Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus Then and Now | home
B and B
1960's
In May 1969 the Hep Stars were finished and Benny and Björn join Svenne and his wife Lotta touring and recording. Björn, Benny and Stig Anderson along with Bengt Bernhag set up their own publishing company called UnionSongs.
The Hootenanny Singers were only working in the studios now.
In Sept. 1969 B & B together wroteand produced 2 songs for singer Anna Lena Löftgren.
They also strike out on their own writing and recording songs like Santa Rosa and She's My Kind of Girl.
They even went to Tokyo with Santa Rosa to sing at
the World Pop Festival.
Another thing they were doing is working on their girlfriends solo recordings.
For the next few years Björn and Benny produced children's records, jazz and pop groups and even a few religious singers.
1970's
They worked hard in 1970 to put together an album called Lycka. Amoung the songs was one called
Hej gamle man. Frida and Agnetha had lent their
voices as backup singers.
It became a huge hit in Sweden.
It took another year and a half before they really
began working together beyond working on each others albums.
B and B along with their girlfriends, Agnetha and Anni-Frid, launched a small revue in Göteborg and one of the songs they used was Hej gamle man. It is the one the audience seemed to like the most. But they decided to wait awhile before doing anything else together since the revue basicaly flopped.
1970 in Göteborg
Björn, Agnetha and Benny toured the folkparks in the summer of 1971.
Anni- Frid was on her own solo tour at the time.
They also wrote and produced other singers.like Lena Anderson, recording
Say it With a Song.
In 1970 B and B were involved with a movie called The Seduction of Inga.
They wrote the title song, Inga Theme and it was released as the "B" side of
She's My Kind Of Girl.
Swedish chefs making gingerbread at Jul time. This was in Agnetha and Björn's
Vallentuna kitchen. 1972.
Then the days arrive when most of their attention is fixed on their own emerging group....ABBA.
1973 Ring Ring
April 6, 1974 ABBA wins at Brighton's Eurovision Song Contest singing Waterloo.
April 1974 on Viggsjö
1974with the Hootenanny's
1975 finds Björn and ABBA touring the folkparks in Sweden and touring also in Europe.
Many ABBA songs were written in the songwriting hut on Viggsö
Benny said,In the early days, neither Björn nor I were especially thrilled about
writing lyrics. although it came easier for Björn.
But by the end of ABBA he had decidiedly changed his mind and really enjoyed it.
1977 Benny and Björn in Australia
ABBA the Movie scene
1977 tour Tour in 1979.
1980's
1980 in the studio
Jan. 25, 1981 at Stig Andersons 50th birthday party. Görel is sitting with Stig.
Oct. 1982 B and B with Stig Anderson
1983-84 CHESS
In 1982 B&B began talking about doing something outside of ABBA. They began talking with Tim Rice. They were only going to take a break with ABBA and return to it later.
The gils Frida and Agnetha also began planning solo projects to fill in the down time from ABBA. But Chess took longer and became more involved than at first thought.
They began writing the musical in 1983.The girls were involved in other things and nobody really wanted to pick up with ABBA again after so much time had passed. (4 years) Although they have never officially broken as a group, they all say ABBA is permanetly over.
Part of the problem was that both Björn and Benny had become fathers again within
a few weeks of each other. They had agreed to devote alot of their time to their new families. ABBA was going to be in downtime for awhile and Agnetha and Frida had planned solo projects. When the boys became involved with Chess they realized
they both wanted to be behind the scenes in music and no longer wanted to perform
on stage.
They released the album Chess and put on a concert of the music before they put the show on stage and two of the songs became hits I knew him so well and One night in Bangkok and reached number one and number three respectively in UK.
The musical was a success in London but was a fiasco on Broadway.
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