The Hep Stars

The Hep Stars was a Swedish rock group, formed in 1963. The group were among the most successful of 1960s Swedish pop groups. After the group's first single Kana Kapila (1964) the original keyboardist Hans Östlund left the group and was replaced by Benny Andersson, who went on to become a member of ABBA. The other members of the group included Svenne Hedlund on lead vocals, Janne Frisk on guitar, Christer Pettersson (died 2006) on drums and Lelle Hegland on bass. In the late 60s Svenne Hedlund's wife, the American singer Charlotte "Lotta" Walker (born in 1944) occasionally joined the group.

Svenne Hedlund, Charlotte Walker and Benny Andersson left the group in 1969. Svenne Hedlund and his wife Charlotte Walker formed the duo Svenne & Lotta, who for example made the Swedish original of the ABBA song Bang A Boomerang.

The Hep Stars' first singles were covers, but in 1966 the group had it first single hit with an own composition - Sunny Girl by Benny Andersson. On the album The Hep Stars in 1966 there is a song called Isn't It Easy To Say - the first joint composition by Benny Andersson and his new friend Björn Ulvaeus, then a member of the acoustic group Hootenanny Singers, who mainly sang in the Swedish language. On the same album there is another song - No Time - written by Björn Ulvaeus alone. (No Time was also recorded by the Hootenanny Singers in an acoustic version.)

Among the hits were I natt jag drömde (Swedish version of Last Night I had the strangest Dream), Mike Berry's "Tribute to Buddy Holly" (#4, Sweden), Malaika (with lyrics in the Swahili language), Wedding, Consolation, Cadillac (#1, Sweden), Farmer John (#2, Sweden), No Response and Sunny Girl. The group's last hit in 1969 was a cover of Speedy Gonzales.

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