THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
929) The Hep Stars — “Spinning, Spinning, Spinning”
How many degrees of separation are there between ABBA and sunshine pop wunderkind Curt Boettcher (see #397, 506, 586, 662, 810)? How about one! Before ABBA, Benny Andersson was already a star, a Hep Star! The Hep Stars were Sweden’s hottest band, and they recorded a ’68 album filled with songs by the Ballroom, Boettcher’s pre-Millennium band. Today’s enchanting song (written by Curt and Ruth Friedman (see #542)) was the A-side of the Ballroom’s only 45. We will hear versions by the Hep Stars, New Zealand’s Simple Image, Michelle O’Malley (of the Ballroom), and, of course, the Ballroom. Each is special in its own way.
Bruce Eder:
[T]he Hep Stars. . . . were the hottest rock band of the mid- to late ’60s in Sweden, considered by some to be that country’s answer to the Beatles. . . . [Benny Andersson] 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 . . . . Andersson joined . . . in October of 1964 . . . . Soon after . . . the Hep Stars recorded . . . Geoff Goddard’s “Tribute to Buddy Holly,” [and] the Premiers’ then-current hit “Farmer John” and “Cadillac” . . , that helped transform their careers. By the middle of 1965, after getting a break on Swedish television . . . each [had] 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 . . . . Andersson began writing songs that year — up to that point, the band had done nothing but covers . . . . “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[]” . . . also topped the charts. The group scored 20 hits in the Swedish Top Ten through the summer of 1969, among them nine songs that topped the charts. . . . [I]n 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 . . . a member of the [Singers]. 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 . . . . [T]heir 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. . . . [I]n 1967 . . . the band . . . decided to make a [self-financed] movie . . . . [T]he Hep Stars were stricken financially by the project, which was never completed. . . . 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 . . . . [and t]he hits kept coming, although 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 others] wanted to keep moving in an MOR direction, while the rest of the band preferred going back into the rock & roll music with which they’d started out. [He] exited the line-up following the band’s 1969 summer tour. . . . Andersson met Anni-Frid Lyngstad during the Hep Stars’ final weeks of performing . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/hep-stars-mn0000721518/biography
As to the Ballroom, Richie Unterberger tells us that:
The Ballroom only issued one single during their brief existence, and even that 1967 45 might have never made it into the shops. They’ve attained a reasonable level of recognition, however, due to the cult following that arose several decades later around the group’s leader, songwriter/performer/arranger/producer Curt Boettcher. . . . Boettcher had already made his mark on the Los Angeles pop/rock prior to the formation of the Ballroom in late 1966, primarily for his production work with the Association . . . . Boettcher . . . hook[ed] up with Michele O’Malley, Sandy Salisbury, and Jim Bell for the Ballroom[, who] recorded an album’s worth of [sunshine pop] for Warner Brothers, produced by Boettcher, who wrote many of the songs as well. . . . [But t]he [band] never got a shot to be evaluated by the marketplace and the public . . . as just one single, “Spinning, Spinning, Spinning”/”Baby, Please Don’t Go,” was made; it is rare enough that it may have only gone out to radio stations. . . . The Ballroom . . . broke up about half a year after they formed . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-ballroom-mn0001822571
OK, OK, but how did the Ballroom spin into the Hep Stars? Curt Boettcher formed a partnership with executive Steve Clark, who later “produced an album for popular Swedish band The Hep Stars . . . including . . . Ballroom tunes, “Spinning, Spinning, Spinning,” “Another Time,” Musty Dusty,” “Would You Like to Go,” and “5 A.M.” [see #810] (David Bash, liner notes to the CD comp The Millennium Magic Time: The Millennium/Ballroom Recordings) Further, the Ballroom’s “Spinning” was “slated for release . . . in May of 1967. It’s likely that there were never stock copies made of that single, but it was shipped to radio stations, and apparently . . . was heard by several people, among them a band from New Zealand called The Simple Image, whose recording of it. . . soared to #1 on the local charts in mid-1968. Unfortunately, the Ballroom version did not experience a similar fate anywhere in the , and any plans Warner Brothers might have had for releasing a Ballroom album were scrapped.” (David Bash, liner notes to the CD comp The Millennium Magic Time: The Millennium/Ballroom Recordings)
Here are the Ballroom:
Here is Michele O’Malley:
Here is the Simple Image. “Their second single [‘Spinning’] . . . really established Simple Image outside their hometown. . . . Producer Howard Gable used a phasing technique in the mix and it gave the song a very distinctive sound. [It] climbed to number one on the charts and spent two weeks in that position in July 1968. ‘Spinning’ was entered into the 1968 Loxene Gold Disc Awards and narrowly missed winning the top spot.” (https://www.sergent.com.au/music/simpleimage.html)
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