Björn Skifs

Swedish vocalist and composer Björn Skifs maintained an extensive recording presence across several decades, launching his efforts in the 1960s and sustaining activity well into the following century. Peak commercial traction arrived in the mid- to late 1970s, when he placed a pair of singles inside the Swedish Top Five—"Firefly" in 1976 and "Lady" in 1977—plus two more inside the Top Ten: "Härligt, Härligt Men Farligt, Farligt" and "Det Blir Alltid Värre Framåt Natten," both from 1978. He had already registered an American number-one hit in 1974 with "Hooked on a Feeling," issued under the group name Blue Swede (known in Sweden as Blåblus).

Born April 20, 1947, in Vansbro, Sweden, Skifs first recorded with Slam Creepers, the band responsible for Bubbles in 1967 and Sweet Ruth in 1968, before departing for solo work. The subsequent solo projects From Both Sides Now (1969), Every Bit of My Life (1970), and Opopoppa (1971) failed to register strongly, prompting him to assemble the band Blåblus, whose name derived from his own 1972 solo album. That group appeared on the 1973 release Pinewood Rally, an album built largely around English-language standards such as Leon Russell’s “A Song for You” and Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Always Something There to Remind Me.” A cover of B.J. Thomas’s 1969 song “Hooked on a Feeling” unexpectedly reached number one in the United States in 1974, resulting in Pinewood Rally being reissued as Hooked on a Feeling under the English-language band name Blue Swede.

After delivering one further English-language album with Blåblus, Out of the Blue (1974), Skifs returned to solo recording and issued a succession of well-received Swedish albums, among them Schiffz (1975), Watch Out! (1977), Split Vision (1979), and If...Then... (1984), alongside several lower-profile titles. During this period of greatest visibility he twice represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest, entering in 1978 and again in 1981. In the late 1980s he stepped away from music for roughly fifteen years, an interval that saw multiple greatest-hits collections appear. The 2001 album Back on Track, a Top Ten entry, marked his return; among later releases, Decennier (2005) proved especially strong by debuting at number one on the Swedish albums chart, while Andra Decennier (2006) and I2I (2007) also fared well, reaching positions one and two respectively.