OLA & THE JANGLERS
Ola & the Janglers were a garage rock and beat group, founded in Stockholm, Sweden in 1962. Its lead member was Ola Håkansson. The group’s 1969 hit “Let’s Dance”, a cover of the Chris Montez song, reached #92 on the Billboard Hot 100. (More from Wikipedia)
The charming liner notes are entitled “The Skywalkers ABC”, and it still took me a while to realize that they were in alphabetical order. It wasn’t just a list of “thank you’s” either; they included some commentary with their influences. They include a lot of familiar bands and artists (at least to me) – Brian Wilson (“for his amazing ballads”), the Electric Prunes (“they got us to the world on time”), Syd Barrett (“for leading us into the sixties”), the Zombies (“the greatest ever”), Q65 (“and other Dutch freakbeat groups”) – but others that I don’t know at all, like Ola & the Janglers and Jan Breimer. Their “X” item was “Careful with that X, Eugene!”, a take-off on an early Pink Floyd hit, “Careful with that Axe, Eugene”. But the list started with Aliens (“what’s taking them so long?”) and also includes the Monkey (“[Jacco Gardner]’s favorite dance move”), the Twist (“[Hugo van de Poel]’s favorite dance move”), their photographer Luuk Muller (“for making us look good”), their organ brand Philicorda (“the greatest instrument around”), the Universe (“the greatest place around”), and “You, for buying this record”.
(January 2013)
