Sound Labs Inc., Capitol Studios, Western Recorders and Hollywood Sound Recorders, Los Angeles, California Whitney Studios, Glendale, California Bastun Studios, Marcus Music and KMH Studios, Stockholm
Blue Virgin Isles is the fifth studio album and international debut album by Swedish singer-songwriter Ted Gärdestad, released in November 1978 by Epic Records in the UK and Polar Music in Scandinavia.
The album spawned two single releases, "Take Me Back To Hollywood" and "Love, You're Making All The Fools". "Take Me Back To Hollywood" was a re-recording of Swedish hit single "Chapeau-Claque" from the preceding album Franska Kort, produced by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, Michael B. Tretow and Gärdestad himself. In The Netherlands, the B-side Back in the Business was chosen as the single. It failed to chart.<https://www.top40.nl/ted-gardestad/ted-gardestad-back-in-the-business-13441> The Blue Virgin Isles album was promoted by a guest appearance on ABBA's BBC TV special ABBA in Switzerland a.k.a. Snow Time Special, filmed in Leysin and broadcast worldwide in April 1979. Despite this and a number of other personal appearances in West Germany, The Netherlands, the UK, the US and the Scandinavian countries in the winter of 1978 and the spring of 1979 as well as receiving generally favourable reviews by music critics, Blue Virgin Isles was only a moderate commercial success; in Sweden the album peaked at number 29 on the Albums Chart and only spent one week on the chart.
Eurovision and release
After having won the 1979 Melodifestivalen, the Swedish pre-selections for the Eurovision Song Contest, with the song "Satellit"/"Satellite" in February 1979 the Blue Virgin Isles album was re-released both internationally and domestically to include this track. The second Polar Music edition of the album features both the Swedish and English language versions of the song. "Satellit" received a disappointing eight points in the contest, held on 31 March 1979 in Jerusalem, and finished seventeenth out of nineteen participating entries, making it Sweden's second lowest placing in the contest up until that point. Despite the added Eurovision exposure, the second attempt to promote the Blue Virgin Isles album consequently met with the same result as the first, both internationally and in Sweden.
When Gärdestad made his comeback on the music scene in 1993 he re-recorded a Swedish language version of the title track "Blue Virgin Isles", entitled "Himlen Är Oskyldigt Blå" ("The Sky Is Innocently Blue"), for career retrospective Kalendarium 1972-93, then using the original backing track.
Blue Virgin Isles was released on CD in 2009, as part of the 8-CD box set Helt Nära Dig - Samlade Album. It was also released as a separate download.
Recorded at: Sounds Labs Inc., Hollywood, Bastun Studios AB, Stockholm, Marcus Music AB, Stockholm, Capitol Studios, Hollywood; KMH Studio AB, Stockholm; Whitney Studios, Glendale, Western Recorders, Hollywood; Hollywood Sound Recorders, Hollywood[1]
Sound engineers: Eirik W. Wangberg, Ron Hitchcock, Val Garay, Armin Steiner
Assistant engineers: Linda Tyler, Olle Ramm, Christer Berg, Dennis Cook, Lennart Karlsmyr, Åke Grahn, Cecil Jones, Don Henderson, Bob Mocler, Ed Perry.
Mastering: Wally Traugott at Capitol Studios, Hollywood
Musician contractor: Frank DeCaro
Art direction: David Larkham
Cover design: David Larkham and Eirik W. Wangberg
Front & back cover photographs: Yoshi Ohara for Barry Levine Studios
Inner sleeve photography: Barry Levine & Torbjörn Calvero
Thank You: Janne Schaffer, Randy Edelman, Thom Rotelia, Ben Benay, Scotty Edwards, Ralph Grierson, Howard Weiss, Peggy Steiner, Annie Street, Virginia Berger, John Sands, Ned Forsythe, Robert Lamoureux, Jon Joyce, Steve Kelman, Mikke Tretow and to Stig Anderson, ABBA, and the Polar family. Special thanks to Alix Wangberg whose cheerful spirit and lyrical talent helped when times were rough and no words were in the air. /TED & KEN
Personnel and production "Satellit"/"Satellite"
Producers: Janne Schaffer & Ted Gärdestad
Musicians: Stefan Nilsson, Janne Schaffer, Mike Watson, Roger Palm, Malando Gassama & Lars Samuelsson
String arrangement: Lars Samuelsson
Backing vocals: Rose-Marie Gröning, Liza Öhman, Diana Nunez, Lennart Sjöholm & Peter Lundblad
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