It was on April 6 1974 that Blue Swede hit #1 on the US Billboard chart, with their Bengt Palmers-produced version of ”Hooked on a Feeling”. On the very same day, ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton with their ”Waterloo”. Just like ABBA’s music, ”Hooked on a Feeling” has continued to conquer the world. At the time of writing this (March 2024), Blue Swede’s version has been streamed around 650 million times on Spotify.
The fact that ”Hooked on a Feeling” was a well-written song was not just a case of good luck. It was written by the renowned American songwriter Mark James, the man behind such Elvis classics as ”Suspicious Minds” and ”Moody Blue”.
Bengt Palmers was already familiar with B.J. Thomas' version of the song when he visited London in 1971. There, he heard Jonathan King’s cover version, for which the famous ”gorilla chant” had been added as an intro and interlude.
The song soon became a staple of Blue Swede’s live set. ”Blue Swede’s lead singer, Björn Skifs, rang me up and said that the audiences went bananas every time it was performed”, Palmers remembers. The decision was made to record it, and release it as a single. ”My job as a producer was easy, since they had already performed it live numerous times and knew it inside and out”, says Palmers. ”We did however feel that the gorilla chant could be made more powerful and direct”, Skifs remembers. The song quickly became number one in the chart show ”Tio i topp” on Swedish National Radio, as well as the country’s best-selling single.
Back in 1974, a possible Scandinavian release was a far as ambitions went for a Swedish act, however successful.
Palmers, however, thought bigger. The recording would never have been released in the US at all, if it hadn’t been for his single-minded vision (and stubbornness). He sent ”Hooked on a Feeling” to Capitol Records, who were EMI’s US affiliate. When they turned it down, he went on to send it to 28 other record companies overseas. ”People at the Swedish EMI office probably felt that it was a sign of hubris, but I really believed in the song”.
When Palmers told Capitol Records that one of their biggest competitors, CBS, wanted to release the song, Capitol suddenly changed their minds, and decided to release it themselves. Slowly but surely it started climbing the US chart, and on April 6 1974 Blue Swede became the very first Swedish act to hit the number one spot in the US.
”It was a bit like winning a gold medal in the Olympics without even having trained”, Skifs laughs.
The follow-up, a sped-up version of ”Never My love” by the Association, soon hit #7 in the States as well.
Due to previous commitments in Sweden – a tour and, for frontman Skifs, a leading role in the musical Godspell – it took an eternity (five months, to be exact) before Blue Swede managed to get to the US for promotional duties.
”If the same thing had happened today, the act in question would have broken the contracts and taken the first plane overseas”, Palmers says.
”A lot of people told me to drop everything and leave, but it felt wrong. I did, however, manage to shorten my Godspell commitment”, Skifs says.
During the 50 years that have passed since then, ”Hooked on a Feeling” has taken on a life of its own. It could be heard in Quentin Tarantino’s breakthrough movie, ”Reservoir Dogs”, as well as in the TV series ”Ally McBeal”. It also had a key role in the blockbuster ”Guardians of the Galaxy” (both in the move and in the trailer). 40 years after having hit the number one spot as a single, the song hit #1 in the US album chart as the opening track of the soundtrack album, ”Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1”.
In addition to this, the song has been heard in various commercials. All of this has led to the the song being discovered by new generations.
Streaming-wise, ”Hooked on a Feeling” has exploded.
In 2019, the Blue Swede version had 250 million streams on Spotify. At the time of writing this, it has been streamed around 650 million times. In fact, Warner Music Sweden didn’t even have time to hand out plaques to celebrate 500 million Spotify streams before it had reached another 100 million …
These days, the Swedish music wonder, as it’s called in Sweden, is mainly a songwriting phenomenon, but the ripples created by ”Hooked on a Feeling” can still be felt.
Palmers had a vision, was stubborn and managed – during the first half of the 70’s, and before ABBA – to prove his thesis: ”It is possible to get a Swedish recording released in the US, and have it reach the #1 spot!”.
