Hep Stars songs written by Benny

I've been listening to a lot of the Hep Stars music lately, really enjoying the 60s vibe of all their songs as well as some really stunning harmonies that they would add to their arrangements. Mostly the Hep Stars covered existing popular songs at the time, but Benny ended up getting inspired to write his own songs. According to Benny, some of them, namely Sunny Girl, had good tunes but bad lyrics, however if not for those supposedly bad songs, he wouldn't have become the amazing composer and songwriter that he is today! I really enjoy Benny's original songs for the Hep Stars, and so I decided to compile them for this video. (Nevermind that after I spent a good hour or so prowling Discogs to source out all of Benny's original tracks from the Hep Stars discography did I see that someone already did that on Wikipedia... hehehehehe...) Anyways, I hope you enjoy this video, I had a lot of fun making it!

[@that70sgirl90]

It was awesome to hear all the preABBA songs Benny wrote. Both Benny and Bjorn are musical geniuses! 🎼🎶
Awesome Creativity... thank you for sharing! 💖

[@sylvierau3208]

Comme elles sont magnifiques toutes ces chansons . J'aimais beaucoup les Hep Stars . Benny et Bjorn sont de vrais génies de la musique . Merci Beckyfan56 d'avoir partager ces chansons ❤❤❤

[@michaelrochester48]

I always believe Benny was the true rocker of ABBA. And any song that had a rocking beat like hey hey Helen, so long, watch out, on and on, and on was probably influenced or written, mainly by Benny.

[@michaelrochester48]

I have a question about the Hep Stars. I noticed in a majority of the songs presented here are in the English language, but wasn’t their popularity primarily in Scandinavia, primarily Sweden? Why would they record in English if their fan base is mainly Sweden at this point?

[@blakemorley8305]

I do remember hearing a few times that Stig Anderson had always dreamed of the Hep Stars making it big in the English speaking country's, which to me explains why they recorded in English for a lot of their songs.
Benny apparently didn't know any English when he wrote No Response, he had to rely on a dictionary to write the lyrics, which may explain why he now considers so many of the songs to have bad Lyrics.

[@michaelrochester48]

@@blakemorley8305 thank you so much for the answer!

[@VirreFriberg]

It was a phenomenom mostly revolving around cultural differences between generations. The music Swedish pop bands recorded at the time was largely aimed at a teenage audience who found singing pop and rock in the Swedish language unfashionable and lame. The early baby boomers (I.E. teens during the 1960s) were the first generation of Swedes to speak English fluently en masse hence the fascination and interest in the language.
Swedish-language songs at the time catered to a more mature, older generation and genre-wise had a more soft style; think of easy-listening music as an equivalent. The Hep Stars DID record a few Swedish-language singles, mostly soft ballad songs aimed at a "Svensktopp"-audience (as demonstrated in this video), something that caused friction between band members and fans alike.
The first pure rock and pop records in the Swedish language wouldn't reach the market until the second half of 1969 (Pugh Rogefeldt's "Ja, Dä Ä Dä!" often being cited as the first), but by that point the Hep Stars had ceased to exist.