Rest in Peace, Michael B. Tretow

 Yesterday Michael B. Tretow, ABBA's iconic sound engineer, passed away at 80 years old.  Not only was he the man behind their legendary sound, he was also one of their closest friends, from Bjorn's early days as a member of the Hootenanny Singers and onward.  He mixed not only all of their albums with ABBA (excluding Voyage), but also a lot of the ABBA members solo work during and after ABBA, like the Chess concept album and Agnetha's Wrap Your Arms Around Me.  He also worked on albums from the rest of the Polar family, like Lena Anderson and Ted Gardestad.

He was a kooky guy with a fun sense of humor, which can be heard in his own solo work.  You can also hear snippets of what it was like working with him in the studio and the rapport he had with the ABBA members in the ABBA Undeleted medley.  

He was a core part of ABBA's story, and he will be greatly missed.  Rest in peace, Mr. Tretow.

Många Gånger Än

 So I've been doing some research for a new YouTube video that is kinda a remake of an older video with more accurate information, a lot of which is actually coming from Remko van Drongelen's "Frida Beyond ABBA."  In that book he includes information on recording sessions for songs that Frida contributed backing vocals for, like for example, Harpo's Moviestar or various Ted Gärdestad albums.  And among the list of songs that Frida contributed vocals to are a good number of songs from Agnetha's 1972 När En Vacker Tanke Blir En Sång album.

I've always known that from 1971 onward, the ABBA members sang backing vocals on each others' work frequently.  Like Björn, Benny, and Agnetha all appear on Frida's Man vill ju leva lite dessemellan, Kom Och Sjung en Sång, and Ska Man Skratta Eller Gråta, and Vi Ar Alla Bara Barn I Borjan, but I didn't know that Björn recording backing vocals was actually a lot less frequent than I would have thought. For example, he does not sing on Frida's Min Egen Stad, leaving only Benny and Agnetha, nor does he sing on the majority of tracks from Agnetha's När En Vacker Tanke Blir En Sång, leaving only Frida and Benny.

The tracks that feature both Frida and Beny are Kanske var min kind lite het, Sången föder dig tillbaka, Tågen kan gå igen, and Dröm är dröm och saga saga.  Up until now I had assumed that the prominent male backing vocals on Tågen kan gå igen, were from Björn, but now I know that its, in fact, Benny.

Which leaves me to wonder now, what about the prominent male vocals on the track Många Gånger Än?  There are no prominent female backing vocals other than from Agnetha, and since the track is not listed in in "Frida Beyond ABBA" as having an appearance from Frida, we know she's not on the track.  

Again, I always just assumed it was Björn singing the backing vocals, but considering Björn does not sing on any of the other tracks from her album, I think it is safe to assume that it is actually Benny singing backing vocals on Många Gånger Än, which I honestly find to be so incredibly adorable!  I can't think of any other song from ABBA's discography or any other ABBA-related track that features just Benny and Agnetha, so that kinda makes this a very unique track in that way, and I'm happy to have possibly discovered this new aspect of the song!