Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus Then and Now | home
About Benny and Björn
Björn Ulvaeus
Björn was born into a family that loved to read. His father loved Swedish poetry and Western novels from America. His mother was at the time, a housewife.
His father Gunnar, also owned a shipyard for small boats when Björn was about one year old. A little later, Eva, Björn's sister, was born.
When he was 5, his father's shipyard buisness ended due to a recession that came to Sweden for a short time. The family moved to Göteborg where Gunnar took a job for the glass industry.
In 1951 Gunnars brother, Esbjörn, offered him a job managing at the paper mill he owned. So the family moved to Västervik.
Björn went to school and was an excellent student. He loved learning about English and Swedish and enjoyed Pysics, but he would rather have been out playing sports like ice hockey and soccer.
Björn began writing poetry, something his father loved, early on.
As for music in the Ulvaeus home, Gunnar could play a mandolin, but usually they just listened to the radio.
Skiffle was just becoming popular in 1957 and Björn's interest was peaked when his cousin Joen got into it. Björn loved the music and wanted to play an instrument too, and so on his 13 birthday in 1958 he recieved his 1st guitar.
Soon, Björn and Joen formed a band with Joens friend Tony Rooth. Tony became Björn's best friend and went on to be with Björn in The Hootenanny Singers.
Björn was also showing an ability to learn foriegn languages, especially English.
One day the band decided to take up jazz also so Björn learned quickly to play the banjo!
He soon discovered that girls were attracted to musicians, and he became a
very popular boy in school, writing love poems to the girls that were interested in him.
At 14, Björn went to London to work for 3 weeks at another paper mill. His uncle had arranged this for him and he was an his own in a new country. He took his guitar and played on the boat trip over to England for other passengers and at every oppertunity.
Aina Ulvaeus, Björn's mother, began working in a small shoe store when her children were old enough to look after themselves. The plan was that Björn would continue in his studies and become a civil engineer at a ship yard.
The Kingston Trio were all the rage in the USA and their music wasn't confined to just there. Björn and his friends were intrigued with American folk music.
The little jazz trio were performing at parties all over Västervik, and they were not alone. Another group called Mackies Skiffle Group were also performing around town. Björn's cousin Joen left their group to go further his education in another town, thus disolving the jazz trio.
Hansi Schwarz was the leader of The Mackies. He incorporated Björn and Tony into his group. They changed their names to The Parteners. Hanzi, Björn, Tony and Johan Karlberg with Håkan Hven were the members of this new group. Björn was the youngest of them, being only 16 at the time.
Soon The Partners were well known all over Västervik, but then they found out their name would have to change! Another nationaly famous group was already using that name so the boys changed their name to The West Bay Singers, which was the name Västervik..West Bay...in English.
In 1963 Håkan left the group to join the military. The remaining 4 got jobs at the paper mill and earned enough money to take a tour of Europe that summer. They called it their summer European tour, and played in a few places.
In 1963 Aina, Björn's mother heard an advertisement for a talent contest on the radio called On Stage. She encouraged Björn to do it.
Sept. 13, 1963 The West Bay Singers appeared on the radio program contest in Norrköping Sweden.. Also a 17 year old Anni-Frid Lyngstad appeared...but they didn't meet each other at that time.
Both the West Bay singers and Anni-Frid were amoung the 6 contestents to move on to the next stage of the contest.
In Stockholm, Bengt Bernhag, a producer for the newly formed Polar Music Co. read a small article about the contest. And he was looking specifically for a group similar to The Kingston Trio, so he sent them a message requesting a
tape of their sound ...and he liked it. Soon he and his partner, Stig Anderson went to see them.
The next thing Björn and his friends knew, they were signed up with Polar!
But they were going to have to change their names. The Hootenanny Singers
is what they became, and now the search for just the right song was started.
Up until now the boys had been singing in English, but Stig and Bengt wanted them to sing in Swedish, something the group was reluctant to do. But a song called Ja vänter vid min mila ( I'm Waiting at the Stack) was chosen, recorded at Metronome Studio and it became the song the group performed
at the finals of that talent contest. This was broadcast on Swedish TV. Stig was all about getting the group as much exposure as possible. The song became
a Top 10 single, and that summer found the Hootenanny's performing in the folkparks.
1964 was difficult for folk singers. England had a famous group that had become the new music craze around the world, The Beatles. Björn felt that
pop music was going to be the way to go.
American Folk music was on the decline rather quickly after that, and it really never did very well in Sweden. But The Hootenanny's still became one of the most succesful groups in Sweden. They had several big hits, played on the radio and on TV. They had limited succes in West Germany and Scandanavia.
The Hep Stars appeared and became the biggest band of the 60's in Sweden. They had adopted the Beatles longer hair style and 8jörn soon had a similar hair cut. He and his band mates were considered cute and sexy. Their songs were begining to show a slight pop influence too.
They were once again traveling the folkparks in 1965. They has 4 albums out and they were on top of the world.
Björn was inspired by the song writting skills of Lennon and McCartney and thought why not do it too?
He wrote No Time, and Time to Move Along and recorded them in London in the hopes it would have a British sound to them. These 2 songs appeared on the 4th album.
In 1966 the song No Time appeared on the Top 20 list in Sweden.
The group released the album in the UK and USA under the name The Northern Lights, but they didn't do well at all. They never made the charts.
Bengt was close to the group. Stig was all buisness, but Bengt was very helpful in other ways. He encouraged Björn to go for the more pop sound for the Hootenanny's that Bjärn was yearning for.
