During the 1980's they sold around a Million Compilation Albums in the UK. With 'The Hits 2'
and 'The Collection', (a Double Album), selling 200,000 UK copies - each - by 1990. Not bad 
for an Act who are supposed to have been unable to sell Records in the 1980's, and in 1990
& 1991.

Then we had 'The Hits', 'The Hits 3', 'Love Songs' & 'The Collection 2', (another Double Album),
selling around 150,000 each in the UK.

People see that none of the 6 Albums mentioned were UK Album Chart Hits. This has caused 
them to think that all of them were 'flops' & they sold poorly. Wrong! They were all Budget
Albums - low priced - and 'Banned' from the main UK Album Chart. But all of them sold well
over 100,000 each, with 'The Hits 2' & 'The Collection' each getting a UK Gold Disk, for Sales
of over 200,000. (Budget Albums have to sell 200,000 to go Gold. Full priced Albums 'only'
need to sell 100,000 to go Gold).

Here are ABBA's 2 UK Gold Disks - 200,000 Sales each - from 1990 - when a Myth has arisen,
that, 'No-one was interested in ABBA anymore, after they split in 1982':

The Collection -- Gold Album -- Awarded on 01.10.1990 -- Released on 09.06.1987

ABBA The Hits Vol. 2 -- Gold Album -- Awarded on 09.06.1990 -- Released on 15.02.1988