Hurriganes

In 1971 Remu Aaltonen, handling vocals and drums, united with bassist-vocalist Cisse Häkkinen and guitarist Ile Kallio to launch Hurriganes, a Finnish rock & roll group that swiftly commanded enormous popularity across the country. Their sound delivered a late-arriving interpretation of classic rock & roll, allowing the trio equal skill in crafting fresh originals and delivering turbo-charged renditions of material by Fats Domino, Bo Diddley, and the J. Geils Band. Ile Kallio exited before the sessions for the debut LP Rock and Roll All Night Long, issued in 1973, at which point Albert Järvinen assumed guitar duties and completed the configuration now recognized as the classic lineup.

Hurriganes injected fresh vitality into the Finnish rock scene, above all through the 1974 follow-up Roadrunner. Titled after the Bo Diddley composition, the album surged to the top of the domestic charts, earned recognition as one of Finland’s premier classic rock & roll releases, and remained the nation’s best-selling record from 1974 until 1985. A track added casually when the LP ran short on material, the single “Get On,” has repeatedly been cited by both listeners and critics as the greatest rock & roll 45 ever to appear in Finland. Järvinen lifted the opening figure from Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” and supplied an aggressive solo across the three-and-a-half-minute cut, Aaltonen drove it forward with an accelerated rhythm and playful lyrics that invoked nearly every rock & roll trope of earlier decades, and Häkkinen anchored the arrangement with his rock-solid bass work.

Despite the comparatively muted reception afforded 1975’s Crazy Days, Hurriganes sustained their ascent by mounting high-energy tours throughout Scandinavia. Efforts to break through in England proved fruitless, although “Get On” triumphed on the BBC’s European Pop Jury broadcast. Subsequent releases Hot Wheels in 1976 and Tsugu Way in 1977, together with other albums from the period, achieved solid sales yet never recaptured the spark of Roadrunner. Järvinen was dismissed for several years owing to issues with alcohol and demeanor, even though each member grappled with personal struggles of his own.

The 1980 album 10/80 opened the new decade with strong commercial impact. Featuring Jim Pembroke of Wigwam, the record marked the band’s strongest collection in years and yielded the charting pop number “Bourbon Street.” Hurriganes enjoyed a resurgence without ever having disbanded, moving more than a quarter-million units throughout Scandinavia in 1981. Additional LPs followed before the group disbanded after the 1984 release Hurrygames. A short-lived reunion in 1988 produced a live album that sold respectably, yet the members soon dispersed to individual projects once the proceeds were collected. Järvinen recorded with the comic rock outfit Sleepy Sleepers, the group that later evolved into Leningrad Cowboys, and issued the solo album Brain Damage -- or Still Alive? in 1989. Cisse Häkkinen passed away in 1990, followed by Albert Järvinen in 1991. In the mid-’90s Remu performed his earlier material under the names Remu Plays Hurriganes and In the Spirit of Hurriganes before assembling a fresh incarnation of the band in 1998. He continued leading this version into the new millennium, during which Jukka Orma of Sielun Veljet served as guitarist for two years. A biographical film titled Ganes reached Finnish theaters to considerable acclaim in 2007.