(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
Blue Swede - "Hooked on a Feeling"
Hit Number 1: April 6, 1974
Stay at Number 1: 1 Week
"Hooked on a Feeling" was recorded many times before it was finally in the hands of the artists that made it famous. First, it was a pretty good sized hit for B.J. Thomas, the guy who gave us "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head". (His version made it to #5 in 1969. It's a 7) The song was written for Thomas by Mark James, the guy who wrote "Suspicious Minds", and he was inspired by an old childhood crush to write the song. "Hooked on a Feeling" is a song about a one-sided love, where you have some serious feelings for someone that just doesn't know, or doesn't give those feelings back to you. Despite that, most accounts of the song are pretty joyous and fun. But while Thomas' version was perfectly fine, there would be a new version released in 1974 that would blow his away.
There are two big differences between Thomas' 1969 version and the Blue Swede version in 1974, the one that would become the most successful version of the song. The Blue Swede version is best known for the "oonga chacka" chants at the beginning and at one point in the middle of the song, but they're absent in the Thomas version. Blue Swede were not the first ones to add the chant. There was a 1971 version by Jonathan King that first threw in the chant, and his version did well in the U.K., but did nothing across the Atlantic into America. Other artists took a crack at the song, but the ones who made it the irresistible fun hit we know it by today was Blue Swede, a 7-member band from Sweden. They kept the chant, but another change to the song they made was to change around the lyrics so that there wouldn't be any drug references. Instead of "I got it bad for you, girl/but I don't need a cure/I'll just stay addicted and hope I can endure" it's "Got a bug from you, girl/but I don't need no cure/I just stay a victim, if I can for sure". Honestly, the Blue Swede version's lines are better in my opinion.
The Blue Swede version doesn't take itself seriously at all. And I love that. Everything about the song is ridiculous: the stupid little chants, the cheesy horns, and the changing of the lyrics to make it even more innocent... but the thing is, it works. "Hooked on a Feeling" owns its own cheesiness, and the result is a lively, fun song that's hard to scoff at. B.J. Thomas' version is a perfectly fine piece of late '60s pop, but it doesn't separate itself from the rest of the perfectly fine pieces of late '60s pop. In Blue Swede's version, you're given a piece of cheesy '70s pop that doesn't take itself seriously, which is what they needed to do. Cheese isn't always a bad thing, as long as you completely own it. Blue Swede does that, and that's what makes their version of "Hooked on a Feeling" great.
Blue Swede made some intriguing pop chart history when they hit #1 with "Hooked on a Feeling". They became the first Swedish act to hit #1 on the Hot 100. (They, of course, would not be the last. One of the greatest, if not the greatest, Swedish pop groups will hit #1 later on in the '70s) Blue Swede wouldn't go on to become a dominant force on the charts, at least in America, but they're lone #1 hit is one I could never bring myself to make fun of. I really enjoy this song.
GRADE: 8/10
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