ABBA — ABBA in Japan
Recorded November 25, 1978
TBS TV · Tokyo · 
Japan
Setlist
Wrong timestamp?
Latest album at the timeABBA: The AlbumThe last studio album released before the special was filmed.“To follow the 1978 Japanese visit, when If It Wasn't for the Nights had not yet reached an album.”
Context
In November 1978, ABBA visits Japan on a promotional campaign. The group is still working on the follow-up to The Album and brings a new track to television: If It Wasn't for the Nights. The visit yields a special recorded at TBS, before the Japanese tour that would take place in 1980.
Eagle opens a sequence that moves through Take a Chance on Me, Tiger and Dancing Queen. The program combines playback numbers with Money, Money, Money, SOS and Thank You for the Music performed live. Television frames the meeting between the quartet and the Japanese audience, with songs from different stages of the catalog.
The recording gets a new official DVD release in 2009. Fernando reappears in full, and The Name of the Game returns after being left out of the original broadcast. The restoration recovers material from the taping and keeps a snapshot of the phase before Voulez-Vous, when new songs were still circulating outside the albums.
Lineup at this show
The lineup of this performance — not necessarily the current one.
- Agnetha FältskogVocals
- Anni-Frid LyngstadVocals
- Björn UlvaeusGuitar and vocals
- Benny AnderssonKeyboards and vocals
Trivia
Money, Money, Money, SOS and Thank You for the Music are the three numbers performed live in the special; the rest use playback.
If It Wasn't for the Nights is performed before the release of Voulez-Vous.
The Name of the Game was cut from the original broadcast and restored on the DVD edition.
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