Secret Service (band)
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2020) |
Secret Service | |
|---|---|
 Secret Service performing in 1985 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Ola+3 (1979) |
| Origin | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Genres | |
| Years active |
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| Labels | |
| Website | secretservicemusic |
| Members |
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| Past members |
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Secret Service is a Swedish pop band formed in Stockholm in 1979.
History[]
In 1979, Ola Håkansson, former vocalist of Ola & the Janglers and then a publishing manager at Sonet Records, teamed up with Tim Norell and Ulf Wahlberg as Ola+3 to write a few songs that they submitted to the 1979 Melodifestivalen, a popular contest which is the Swedish qualification to the Eurovision Song Contest. Ola+3 did not win but the members decided to continue working together and changed their band's name to Secret Service. Besides Ola Håkansson (vocals), Tim Norell and Ulf Wahlberg (keyboards), the original lineup also included Tony Lindberg (guitars), Leif Paulsen (bass) and Leif Johansson (drums).
Norell, who along with Björn Håkanson penned most songs of the band, did not however appear with them on stage or on the album covers. Secret Service's first single "Oh Susie" became a hit in Sweden and several other countries in Europe, in South America and Australia. Their album of the same title included another hit, "Ten O'Clock Postman", which went gold in Sweden. Other successes followed, with their synthpop number "Flash in the Night" in 1981 (their greatest success) hitting charts all over continental Europe. Ola Håkansson's duet with ex-ABBA's Agnetha Fältskog, "The Way You Are", released 1986, became a gold single in Sweden.
In 1987, Håkansson, Norell and Wahlberg released Aux Deux Magots, their last album as Secret Service. The other members of the band had quit by then and were replaced by multi-instrumentalist Anders Hansson and bassist Mats A. Lindberg. Håkansson would become Norell's partner with Army of Lovers' Alexander Bard in what would be known as the Megatrio, a Swedish equivalent to Stock-Aitken-Waterman known as Norell Oson Bard. In 1992, Håkansson and his associates established Stockholm Records as a joint venture with PolyGram. They produced such artists as Army of Lovers and The Cardigans, among others.
In 2012, Secret Service released The Lost Box, an album with forgotten and unreleased recorded songs from the '80s and '90s, such as "Different" and "Satellites".
"Oh Susie" was covered in Czech as "Ó, Sůzi", performed by Petr Kotvald. "10 O'Clock Postman" was covered by Wolfgang Petry as "Ganz oder gar nicht" (in German), and also covered by Date as "Sida vid sida" (in Swedish).
Norell, Wahlberg, Hansson and Lindberg has begun to tour with a new singer, Johan Becker, as Secret Service, mostly in Russia.[1] They also released a single, Secret Mission in 2020.[2]
Personnel[]
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Current members
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Former members
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Timeline[]
Discography[]
Albums[]
Studio albums[]
| Year | Title | Peak chart positions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FIN [3] |
GER [4] |
SWE [5] | ||
| 1979 | ||||
| Oh Susie | — | — | 7 | |
| 1981 | Ye Si Ca | — | 56 | 20 |
| 1982 | Cutting Corners | 12 | — | 9 |
| 1984 | Jupiter Sign | — | — | 25 |
| 1985 | When the Night Closes In | 24 | — | 37 |
| 1987 | Aux Deux Magots | — | — | 46 |
| 2012 | The Lost Box | — | — | 60 |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released | ||||
Compilation albums[]
| Year | Title | Peak chart positions |
|---|---|---|
| SWE [5] | ||
| 1982 | Greatest Hits | 14 |
| 1984 | Sonets Guldskiveartister | — |
| 1987 | Collection | — |
| 1988 | Spotlight | — |
| 1998 | The Very Best Of | — |
| 2000 | Top Secret – Greatest Hits | 49 |
| 2002 | En Popklassiker | — |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released | ||
Singles[]
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS [6] |
AUT [7] |
BE [8] |
DEN [9] |
FIN [3] |
FRA [10] |
GER [11] |
NL [12] |
NOR [13] |
SWE [14][15] |
SWI [16] | ||
| 1979 | "Oh Susie" | 49 | — | — | 7 | 27 | 35 | 9 | — | 6 | 1 | — |
| "Ten O'Clock Postman" | — | 8 | — | — | 30 | — | 4 | — | — | 18 | — | |
| "Darling, Your My Girl" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 1980 | "Ye Si Ca" | — | 11 | — | 9 | — | — | 8 | — | — | 18 | 6 |
| 1981 | "L.A. Goodbye" | — | — | — | 11 | — | — | 16 | — | — | — | — |
| "Flash in the Night" | — | — | 17 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 23 | 42 | 6 | 12 | 9 | |
| 1982 | "Cry Softly (Time Is Mourning)" | — | — | — | — | 18 | — | 27 | — | 10 | 12 | 8 |
| "If I Try" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| "Dancing in Madness" | — | — | — | 10 | — | — | — | — | — | 11 | — | |
| 1983 | "Do It" | — | — | — | — | 18 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| "Jo-Anne, Jo-Anne" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 1984 | "How I Want You" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1985 | "Let Us Dance Just a Little Bit More" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| When the Night Closes In" | — | — | — | — | — | — | 51 | — | — | — | — | |
| 1986 | "Night City" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| "The Way You Are" (Ola Håkansson & Agnetha Fältskog) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | |
| 1987 | "Say, Say" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| "I'm So, I'm So, I'm So (I'm So in Love with You)" | — | — | — | — | 17 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 1988 | "Don't You Know, Don't You Know" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1990 | "Megamix" | — | — | — | — | 11 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1997 | "Flash in the Night" (The Antiloop Reconstruction) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 35 | — |
| 2000 | "The Dancer" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2009 | "Different" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2010 | "Satellites" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2019 | "Go On" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2020 | "Secret Mission" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released | ||||||||||||
References[]
- ^ "secretservicemusic".
- ^ "timnorell.com".
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Sisältää hitin: Levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1960: Artistit SAR - SEM". Sisältää hitin. 12 August 2015. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
- ^ "Offizielle Deutsche Charts - Offizielle Deutsche Charts". www.offiziellecharts.de. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "swedishcharts.com - Swedish Charts Portal". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
- ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 268. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
- ^ "Das österreichische Hitparaden- und Musik-Portal". austriancharts.at. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
- ^ "ultratop.be - ULTRATOP BELGIAN CHARTS". ultratop.be. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
- ^ "Danish Chart Archive - Singles 1979 - ____ (B.T./IFPI DK)". UKMIX Forums. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
- ^ "InfoDisc : Les Tubes de chaque Artiste commençant par S". infodisc.fr. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
- ^ "Suche - Offizielle Deutsche Charts". www.offiziellecharts.de. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
- ^ "Dutch Charts - dutchcharts.nl". dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
- ^ "norwegiancharts.com - Norwegian charts portal". norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
- ^ "swedishcharts.com - Swedish Charts Portal". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
- ^ "swedishcharts.com - The Official Swedish Charts - Singles - 17.10.1997". swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
- ^ "The Official Swiss Charts and Music Community". swisscharts.com. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
External links[]
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| General |
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| National libraries | |
| Other |
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- Swedish new wave musical groups
- Swedish pop music groups
- Musical groups established in 1979
- Attic Records (Canada) artists
- Castlebar Song Contest winners