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It’s been a few years now since this question was raised by fans regarding the possible deluxe version of Agnetha’s I Stand Alone album. Have either you or CMP heard anything at all about this long overdue project?

I’ve just bought a 6 CD box set on Amazon of Peter Cetera albums which contains Agnetha’s duet with him with standard, extended and Spanish versions. This is released on the Cherry Pop label. They release a lot of hard to come by albums. I’m assuming they must have the rights for these tracks, do you think it’s worthwhile contacting Cherry Pop to release Agnetha’s I Stand Alone CD with the usual extended and Spanish versions?

Regards,
Simon, UK

I know that plans were quite advanced in 2017 for an I Stand Alone deluxe CD, featuring all the extended, remixed, and Spanish tracks from that album, and possibly a DVD of associated footage. But then it was quietly shelved. There were rumours of missing master tapes, and Cetera’s or Agnetha’s disinterest in the project, and there’s been no news since.

As I recall fans did approach Cherry Red Records about taking on the project, but they didn’t seem interested.

As 2026 will be the 50th anniversary of Greatest Hits and Arrival, I am wondering if there will be anniversary releases in the pipeline for 2026.

In addition to this, will the Valentine’s Day red vinyl edition will be released again in 2026 – maybe in a different colour similar to the annual release of ‘Happy New Year’.

Regards
Julian, Lancashire, U.K.

That’s a good question. I’d expect we might get something for those two major anniversaries, though there has been no news or leaks. Though Greatest Hits was originally released in November 1975, its 30th anniversary CD was released in April 2006. Incidentally, it’s also the fifth anniversary of Voyage this year.

I don’t imagine the Valentine’s Day single will become an annual event.

UPDATE 15 January 2025: as you might have seen, a new 10-inch picture disc of ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’ is scheduled for release in 6 February. The B-side seems to be setting a pattern – last year’s single featured a song from ABBA, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary; this year’s features a song from Arrival, which has its 50th anniversary this year.

Do we know if there was much footage of the recording of the Voyage album, considering there was talk of a documentary special being made by an American company which got cancelled?

Simon, UK

We’ll probably never know, unless more footage is released. What we’ve seen appears to have been recorded by Ludvig Andersson, probably on his phone, not professionally taped. The proposed documentary/all-star tribute programme (A BBC/NBC co-production) was planned for the end of 2018, after the first two songs were announced in April. The footage we’ve seen appears to date from the later sessions, in January 2019 and April 2021.

I was playing Amazon music in my car coming home from work the other night when a track came on called ‘Jag är blott en man’ by Jarl Kulle who was a Swedish stage and film actor – father of Maria Kulle. I remember this was included on the Ring Ring Deluxe CD, but do we know where and when this was recorded? Was this mentioned in any of Carl Magnus’s books? I can’t seem to find much info on it.

Thanks,
Simon, UK

‘Jag är blott en man’ is indeed covered in Carl Magnus Palm’s book ABBA – The Complete Recording Sessions, in an entry dated 11 and 12 September 1972. It was recorded as a proposed theme song for the film Ture Sventon, and released as a single, along with a song titled after the film on the B-side, for Christmas 1972.