Brand New Cadillac

"Cadillac"
Single by the Hep Stars
from the album We and Our Cadillac
B-side	"Mashed Potatoes"
Released	March 1965
Recorded	February 1965[3]
Studio	Dieke Musik store Fruängen, Stockholm
Genre	Rhythm and blues
Length	2:30
Label	Olga
Songwriter(s)	Denys Gibson Graham Johnson Ian Mallet Kim Brown
Producer(s)	Gerhard Dieke
The Hep Stars singles chronology
"Farmer John" (1965) "Cadillac" (1965) "Bald Headed Woman" (1965)

Swedish rock group Hep Stars recorded "Brand New Cadillac" as a single in February 1965. Hep Stars promptly followed the Renegades rendition of the song, and shortened the title down to simply "Cadillac", with the Renegades gaining songwriting credits for the recording.[4] It was later revealed that Hep Stars were not aware of Taylor's version of the song.[5] Lead singer Svenne Hedlund had heard the Renegades version on Swedish radio show Nordisk Skivdisk, and saw the potential of it.[6] His views were not shared with manager Åke Gerhard, who considered the song "a real piece of shit."[6] They persuaded Gerhard by telling him that "if he didn't want it, perhaps some other record label would be more willing."[6] The single version was recorded in the basement of a record store in the Stockholm suburb of Fruängen, with owner Gerhard Dieke producing the session.[7]

During the time, Hep Stars had released only one single prior, in 1964. That was "Kana Kapila", which only reached number 26 on Tio I Topp.[8] The group would then cut six other recordings in late December 1964, their first session with Benny Andersson on keyboards.[9] However, they were still virtually unknown at this point. It wasn't until they appeared on a frantic episode of Drop-In on the 23rd of March 1965 that their popularity started growing.[6] Their song "A Tribute to Buddy Holly" had been released in February of that year, and quickly rose to the charts in late March following their appearance on Drop-In. It became their first chart hit, reaching number 5 on Kvällstoppen, remaining on that chart for ten weeks.[10]

Olga Records then promptly released three singles in late March, those being "Summertime Blues", "Farmer John" and "Cadillac". While "Summertime Blues" failed to chart altogether, both "Farmer John" and "Cadillac managed to reach number one on Kvällstoppen.[11] "Cadillac" entered the charts on the 13th of April 1965 at number 9, and reached the top-5 two weeks later at number 3.[12] The following week it went to number 2 and it finally reached number one two weeks later, on the 18th of May that year.[12] It peaked for one week before reaching number 2 once again.[12] It exited the top-5 on the 15th of June and the top-10 on the 29th of June.[12] It was last seen on Kvällstoppen on the 13th of July at a position of 19.[12] In total, it spent 14 weeks on the chart, 11 of which were in the top-10.[12] 7 of those weeks it stayed in the top-5.[12] It fared similarly well on Tio I Topp, where it stayed for 12 weeks, peaking at number one.[13]

The group recorded three versions of "Cadillac" in 1965. The first version was recorded in February 1965, and was the single release. On this version, Andersson plays rhythm guitar as well as his ordinary keyboards.[4][9] This was due to the fact that regular guitarist Janne Frisk was not present at the recording session.[5] A proper studio version was later recorded as the title and opening track of their debut album We and Our Cadillac, which was released in September 1965. This version features overdubbed tambourine as well as a more audiable organ solo, something not very evident on the single version.[14][15] The third version was recorded live on 7 or 8 August 1965 at either Trollhättan or Västerås folkpark. This version opens with Hep Stars' tour manager Lennart Fernholm shouting out the band members names to a hysteric audience. This version was included as the opening track of Hep Stars on Stage in November 1965.[16][17]

The single was well received. In a retrospective review, Bruce Eder of AllMusic states that ""Cadillac" was a good representative of the group's sound during this period, a piece of lusty, bluesy garage rock. dominated by an agonized lead vocal, somewhere between Gene Vincent at his most quiet and menacing and David Aguilar of the Chocolate Watchband doing his best anguished teen emoting, and some very prominent organ riffs by Andersson. The group sounded sort of like a Swedish Paul Revere & the Raiders with a little more lyricism than that comparison implies."[18] The track was the second most successful release in Sweden of that year, only surpassed by the Rolling Stones "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"[19] "Cadillac" undoubtedly became one of Hep Stars biggest singles of the 1960s, and it is today often considered their signature song along with "Sunny Girl" and "I Natt Jag Drömde".[20][21] The song remains a staple in Hep Stars repertoire to this day.

The Clash covered it on their third album, London Calling (1979). The song was the first to be recorded for the album. The band cite the song as "one of the first British rock'n'roll records" and had initially used it as a warm-up song before recording.

• Pekka Gronow, Jake Nyman ym (2005), Suomi soi osa 4 s.112 (in Finnish), (sarja 1-4), Tammi, ISBN 951-31-2503-3
• Dan-Eric Landen, Carl Magnus Palm (2004), Cadillac Madness, den otroliga berättelsen om Hep Stars (in Swedish), Premium Publishing, ISBN 91-89136-04-7