![]() The song came from Mark James, the same songwriter who wrote Suspicious Minds for Elvis. ![]() This version reached number one in the United States. The roots of Hooked On A Feeling went back five years, to Memphis. The Blue Swede version of the song also tweaked the lyrics to avoid a drug reference. Their arrangement was inspired by a bootleg recording of Do You Like Worms? from the unfinished album Smile by the Beach Boys. In 1974, the Swedish pop group Blue Swede did a cover version, which included the "ooga chaka" introduction from Jonathan King's 1971 cover. The Blue Swede version made singer Björn Skifs' "Ooga-Chaka-Ooga-Ooga" intro well known (and famous in Sweden at the time), although it had been used originally by British musician Jonathan King in his 1971 version of the song Thomas's version featured the sound of the electric sitar, and reached number five in 1969 on the Billboard Hot 100 It has been recorded by many other artists, including Blue Swede, whose version reached number one in the United States in 1974. A few decades later, they would become unstoppable.Hooked on a Feeling” is a 1968 pop song written by Mark James and originally performed by B. Thomas's version featured the sound of the electric sitar (played by Reggie Young) and reached No. ![]() Swedes had discovered their power to raid our pop-radio stations like viking berserkers. 'Hooked on a Feeling' is a 1968 pop song, written by Mark James and originally performed by B. No ooga-chakas.) But the damage had been done. The band would land exactly one more American top-10 hit, a version of the Association’s 1967 tune “ Never My Love” that peaked at #7 later in 1974. Blue Swede took a half-decent American pop song, one that would’ve probably otherwise been forgotten by now, and turned it into a fucking wrecking ball, the kind of thing that drunk yahoos in karaoke bars are going to be gang-shouting for as long as there are drunk yahoos and karaoke bars.īlue Swede were not built to last. ![]() Skifs howls over all of it with Tom Jones levels of brio, making B. Everything about their arrangement seems scientifically calibrated to stick with you: the blaring horn riff, the high-cheese guitar line, the perfectly timed drum hits during the “IIIIIIII’m” of the chorus. Blue Swede’s version of “Hooked On A Feeling” cranks up the catchiness of the original further than it should be allowed to go. Hooked on a Feeling was Blue Swede’s first and only song that reached number one in the United States, where the song saw the most success. (In any case, Blue Swede took out even the most harmless drug references, turning “I’ll just stay addicted and hope I can endure” into the even-more-meaningless “I just stay a victim, if I can for sure.”) And yet that chant just bulldozes its way into your skull and stays there forever.Īnd it’s not just the ooga-chakas. The ooga-chakas mean nothing, and they don’t have anything to do with the whole love-as-drug metaphor. With their version of “Hooked On A Feeling,” Blue Swede took that dinky fake war chant from the Jonathan King version and weaponized it, transforming it into a loud-as-hell brain-destroyer. (“Blue Suede.” I know.)Ĭredit the ooga-chakas - or, if you prefer, blame the ooga-chakas. So it got an American release, and Blåblus got an English-language stupid-pun name. At Kaiser Permanente IRONMAN California, part of the VinFast IRONMAN North America Series, our goal is to make you go fast on every. (Blue Swede’s arrangement was supposedly based on “ Do You Like Worms?,” an unfinished and widely bootlegged Beach Boys song, but the only real similarity I hear is in the deeper chanting.) Blue Swede recorded their version, and it became a big Scandinavian hit. Skifs, who’d started out in the excellently named Swedish rock band Slam Creepers, started Blue Swede as a cover band called Blåblus, which is some kind of Swedish pun involving the word “blues.” That same year, they recorded their big, ridiculous version of “Hooked On A Feeling.” Blåblus had started covering the Jonathan King version of “Hooked On A Feeling” live. Blue Swede started in 1974, as a vehicle for the Swedish pop singer Björn Skifs. Blue Swede weren’t even a band when the Jonathan King version of “Hooked On A Feeling” came out.
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