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Ted Gärdestad ((:tɛd ˈjæːɖɛ.ˈstɑːd)), internationally known as Ted Gardestad, Ted Gaerdestad or just Ted (born Ted Arnbjörn Gärdestad, 18 February 1956 – 22 June 1997 in Sollentuna, Sweden), was a Swedish singer, songwriter and musician. ==Early career== Ted was born to Arne and Margit Gärdestad in 1956 and grew up in Sollentuna Municipality, Stockholm County. He was the youngest of three siblings, he had two older brothers; Kjell (1944–2000) and Kenneth (b. 1948). Ted was only 15 years of age when he and his eight year older brother Kenneth Gärdestad decided to knock on the door of Polar Music in 1971. Ted was appointed composer and singer, while Kenneth was lyricist to Ted's melodies. Their collaboration proved successful, and they stuck to it for the rest of Ted's career. Stig Anderson, later the mastermind behind jumpstarting ABBA's career, recognised Ted's talent and signed him to the label. Stig assigned Ted to in-house producers Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. The multitalented Ted could play just about every instrument he could put his hands on; piano, keyboards, guitars, mandolin, ukulele, accordion etc. and he was often described as a 'musical wonderchild' in the Swedish media - he had in fact made his TV debut at the age of six playing accordion.〔Gärdestad, Kenneth & Liimatainen, Keijo: (2005) ''Jag vill ha en egen måne - Boken om Ted Gärdestad'', pages 11-29〕 In 1966, as a 10-year-old, he had also made his debut as an actor in the TV advent calendar ''En småstad vid seklets början'' (''A Small Town at the Turn of the Century'') and in 1970 he had gone on to have a minor role in the American movie ''Story of a Woman'', directed by Leonardo Bercovici and featuring Bibi Andersson, Robert Stack and James Farentino in the starring roles. Not well-known, but Ted was also a very promising tennis-player; as a fourteen-year-old he was in fact second best in Sweden after one Björn Borg, and he had at one point considered a career as a professional tennis player, his love for music however took the overhand as he was signed to Polar.〔Gärdestad, Kenneth & Liimatainen, Keijo: (2005) ''Jag vill ha en egen måne - Boken om Ted Gärdestad'', page 32〕 Ted released his first single, the gospel-influenced "Hela världen runt" ("All Over the World"), in late 1971 but it was the follow-up, the acoustic ballad "Jag vill ha en egen måne" ("I Want a Moon of My Own"), a song he had written at the age of twelve, that got him noticed by the Swedish public and almost overnight he became the country's first proper teen idol. Benny and Björn produced Ted's debut album ''Undringar'' (translated as ''Wonderings''), released on the Polar Music label in early 1972, and Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad also provided backing vocals. All four members of ABBA continued to work with Ted in different capacities throughout the 1970s, his albums ''Undringar'' (1972), ''Ted'' (1973), ''Upptåg'' (1974) and ''Franska Kort'' (1976) are of particular interest to fans of the band since they were produced with the same recording and production techniques, engineers (Michael B. Tretow) and musicians as contemporary ABBA recordings.〔Gärdestad, Kenneth & Liimatainen, Keijo: (2005) ''Jag vill ha en egen måne - Boken om Ted Gärdestad'', pages 43-73〕 In February 1973, Ted entered Melodifestivalen, the competition to select the Swedish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. The song "Oh, vilken härlig dag" ("Oh What a Lovely Day") came equal fourth. A quartet at the time known as Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid finished third with a song called "Ring Ring (Bara du slog en signal)". Ted had another attempt in 1975 with the song "Rockin' 'n' Reelin'", Svenne & Lotta placed third with "Bang en boomerang", and Ted finished seventh but the song became another hit single on the important radio charts Svensktoppen, Heta Högen and Kvällstoppen. Ted and brother Kenneth returned to Melodifestivalen in 1977 with the song "Det bästa som finns" ("The Best of All"), but that time they employed another Polar Music labelmate, Lena Andersson, to perform the song which finished 8th out of 10 entries, and Ted himself never recorded the track.〔Gärdestad, Kenneth & Liimatainen, Keijo: (2005) ''Jag vill ha en egen måne - Boken om Ted Gärdestad'', pages 74-83〕 Musically Ted's songs combined the heritage of the Scandinavian acoustic and narrative 'visa' tradition with influences from the Anglosaxon singer-songwriter wave of the late 1960s and early 1970s, but his repertoire also includes a wide variety of genre exercises including pastiches of swing, jazz, ragtime, boogie-woogie, reggae, country and western, French chanson, Swedish folkmusic as well as contemporary English and American pop, rock, soul and R&B. Like most musicians and songwriters of their generation, both brothers were also big fans of The Beatles and they were particularly influenced by the fact that John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote their own material ''and'' played it themselves, a commonplace today, but revolutionary for the time. The early Swedish albums with Gärdestad all also contain one or two English-language tracks, usually slightly rougher and rockier than the rest of the material and many of them featuring Janne Schaffer on electric guitars. Lyrically the songs reflected the world of an average young teenager, no longer a child but not yet an adult, and his personal development; the