©1977 Polar Music International AB
"He (Stig) is dangerous and writes garbage ... he and others of the same sort glorify life and spread views which are unattractive to me." (Author Lars Forssell in Aftonbladet October 27, 1972). "Stig is the most dynamic guy in this business. He is commercial. His lyrics are what they are ... he is fair. Irritates many." (Record producer Anders Burman in Arbetet March 20, 1974).
"Stig's best quality is his absolute honesty. Music is for him a consumption staple like bread and butter. Sometimes like old bread. I feel that his music is of no good for our musical life." (Roger Wallis of the leftist record company MNW in Kvallsposten May 2, 1974).
"He is one of the best people I know. One hundred per cent. He is extremely intelligent and always knows exactly the way things ought to be. I become bitter when they are unfair to him on TV. They depict him as they do only because they want him so." (Anni-Frid Lyngstad).
"Swedish garbage music's own police chief." (Aftonbladet February 20, 1975).
"Stig has always questioned things. He always asks 'Why?' He has often been before his time. He has self-confidence. He knows his job." (Liseberg's director Bo Kinntorph in Kvallsposten May 2, 19 74).
Opinions differ concerning Stig Anderson, the dynamic director of Polar Records and the man behind ABBA's world success. He is a man who doesn't hesitate to speak out, he says what he thinks and without mincing his words. This has made him an irritating target for entertainment people with leftist sympathies - or "Knights of the Left" to use Stig's own vocabulary. He has received the dubious honour of being a cut-out doll in the political pop group's own magazine, Musikens Makt and when TV arranges a discussion of commercial pop music's unfortunate influence the word always goes first to Stig.
But even Stig's most vicious opponents must concede, albeit with distress, that he does know the record business like the back of his own hand. He has an instinct for hits and he knows how to market a record in the best way. This is why Stig is sometimes called "Mr Record Business".
He is truly a self-made man. From absolutely nothing Stig has worked his way up to a position as one of the most powerful figures in the Swedish - yes, why not the international - record industry.
Stig Erik Leopold Anderson was born January 25, 1931 in the Mariestad's maternity ward. He grew up in Hova 18 miles outside of Mariestad, where his mother worked at an assortment of jobs: she was a hairdresser, presser and ran a kiosk. He has never met his father.
The home was poor but Stig never went without. And music was there from the beginning. At the age of five he received a portable phonograph and some records, among others Zeppelinarvalsen. Soon he knew all of the songs by heart.
His instinct for smart business transactions was evidenced early. He left school at the age of 13 and began to work as a delivery boy at the town's grocery store. At the same time he had an extra job as equipment manager for the Hova IF (Athletic Club):
"I repaired the players' shoes and marked the playing field. My mother washed the teams' jerseys and socks. In return for this I managed the little kiosk at the playing field. I bought candies, fruit and soft drinks at the grocery - and I could keep the earnings I would take in at events. When the B team played I would have to work hard for at best a few crowns, but when the A team played an important match I could take in 30-35 crowns. This was the same as I could earn in seven weeks at the store."
With the money Stig bought a guitar and a guitar course on the instalment plan. He was early interested in jazz and joined Putte's Orchestra in 1946. The following year he was with Bobby's Orchestra from Toreboda, a bit more professional and with performances throughout northern Vastergotland. He also played amateur revues and toured in the region with IGOT's entertainment patrol:
"I fell deeply in love with a girl in another IGOT association. She rejected me. 1 then returned home and wrote a nasty song about her. I later did the song at an IGOT meeting to a big reception. I'd then discovered that it was fun to write songs.
"I was 16 when I put together the first song I thought was something. It was called Tivedshambo, and has become a classic of the old dance music and is still played a great deal today."
At the age of 17 Stig got up the courage to send a handful of songs to Orkesterjournalen which at that time looked over sheet music. To his own surprise, he received favourable criticism - and this spurred him on to continue.
Stig also sent some songs to Ulf Peder Olrog, just then at his height. He got a nice letter in reply. Olrog liked the songs but proposed that young Anderson ought to study harmony and read poetry. He also felt that Stig should apply to a folkhogskola (educational centre).
