Hep Stars

All Music Guide:

The chances are that, had ABBA never come along making Benny Andersson (and his three partners in the group) into an international pop/rock star, no one outside of Sweden would ever have heard of the Hep Stars. They were the hottest rock band of the mid-to late '60s in Sweden, however, considered by some to be that country's answer to the Beatles. The Hep Stars also charted 20 singles in their own country and had hits in the Netherlands, as well as building a following in Germany -- and their CDs are exported around the world as a result of the ABBA connection. It also turns out that they were a pretty good band, too.

Andersson's interest in the keyboard manifested itself at age six, when he got his first accordion, and he began playing with his father and grandfather. At 10, he got his first piano and started lessons, but these didn't continue, and he basically became a self-taught musician.

He was playing in a band in 1964 when he chanced to be heard by Svenne Hedlund, a member of the Hep Stars, who had been formed in 1963 and already recorded one single, but had also just lost their organist, Hasse Ostlund. Anderson joined the band in October of 1964 -- the lineup also featured Janne Frisk on guitar and vocals, Hedlund on lead vocals, Lelle Hegland on bass, and Christer Pettersson on drums. Soon after Andersson joined, the Hep Stars recorded four songs: Geoff Goddard's "Tribute to Buddy Holly," which had been a hit in England for Mike Berry in the early '60s; the Premiers' then-current hit "Farmer John," and "Cadillac" (not the Bo Diddley song), that helped transform their careers.

By the middle of 1965, after getting a break on Swedish television, "Tribute to Buddy Holly," "Farmer John," and "Cadillac" had each topped the Swedish radio charts. "Cadillac," "Farmer John," and a cover of Shel Talmy's "Bald Headed Woman" also reached number one on the sales charts, while "Tribute to Buddy Holly" got to number five, all in less than a year.

"Cadillac" was a good representative of the group's sound during this period, a piece of lusty, bluesy garage rock. dominated by an agonized lead vocal, somewhere between Gene Vincent at his most quiet and menacing and David Aguilar of the Chocolate Watchband doing his best anguished teen emoting, and some very prominent organ riffs by Andersson. The group sounded sort of like a Swedish Paul Revere & the Raiders with a little more lyricism than that comparison implies. Their version of "Farmer John" was a pale imitation of the Premiers' original, but it satisfied home-grown audiences. "Bald Headed Woman" was convincingly bluesy and threatening, and "Tribute to Buddy Holly" was a less dramatic rendition of the song than Mike Berry's version. They had a decent if slightly smooth garage band style, Andersson's organ and Frisk's guitar paired up very nicely on the breaks on numbers like "Should I," while Andersson's electric harpsichord was the dominant instrument on the folk-like "Young and Beautiful."

Their initial string of hits resulted in the release of two LPs in 1965, We and Our Cadillac, and The Hep Stars on Stage. Additionally, Benny Andersson began writing songs that year -- up to that point, the band had done nothing but covers of songs by American and British composers (they did rocking versions of "What'd I Say" and other rock & roll standards on stage), but "No Response," Andersson's debut as a songwriter, made it to number two on the charts. A year later, his "Sunny Girl" got to number one, and his "Wedding," released that same year, also topped the charts. For the next three years, his originals would compete with outside material for space on the A-sides of single releases by the band.

The group scored 20 hits in the Swedish Top Ten thru the summer of 1969, among them nine songs that topped the charts. They also released five more albums: The Hep Stars (1966), Jul Med Hep Stars (Christmas with the Hep Stars) (1967), Songs We Sang (1968), and Hep Stars Pa Svenska (1969). As those titles indicate, as the '60s progressed, the band began cutting their songs more and more often in Swedish, including covers of modern folk songs such as Ian Tyson's "Four Strong Winds" (done as "Mot Okant Land").

Shortly after hitting number one with "Wedding" in May of 1966, the Hep Stars were invited to a party by another popular Swedish group, the Hootenanny Singers. It was there that Andersson first met Bjorn Ulvaeus, who was a member of the other group. They began writing songs together later that year, with "It Isn't Easy to Say" -- that song, along with the Ulvaeus composition "No Time," showed up on the Hep Stars' self-titled third album, issued in December of that same year. At that time, their popularity was such that the album's sales broke all records, making it the first album by a Swedish band to reach the Top 20 album and singles charts.

