Laid Back

Copenhagen-based Danish duo Tim Stahl and John Guldberg, performing as Laid Back, earned their greatest notice through a string of 1980s hits that crossed multiple stylistic lines.

The pair first crossed paths during the preceding decade in the Starbox Band, quickly recognized their strong creative rapport, and soon afterward obtained a recording agreement with Ultraphone, a Teldec subsidiary, under the Laid Back name. Their debut single “Maybe I’m Crazy” appeared in 1980, arriving ahead of the self-titled album that followed the next year.

Two years later the duo moved to Medley and scored both local and overseas success with the aptly titled “Sunshine Reggae,” issued to promote their second LP Keep Smiling. Although the song made little headway in the United States, its B-side—an electro-funk track called “White Horse”—was championed by several American club DJs. Once licensed domestically by Sire, the cut climbed to the top of the Billboard club chart and later received notable references, most prominently on Monifah’s 1998 hit “Touch It.”

After releasing Play It Straight in 1985 and See You in the Lobby in 1987, Stahl and Guldberg found further commercial traction on Ariola, adding “Bakerman” to their hit tally in 1989. That partnership generated the albums Hole in the Sky (1990) and Why Is Everybody in Such a Hurry! (1993) as well as the career-spanning collection Laidest Greatest (1995).

Although only two further projects surfaced in the following years—Unfinished Symphonies on Sundance in 1999 and Happy Dreamer on Edel in 2005—the duo also scored films and received a Robert, Denmark’s equivalent of an Oscar, for their work on Flyvende Farmor.

Entering the early 2010s they remained prolific, issuing self-released albums such as Cosmic Vibes (2011), Cosyland (2012), and the multi-volume Uptimistic Music (2013). Marking four decades together, Laid Back returned with the full-length Healing Feeling in late 2019.