No special release for Agnetha's 70th birthday?

I was thinking that. Now would have been a perfect time for a reissue of I Stand Alone on CD with bonus tracks and vinyl. I’m more interested to see if anything would be released for Frida’s album’s anniversary. I would like Djupta Andetag to be reissued on vinyl too. Also, there really needs to be a singles boxset for Something’s Going On and Shine like they did with Arrival The Singles.

To be fair, her 50th and 60th birthdays weren’t marked either. The major releases have tended to be in the anniversary year of her first Swedish hit (That’s Me compilation, 1998 or My Very Best, 2008) or no anniversary at all (De första åren, 2004).

However, there appear to have been some separate CD reissues of her Swedish albums this year. I searched on eBay earlier and found her first album with a 2020 date on the back. These look to be from the Netherlands arm of Sony Music under a “Music on CD” imprint, but the Sony and Cupol logos are prominent.

Agnetha’s solo albums are, of course, split between each of the three remaining major record companies. This in itself isn’t a barrier as all three have worked together on compilations before, but doesn’t help. Aside from My Colouring Book and A, none of her albums were huge commercial successes outside of Sweden (and even those two are split between companies) so perhaps there isn’t the desire on either the record companies’ or her part to do anything more with her catalogue.

I hope she had a nice birthday anyway. Apparently, Sweden have so far avoided the more restrictive lockdown measures (not sure how) so perhaps she was able to spend the day with her family.

To add to the above, what I would like to see is:

The bonus disc of De första åren released separately. Some of the tracks are readily available elsewhere but others aren’t (I don’t have that box, but I do have the much cheaper - at the time - Original Album Classics box, which doesn’t have the bonus disc). To this separate release they could perhaps add songs released for TV (such as Nu Ska Vi Opp Opp Opp).

I Stand Alone reissue with all relevant bonus tracks from the time (Spanish Versions and all the different mixes from the singles).

This is a really silly one but for completeness, I’d like to see the single edit of Wrap Your Arms Around Me made available.

Finally that album she did with Christian to get a budget re-release. Again for completeness as it serves no artistic merit whatsoever. I haven’t actually heard it, but as I’ve just got Spotify free for six months, I might attempt listening to it. If it’s anything like the Christmas album with Linda, it will be dire.

I Stand Alone should have been reissued years ago.. There was a talk of a deluxe edition but Warner has probably lost interest completely. As for Frida, I would like to see some kind of boxset with a mix of her Swedish and English stuff with rarities and duets thrown in. There are two interesting unofficial releases available: www.discogs.com/Anni-Frid-Lyngstad-Recovered-Treasures/release/12570472 and www.discogs.com/Anni-Frid-Lyngstad-Singles-Duets-Other-Missing-Songs/release/10211485, but they're only CD-Rs They would probably have no chance as stand-alone official releases but to add them as bonus disc to some kind of boxset would be a good opportunity to have all the scattered duets and contributions to other artists' records at one place. Also songs like Tango I Det Gröna definitely deserve to be available officially...

If Warner Music had lost interest in a I Stand Alone reissue, there are other companies that could handle it instead. The main two in the UK are Demon Music (owned by the BBC) and Cherry Red. Both are known for going to town on deluxe issues of albums they’ve managed to licence from the original record companies, there’s no cheap and nasty product there. Warners could licence them out if they weren’t interested themselves.

On the subject of rights... both I Stand Alone and My Colouring Book (both Warners) displayed the logo and name of “Agnetha Fältskog Produktion AB”. However, the recordings themselves were directly owned by WEA Records AB (now Warner Music Sweden), so it appears Agnetha’s company, though a fully legal one, was merely just a vanity entity. In theory, they don’t need her permission to do anything with them. If Agnetha herself isn’t a stumbling block, it must be Warners that’s stalling. If not interested, then licence them to a company that is. If they are going to do it themselves, what’s the hold-up?

I still like physical releases such as vinyl and DVD. I would love a decent Agnetha dvd featuring A For Agnetha, the interviews around MCB, etc. I know things are on YouTube but they're often of such poor quality.

Yep. A DVD would be the icing on the cake.

That's right, Alan.  Agnetha's 5 studio albums on Cupol, plus the 'Tio År Med' compilation, have been re-released on CD by Sony over the last few months, in a seemingly random order.  

The only CD still to be released in this series is 'Agnetha Fältskog vol.2', her second studio album, due later this month.

Agnetha is not interested at all in releasing old stuff.