Sven Lindström and Per Gessle are so thrilled because they are reaching the upper level of the Swedish best of ’90s top 30 list in the March episode of Nordic Rox. Positions from No. 10 to 6 are played on the program.
Before that, they kick off the show with a band that can’t stop celebrating. It’s The Hives with Hooray, Hooray, Hooray from their latest album The Hives Forever Forever The Hives. The next song is Sløtface from Norway with her latest single For The Boys. Then comes She’s Not You by Ola Främby from Lund, Sweden. Per likes this song a lot. The guys say the band was called The Girls, then it became The Men. Sven is joking that when they grew older, they also changed sex.
They guys are going back in time. Sven says they are nerds and they thought it could be interesting to have a look back sometimes and see what spun in the Swedish airwaves in the ’60s or ’70s. They eventually wound up with a radio show called Tio i topp, which translates into Top 10. It was one of the most loved shows ever in the ’60s for the kids. This week, 61 years ago, there was a Swedish band from Gothenburg in the charts with a fantastic song. The Beatles was topping the charts with their version of Rock & Roll Music. They were a tough act to push out of the number one position, but on position number two there was Tages with I Should Be Glad. Per thinks it’s amazing. It never ceases to amaze Sven that a Swedish pop group could be named Tages, because that would be like the name of a ’40s dance band. Per thinks it’s a great track and they wrote it themselves. Some would say that they were not only one of the best pop bands in Sweden during the ’60s, they were also the best dressed. They looked really cool and had great hairdos.
Someone New by Eskobar feat. Heather Nova is next from 2002. Per thinks it’s a beautiful song. Sven thinks it’s an interesting collaboration of a Swedish band and a British singer-songwriter.
The guys are ready to go into the top 10 list of their countdown. No. 10 is Bob Hund. Bob the dog. Sven thinks it’s an amazing band. It seems to him that those guys who wouldn’t fit in in ordinary bands formed a band together, to become outcasts and to become brilliant. Per agrees. The band was really cool, especially live. They actually gave it up last year, they did their last show. They have been doing this for many decades and this is one of their most popular songs in Sweden. It’s a great track. It’s still hard to understand, since it’s in Swedish and since the singer is singing in a broad southern Swedish dialect, even some Swedes have difficulties with understanding it. The title says it all though. Istället För Musik: Förvirring (in English it’s Instead Of Music: Confusion). A great track and a great title.
On position No. 9 there is one of Per Gessle’s favourite bands, Broder Daniel. PG thinks it was a great band. They also came from Gothenburg, and did some amazing songs. One of their best songs is Underground. Sven asks Per what it was about them that hooked Per on to. He replies that they had this sort of new wave attitude and in the middle of all the chaotic things that they did, out came some fantastic pop songs and this is one of them from 1996. Mr. G still likes it a lot.
1996 was a great year, the guys think. PG asks Sven if he remembers ’96 and Sven replies if you can remember the ’90s, you weren’t there. That’s what they used to say about the ’60s.
They move on to 1997 and No. 8 on the chart. There is a Swedish singer, Robyn, who made her debut album in 1995, but this single, Show Me Love, came out in 1997 and became a big hit for her. It was the fourth single from her debut album. She is touring the US in September. She stayed away from the music industry for a couple of years, but now she is back with a vengeance. This song was written in cooperation by Robyn herself and Max Martin, and it was produced by Dennis Pop. Per thinks it sounds very ’90s. Sven is curious what is typical for the ’90s sound for PG if they are talking about the Swedish hit machine music in the mid ’90s. Mr. G says they were very active with Roxette in the ’90s and they were still pretty organic, touring. But this was another side of pop music, more studio focused. More programmed stuff and more computer driven and all these songwriting teams started to develop. Roxette came from a different breed, from a different generation. Sven says they had one leg back in the ’60s pop band.
No. 7 is Joyride, Roxette’s fourth US number one single. It was the title track from the Joyride album, of course. This particular version is the US remix for Top40 radio done by Brian Malouf. He was a very popular remixer and producer and he did a great job with this one. This was very typical at the time that the American record labels wanted their own mix for the American radio and their own versions for certain formats on the radio as well. Per remembers doing Listen To Your Heart in a version without guitars, because it was a radio format that didn’t play guitars. It sounded silly to them, of course, but that’s the way the radio wanted it to be. This particular version of Joyride was not released anywhere else. It came out on a 12-inch single. It’s interesting to compare the two because this one sounds a lot busier. There are a lot of things happening. The original version is a lot drier, so to speak. It’s a little more rocky, there is a snare drum, for instance. The drums are louder and a little bit more reverb to it. It’s nothing new for the American listeners, because this one is the standard version in the US. Sven asks Per if there is anything that hasn’t been said, something he can say about Joyride that he never had said before. Mr. G can tell the traditional story of how it was written. His girlfriend at the time, now his wife, left a note on his piano saying, ”Hej din tok, jag älskar dig”, which translates into, ”Hello, you fool, I love you”. He thought it was the most beautiful thing to read, so he thought that’s going to be a chorus, and he was in the middle of writing a song, so he just used it: „hello, you fool, I love you, c’mon, join the Joyride”. That was like a gift from heaven. His wife didn’t get any songwriting credits.
No. 6 is Hey Princess by Popsicle. The song is from their debut album called Lacquer, 1992. Per doesn’t know much about them. Sven says they are a typically Swedish indie ’90s band. When he pictures them, he sees a band gazing at their shoes, typical shoegazers, a typical ’90s band. They had a couple of big songs in Sweden. They had good songwriters and they were really radio friendly for the ’90s. Per was on the other side of the planet in 1992 touring, so Popsicle swept him by more or less. He heard about them later on, but at the time he wasn’t that much into listening to them.
Down In The Past by Mando Diao, Show ‘Em Good by Cocktail Slippers and You Want The Sun by Niki & The Dove are played.
Sven and PG thank the listeners for joining them and they say goodbye. The show ends with Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom, as usual.
Still is from the Bag Of Trix talks recorded by Anders Roos.
Thanks for your support, Sven!