''Story of a Heart'' is a compilation album by Swedish group Benny Andersson Band, released in July 2009.

Album Information

Benny Anderssons Orkester Benny Anderssons orkester (also known as BAO, Benny Andersson Band) is a Swedish band, with Benny Andersson as musical leader and composer. The band was formed in mid-2001 by 16 people, some from Orsa Spelmän, and Helen Sjöholm and since 2004 Tom ...

is the current band of former

ABBA ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group's ...

member Benny Andersson. As ''"Story of a Heart"'' was the group's first album to be released outside of Sweden, the band is referred to as "Benny Andersson Band".

International release

English lyrics were written by Björn Ulvaeus (also of

fame) for four of the most successful songs of the band's back catalogue. In addition, a new song was recorded and sung by

Helen Sjöholm Marie Helen Sjöholm (; born 10 July 1970) is a Swedish singer, actress and musical theatre performer who lives in Gamla Enskede in Stockholm. She grew up in Sundsvall and started to sing in choirs at an early age, working, among others, with S ...

, who was and is responsible for the female vocals of

. The new song, ''"Story of a Heart"'', also became the title track of the album and was subsequently released on single. A Swedish version, ''"Sommaren du fick"'', was included on the Swedish version of the album and was also released on single in this country. The album also includes nine instrumental tunes, all of which being old recordings from the band's previous albums as well as Benny's 1987 solo album

Klinga mina klockor ''Klinga mina klockor'' (Ring my Bells) is an album by Benny Andersson released in 1987. This album of Swedish folk music was a hit in Scandinavia.Oldham, A, Calder, T & Irvin, C: "ABBA: The Name of the Game", page 220. Sidgwick & Jackson, 1995 ...

. To fit into the album concept, also the titles of those tracks were (directly) translated into the English language. ''"Story of a Heart"'' was released in the UK on July 9, 2009. Five days earlier, on July 4,

played a huge concert on London's

Hampstead Heath Hampstead Heath (locally known simply as the Heath) is an ancient heath in London, spanning . This grassy public space sits astride a sandy ridge, one of the highest points in London, running from Hampstead to Highgate, which rests on a band o ...

. The concert was intended as a trigger for the band's promotion of their first UK album, and received good reviews in the press. Eventually, the song received a lot of airplay and the album managed to enter the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

and peaked at No. 29.

Swedish release

In Sweden, where versions of most of the tracks from ''"Story of a Heart"'' had already been released, the album was promoted as a greatest hits collection. Upon its release in the end of June 2009, the album entered the

Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan (, lit. "the Sweden top list") is the Swedish national record chart, formerly known as Topplistan (1975–1997) and Hitlistan (1998–2007) and known by its current name since October 2007, based on sales data from the Swedish R ...

the next week at its peak position, No. 5. At the same time, the English single release climbed to number 17 on the Swedish Singles Chart, while its Swedish version ''"Sommaren du fick"'' reached number 4 on the Svensktoppen radio chart. As almost every year,

also played some concerts in Sweden as part of their summer-tour.

Track listing

The international version of the track listing omits the last track, ''"Sommaren du fick"'', thus reducing the total length of the remaining 14 tracks to 48:07.

Personnel

The songs on the album are performed by the following members of the "Benny Andersson Band":Story of a Heart, booklet * Benny Andersson:

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

, piano, synclavier *Göran Arnberg: keyboards *Janne Bengtsson: flute, piccola, baryton saxophone, crumhorn *Pär Grebacken: saxophone, clarinet *Leif Göras: violin,

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

*(Nils-Erik) Nicke Göthe: violin, mandolin *(Jan-Erik) Jogga Ernlund:

doublebass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...

, electric bass *Calle Jacobsson: tuba, trombone, contrabass trumpet *Tommy Körberg: vocals *Leif Lindvall: trumpet,

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B, though there is also a sopr ...

Kalle Moraeus Karl Anders "Kalle" Moraeus (born 15 July 1963) is a Swedish musician, actor, composer and television presenter.Kalle Moraeus, official homepage. http://www.kallemoraeus.com/ Moraeus was born in Mora. He is a member of the folk group Orsa Spelmä ...

: violin, acoustic guitar, electric guitar,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

, bouzouki *Olle Moraeus: violin, viola, mandolin *(Pererik) Perra Moraeus: violin, alto-saxophone, mandolin, clarinet *Lars Rudolfsson: accordion *

Album Information

International release

Swedish release

Track listing

Personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References