The letter from Olrog hangs in Stig's office:
"This can serve as a reminder for a man such as I, who sits and judges the work of others. Later I met Olrog in Orebro. He was extremely kind and treated me to strawberries and cream. This meeting was completely decisive for me; it meant a revolution in my life."
In the autumn of 1948 Stig began at the folkhogskola in Ingesund outside of Arvika where there were also music courses. At Ingesund he met Bengt Bernhag and Borje Crona. The three soon formed the group Stig Anderson and His Mashed Creampuffs. Stig played the guitar and the other two sang:
"The first we did threatened to destroy the whole school. We put together a revue which we called Cream on the Mashed Potatoes after a song I had written. The dean didn't like the revue at all - he said that it destroyed the school's good name...."
In the summer of 1950 Stig went to Stockholm with Borje Crona. He trotted up to music publisher Nils George (George "Tuppen" Eliasson) with two songs he had written: Tivedshambo and Gradde pa moset (Cream on the Mashed Potatoes).
"He thought the songs were good. But he disliked the lyric to Gradde pa moset, and said that it was too monotonous. The same afternoon I lay on the lawn outside the City Hall and rewrote the lyric. Eliasson was very impressed that it had gone so fast and that 1 had understood what he had meant."
In the autumn of 1950 Gradde pa moset was recorded and released with Harry Brandelius. But for the song writer the record was a disappointment:
"Harry sang it as a pure schottis and this wasn't the way I had imagined it. When I was out with Bengt and Borje we did it in a somewhat crazier way. But the record never went anywhere."
Harry Brandelius also recorded Tivedshambo the following spring. But what pleased Stig more was that a friend of Borje Crona, Roffe Bengtsson, recorded the same song. Roffe was then in the beginning of his career and a great success at the Cabaret Harlem at Nalen. He had signed a contract with the recently started record company Metronome, and for his first release he selected not only Tivedshambo but also another song of Stig's: Valsen om Frans-Oskar (Waltz about Frans-Oskar), a parody of seamen's waltzes.
"There were problems when Roffe was to make the record. He was forced to jump and hop as at Nalen, and the microphone bounced too. It ended with the producer placing Roffe on a mattress."
At Ingesund Stig met Gudrun, who was to become his wife, and who today is the treasury expert of the Polar empire. In the spring of 1951 he left the folkhogskola and moved to Karlstad where the teachers' college waited.
"Then came military service, and I had time to think about songs when on guard duty and such. I wrote among other things Flickorna som kan det, finns pa landet (The girls who know how are found in the country) which I later recorded myself. This was a miserable story and a terrible record."
After military service Stig moved to Stockholm and began at the teachers' college there. It was 1953 and a certain Gosta "Snoddas" Nordgren had aroused the Swedish people after having sung Flottarkarlek (Navy Love) on Lennart Hyland's radio success Karusellen. Snoddas had for the most part taken Harry Brandelius' repertoire and arrived at Karusellen with two Brandelius songs: Flottarkarlek and Stig's Gradde pa moset. Hyland proposed the use of the former.
"It would have been natural to use Gradde pa moset on the flip side of the record Snoddas was to make, but unfortunately Snoddas was on the same label as Brandelius and since Harry had already recorded it, they selected another song. This angered me for a long time. Flottarkarlek sold in incredible numbers and I could have used the money."
In 1954 and 1955 Stig toured the public parks with Borje Crona. He wrote Det blir inget brollop pa lordag (There won't be any wedding on Saturday) which was recorded by seven artists in all and which reached the charts with George Adelly. He began little by little to establish himself as a song writer.
When Borje Crona left to work on something else, Curt "Minimal" Astrom, most known from the Casion revue and as Beetle Baily, became Stig's partner and a bit later he toured with Akke Carlsson.
In 1957 Stig completed his teacher training and the following year he had his first real success. The International Soccer Championships were played in Sweden and Nacka Skoglund was the idol of the day. Naturally he would make a record and for Nacka Stig wrote the hearty Vi Hanger med which was to become a real national torment.
