Dancing queen - Abba

Any new releases by Abba will make use of their back catalogue, since the members of the group have said that Voyage from a few years ago would definitely be their last studio recording. It's a shame, but I guess the Swedish superstars have given us enough to live with anyway. 

This recent 10" single release celebrates the 50th anniversary (can you believe it?) of 'Dancing queen'. It combines the original song with a Spanish version that was recorded a few years later. The disc was pressed on black vinyl 'with sparkles'. Unfortunately those sparkles are a bit disappointing: they almost look like big dust particles. 

My collection: 10" single [unnumbered]
Found: Platenzaak.nl, received 15 August 2026
Tracks: 'Dancing queen' / 'La reina del baile'

 

Heaven knows - Jaki Graham

Jaki Graham's 'Heaven knows', the title track of her debut album, was originally released in 1984 as 'Heaven knows (feels so good)' with a different sleeve and a different B-side. This single, simply titled 'Heaven knows', is a re-release from 1985. 

The re-release was prompted by the success of her duet with David Grant, 'Could it be I'm falling in love', which reached number 5 in the UK singles chart. By comparison, 'Heaven knows' didn't do that well: it only reached number 59 in September 1985. Still, it was an improvement on the number 80 a year earlier!

My collection: 7" single no. 8429
Found: De Waterput, Bergen op Zoom, 17 September 2026
Tracks: 'Heaven knows' / 'Who's making up your mind' 

Fool if you think it's over - Elkie Brooks

A mere three years after Chris Rea recorded his unforgettable hit 'Fool (if you think it's over)' in 1978, Elkie Brooks decided to record a cover version for her album Pearls, which included eight new recordings plus four of her previous hit singles. Elkie said: 'Most of [Pearl's new] material had been chosen by [A&M exec] Derek Green or Gus Dudgeon. I had insisted that we did 'Fool'. Chris Rea has always been one of my favourite musicians and writers and I thought the song was pure class.' 

Her version reached number 17 in the UK singles chart. It was the first track played on Radio Caroline when the station resumed broadcasting at 10 a.m. on 20 August 1983, after a down period of 41 months. 

My collection: 7" single no. 8428
Found: De Waterput, Bergen op Zoom, 17 September 2026
Tracks: 'Fool if you think it's over' / 'Givin' it up for your love'

 

Staying with it - Vulcano

Before Vulcano started participating in national finals for the Eurovision Song Contest with songs in Dutch they recorded a total of five singles in English. 'Shut up and boogie' in 1981 was their first, 'Staying with it' would be their penultimate single in English a year later.

'Staying with it' is a cover version of the song by American folk singer Michael Johnson. His original version can be found on his 1980 album You can call me blue.

My collection: 7" single no. 8427
Found: De Waterput, Bergen op Zoom, 17 September 2026
Tracks: 'Staying with it' / 'Heaven so blue' 

Jennifer Juniper - Donovan

Donovan Leitch wrote 'Jennifer Juniper' about Jenny Boyd, shortly before she went with The Beatles and Donovan to Rishikesh. She married Mick Fleetwood and was, at one time, the sister-in-law of George Harrison and, later, Eric Clapton. The song was arranged by John Cameron and features a wind section with Cor anglais, flute, French horn and bassoon, plus shaker and harp. The last stanza of the song is sung in French. 

Oddly enough, the sleeve of the single puts the B-side in the spotlight. 'Poor cow' was written and recorded for the Ken Loach movie of the same name. The original title of the song was "Poor Love". The title was changed when the song appeared in the film. 

The single peaked at number 5 in the UK singles chart and at number 26 in the US Billboard Hot 100. 

My collection: 7" single no. 8426
Found: De Waterput, Bergen op Zoom, 17 September 2026
Tracks: 'Jennifer Juniper' / 'Poor cow' 

Call me - Blondie

Although I bought Blondie's 'Call me' 16 years ago, it was a UK version. On the sleeve of that version any reference to the movie American Gigolo, which the song was recorded for, was absent. And so I ended up buying the song again when I spotted this near mint copy of the Dutch version of the single.

In 2014, keyboardist-composer Harold Faltermeyer remembered the recording process as having three main sections: first Giorgio Moroder and his music crew recorded an instrumental version of the song at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, with the tape locked to SMPTE timecode so that it would synchronize with the film. Then the project moved to New York for the Blondie recording session, at which the band surprised Moroder by insisting they would play their own parts. Faltermeyer was engineering when Debbie Harry sang and Chris Stein played electric guitar. Stein's guitar and amplifier were buzzing and noisy, so his setup was repaired to get a clean recording. The band had difficulty locking to sync, so Moroder stopped the unfinished sessions to save time and took the project back to Los Angeles to more quickly add the final parts with his own picked musicians, including a keyboard solo by Faltermeyer. Blondie keyboard player Jimmy Destri did not like Faltermeyer's solo and would have preferred his own version. Faltermeyer said the band was angry about being replaced by session players but the song turned out to be very successful, so they took it in stride. 

My collection: 7" single no. 8425
Found: De Waterput, Bergen op Zoom, 17 September 2026
Tracks: 'Call me' / 'Call me (instrumental)' 

 

Imagination - Bolland

Although I tend to look down on Dutch acts, the brothers Rob and Ferdi Bolland have been pretty good at churning out good tunes for decades. Their earlier singles 'Hold on' and 'Spaceman' were very nice, and 'In the army now' from 1982 has become a bit of an all-time classic.

Which is why I dared to take a chance on this single from 1984, called 'Imagination'. It didn't reach the Dutch Top 40, which is probably why I never heard the track before. I was pleasantly surprised when I played this - and the B-side. It's worth listening to!  

My collection: 7" single no. 8423
Found: Dutch Collectors Society, Rijswijk, 12 September 2026 
Tracks: 'Imagination' / 'Feels so good'