ABBA blog

In a recent interview with Swedish amateur jockey Jan Raumer, it transpired that he had written the lyrics for a song entitled "Sailor" several decades ago. In passing, he mentioned that Benny Andersson plays the accordion on it. Some searching unearthed that the track is actually called Hey Sailor (despite its English title, the lyrics are Swedish) and was recorded by Janne Önnerud & Co. in 1978, featured on their album Kryddboden. In the 1960s Janne Önnerud was a drummer and sometime vocalist in a band called The Hounds, one of the more popular groups on the Swedish pop scene. The music for Hey Sailor was written by former Hounds member Jan Ahlén.

Benny is not credited on the album sleeve, which otherwise credits everyone who plays on it, including, unusually, the string players. It certainly makes sense that Benny played on it, for the album was produced by ABBA pal Claes af Geijerstam, and a random accordion contribution like this sounds like the "just for fun" kind of thing Benny would agree to for a friend. Other ABBA-related people involved with the album are arranger Anders Eljas, percussionist Malando Gassama, singer Björn Skifs, and Ola Lager, who took the sleeve photo.

I purchased a copy of the album and have uploaded Hey Sailor to YouTube for your listening pleasure.