THE MEDLEY MYSTERY RESOLVED
If you're an ABBA fan who's been around for a while, you are probably aware that there are two different mixes of the so-called Folk Medley. It was first released in 1975 on a German charity album under the title 'Pick A Bale Of Cotton - On Top Of Old Smokey - Midnight Special'. Then, in 1978, the recording was used for the B-side of the 'Summer Night City' single, at which time it was subject to a new mix, and the word "medley" was added to the title: 'Medley: Pick A Bale Of Cotton - On Top Of Old Smokey - Midnight Special'. However, the two mixes sound almost the same and, accordingly, are very hard to tell apart.
The medley was first released on CD in 1994, on the box set Thank You For The Music. At the time I was told that it was the 1978 remix that was used on the box set. Howevever, for many years now I've suspected that there was something wrong here. Was that really the 1978 mix on the box set? And what about the other CDs on which the Medley has since been used - did they use the 1975 mix or the 1978 mix? The story so far had been that the 1975 mix had never been released on CD. With the release of The Complete Studio Recordings, where the ambition was to include both mixes, I was determined to try to solve this problem once and for all.
The only way to do that was to locate a tape that definitely contained the 1978 mix. And the only such tape I knew where we could be absolutely certain that we got the right mix would be the single master for 'Summer Night City'/'Medley: Pick A Bale Of Cotton - On Top Of Old Smokey - Midnight Special'. Unfortunately, the original Polar Music master tape appears to be missing from the archives. Luckily, however, we acquired the entire collection of ABBA tapes from Epic Records in the UK a few years ago, so we had access to the single master for the British release.
I asked mastering engineer Henrik Jonsson, who remastered the tracks for the box set, to have a listen to the track on the single master and some of the other, previously released versions. I wanted someone who was working professionally in the audio field to determine which mix was which. Personally, I had listened to so many different vinyl pressings, cassette copies and CD issues of this track, that I no longer knew what I was hearing. Henrik's conclusion was the following:
The version of the medley included on the Thank You For The Music box set is the 1975 mix, originally released on the German charity album.
The version of the medley included on the remastered edition of ABBA's eponymous album, issued in 2001, is the 1978 remix.
Ein wahrer Abbafan sollte sich das Album Ensam von Frida ruhig kaufen, weil er dort auch die Urfassung des Abbahits Fernando finden wird.