Hep Stars
The Hep Stars were one of the most successful rock bands of the 1960s in Sweden. The group consisted of Benny Andersson (keyboards), who later became a member of ABBA, Svenne Hedlund (vocals), Janne Frisk (guitar), Christer Pettersson (drums) and Balatonelle Hegland ( bass). Hedlund and Andersson left the band in 1969.
Band History
Lennart Hegland and Christer Petterson met during their military service know. Together with Hans Östlund (keyboard) and Janne Frisk (guitar and vocals), they formed the band Quartet Yep. They appeared mainly in restaurants and played at this time Swedish folk music. By Frisk she slowly approached to the Rock ' n' Roll. As a new name they chose The Hep Stars.
In an appearance along with the accordion player Erik Frank fell from Frisk, Svenne Hedlund replaced him, who already sang at The Cliff tone. Hedlund was in the band and replaced Frisk as a singer. This remained the band as a guitarist obtained. Åke Gehrhard was manager of the band. Under his leadership, the band recorded their first single Kana Kapila, which was not successful. Only a newspaper -reviewed the single.
Hans Östlund left the group in 1964 and was replaced by Benny Andersson. On April 17, 1965, succeeded the Hep Stars, to be with three songs at the same time in the Top 10 of the Swedish charts. This was before nor any other Swedish band succeeded. It was all the more remarkable because the Swedish charts were dominated by the British Invasion. They appeared briefly before on the TV show Drop In with the song Cadillac. The single reached number 1 on the charts. Farmer John came on the fourth and A Tribute to Buddy Holly to eighth place. Also, the accompanying album We and Our Cadillac reached the charts.
The response to the Hep Stars in Sweden, roughly equivalent to Beatlemania in the UK, but did not leave the Scandinavian country. The band played sold-out concerts in Sweden and dominated the charts.
1966 met Benny Andersson know the group The Hootenanny Singers, played guitar with the Björn Ulvaeus. Together they wrote songs for the third Hep Stars album. Among other things, with the cover version of the Elvis classic Do The Hep Stars were able to expand their success. In addition to successes in Sweden, the band also achieved top rankings in Norway and the Netherlands. A total of 20 singles the band in Sweden came into the charts, eight of which reached the first place.
In 1967, the band tried to like the Beatles, on a feature film. The completely improvised film was financed by the band, but during filming she ran out of money. The film never appeared and brought the band to the brink of financial ruin. Only with the single Malaika they could save the tense situation.
Svenne Hedlund's girlfriend Charlotte " Lotta " Walker, who had previously played in the American group The Sherry, got in as a singer. The two married in the same year. The entry of the singer led - by a change of style - towards gentler tones and to further chart success. Together they recorded the albums Songs We Sang and It's Been a Long Long Time. These sold very well, but behind the scenes, tensions arose because of the new, ballad direction of the band. After Andersson, Hedlund and his wife got out, the band was at the end. The last common single was a cover version of Pat Boone's classic Speedy Gonzales.
After the Hep Stars
Andersson collaborated with Björn Ulvaeus and Anni -Frid Lyngstad, who he met on the last Hep Stars Tour and produced their duet. From this nucleus later ABBA developed. Svenne Hedlund and Lotta Walker continued to work together as a duet partners. They were taken from Polar Music under contract and published under the name Svenne & Lotta several albums.
The Hep Stars were in the 1980s and 1990s back to a few times. Andersson did not participate in this brief reunions. 1989 and 2004 appeared singles with moderate success.