The real breakthrough came however first in 1959. At that time Stig had begun to write some songs for Veckorevy's touring artist parade Flugan. One of the songs was called Ar du kar i mig annua, Klas-Goran? (Are you in love with me yet Klas-Goran) and old friend Bengt Bernhag, then recording chief for Karusell was pleased straight away, went to Karusell boss Simon Brehm and said "this song is for Lill-Babs". Lill-Babs was Simon's new discovery and just at the beginning of her career.
Klas-Goran was a hit for both Lill-Babs and the composer. It was a huge success on the Flugan tour and when Lill-Babs sang it on the TV show Ett skepp kommer lastat (A loaded ship is coming) the success was total.
"Bengt came upon the idea of dressing Lill-Babs as the manager of a country store and that certainly helped," says Stig.
With Klas-Goran Stig had done all of the work normally done by a music publisher. He had placed the song with Lill-Babs and had had it recorded. And besides he had written both the music and lyric.
"When the song became a hit there was suddenly a great demand for the sheet music. 1 then thought 1 could print this up myself. I borrowed 500 crowns for the printing from a highly suspicious friend.
"Then I went up to my good friend Gnesta-Kalle. He was a publisher on a small scale and explained to me what 1 should have to do. 1 soon realized that 1 would need some kind of corporation and I created Sweden Music. It sounded both good and international . .
Klas-Goran was a smash not only in Sweden - in Norway, Denmark and Finland the success was at least as great, and in Holland Stig received a gold record. Its success meant that he could make some international contacts. In 1960 a large Belgian music publisher suggested that Stig be his man in Scandinavia.
"I protested that I knew nothing about this, but he promised to teach me everything.
"This was a difficult step to take. We had a town house, a car and two children. My wife Gudrun was of course a trained weaving teacher but had no job. She gave me her support and said I should try it out. I therefore resigned my position as an extra teacher in the Stockholm School System. After the fall semester 1960 I left to devote myself completely to music.
"And then began a tough time. 1961 was a miserable year. Business was not good and Gudrun had to begin to work extra as a weaving teacher in the evenings. I certainly don't recall those days with longing."
Sant ar livet (Such is life) which Anita Lindblom recorded was the turning point. Stig got the song from the American publisher Ivan Mogull - and wrote the Swedish lyric himself.
"Sant ar livet was a good start. But it wasn’t until 1963 that things straightened out so that I could breathe easily..."
In 1963 Stig founded the record company Polar together with his old partner Bengt Bernhag:
"I understood then that records were the future. To work only as a publisher is extremely difficult. There isn't enough money."
Polar had a lucky start with the Hootenanny Singers. "The next big thing was Letkis Jenka," Stig remembers. "My publishing friends in Finland reported to me that this business with "jenka" could be really big. I listened and thought it was so corny it had to be something. I bought the rights to the song for every country possible, that is, the entire world except for the U.S. and England."
Stig worked hard promoting this "jenka" thing. In Brussels for example he invited confounded radio people to Finnish vodka and explained the new dance to them.
"But in West Germany they confused everything. They thought that Letkis meant 'Let's Kiss' and began kissing each other while doing the dance. Then the health authorities arrived and butted in. There was a tremendous commotion and the record sold just that much better."
In 1969 Stig heard Stig Olin and his son Mats sing Jag tror pa sommaren (I believe in summer) on the Breakfast Club. Stig reacted immediately and bought the song. He let Ann-Louise Hansson record the song but wasn't quite satisfied with the results. Stig had an idea for another kind of treatment and persuaded young Mats to record his father's song. It was that summer's great success and Mats became an idol to boot.
In 1969 Stig and Borje came upon the idea of recording the theme from the TV series Nana - Offenbach's Metallas Rondo - with trumpeter Arne Lamberth. Bengt had during his time with Karusell produced Lamberth's big hit Russian Folksong. Nana was the beginning of a new era for Arne Lamberth and brought in a lot of money for Polar.
In January 1971 a young girl from Halmstad received an entire half hour to herself on radio's Midnight Hour. Her name was Lena Andersson and she was described by the critics as a cross between Joan Baez and Judy Collins. An associate at Polar, Jorgen Mortensen happened to have his radio on, rang directly to Stig and said, "If you hurry and turn on the radio you might manage to hear a girl who doesn't sound bad at all."