Their string of hits continued with a Swedish version of "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream," "Don't" (a cover of the Elvis Presley song), and Andersson's "Consolation." Everything seemed to be going extraordinarily well for the Hep Stars, but that all changed in 1967 when the band made a mistake astonishingly similar to one that the Beatles made that same year -- they decided to make a movie; additionally, the movie was to be financed by the band, and it had no script, which sounds a lot like The Magical Mystery Tour.

In contrast to the Beatles, who were earning enough money from record sales that they could've made two or three Magical Mystery Tours and not been seriously hurt, however, the Hep Stars were stricken financially by the project, which was never completed. The one bright spot in the entire debacle was the song "Malaika," which they found while shooting in Africa, and which reached number one.

The group kept working, oblivious to the hole they'd put themselves in until they were hit with a bill for back taxes that drove them into bankruptcy. They soldiered on, the members working off their debts, and in the summer of 1968, there was a lineup change when Svenne Hedlund's fiancee Charlotte "Lotta" Walker joined as lead singer. The hits kept coming, though from 1968 onward the Hep Stars were no longer recording much rock music, preferring a softer MOR and folk-based style.

It was this change that led to the group's split. Andersson and Svenne and Lotta Hedlund wanted to keep moving in an MOR direction, while the rest of the band preferred going back into the rock 'n roll music with which they'd started out. Andersson, Hedlund, and Walker exited the line-up following the band's 1969 summer tour. The seeds that would spawn ABBA were already planted by that time -- Andersson met Anni-Frid Lyngstad during the Hep Stars' final weeks of performing, and their engagement, and his involvement with her music as producer of her new single (co-written by Andersson and Ulvaeus), followed soon after the Hep Stars split.

In more recent years, the Hep Stars have appeared as a reunited band (sans Andersson), and have made a serious effort at recording as well as performing in Sweden, where their music is still remembered by older audiences from the '60s. ABBA's success has seen to their reissue on CD, as well as to the international availability of their music.

Wikipedia:

The Hep Stars was a Swedish rock group, formed in 1963 in Stockholm. During 1965-1966 the band was the most successful of contemporary 1960s Swedish pop groups performing in English language. Outside the Nordic countries the band is best known as a launching point for keyboard player and composer Benny Andersson, who went on to enjoy worldwide success with ABBA.

The band was founded by drummer Christer "Chrille" Pettersson (d.2006) and bass guitarist Lennart "Lelle" Hegland in 1963 with keyboardist Hans Östlund and guitarist-singer Jan "Janne" Frisk joining. At their height of popularity the line-up consisted of Hegland, Pettersson, Frisk and Sven "Svenne" Hedlund on lead vocals and Benny Andersson on keyboards.

The beginning

Upon founding the band called themselves Quartet Yep. Their repertoire included various styles of music from Latin-dance to rock in order to get as many gigs as possible in varying venues. Mainly on the influence by Jan Frisk their music started to veer towards rock 'n'roll and pop. The band decided a more intriguing name was in order and on Frisk's suggestion Hep Stars was chosen. The idea came from Bill Haley song "Razzle Dazzle" line "It's the hipster's dance" with slight alteration on written form. They started to get support gigs also closing in after the headline act. Typical gig could see them playing around four hours with one set of rock.

Hegland called to Hedlund to fill in the singer's slot for Frisk who temporarily joined to a tour backing band for some extra money for new guitar amp. The band quickly noticed Hedlund's abilities as both singer and frontman. Upon Frisk's return they shared lead vocal duties for a period of time with Frisk singing the more straightforward rockers and Hedlund dealing with the ballads.

By summer 1964 they could be performing to audiences in size of 2000. The rock-scene took a note on them after one evening in Nalen which was the most important rock-club in Sweden during 1960's. The main act failed to appear at all and originally hired to be support act Hep Stars filled in going down a storm especially among rockers (or raggar as they were known in Nordic countries) and the reputation started to spread through word-of-mouth.

At this point Hegland managed to talk musicbusiness man and Olga-recordlabel owner Åke Gerhard over to be their manager.

After the group's first single "Kana Kapila" (1964) the original keyboardist Hans Östlund was asked to leave the relations growing sour especially with Hedlund and founder member Pettersson, who left the band being fed up with squabbles. He was asked to rejoin and the band continued as a fourpiece for a short time in autumn 1964.

Hedlund owed a van and occasionally drove other bands to gigs. One of these bands was Elverkets Spelmanslag where Hedlund saw Benny Andersson performing making an impression with his quick runs and fill-ins. On Hedlund's suggestion Andersson was called for audition. In turn Andersson had earlier read a tabloid article over Hep Star's camp car they used on touring and which could take in both band and the equipment ensuring him Hep Stars had it going along with their assuring comments on the current scene.

