ABBA on Our Countdown to the New Year

Agnetha, Frida, Bjorn and Benny -- collectively known as the super pop group ABBA -- want to wish us all a Happy New Year in this song they wrote for the holiday. See video below.

Get those horns, bells and noisemakers ready because New Year's Eve is just around the corner!

Wrap Your Arms Around Agnetha!

Now that Agnetha is back with a whole new album (that I recently reviewed on this blog http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2013/05/agnetha-faltskogs-a.html), here is an irresistible remix of her 1983 single, "Wrap Your Arms Around Me."

Beautiful song, beautiful 2013 dance mix. Enjoy!

(From YouTube; audio with image.)

Agnetha Faltskog's A

Agnetha Faltskog's new album, A, finds the diva working with producers Jorgen Eloffsen (who has famously worked with Kelly Clarkson and Britney Spears) and Peter Nordahl. It will be released tomorrow in the USA.  Eloffson wrote all the songs on this album with the exception of "I Keep Them on the Floor Beside My Bed" (no, not a song about condoms), co-written by Agnetha and Eloffsen.

The result is a sweet album tailored for Agnetha, reflecting both the shy vulnerability of her persona, and her soft yet solid vocals. "Some of you might know Agnetha Fältskog from her work with a little-known Swedish pop group called ABBA, who apparently had some hits back in the'70s," UK's The Guardian said tongue-in-cheeky-like.

Her ABBA roots are showing on A's sensational "Dance Your Pain Away," perfectly designed for club remixes. It restores Ms Faltskog to Dancing Queen status, fronting a disco beat and a melody that alternately recalls a variety of ABBA hits while not slavishly imitating any of them. ("[G]uaranteed to get your mum under the glitterball," The Telegraph snarked.) Along with "When You Really Loved Someone," it is one of the intended singles off the album.

But it is the song, "Back on Your Radio," where certainly Dj Buddy would like Agnetha to be, that is a very contemporary-sounding ballad conjuring up Madonna, as well it should because Madge is very strongly influenced by the now-63-year-old Swedish songstress (evident in Madonna's 2005 single, "Hung Up," which samples ABBA's "Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight)").

Agnetha Faltskog had a successful 1968 solo album before joining ABBA and finding a larger international stardom. She claims, as musical influences, '60s "girl singers" Connie Francis, Lesley Gore and Marianne Faithfull.

The numerous ballads on A (Agnetha's first album in almost a decade) convey those influences as Ms Faltskog makes her way through a number of soft ballads that are endearing if, perhaps, not displaying sufficient variety. And the aforementioned "I Keep Them on the Floor" is a tearjerker, surely, for anyone who lends an ear.

Released by Universal International. Available on cd or download. (The cd includes a pamphlet of liner notes with lyrics and photograhs.)

Madonna Sings ABBA: the Remix

My Christmas Countdown 2012 continues with Madonna singing "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room," a cover of the song originally done by ABBA. Below is the Idaho Fireplace Club Edit.

Happy Holidays with ABBA

Get our holidays on with ABBA

Dj Buddy Beaverhausen does not know why ABBA's haunting instrumental, "Arrival," sounds like a number for the holiday season. I'm sure that was not the intent. Still, when the holiday season comes, I think of it. Here, I posted the Matt Pop mix to stir up your holiday punch! Enjoy.

My Halloween Countdown 2012 featuring ABBA

Ever feel like you're crackin' up? Scary, isn't it? Here's the rare Hot Tracks remix of  the terrifying ABBA performing "The Visitors" on my Halloween Countdown 2012.

ABBA, Like an Angel Passing Through My Room (B-POP Christmas Remix)

ABBA, pictured at left, demonstrate that Swedes can look beautiful even when wrapped in tin foil. Their last recorded number before their dissolution, "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room," nicely features the voice of Agnetha Faltskog upfront. The melancholy of the song might reflect the group's dissolution at the time, and the two then-couples' disenchantment with one another. It's perfect for a Sunday night and sensitively remixed by B-Pop. Though not peak hour dance fare, it's ideal for a warm-up or cool-down to a dj set, and perfect to settle down to, and mellow out to, at home. So, may you be blessed by angels for the holiday, put one at the top of your tree and make snow angels when we finally get some snow! And may an angel pass through your room tonight and always.

And, excuse me, is Agnetha trying to look cool by hooking her thumb in her navel?