ABBA blog

Work on my upcoming book ABBA On Record - Packaged Promoted Reviewed (abbaonrecord.com) is ongoing here at Carl Magnus Palm headquarters. I'm having a lot of fun going through research old and new to piece together the story of how ABBA's music found world success, learning so much in the process and having several "oh, so that's how it happened!" moments.

The answer to the question in the headline is, of course, that ABBA's first US record label was Playboy Records, and the man in the picture to the right is Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. He had very little day-to-day involvement with the record label, however, but earlier this year it was my pleasure to interview the man who was the head of Playboy Records for most of ABBA's brief tenure with them, 1972-1973. It's a largely unknown story, and, without raising expectations to an unreasonable level, at least we will know a little more about it when the book is published.

The ABBA/Playboy story is just one of many episodes explored in ABBA On Record, which also will have supplements such as the contents of The Michael B. Tretow Tapes, providing us with so much more insight about how familiar songs developed as well as providing details about a few unheard tunes.

The book is currently scheduled for publication sometime in the first half of 2020. If you haven't already done so, I urge you to place a pre-order: everyone who pre-orders will have their name listed in the book, plus get their copy personally signed by the author.

Pre-order your copy here: abbaonrecord.com. Your support matters!