The band was now what is considered to be the classic line-up consisting of Sven Hedlund vocals, Jan Frisk-guitar/vocals, Benny Andersson-keyboards, Lennart Hegland-bass and Christer Pettersson-drums. The fans were soon to absorb their nicknames Svenne, Janne, Benny, Lelle and Chrille.

Breakthrough

Hep Stars recorded their next three singles in one six hours session without overdubs on three-track equipment They got a chance to perform in TV-program "Drop In" in March 1965. In April they got three songs to radiolist top 4 at the same time namely "Cadillac", "Farmer John" and "Tribute To Buddy Holly". On the sales list "Cadillac" and "Farmer" peaked #1 for one week and four weeks respectively while "Tribute" peaked number five. Svenne Hedlund became the band's figure-head and first true pop-star in Sweden the band itself being headline material in tabloids and various youth oriented magazines.

Other Swedish bands such as Tages and Shanes who largely wrote their own songs made a remark on Hep Stars using coverversions. This motivated Benny Andersson to try to write songs for the band. Also it was a hard job to try to find fresh songs to the band's repertoire. The first song he introduced to band was "No Response" which became #3 in sales list. The band was at the height of popularity especially among rock audiences during 1965-1966 with both cover and original songs. In 1966 they did 150 gigs in Sweden only. The popularity echoed rapidly and the band was highly successful also in Norway and Finland making several tours in both countries.

Mainstream success, break up

"I Natt Jag Drömde" a Swedish version of "Last Night I Had A Strangest Dream" was a massive hit in Sweden but divided the band to a degree being a folk-song. It also caused confusion among rock-oriented fans. The band continued playing up to 200 gigs in 1967. However the back-up organisation made less than adequate job with taxman and in general running of the business and problems raised their ugly heads. Also general economic situation in the country started to stagnate towards the end of 1960's. Together they forced the band to navigate towards wider audiences and showband scene. American singer Charlotte Walker joined 1968.

The direction contradicted especially with Frisk who was eventually asked to leave early 1969 due to diminishing interest. Björn Ulvaeus from Hootenanny Singers stepped in. Original member going left the band in mixed feelings and the decision was made to call it the day after fulfilling the tour contracts. The band played their last gig August 1969 after which Andersson, Ulvaeus, Walker and Hedlund left the band. It went through several line-up changes finally breaking up in early 1970s with Hegland the only original member.

Afterwards

Andersson and Ulvaeus continued with Hedlund and Walker making a show-tour with comedian Finn Alberth. After that Hedlund and Walker formed the duo Svenne & Lotta, who recorded the Swedish original of the ABBA song "Bang A Boomerang". They established themselves and enjoyed considerable success especially in Denmark and also in Mid-Europe. Having established their co-work in Hep Stars Andersson and Ulvaeus continued both as songwriting team to Polar- record company as well as duo Björn & Benny which eventually led to ABBA.

After a hiatus Frisk, Hegland and Pettersson formed Gummibandet that did three albums in the 1970s. In the 1980s, a wave of 1960s nostalgia swept Sweden and the members had a discussion about re-forming the Hep Stars. They hit onto successful tours Benneth Fagerlund replacing Andersson on keyboards. 1990 Lennart Hegland stepped down Fagerlund following the suit few years later.

For the 40th anniversary collection Cadillac Madness 40 years 40 hits 1964-2004 they re-recorded some of their hits as well as some new songs. Jan Frisk, Charlotte Walker and Sven Hedlund occasionally play concerts together with guest musicians under the Hep Stars flag.

Notes on songwriting

On the album The Hep Stars in 1966 there was "Isn't It Easy To Say", the first joint composition by Andersson and his new friend Björn Ulvaeus, then a member of the acoustic group Hootenanny Singers, who mainly sang in the Swedish language. On the same album there was another song, "No Time", written by Ulvaeus alone. "No Time" was also recorded by the Hootenanny Singers in an acoustic version. Andersson and Ulvaeus would also write two songs for the album "Hep Stars På Svenska". The songs were "Speleman" and "Precis Som Alla Andra".

Among the hits were "I natt jag drömde" (Swedish version of "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream"), Mike Berry's "Tribute to Buddy Holly" (#4, Sweden), "Malaika" (with lyrics in Swahili), "Wedding", "Consolation", "Cadillac" (#1, Sweden), "Farmer John" (#2, Sweden), "No Response" and "Sunny Girl". The group's last hit in 1969 was a cover of "Speedy Gonzales".