Ted Arnbjorn Gardestad (Swedish pronunciation: [ted 2jae:de,sta:d]) (18 February 1956 - 22 June 1997) was a Swedish singer, songwriter, musician and actor known internationally as Ted. Gardestad began his acting career in 1966 and began playing music in 1971, signing with Polar Music. Assigned with in-house producers Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus,  Gardestad released his first single, "Hela varlden runt," in late 1971 and worked closely with the four members of ABBA to create his debut album Undringar (1972). As Polar Music's best-selling solo artist (aside from ABBA), he continued to work with the group members throughout the 1970s, releasing three more albums Ted (1973), Upptag (1974) and Franska Kort (1976), which were moderately successful.

Stig Anderson still thought Gardestad had some international potential, and he and his brother Kenneth travelled to Hollywood in late 1977 to record Gardestad's first English-language album Blue Virgin Isles. The west coast rock orientated album featured contributions from American and English musicians including Jeff Porcaro, Steve Porcaro, Jim Keltner, David Hungate, Jay Graydon, Dr. John and John Mayall, many of whom were Gardestad's personal idols. Blue Virgin Isles was released worldwide in late 1978 on Epic Records, and produced the singles "Take Me Back To Hollywood", an English version of "Chapeau-Clacque", and "Love, You're Making All The Fools". Despite the expensive production and the big push to launch Gardestad--including promotional appearances alongside ABBA--his Swedish success did not translate internationally. In Sweden, the album peaked at No. 29 and spent one week on the chart. Thirty years after its original release, Blue Virgin Isles remains Gardestad 's only studio album that has not been re-released on CD by Polar Music/PolyGram/Universal Music Group.  In early 1979, Ted and Kenneth Gardestad had a fourth attempt at Melodifestivalen and won with the song "Satellit", a mid-tempo rock track whose arrangement bore resemblances to Toto's 1978 hit "Hold the Line". The similarities caused speculation of plagiarism in the Swedish media and disqualification from the contest. The connection between the two songs was that the song's producer Janne Schaffer had heard four of the future Toto members, Steve Porcaro, Jeff Porcaro, David Hungate and Steve Lukather, experimenting with a guitar and bass riff during the Blue Virgin Isles sessions in Los Angeles, which eventually evolved into "Hold the Line". Schaffer was inspired by what he had heard when he wrote the arrangement for "Satellit", but at that point neither "Hold the Line" nor Toto's debut eponymous album had been released. Jeff Porcaro told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet in February 1979: "No, it's not a rip-off, Ted did not steal our song. Those piano triplets and that bass and guitar line go back to the 1950s and the fact that we both have happened to use variations on the same theme in our songs right now is purely coincidental." Consequently, Ted represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest held in Jerusalem in March 1979. After having competed four times in the pre-selection before winning and with his personal connection to ABBA, hopes and expectations were high. The song scored eight points and finished seventeenth out of nineteen participating entries, making it Sweden's then-second-lowest placing in the contest. The Swedish-language single became a Top 10 hit back home in Sweden and "Satellit" is regarded as one of Ted's signature tunes. The English-language version of the track never charted and neither did the re-issue of Blue Virgin Isles, which included both versions, making it clear that Ted's Scandinavian audiences favoured his Swedish-language material.  After an unsuccessful return to Melodifestivalen in 1980, with "Lat solen varma dig" ("Let the Sun Warm You") with then girlfriend Annica Boller and disappointing sales of his 1981 album Stormvarning (#31, 2 weeks)--which was internationally released as I'd Rather Write a Symphony on the Polydor label in a few countries and equally overlooked--Gardestad left the music scene at the age of 25.

Ask a question about this article.
Was the album successful?