Stig ran to the radio and just managed to hear the last 30 seconds - it was all he needed to hear. After a few hours detective work he contacted Lena in Halmstad, and a few days later the contract was signed. "The greatest find I have ever made."
But this of course was prior to ABBA. One way or the other Lena caused a sensation by going directly to the top on Svensktoppen with her first record Ar det konstigt att man langtar bort nan gang (Is it strange that you want to getaway sometimes).
Ted Gardestad and his old brother Kenneth had already in 1969 been up to see Stig and Bengt with a collection of their own songs. Ted was only 13 and sang in English. "'This sounds good," we said, 'but you really have a future before you. You have time to mature. Go home and rewrite the songs in Swedish.' I had stressed this business of singing in Swedish ever since the Hootenanny Singers."
In October 1971 Ted returned. Bjorn and Benny were as enthusiastic as Stig. Ted made an album straight away, Undringar (Wonderings) and on TV's Halvsju he was the subject of a penetrating documentary programme.
Stig Anderson is a man with many irons in the fire. He is company director, manager, music publisher, composer and lyricist in one and the same person. And he would seem to have an inexhaustible capacity, can go for hours on cigarettes and black coffee.
"I am a fortunate combination of bohemian and organiser," he says himself. "I am bohemian in that I have the ability to listen to music with the ears of an artist. I am both lyricist and composer and I have been an amateur musician - in this way I have the whole creative background.
"But at the same time I have the talent to be able to organise things around me. My company often receives commendations from abroad for providing what is necessary at the right time. Many remark that we are one of the finest companies with which they do business. But 1 am surrounded by competent people."
Stig at times seems to have an almost supernatural instinct for the songs that later become hits. This, his sixth sense, was well documented long before ABBA.
"You cannot be completely certain that you have a hit," he claims. "You can be sure enough to say 'I have a feeling for this song'. And it would seem that through the years people have felt the same way.
"At times people have understood this as opportunism. But such statements and thoughts are very poorly supported. It isn't at all like that.
"It just happens that I have a feeling which agrees with the feelings of an enormous mass of people. 1 regard myself as simply an indicator of what people think. I have the ability to very quickly determine if a song means anything. This has to do with feelings and not intelligence. It is this intuitive feeling which is at the bottom of everything I do. In addition of course to a tremendous amount of hard work both night and day.
"It's the same with Bjorn and Benny. The most mistaken thing said of us is that we are opportunistic. That is just the last thing we would do. We set ourselves down and write and when we are satisfied with a song we say that 'we assume responsibility for this, we believe this is good'. And then it would appear that people not only in Sweden but all over the world feel the same way.
"I don't believe anyone can exploit a situation in the way some newspaper people attempt to persuade others we do. It couldn't work because it would be a false feeling. It's the same with certain performers who try to be 'just plain people'. They can't do it. People appreciate intuitively that they are different.
"Naturally some performers attempt opportunism. But I don't believe they succeed because people have a kind of inherent feeling for the genuine and true. You cannot have Monica Zetterlund sing Kara mor. Aside from the fact that she wouldn't be available people would never accept this. The Goinge girls can do Kara mor and the people believe in it because the girls themselves believe in what they are singing.
"That we at times before we begin to write can discuss the kind of song we would want is not the same as opportunism. ABBA today already represents a group that can do almost anything. We want to be flexible. We want to write as we think and feel. Perhaps someone will say 'What if we were to do a waltz, we have never done one before'. That may sound like a lunatic idea for an ABBA record but I am not sure that a waltz wouldn't come along some day. It can also happen that there is an entire series of ballads in a row. Then we have to say to ourselves, 'my God, people shouldn't fall asleep listening to ABBA. Now we have to come up with something happy.' And so we do it ...
"And that ABBA always sounds like ABBA depends on a lot of factors. The studio sound, arrangements, singing, the song's structure. ABBA's profile consists of the fact that they never attempt to imitate what they have already done. Their way of establishing a profile is much more difficult -but also much more fun..."
Throughout the 60's Stig was Sweden's most productive and successful lyricist. He wrote both night and day. Over his eleven most fertile years he put together approximately 2,000 lyrics. Hardly a week went by without one of his lyrics on Svensktoppen. The record is from May 1971: not less than seven of the week's ten songs on Svensktoppen had lyrics written by Stig.
