Doris Svensson (born July 1, 1947), billed as Doris, is a former
Swedish pop singer. Doris is best known for her lone solo album, eclectic
pop, rock and
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
''Did You Give the World Some Love Today Baby'' recorded in 1970. The record was re-issued in 1996 to critical acclaim and caused interest among American and European alternative audiences as an odd Swedish funk rarity.
Biography
Doris Svensson was born on July 1, 1947 in
Gothenburg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
. Her singing career began in 1960 by recording an album with the Swedish band The Strangers. She went on recording with Plums, including the tracks "You Made a Fool of Me Last Night" and "Wouldn't That Be Groovy", and The Dandys, including "Go Back to Daddy".
In April 1970, Doris went to record in the
EMI
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...
studios of
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
. Most of the lyrics of the songs were by
Scottish writer Francis Cowan. The material was composed by TV producer, jazz-pianist, and composer
Berndt Egerbladh
Berndt Erik Egerbladh (May 1, 1932 – March 2, 2004) was a Sweden, Swedish pianist, jazz pianist, composer and television personality.
Biography
Egerbladh was born in Transtrand. He grew up in Umeå and performed in local jazz and dance orchestr ...
. He also provided the
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...
brass arrangements for the tracks.
The heavy drumming on the tracks
[ was performed by ]Janne Carlsson
Jan Edvard Carlsson (12 March 1937 – 31 August 2017), known professionally as Janne 'Loffe' Carlsson, was a Swedish actor, musician, composer and artist.
Early life
Carlsson was born on 12 March 1937 in Katarina Parish, Stockholm, the son of E ...
from the duo Hansson & Karlsson, and the bass was played by Doris's husband Lukas Lindholm. The album ''Did You Give the World Some Love Today Baby'' was issued by Odeon
Odeon may refer to:
Ancient Greek and Roman buildings
* Odeon (building), ancient Greek and Roman buildings built for singing exercises, musical shows and poetry competitions
* Odeon of Agrippa, Athens
* Odeon of Athens
* Odeon of Domitian, Rome
...
in Sweden, 1970.[
]
Reception
The promotional singles distributed in U.K. and France in 1970[ attracted little attention among the audiences. After ]Mr Bongo
Mr Bongo is a British, Brighton based independent record label, independent film and publishing company specialising in world music and art house/world cinema.
History
Founded in 1989, in Berwick Street, London, the label later moved to L ...
label re-issued ''Did You Give the World Some Love Today Baby'' in Sweden and U.K. in 1996, and U.S. and Canada in 1998 with bonus tracks from Doris's earlier period, the LP caused interest among the alternative listeners as an odd funk rarity from the archives of Swedish pop.Montreal Mirror
''Montreal Mirror'' or just ''Mirror'' was a free English language alternative newsweekly based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada which was distributed every Thursday. It had a circulation of 70,000 and reached a quarter of a million readers per week.
...
'' newsweekly reviewed it as:"A relic of epic Swedish pop from '70. Perfectly hilarious and hilariously perfect."[ Subsequently, the tracks "Did You Give the World Some Love Today?", "Don't", "Beatmaker", and "You Never Come Closer" were included in eleven retrospective compilation albums issued all over Europe.][ Mr Bongo label issued ''Did You Give the World Some Love Today Baby'' in U.K. again in 2006.]The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'' reviewed the song's instrumental and vocal style as:"...Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...
backing Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has de ...
." The Blaxploitation.com database listed ''Did You Give the World Some Love Today Baby'' among the ''Forty Essential Funk Albums'' of the music history.[ Doris's tracks have received airplay in the retro music radio programs, including on ]BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...
, East Village Radio
East Village Radio (EVR), begun in August 2003, was an Internet radio station which broadcast from a storefront studio in the East Village of Manhattan, in New York City. Originally a pirate radio station broadcasting at 88.1 MHz, the st ...
, FBi Radio
FBi (call sign: 2FBI) station is an independent, not-for-profit community radio in Sydney, Australia. FBi places a heavy emphasis on local emerging music: it has a policy that at least 50 per cent of its music content is to be Australian, of wh ...
of Australia, Q Radio
Q Radio was an online, DAB and DTV radio station, broadcasting on digital television across the UK and online. The station launched in June 2008 as an alternative to the UK's rock and alternative stations, with a strong relationship with Q ...
,
Raadio 2
Raadio 2 is Estonian radio station. It belongs to Estonian Public Broadcasting (formerly Estonian Radio) and started broadcasting on 1 May 1993.
History
In the course of the radio reform, Vikerraadio was merged with the I program (the name remai ...
of Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
, and Radio Fritz of Germany.
"You Never Come Closer" was sampled on "Closer" by influential hip-hop producer Madlib
Otis Jackson Jr. (born October 24, 1973), known professionally as Madlib, is an American DJ, music producer, multi-instrumentalist, and rapper. He is widely known for his collaborations with MF DOOM (as Madvillain), J Dilla (as Jaylib), and Fr ...
for Quasimoto
Quasimoto is a side project of hip hop producer Madlib, from Oxnard, California. Quasimoto is composed of Madlib and his animated alter ego Lord Quas. Lord Quas is known for his high-pitched voice, which often interacts with Madlib's regular voi ...
. This has led to Doris' work becoming increasingly popular amongst underground
Underground most commonly refers to:
* Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth
Underground may also refer to:
Places
* The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston
* The Underground (S ...
hip-hop fans and record collectors. "You Never Come Closer" can be heard in the video game ''Grand Theft Auto V
''Grand Theft Auto V'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh main entry in the Grand Theft Auto, ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2008's ''Grand Theft Auto IV'', and ...
'', on the fictional radio station called ''FlyLo FM''. The TV comedy ''Toast of Tinseltown'' used a cover version of "Beatmaker" performed by Matt Berry and Emma Noble as its end theme.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doris
Swedish women singers
1947 births
Living people
Mr Bongo Records artists
Swedish soul singers
Funk singers