(Ted Gärdestad - Ken Gärdestad - Gary Osborne )
Australia
#12 Sydney #9 Melbourne #13 Brisbane #14 Adelaide #12 Perth | #11 Australia
Adelaide-born pop star Mark Holden (b. 1954) had five hit singles 1976-1977, but he has also been an actor, composer, producer, manager, radio presenter, and a judge on TV’s Australian Idol and X Factor. Along the way he completed his legal studies and became a barrister in Melbourne.
See also: Mark Holden – Never Gonna Fall In Love Again (1976).
This recording uses Gary Osborne’s lyrics of Gonna Make You My Angel, written for Ted Gärdestad’s English version of Jag Ska Fånga En Ängel.
On Mark Holden’s record the title becomes I Wanna Make You My Lady and the line Angels are hard to find, girl becomes Love is so hard to find, girl.
References, further reading: 1. Ian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of Australian Rock & Pop (1999), p.160, pp 291-2. 2. Mark Holden at Wikipedia 3. Mark Holden filmography at IMDb.
Suggestion from Terry Stacey.
(Ted Gärdestad - Kenneth Gärdestad - Gary Osborne )
Sweden
Original English language version
B-side on Polar (Sweden) by Ted Gärdestad. Also released in UK, Germany and Italy on Epic, and in Australia on RCA-Victor.
The English lyrics are by British singer and songwriter Gary Osborne.
As with the original Jag Ska Fånga En Ängel, the producers were Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvaeus (this time with Nicky Graham), apparently with similar studio personnel.
(Ted Gärdestad - Kenneth Gärdestad)
Sweden
Original version
#9 Sweden
Single from 1973 Polar album Ted by much loved Swedish singer-songwriter-musician-actor and teen idol Ted Gärdestad (1956-1997).
Lyrics are by Ted’s brother Kenneth. Jag Ska Fånga En Ängel = I’m Gonna Catch An Angel
The album was produced by Ted with Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, house producers and session musicians at Polar, who also played on the sessions. Björn and Benny were soon to be world-famous as one half of ABBA with Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-frid Lyngstad, also heard on the album on backing vocals. The same team was behind Ted’s debut album Undringar (1972).
Some other Swedish recordings of Jag Ska Fånga En Ängel:
• Anders Berglunds Orkester (1977) on Metronome album Obs! Instrumentalt
• Stein Ingebrigtsen (1978) on RCA Int’l album Säkra Kort
• Gunnar Käck (1989): single on Royal Music
• Popcorn (2005) on Marrian album Skara.
Jag Ska Fånga En Ängel appeared in Episode 3 of Swedish TV drama Clark (2022) which explains some YouTube references to the series in connection with the song.
Selected sources, further reading: 1. Swedish Wikipedia’s Ted Gärdestad article is a comprehensive introduction. 2. Swedish Wikipedia also has an article on the song.
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Website by Lyn Nuttall. © Lyn Nuttall 2004-2024. Chart positions courtesy of Gavin Ryan’s Australian Chart Books and Dean Scapolo’s Complete NZ Music Charts. Special thanks to Terry Stacey for information, corrections and suggestions. Thanks also to Tony Watson, Philippe Edouard, Dave Overett.., More…