Mikory's ABBA-blog

ABBA - How they started, Expressen article 1974

Written by Peter Himmelstrand.

Agnetha
Six years ago the hit "Jag Var Så Kär" entered the third place on Svensktoppen. It was the 17 year old Agnetha Fältskog's first record. She had written the song herself.
     During the days she was working in an office. In the evenings she sang with a dance orchestra. Her first song become number 1 on Kvällstoppen and she got the opportunity to make records in Germany.
     "Jag Var Så Kär" wasn't a one off success for Agnetha Fältskog. She continued to write and perform her own songs.
     Her career took off and she went on folkpark tours and made record after record, many of them ended up on Svensktoppen.
     Her songs, most of the very sentimental, went through the listeners' hearts to the hit lists. For example "Om Tårar Vore Guld".
     When she was 19 she met Björn Ulvaeus. They got married with hundreds of fans watching, they moved to their own house and had a child.
      She also played Mary Magdalene in the Swedish version of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.
      But the most important thing was the thing with Björn Ulvaeus. Because together they made up half of ABBA.

Björn
First Björn Ulvaeus was a Hootenanny Singers, then he became Björn Ulvaeus, then Björn in Björn & Benny and finally one of the B's of ABBA.
     It was eleven years ago when Hootenanny Singers started. Four guys from Västervik who entered a radio contest.
     Hootenanny Singers was quickly signed to Stikkan Anderson's record company and made hit after hit.
     It didn't take long until Björn became the lead singer of the group, the girls' favourite and the one who had the most charming voice.
     He started making solo recordings. He moved to Stockholm and went to university. And no, he didn't plan to make the music a full time career. But then he met Benny Andersson.

Benny
When Benny Anersson was 19 he had written three songs; "Wedding", "Sunny Girl" and "No Response". All three of them had been on the chart Tio I Topp. With Hep Stars, where Benny was the cute, longhaired pianist.
     Benny, now 27, was a member of Hep Stars from the beginning until the end. During that time he evolved from a naturally talented musician to a professional.
     He was the musical base of Hep Stars. He quickly surpassed the other members. With Hep Stars he started playing dance music, then pop concerts with fainting girls and screaming and then he went on to make Swedish dinner/entertainment shows.
     At first he wrote songs in English, then he started to write Swedish songs  with Lasse Berghagen for a while.
     But when he late one night in 1965 sat down in an empty office with Björn Ulvaeus and wrote a song he had found his right partner.
     The couple started a successfull collaboration, with the support of Stikkan Anderson.
     And then he met he singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad - and there was the seed of the other half of ABBA.

Anni-Frid
Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 28, is one of the many Hyland discoveries. She came to his show an evening in 1967 after winning a Barnens Dag competition. That time on TV she won many hearts by saying that her job was to be a wife with two children back home in Eskilstuna.
     She had her own band, Anni-Frid Four, and they toured around Sörmland for six years.
     Hylands's show and the folkpark circuit gave her the opportunity to go on tour with Lasse Lönndahl, make her first recording, participate in Melodifestivalen in 1969 and singing in restaurants with Charlie Norman.
     She made several recordings that the reviewers loved but that the big audiences ignored. Her rumour as a fine singer grew. But this reputation was added with people saying that she wasn't 'broad' enough for a bigger audience.
     Eventually she got her Svensktoppen hit "Min Egen Stad".
     Who wrote that song? Benny Andersson, who at that time was her boyfriend and producer.

Let's Dance, girls!

You Have To Be There "Du Måste Finnas" från KFD

Thanks to my friends I have gotten the chance to publish the demo version of "You Have To Be There" from Kristina Från Duvemåla, sung by Helene Sjöholm.




And also Elaine Paige singing "Thank You For The Music" with Benny playing the piano.

ABBA On Spanish TV (and some other countries)

Since Swedish Television lost the show "Sommarnöjet" from August 1975

when Frida was the big guest we will have to do with these still pictures. I hope there are some of you out there who has some more pictures from this little concert of Frida's. Frida performed "Syrtaki" and "Aldrig Mej". I was there, I was 10 and I was a mile away from the stage, but I have never forgotten this concert. It was a very  warm, balmy even, evening and I was surprised that Frida was wearing boots and the "fur cardigan". Oh, beuatiful memories...

Pity about Frida's Skansen performance was wiped but Agnetha's wasn't...

Veckan svenska LP-skiva

"This week's Swedish LP" was a popular raido-show that aired once a week, usually during the late night hours, during he 1970's in Sweden.
       "Frida Ensam" was of course one of them (even though she represented that horrible, commercial music!).

Catastrophically LP covers - there are blogs for everything - and FRIDA Ensam is there...

