Moviestar (song)
| Moviestar | |
|---|---|
| Harpo | |
| publication | 1975 |
| length | 3:21 |
| Genre (s) | pop |
| Author (s) | Harpo |
| album | Moviestar |
Moviestar is a pop song by the Swedish singer Harpo from 1975. The song is about an unsuccessful actor who sees himself as a movie star . It is Harpo's most famous song and became a number one hit in numerous countries in 1976 .
Text and music
Moviestar is about an actor who appears in various poses such as Steve McQueen , James Bond or James Dean , although in truth he only shot a television commercial. During the day he works in a grocery store until he has finally saved enough money to travel to Sweden, where Ingmar Bergman does not even see him . Still, he doesn't want to see all of his dreams vanishing into thin air and continues to think of himself as a movie star.
Swedish television documented the creation of the song, in which guitar with bass , drums , keyboard , a string orchestra , triangle , two female background voices for the chorus and harpo's lead voice were recorded one after the other . One of the two background singers was Anni-Frid Lyngstad , known as Frida from ABBA . The song was produced by Bengt Palmers. For Raimund Wagner the result is "the happy summer song" of 1976.
history
Harpo, who had worked as an actor at the beginning of his career, had already seen various would-be stars at drama school . The specific reason for the song, however, gave him an unnamed friend. He wrote the song in winter in his apartment in Stockholm , where he sat by the window with his guitar. Harpo’s producer refused the song, but when Swedish television wanted to document the making of a record in a report about the locally successful singer, he resorted to the retired song Moviestar . The television documentary contributed to the song's popularity in Sweden, according to Roger Lindhorst. From February 16, 1976, the song reached number one on the Swedish charts for four weeks .
Moviestar also became one of the best-known hits of the 1970s outside of Sweden . On February 2, 1976, it reached number one in the German single charts . It stayed at number one for four weeks and stayed in the charts for a total of 31 weeks, including 17 weeks in the top 5. In Switzerland the song stayed at number one for five weeks , in Austria for one week at number one , in Norway the song lasted the top spot for eleven weeks .
There was a revival of the song in the Swedish charts in 1997/98 through a commercial for the car manufacturer Nissan . Yet in 2002 the listeners voted by WDR 2 as part of the program WDR 200 Movie Star at position 149 of the best songs of all time.
Cover versions
In 1976 Bernhard Brink recorded a German-language cover version entitled Music Star . Christoffer also launched Music Star in 1976 and appeared in the ZDF hit parade . The German-French band Stereo Total released another cover version in 1995 on their album Oh Ah .
Web links
- Movie Star Lyrics from Harpo songtexte.com, accessed August 18, 2019
- Movie Star translation from Harpo songtexte.com, accessed on August 18, 2019 (German)
Individual evidence
- ↑ according to Discography ( Memento of the original from August 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the Harpo website.
- ↑ a b c Harpo - Movie Star . In The Story of the Hit by Roger Lindhorst on NDR 1 .
- ↑ Raimund Wagner: From "Movie Star" to Farmer . On: Bunte.de of April 29, 2008.
- ↑ Moviestar on swedishcharts.com.
- ↑ Oliver Rustemeyer: Harpo: "Moviestar" in 1st place . On: WDR 4 from February 2, 2016.
- ↑ Harpo at last.fm .
- ↑ Moviestar on hitparade.ch .
- ↑ Moviestar on austriancharts.at.
- ↑ Moviestar on norwegiancharts.com.
- ↑ Biography at harpo.info, the information page of the artist manager Gerd Kehren.
- ^ Bernhard Brink - Music Star , hitparade.ch
