Dick Cavett Meets ABBA

ABBA sang Cole Porter's song "Don't Fence Me In" in Swedish and then in English.

The music introducing the programme was Benny & Björn's Fanfare for the Ice Hockey World Championships 1981.

There's a picture of Benny playing an accordion (he was playing "Lotties Schotties") but this was not included in any of the final broadcasts.  During the photo sessions, Dick Cavett took Agnethas Pulse!

Bjorn played acoustic guitar on "Super Trouper", the ending of "Two For The Price Of One", "Me and I", "Thank You For The Music", "Slipping though my Fingers" and "Knowing Me, Knowing You".

Songs performed were:
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
Super Trouper
Two For the Price of One
Slipping Through My Fingers
Me and I
On & On & On
Knowing Me, Knowing You
Summer Night City 
Thank You For The Music

Apparently, NONE of the TV specials included ALL nine songs.  A DVD release as part of ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions in November 2005 included "Gimme Gimme Gimme", "Super Trouper", "Two For the Price of One", "Slipping Through My Fingers" and "On & On & On".  Apparently SVT has 'lost' the remaining four songs: "Me & I", "Summer Night City", "Knowing Me Knowing You" and "Thank You For The Music" even though ZDF have them ("Summer Night City" and "Gimme Gimme Gimme!" was used in their Kultnacht programme around 2002/3.  Björn filmed a different introduction especially for the German version.

According to a photo in the book "From ABBA to Mamma Mia!" by Carl Magnus Palm and Anders Hanser, "Andante, Andante" was included in the set list (in Björn's handwriting) although there's no hard evidence that it was actually performed or recorded.

Backing musicians were:-
Lasse Wellander, Mats Ronander and Björn Ulvaeus on guitars
Ola Brunkert on drums
Rutger Gunnarsson on bass
Benny Andersson and Anders Eljas on keyboards and
Åke Sundqvist on percussion

Backing vocals provided by: Tomas Ledin, Lisa Öhman & Lena Ericsson:-
Björn on Dick Cavett:
Frida on Dick Cavett:
Agnetha on Dick Cavett:
Gunnar Nilars (Producer) on Dick Cavett:

Dick Cavett was wearing boots he borrowed from Björn!  Frida asked Dick Cavett to try to pronounce "777" in Swedish (sjuhundrasjuttiosju).

THERE ARE AT LEAST THREE  DIFFERENT  VERSIONS BROADCAST IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES - LET'S LIST THEM AND THEIR DIFFERENCES TOGETHER. 

1. 52 mins - long interview, clips from ABBA The Movie and ABBA in Concert, video of WAISAD and live performances.
2. German version
    

On one version, (the German one?) Björn introduced the members of ABBA:

They recorded the nine songs onto 24 track tape and Michael B Tretow reduced them down to one track for television.

Personally, I've never liked this programme.  None of them look happy and the live performances are generally poor with them all appearing stiff and unrelaxed.  Michael B Tretow once told me in an interview that the lack of movement in this programme was because they wanted to get the best live recording possible.

The programme was sold to 2 English TV companies: London Weekend Television (LWT) and Southern.

Norway may have been a test country for this programme as they had a 2 hour (or 2 part) show. The first show was the interview and a few live songs. The second show was broadcast a few days later and had all 9 songs and both the videos to "When All is Said & Done" and "One of Us" with no interviews.
UPDATE (Feb 2010) from Norwegian fan: This is not 100% correct - The only version shown was the one with the long interview, "When All is Said and Done" video and the 5 live songs. The other version that you refer to where they show both "One of Us" and "When All Is Said and Done" with the 9 live songs was shown on Swedish Television. The confusion may have occurred while in parts of Norway they could watch Swedish television and therefore might think that they saw it on Norwegian television. I have the recording of the Swedish version and I know this since it has Swedish subtitles. And also Norwegian television was not very ABBA friendly at the time and it is highly unlikely that they would have bothered to show two almost identical ABBA shows, nor to actually pay for it as they didn't have that much money in those days.....
 

"Dick Cavett Meets ABBA" was not part of the American Dick Cavett talk show series, but a stand alone programme filmed and produced by SVT in Sweden.

* All 9 of these Dick Cavett performances are featured in the "In Performance" DVD release (not an officially released Universal product but an independent - and pretty awful - release).  So how come this unofficial release from Classic Rock Productions (and their various subsidiaries) could include all performances and Universal couldn't include them on ABBA - The Complete Studio Recordings? - because what ZDF, the only TV company that seemed to be able to find the other four songs, provided to Universal Music was apparently unsuitable for converting to DVD.  (Note: what they PROVIDED might not necessarily be the same as what they've broadcast several times in recent years, a subtle distinction that no one seems to have noticed.)  Whereas Classic Rock Productions which have released Music In Review, In Performance, etc, seem happy enough to use home recorded VHS tapes for some of their content.

One version of the programme has a competition of who can get the most applause when being introduced and Frida encourages the audience to clap loudly .. this version is not currently available on YouTube but I know it exists because I've seen it!

             Opening titles and introduction
   
      

                Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!                                                   Super Trouper                      Two For the Price of One 
      

            Slipping Through My Fingers                                                  Me and I                                    On & On & On
         
                  Knowing Me, Knowing You                  Thank You For The Music                                                                            Summer Night City