In 1969 he received a Grammis as lyricist of the year for "the delicacy of Grona sma applen (Little green apples), the humour of Mamma ar lik sin mamma (Mamma is like her Mamma) and the ironic nostalgia of Ljuva 60-taf'. Grammis was an annual award presented by the Swedish record industry to deserving artists. It is now discontinued.
Stig has even received the honour of being analysed on the cultural pages of a daily newspaper. His lyric to Lena Andersson's Ar det konstigt att man langtar bort nan gang? inspired the music critic of Sydsvenska Dagbladet to a deep analysis.
Stig himself ranks Lycka (Happiness) as one of his best lyrics written for Bjorn and Benny. And his worst lyric? Yes, that must be Min pull-over which Lasse Lonndahl recorded. "Now and then I get goose pimples when 1 hear it played on the radio,"
Now he writes only occasional lyrics for his own performers and at first hand for ABBA. Actually he would like to stop altogether in order to concentrate on important administration:
"I don't miss writing lyrics. It was extremely demanding. Granted it contributed to the success of the business, but it isn't the kind of burden you want to carry for too long a period of time."
Internationally Stig is today a respected name. One piece of evidence: In 1974 the big record industry magazine Billboard named him "trendsetter of the year". Only once before had a European received this honour and then it was a question of no less than Brian Epstein, the Beatles late manager. In the magazine's explanation they said Stig had received the prize "for his creative talent as music publisher and producer and for having conducted ABBA to a long series of international hits".
In the heated Swedish music debate these last years Stig Anderson has more than anyone else symbolised the abused and despised commercial recording industry. He has been the butt of many attacks - and he has responded in the same language.
They have simply found a whipping boy and when this whipping boy stands up and answers them this irritates them to the breaking point. One ought to keep quiet and lay low. But I believe everyone has a right to defend himself and for that matter to attack - this doesn't just concern the other side.
"I defend the right of the majority to like whatever music it wishes.
There needn't be something wrong with a thing just because ordinary people like it!
"There exists a small clique of people that feel they are so incredibly remarkable and that everyone else is wrong. What they themselves believe and think is the only right and true. This is a kind of Jesuit thinking, a garbage elite, I usually call them.
"I mean this: merely because a thing is popular needn't mean that it is bad. That is a horrible thought."
Stig attempts to keep himself politically neutral. The criticism from the political left Stig takes with a shrug of the shoulder.
"Partly this criticism is very poorly constructed and partly it is monstrous in its simplicity. It consists often of a mass of sweeping, general formulations grounded in political values."
He feels that the Hoola Bandoola Band is the only thing of value to have come out of the progressive music movement. A point in this regard: Hoola originally was in the process of joining Stig's label, Polar.
"I had received a demonstration tape I considered good and had had many conversations with Michael Wiehe. We were in principle agreed to make a Swedish LP with Hoola. But over one weekend MNW succeeded in persuading Wiehe to place production with them instead. Obviously it would have been meaningless to try to work with artists not willing to play for us."
It is perhaps not so strange that the left has used Stig Anderson as a target for their attacks. In many ways he represents the establishment society. He is successful and earns big money - before taxes. And he is not ashamed to use this money to make life comfortable for himself and his family: Gudrun and his children Marie, Lasse and Anders.
He has just moved from a split level home in Nacka to a fantastic nine room house in Ostermalm, just a stone's throw from the office. "It can often happen that I waken in the middle of the night and cannot go back to sleep. And then I want to go to the office. And now I have only a few minutes' walk to get there." He has a summer home on ABBA's island in the Stockholm Archipelago. He doesn't have a bad conscience - and he has no reason to have one. He knows he has had to work hard for every penny.
Stig can appear aggressive and unreasonable on the TV screen, but those who know him a little better also know that he is much nicer and kinder than people in general believe. And he is enormously loyal.
He is naturally not as uncomplicated as he can occasionally seem when he thunders away. Or as Frida expresses it: "He is not an especially easy person. There is so much to him that people haven’t the least suspicion of. When you have dealt with him for as many years as we you learn to see many sides of him that he never displays outwardly."
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