POLAR

This page will concentrate on the works of Björn & Benny at the Polar label.

News added 1998-01-03
TV documentary about Ted Gärdestad.
At long last SVT has made a well deserved documentary about the artist Ted Gärdestad. It was viewed today. It contains a very early interview with Björn & Benny, as well as with others who worked with him, like Janne Schaffer, Harpo, Lena Andersson and most notably his friend (and the one who blocked his promising tennis career) Björn Borg. There were also footage from a recording session with the two B's. The main interview was with his elder brother, and lyrics writer, Kenneth.

After ABBA split up the company sort of fell slowly apart. Stikkan wanted to establish himself as a respected man, something he was not due to several reasons. The type of light music he himself composed during the 50's and 60's was never considered serious (just as Backstreet Boys' composer / producer Denniz Pop had to take a lot of crap today...).

ABBA then strike fame during the red 70's when all reporters etc. were very much to the left and you were supposed to do progressive music about the oppressed working classes (who did not really felt oppressed with their new Volvos on the parking lot...). Also music should be done in non-profit organizations, not in a highly successful corporations. So much of the 80's was spent by Stikkan to do more serious music, such as Jazz and Classic with the money he earned on ABBA.

The "pop" side of Polar was run by Sikkan's daughter, Marie Ledin (yes she is married to ABBA related singer Tomas Ledin). She quit Polar in the mid 80's to start her own label, The Record Station, and then the offers from the big multinational entertainment corporations became more frequent. So in the late 80's Stikkan sold Polar to PolyGram, he still remained chairman, but he really was not interested anymore. The last contribution was the Stikkan Väljer Polars Pärlor series of compilations from the early and mid 90's.

Due to a fatal heart attack Stikkan Anderson passed away on 12 September 1997. He was 66 years old. The funeral was televised, Frida, Björn & Benny attended it. Before there were rumours about ABBA performing in the church, but this turned out to be only a rumour. Control off ABBA's recordings was moved to Holland, and as I write this in the Summer of 1998, PolyGram it self is now part of Canadian alcohol manufacturer Seagrams. If this will lead to the Agnetha Whiskey and Frida Vodka future will tell... ;-)

In the early 90's Marie Ledin sold The Record Station to one of the multinational giants. So the last shred of the original Polar was in the big ones. But before long Marie started a new inependent label, Anderson Records. Among the artists are Eva Dahlgren, Tomas Ledin and Frida.

There were many artists on the label. On this page will only those with an ABBA relation appear.

Ted Gärdestad
Ted was mega big in Sweden in the 70's. He wrote all the songs together with his brother Kent. Björn & Benny produced Undringar. Björn, Benny & Ted produced Ted and Upptåg. For Franska Kort Michael Bo Tretow joined the three, while on Stormvarning Ted produced the album together with others, though Benny produced one track. Kalendarium is a greatest hits compilation, featuring a new song produced by Gemini's Anders Glenmark. On all albums Frida sings backing vocals, and Agnetha on some.

Ted was born in 1956. He played tennis apart from doing music, and according to his brother he was really good at it too. Unfortunatly for him another bloke born that year played tennis in the same district. That bloke was non other then tennis ace Björn Borg. So Ted never got to any National championships. He went for the music instead. But he and Björn remained friends.

When he became a major pop star and heart throb in the early 70's he was still a teenager. When the career dipped in the late 70's and early 80's he sort of lost his ground. So he joined a strange religous cult. Then in the 90's he started to get his act togheter again, and made a comeback. Sadly though in the summer of 1997 Ted Gärdestad committed suicide.

All prices are in SEK. Postage and packing will be added. See the ordering information page for more details about ordering. If you click on the button below, you can convert SEK to your currency. Gradings are for second hand records only. Follows the guide lines in magazine 'Record Collector'. See 'Grading & Abbreviations' in the 'Information' section for further details about this.