The name of the game - Abba

I know I did an entry on 'The name of the game' in September, but that was before I went to Vienna and found this copy of the same single. Rather unsurprisingly, it's an Austrian copy, but with a totally different sleeve. And as I wrote back then, I probably won't easily get the Australian, Hungarian and Yugoslavian editions, but it was surprisingly easy to get a few Austrian ones. 

This sleeve comes with a unique design, placing a cropped version of the same photograph in the middle and surrounding it with an attractive shade of blue. It's a lovely variant!

My collection: 7" single no. 7804
Found: Lenny's Music Store, Vienna, 17 October 2025
Tracks: 'The name of the game' / 'I wonder (Departure)'

Knowing me, knowing you - Abba

Along with 'I do, I do, I do' I bought another Abba single in Vienna with a strikingly different sleeve. And again, this one was made in Austria. With a smaller photograph and lots of white space this design is a lot more sophisticated than other sleeves for this single.

'Knowing me knowing you' is of course one of the more dramatic singles by Abba, foreshadowing all the divorce troubles the two couples would go through during the existence of the group.  

My collection: 7" single no. 7807
Found: Lenny's Music Store, Vienna, 17 October 2025
Tracks: 'Knowing me, knowing you' / 'Happy Hawaii' 

Strangelove - Depeche Mode

When I bought 'Blasphemous rumours / Somebody' on red vinyl earlier this year, it was a bit of a lucky buy along with a few other singles. I didn't really see it as the start of a new obsession, but then I stumbled on 'Master and servant' last month, and the gates had opened. So when I spotted this one online, I simply decided to get this one as well. 

'Strangelove' was the last of the Depeche Mode singles to get an Erstauflage in rotem Vinyl in Germany. I ordered this copy online and was very pleased to see that both the disc and the sleeve were in pristine condition. Unfortunately this only encourages me to get all the other red vinyl Depeche Mode singles too. May something have mercy on my wallet.

My collection: 7" single no. 7846
Found: Discogs.com, received 7 November 2025
Tracks: 'Strangelove' / 'Pimpf' 

Amiga Quartett - Nena

Another one of those delicious Amiga Quartett EP's is dedicated to Nena. It was their first of two EP's released by the East-German state-run record company, but the one song you might expect to be on here, '99 Luftballons', is suspiciously absent. Probably the anti-war statement was a bit too much for the censors back then. 

Instead there are two other singles on here plus their respective B-sides. 'Nur geträumt' and 'Leuchtturm' were almost equally big in West-Germany, but not so much in other territories. Obviously some people in the GDR were very glad to hear some tracks from a German speaking superband. 

My collection: 7" single no. 7845
Found: Discogs.com, received 7 November 2025
Tracks: 'Nur geträumt', 'Kino' / 'Leuchtturm', 'Indianer' 

Freunde der Nacht - Pascalis, Marianna, Robert & Bessy

With 'Mathema solfege' the quartet consisting of Paschalis Arvanitidis, Marianna Tolli, Robert Williams and Bessy Argyrake represented Greece at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1977. I didn't check, but there are just a few opportunities where Greek Eurovision entries were also recorded in German. Vicky Leandros comes to mind, but other than that, I wouldn't know.

'Freunde der Nacht' is unique, because it completely sets aside the original idea of the lyrics, and replaces it with something else. The chorus of 'sol fa fa fa', mimicking solfege lessons, has disappeared, and with it, a lot of the charm of the song. It's always nice to have a different language version of a Eurovision song, but this time, the English version (appearing here on the B-side) wins. 

My collection: 7" single no. 7847
Found: Discogs.com, received 7 November 2025
Tracks: 'Freunde der Nacht' / 'Music lesson'

I do, I do, I do - Abba

The song most people know as 'I do, I do, I do, I do, I do' was presented as 'I do, I do, I do' on this colour Austrian sleeve of this 1975 single by Abba. It was exactly this colourful sleeve that made me decide to buy the single, because it looked so different from the copies that I already owned. The Austrian record company certainly knew what it was doing!

On the label, the full title is displayed, by the way. The single was a reasonable success for the band, but obviously their biggest success was yet to come at that point in time. 

My collection: 7" single no. 7806
Found: Lenny's Music Store, Vienna, 17 October 2025
Tracks: 'I do, I do, I do, I do, I do' / 'Rock me'

Phased - All About Eve

After All About Eve signed to MCA Records, incredibly, the releases on various formats kept coming, but they weren't as exciting as before. The 'Phased' EP was their first release on the new label, but the 10" single contained the same tracks as the 7" single, cassette single and the cd-single. It was a proper EP, but there were no real surprises unfortunately.

The only surprise, if one might call it that, was that the 10" single was pressed on blue vinyl. Obviously the music has stood the test of time.

My collection: 10" single [unnumbered]
Found: HMV, London, 1992
Tracks: 'Phased', 'Mine' / 'Infrared (instrumental)', 'Ascent/descent'