Hep Stars

The probabilities are that, got ABBA under no circumstances come along producing Benny Andersson (and his three partners within the group) into a global pop/rock star, no-one beyond Sweden would ever possess heard about the Hep Stars. These were the hottest rock-band from the mid-to past due ’60s in Sweden, nevertheless, regarded by some to become that country’s response to the Beatles. The Hep Superstars also charted 20 singles within their very own country and got hits in holland, in addition to building a pursuing in Germany — and their CDs are exported all over the world due to the ABBA connection. In addition, it works out that these were a pretty great music group, too. Andersson’s desire for the key pad manifested itself at age group six, when he got his 1st accordion, and he started using his dad and grandfather. At 10, he got his 1st piano and began lessons, but these didn’t continue, and he essentially became a self-taught musician. He was playing inside a music group in 1964 when he chanced to become noticed by Svenne Hedlund, an associate from the Hep Celebrities, who was simply created in 1963 and currently recorded a unitary, but experienced also just dropped their organist, Hasse Ostlund. Anderson became a member of the music group in Oct of 1964 — the lineup also presented Janne Frisk on acoustic guitar and vocals, Hedlund on business lead vocals, Lelle Hegland on bass, and Christer Pettersson on drums. Immediately after Andersson became a member of, the Hep Celebrities recorded four tunes: Geoff Goddard’s “Tribute to Friend Holly,” which have been popular in Britain for Mike Berry in the first ’60s; the Premiers’ then-current strike “Farmer John,” and “Cadillac” (not really the Bo Diddley track), that helped change their professions. By the center of 1965, after obtaining a break on Swedish tv, “Tribute to Pal Holly,” “Farmer John,” and “Cadillac” got each topped the Swedish radio graphs. “Cadillac,” “Farmer John,” along with a cover of Shel Talmy’s “Bald Going Girl” also reached number 1 on the product sales graphs, while “Tribute to Pal Holly” surely got to amount five, all in under per year. “Cadillac” was an excellent representative of the group’s audio during this time period, a bit of lusty, bluesy garage area rock and roll. dominated by an agonized business lead vocal, somewhere within Gene Vincent at his most noiseless and menacing and David Aguilar from the Delicious chocolate Watchband performing his greatest anguished teenager emoting, plus some extremely prominent body organ riffs by Andersson. The group sounded type of just like a Swedish Paul Revere & the Raiders with a bit more lyricism than that assessment implies. Their edition of “Farmer John” was a pale imitation from the Premiers’ initial, but it pleased home-grown viewers. “Bald Going Female” was convincingly bluesy and intimidating, and “Tribute to Friend Holly” was a much less dramatic rendition from the track than Mike Berry’s edition. They had a good if slightly simple garage area music group style, Andersson’s body organ and Frisk’s electric guitar paired up extremely nicely in the breaks on amounts like “MUST I,” while Andersson’s electrical harpsichord was the prominent instrument in the folk-like “Youthful and Gorgeous.” Their preliminary string of strikes resulted in the discharge of two LPs in 1965, We and Our Cadillac, as well as the Hep Superstars on Stage. Additionally, Benny Andersson started writing tracks that season — up compared to that stage, the music group had done only addresses of tunes by American and English composers (they do rocking variations of “What’d I State” along with other rock and roll & roll requirements on stage), but “No Response,” Andersson’s debut like a songwriter, managed to get to number 2 on the graphs. A year later on, his “Sunny Lady” surely got to number 1, and his “Wedding ceremony,” released that same 12 months, also topped the graphs. For another 3 years, his originals would contend with outdoors materials for space around the A-sides of solitary releases from the music group. The group have scored 20 hits within the Swedish TOP thru the summertime of 1969, included in this nine music that topped the graphs. In addition they released five even more albums: The Hep Superstars (1966), Jul Med Hep Superstars (Christmas using the Hep Superstars) (1967), Music We Sang (1968), and Hep Superstars Pa Svenska (1969). As those game titles indicate, because the ’60s advanced, the music group began reducing their songs more often in Swedish, including addresses of contemporary folk songs such as for example Ian Tyson’s “Four Solid Winds” (performed as “Mot Okant Property”). Soon after hitting number 1 with “Wedding ceremony” in-may of 1966, the Hep Celebrities were asked to a celebration by another well-known Swedish group, the Hootenanny Performers. It had been there that Andersson 1st fulfilled Bjorn Ulvaeus, who was simply an associate of the additional group. They started writing songs jointly later that season, with “IT IS NOT Easy to State” — that tune, combined with the Ulvaeus structure “VIRTUALLY NO TIME,” arrived in the Hep Superstars’ self-titled third record, issued in Dec of this same year. In those days, their reputation was in a way that the album’s product sales broke all information, making it the very first album by way of a Swedish music group to reach the very best 20 record and singles graphs. Their string of strikes continued having a Swedish edition of “YESTERDAY EVENING I HAD DEVELOPED the Strangest Fantasy,” “Don’t” (a cover from the Elvis Presley music), and Andersson’s “Consolation.” Everything appeared to be heading extraordinarily well for the Hep Celebrities, but that transformed in 1967 once the music group produced a blunder astonishingly much like one which the Beatles produced that same yr — they made a decision to make a film; additionally, the film was to become financed from the music group, and it got no script, which noises nearly the same as The Magical Secret Tour. As opposed to the Beatles, who have been earning enough cash from record product sales they could’ve produced several Magical Mystery Travels rather than been seriously harm, nevertheless, the Hep Superstars were stricken economically with the project, that was hardly ever completed. The main one shiny spot in the complete debacle was the melody “Malaika,” that they discovered while capturing in Africa, and which reached number 1. The group held functioning, oblivious to the gap they’d place themselves in until these were hit using a costs for back fees that drove them into personal bankruptcy. They soldiered on, the people operating off their bad debts, and in the summertime of 1968, there is a lineup modification when Svenne Hedlund’s fiancee Charlotte “Lotta” Walker became a member of as lead vocalist. The hits held arriving, though from 1968 onward the Hep Celebrities were no more recording much rock and roll music, preferring a softer MOR and folk-based design. It had been this modification that resulted in the group’s break up. Andersson and Svenne and Lotta Hedlund wished to keep moving within an MOR path, while the remaining music group preferred heading back into the rock and roll ‘n move music with which they’d began. Andersson, Hedlund, and Walker exited the line-up following band’s 1969 summer months tour. The seed products that could spawn ABBA had been currently planted by that point — Andersson fulfilled Anni-Frid Lyngstad through the Hep Superstars’ last weeks of executing, and their engagement, and his participation with her music as manufacturer of her brand-new one (co-written by Andersson and Ulvaeus), implemented immediately after the Hep Superstars split. In newer years, the Hep Celebrities have appeared like a reunited music group (sans Andersson), and also have produced a serious work at recording in addition to carrying out in Sweden, where their music continues to be remembered by old audiences through the ’60s. ABBA’s achievement has seen with their reissue on Compact disc, in addition to to the worldwide option of their music.