List of unreleased songs recorded by ABBA


This is a list of songs that were either recorded or written by Swedish pop group ABBA, but which - for various reasons - were never released during the band's active years. Some of the songs were later released in their entirety or in parts on the track "ABBA Undeleted", while other songs were released as part of solo projects.

Björn - Benny & Agnetha - Anni-Frid (ABBA) era

1972

1974

Just Like That

"Just Like That" was recorded in May 1982. It has yet to be officially released in its entirety, though a complete bootleg version is featured on the album ABBA - We Owed You One on the Mistrial Music label. Benny and Björn have stated that the song sounded 'wrong': the verse and chorus did not fit together, and that is why it was scrapped. The two men admit this happens regularly in their way of writing music: a mediocre song can become a bridge or a riff for another song, and a good melody line can lie around for many years until it surfaces in a composition. Benny and Björn nevertheless allowed for a 'snippet' of "Just Like That" to be released in a 'medley' track on the box set Thank You for the Music in 1994. Although this snippet only revealed the chorus of the track, it is notable for featuring a saxophone solo by Raphael Ravenscroft, perhaps best known for his famous saxophone riff on Gerry Rafferty's 1978 hit "Baker Street". This was one of the very few times that ABBA used a musician outside the usual ABBA circle.
Other recordings of "Just Like That" exist; a version features a guitar riff that eventually made its way into the verse melody of the song "Under Attack", while another interpretation has come to be known as the 'na na na' version, where Agnetha is heard singing 'na na na na's on top of the instrumental melody. In 1994, Agnetha had discussed the song: "I haven't heard it in several years, but I remember it as a very good song and recording. It is one of my big favourites, and I hope it's going to be released one day".
In 1985, a new version of "Just Like That" was recorded by Swedish duo Gemini, who performed the song live in the UK on Terry Wogan's chat show. It was later released as a single.
"Just Like That" was originally intended to be featured in the ABBA musical, Mamma Mia!, sung as a love duet between Sophie and Sky, but was removed during rehearsals, as it apparently did not advance the story.

Dream World

"Dream World" is a song recorded in September 1978 with shared vocals by Agnetha and Frida. The song was recorded during sessions for the album Voulez-Vous. However, composers Benny and Björn ultimately decided that "Dream World" was not suitable for release, and instead agreed to scrap the recording.
The melody and chord sequence of the middle-eight of "Dream World" were re-used, with different lyrics, as the bridge for the middle-eight of the song "Does Your Mother Know", later released as the second single from Voulez-Vous.
In the 1980s, the song was heard for the first time in a Swedish radio programme featuring ABBA's engineer Michael B. Tretow, and subsequently found its way onto a bootleg album.
In 1994, "Dream World" was released in Sweden, Germany and Australia as a promotional-only CD-single with other ABBA rarities to advertise the Thank You for the Music box set, which also contained the track.
The version of the song released in 1994 differs from the version heard in the radio show in that its fairground-like synthesiser introduction fades in rather than starting abruptly. However, this is because the tape from which the track was taken was partly destroyed. The "Deluxe Edition" of the Voulez-Vous album, contains the track with its original beginning. It is unknown how the full introduction was resurrected from the partially destroyed tape.
It was reported just before its 1994 release that Benny and Björn were in the studio remixing the track, and hence it is most probably a new mix-down of the song done expressly in 1994. Indeed, it exhibits a certain "digital" sound suggesting it was mixed down to a digital recorder as opposed to previously released songs from this period which were mixed onto analog tape.
"Dream World" was included in full form for the first time on the Voulez-Vous Deluxe Edition CD/DVD package, released on May 31, 2010.

Single track listing

  1. "Dream World"
  2. "Put On Your White Sombrero"
  3. "Just Like That "
  4. "Thank You for the Music"

    From a Twinkling Star to a Passing Angel

Released on April 23, 2012, the special "Deluxe Edition" of the album The Visitors includes the previously unreleased demo track "From a Twinkling Star to a Passing Angel". It is the first release of a previously unreleased track since 1994. It shows the progress of "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room" from the same album.