" Frida (ja, hon från Abba) sjunker till en tidigare okänd bottennivå med omslaget till denna soloplatta. Skrevande, iförd gröna knästrumpor, sitter hon och tar sig mellan benen. Det kunde lika gärna hetat EM i onanifinallyreferens, med tideln "Ensam" och en näve mellan benen. Idag serveras en hel krabba, frukt och ett stort glas vin. Krabban skall ätas utan bestick.

"Frida (yes the one from ABBA) sings at her worst level ever on this soloalbum. With her legs spread apart and high green knee socks it looks like she is touching herself. It could have been called the EM masturbationfinallu, especially since Frida seems to be all alone. Today's dinner in one full crabfish, fruit and gold and a huge glass of wine. Apparantly the Crabfish is to be enjoyed with out any cutlery what so ever."

More of this "humour" can be found here: http://katastrofalaomslag.blogspot.com/search?q=frida

:D

The tough life on the road. Agnetha didn't shower for days!

 It's horrible not to have even ten minutes to wash up before the next show starts. I'm not sure she is talking about the ABBF tour in 1973 or the one with Bert-Åke Varg in 1972. You have to pay your dues

It was a good thing that Stikkan got to die...

Aftonbladets' reporter Anita Olofsson met Gudrun Andersson, 66 to talk about Stig "Stikkans" life and death.

Gudrun Anderson, 66, talks about her life after the recordcompany-king's death.

Gudrun is the woman who always was there for the recordcompany-king Stikkan Anderson. The woman he could lean on. His wife, mother of their three children and an assistant at the office. But the past few years were difficult. For both of them. Stikkan was very ill.

-I think that it was good that his life ended, Gudrun says.

Last fall Stikkan Anderson, 66 years old, died. The children are grown up and they have moved away from home. Now Gudrun lives alone.

-How has your life been?

-It's been good. But it's been difficult the past few years. Stikkan was so ill and he lost the zest for life. He didn't want to see people anymore and he didn't want me to go anywhere. Not even to go shopping.

They had known each other for a long time, Gudrun and Stikkan. When they were young they met at Ingesunds folkhögskola (a highschool) in Värmland, where Stikkan was performing together with Bengt Bernhag and Börje Crona.

In 1955 they got married.

A few years later a completely different life started when Stikkan presented his song "Vi hänger me" to the Swedish people. Later the success with ABBA happened. Gudrun took care of the finances, planning and book-keeping - at the office. And the family - at home. Just like so many other women.

-It was easier for us to keep things this way, because as many of you might know it can be difficult to be a mother and work at the same time. Stikkan understood that sometimes I had to stay at home to take care of our sick children.

-Also, it was me who made sure that they had all they needed, Stikkan was always busy with something.

"Stikkan wanted everything"

The business was good and the money kept rolling in. But in 1985 the divorce was a fact.

-Stikkan met another woman. Maybe I had figured that out, but I didn't want to realize it. It's as if I was wearing blinkers. This was so difficult, we worked together.

-I wanted a divorce. But Stikkan...wasn't sure. Like so many other men he wanted everything. It was a very difficult time and extremely hard to go through. A divorce is almost worse than when somebody dies.

Stikkan moved out and Gudrun lived by herself in the big house. But after a while Stikkan wanted to come home again. To Villa Ekarna, where he liked to be. But he and Gudrun never remarried.

Just wanted to look forward

-When he came back to me, he didn't want to talk about our problems. We just could look towards the future and leave the past behind us.

Stikkan's illness kept getting worse.

-To socialize with friends or invite them for dinner wasn't easy. I never knew if we would have that dinner or not or how things would turn out. -But he had a good memory. We used to solve Svenska Dagbladet's crossword together. That's a good exercise.

Gudrun is the oldest of six siblings. She's independent and strong.

-I've managed to get through life well. My parents were farmers in Sunne in Värmland. My mother had no money of her own, except what she made by selling eggs and vegetables. That's the way it used to be. But she was a fantastic mother. And she wrote poems.

-When she died my father became very lonely. That's the way things are with men, they have a hard time making it on their own.

-Often they don't have a male friend they can talk to or confide in.

-That's the way it was with Stikkan in the end. When I put on my outdoor clothes he asked where I was going. He didn't even want me to go shopping.

-But sometimes I went out to see my friends. I had to have a life of my own too.

-I think that it was good that his life ended.

-He didn't think that anything was fun anymore.

Name: Gudrun Elisabet Anderson
Age: 66
Lives: On Östermalm in Stockholm
Family: The children Marie, 40, Lasse, 39, and Anders, 31. Five grandchildren.
Education: Textile teacher
Drives: Volvo S70 1997
Earnings: Latest assessed income 714 500 SEK. Taxable capital 34,4 million SEK
What did you want to become when you were a kid: Nothing special
The most important thing right now: To turn the study into a livingroom