dreams, hopes and desires as well as the fears and frustrations, infatuation and rejection ("När du kommer", "Räcker jag till"), existential ponderings ("Universum", "Snurra du min värld", "Gitarren och jag") alongside typical adolescent fantasies and daydreams of historical figures like the vikings ("Viking"), "Buffalo Bill", Goliath ("Goliat från Gat") or becoming a super hero like ''The Phantom'' ("Fantomen"), and naturally, as with most teenagers, also playful hints at an increased interest in the opposite sex. His Melodifestivalen entry "Oh vilken härlig dag" for instance includes phrases like "''I snuck down to the lake, to spy on you when you went skinnydipping''" and "''I ran naked in the blazing sun''" and most importantly "''And I could see what you're hiding under your skirt''"; a line that was considered particularly risqué when sung by a seventeen-year-old boy in the pre-selections for the Eurovision Song Contest in the year of 1973. Despite the fact that all lyrics were the work of Ted's eight year older brother Kenneth and not Ted himself they were specifically written to reflect Ted's personality and his world, and the feelings of a teenager, not those of his older brother. Just like Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus during the ABBA era, Ted usually wrote "pidgin" English demo lyrics when he composed his songs and it was subsequently Kenneth's task to translate them into Swedish while staying true to Ted's original idea for a particular song. Kenneth spent a considerable amount of time getting the words exactly as Ted wanted them, with the right number of syllables to the bar, rhymes and alliterations emphasizing the rhythm of the music, and then also with the specific language of a boy in his teens, occasionally including slang expressions. Just like sound engineer Michael B. Tretow, Ted was also known for his prankish sense of humour, he was a big fan of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' and loved practical jokes, which also is reflected in the lyrics in the form of clever puns, word play, and double entendres. Kenneth's skills as a lyricist paradoxally resulted in the fact that some of Ted's audiences, in the 1970s and even to the present day, were under the impression that he wrote both the music ''and'' all lyrics, which Kenneth since has revealed that he only took as a sign that he had done Ted's music justice and the best compliment that he could get. By 1975, Ted had become a big star in Sweden, with his boyish good looks he was prominently featured in teen magazines like ''Starlet'', ''Mitt Livs Novell'' and ''Poster'', his love life and teenage romances were even covered by the national dailies, he had his own fan club, all his albums had gone gold and had also sold well in the rest of Scandinavia, besides Björn Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid/ABBA and Anni-Frid Lyngstad he was the Polar Music label's best-selling artist. Stig Anderson had plans to launch him internationally and Ted recorded both Swedish and English versions of "Rockin' 'n' Reelin'" as well as an English version of an earlier hit, "Jag ska fånga en ängel" ("I'm Going to Catch An Angel"), with the title "Gonna Make You My Angel", the latter with lyrics by Gary Osborne; neither were a significant hit. Australian pop singer Mark Holden did however have a major success in Australia with "Jag ska fånga en ängel" under the title "I Wanna Make You My Lady" in 1976.〔Gärdestad, Kenneth & Liimatainen, Keijo: (2005) ''Jag vill ha en egen måne - Boken om Ted Gärdestad'', pages 74-84〕 By 1977 Ted was however faced with a dilemma common to many a child star and teen idol, both before and after him; as he grew up and became more mature - so did his audiences. The time of teen mania and screaming crowds in the folkparks was beginning to fade away and his record label was also presented with another problem. The Polar in-house producers Björn and Benny, who had played such an important part in Ted's early success both as arrangers and musicians were now busy writing, producing and promoting ABBA and could understandably no longer give Ted or other Polar artists like Svenne & Lotta and Lena Andersson their full attention. 1975 had only resulted in one single being released, the Melodifestivalen entry "Rockin' 'n' Reelin'". 1976 had seen the release of the album ''Franska Kort'' (''French Cards'' - a fairly innocent type of late 19th century pornography), only partly recorded with Björn and Benny and co-produced by Michael B. Tretow and Janne Schaffer. The album did provide further hits like "Angela", "Chapeau-Claque" (French for top hat), "När showen är slut" ("When the Show is Over") and "Klöversnoa", a novelty folk dance parody with both Benny Andersson and Ted playing accordion, but it peaked at #3, making it the first Ted Gärdestad album not to top the Swedish charts, and it dropped out of the listing after 22 weeks, a moderate success compared to his previous releases. The year of 1977 saw ABBA and also most of the Polar Music crew including musicians and sound engineers on their first world tour, making ''ABBA: The Movie'' ''and'' recording ''The Album'' - as an indirect consequence no Ted Gärdestad album was released that year.〔〔Gärdestad, Kenneth & Liimatainen, Keijo: (2005) ''Jag vill ha en egen måne - Boken om Ted Gärdestad'', pages 85-99〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ted Gärdestad」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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