The next album in 1966, the Många aniskten (Many Faces) featured a song that became the groups biggest hit. Baby Those Are the Rules. Björn wrote In Thoughts of You for the album. And at this time he had met and collaborated with Benny Andersson on a song together........
Benny Andersson
Born in central Stockholm, Benny Andersson made his appearance in the world Dec. 16, 1946.His father Gösta and his mother Laila couldn't have been more proud.Eva-Lis, Benny's sister, was born 2 years later.
The family lived in several places while Benny was growing up.Djursholm and coincidentaly, Eskilstuna.(Where Anni-Frid and her grandmother moved to not long after the Anderssons arrived.)
Benny has always known music. His household was full of it because of his grandfather Efriam, and his father Gösta, both played the accordian.
During the summer months the family would go to the island Mjölkö to their summer cottage and enjoy boating, music and recreation. There was always music playing in the background during these lazy summer days.This is where Benny developed his love for Swedish folk songs and schlager music.The more simple the better. He especially loved listening to the fiddles in the songs.
When Benny turned 6 years old he was given his first accordian.Soon he was learning to play along with his father and grandfather.They even went to play their accordians at local dances on Mjölkö.
His grandfather was a very important inspiration to Benny's life. Efriam would write a few songs and loved the old fashioned Swedish folk songs best. Benny does too.
Benny was also known to like to play practical jokes on everyone.It's said that
he liked to scare older women with snakes!
In 1955 the family moved to Vällingby. Benny was ahead of his class. He knew how to read when he started school, a time when most children were still learning their alphabet.
Benny loved to go birdwatching. This is something he still enjoys as an adult.
He was also complitly dedicated to playing music. When he turned 10 his parents bought him a piano.For the next few years Benny would play and play for hours daily on the piano.
As a teenager, Benny liked to go to the local hot spot Tegelhögen. It was a place for teenagers to go and mingle and play music and dance and just generaly have
a good time.
When he was 14, he would get up on the stage at Tegelhögen and play little numbers and boogie woogie on the piano quickly between acts at the little concerts they had.
There was also a little theater group that went there and a pretty red haired
girl in the group caught his eye. She was Christina Grönvall, and she was also attracted to Benny.They became a couple while he was still 14.
At 15 Benny finished school and decided that he wasn't going to pursue high school. His interest was music.But, he needed to work, so he began working at
a construction site. He and Christina were still going to the youth center.
But one day, when he was almost 16, Christina told him she was pregnant.
At age 16, Benny became a father to his firstborn son, Peter, born Aug.20,1963.
Since they were not married, Peter recieved the last name of his mother.
At this time, Benny was becoming known around town for his skills in music.
Elverkets Spelmanslag, (The Electric Folkmusic Group) became interested in him. They played alot of rock style music with electric instruments.
Benny and Christa(as vocalist) joined.Benny played the keyboard. They rehearsed alot and played at venues a little.
One time the band participated in a talent contest along with another band The Hep Stars.They noticed Benny and his enthusiasm playing. The Hep Stars were popular around the clubs in Stockholm.
Benny was still living at home with his parents and Christina and Peter had their own home. His parents kept encouraging him to get a real job that paid a regular income instead of a gig here and there.
So he became a door to door appliance salesman. He sold only one thing, a washing machine at the 1st door he went to and nothing after that.
In Oct. 1964 The Hep Stars were in need of a new keyboard player. They remembered Benny. They asked him to play with them and he agreed.The band had alot of wild energy and Benny fit right in.He was the youngest member of the band and he grew his hair long.During performances he would kick and swing the hair around and look like he was having a ball.
The Hep Stars began recording a few songs in 1965, hoping to make it into the charts.They recorded Summertime Blues and a Tribute to Buddy Holly. Not a success, they recorded a song called Cadillac, that had been recorded at an earlier ti me by a group called The Renegades.
This song is whatthey played on a TV show Drop In, in March of 1965. The group went wild on the stage, running and jumping on things and swinging their guitars around their heads, all sorts of bizarre behavior! Benny's keyboard was on wheels and he was moving it all over the stage.By May, Cadillac was number 1. A Tribute to Buddy Holly went #5.Quickly The Hep Stars became Swedens #1 band.
Benny also became interested in writting songs then. No Response was his first.
The music was good, but he felt the lyrics were awful.But it still became one of their more popular songs to play, and it went to #2.
Fell Fernholm became their manager in 1965 and he brought a proffesional element into the band. He helped them with their image and taught them to act like stars.He even played bass guitar a few times for them.
Benny was the driving force in the band and Svenne Hedlund the lead singer and hearthrob.
Benny then wrote Sunny Girl in 1966, which turned out to be a big hit for The Hep Stars.Benny was very happy with this song.But years later he admits he wasn't very good with the lyrics. He made one mistake in particular with the English. He meant to say She is proper, but instead wrote She is Property!
Next in 1966 was his song Wedding. Svenne and Benny both worked on this song.This is the song he played at Björn and Agnetha's wedding.This song is still played today at weddings in Sweden.
All during this time The Hep Stars felt it important to keep girlfriends a secret. And here Benny was, also a father!.And on June 25, 1965 a second child was born to Benny and Christina, a girl who was named Helené.
But Benny was longing for the life of a pop star and he and Christina began growing apart. Well, more so Benny.He never lived with Christina and his children. And he wanted now to be free.
In the summer of 1966 Benny and Christina ended their engagement. She kept the children and Benny became a party animal. Benny has always had respect forthe way Christina handled the children. She always made them available to Benny. And she raised wonderful children.
Soon he was to meet a young man named Björn Ulvaeus and his life would change......
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