Career
Blue Swede was first formed in 1973, when Björn Skifs, a top vocalist in Sweden, was looking for a band to accompany him during his concerts. The band was originally called "Blåblus" (Swedish for "blue blouse", a pun on the word "blues") and featured Skifs singing the lead vocals. The band got their international breakthrough in 1974 with their cover of the 1969 B. J. Thomas song "Hooked on a Feeling". Released that same year on their album Hooked on a Feeling, Blue Swede's version was adapted from British pop eccentric Jonathan King, using his ooga-chaka ooga-chaka background on a version he had earlier recorded of the same song. "Hooked on a Feeling" was released in Sweden in May 1973 and in the United States in February 1974, and reached #1 for one week in the U.S. staying in the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 18 weeks. The R.I.A.A. granted gold disc status on 28 March 1974. The track also topped charts in Canada, Australia and the Netherlands.
The group had a U.S. Top 10 hit with a cover of The Association's "Never My Love". Also of note, the group recorded a medley that combined "Hush" by Deep Purple and "I'm Alive" by Tommy James and the Shondells (not The Hollies' song of the same name), and which achieved its greatest success in Scandinavia.
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Famous quotes containing the word career:
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“The 19-year-old Diana ... decided to make her career that of wife. Today that can be a very, very iffy line of work.... And what sometimes happens to the women who pursue it is the best argument imaginable for teaching girls that they should always be able to take care of themselves.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“Each of the professions means a prejudice. The necessity for a career forces every one to take sides. We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)