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The Shanes were a Swedish rock band active formed in 1960 by lead guitarist Staffan Berggren. Considered one of the four biggest Swedish groups together with the Hep Stars, Tages and Ola and the Janglers, the Shanes was the first of them to form and was also very successful, having twelve singles reach the Tio i Topp chart between May 1963 and January 1968, including the instrumental "Gunfight Saloon", their only number one single "Let Me Show You Who I Am", their rendition of "Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo" and "Chris-Craft No. 9", which is their most well-known song. On the side of the singles, the band released five studio albums along with a string of EPs during their career. They released one single in the UK on Columbia Records, "I Don't Want Your Love", but it did not chart there.

Berggren initially formed the group in 1960 as Whisky Bottle Slickers, which played instrumental rock in the style of the Shadows. With a line-up consisting of Berggren (lead guitar), Tommy Wåhlberg (rhythm guitar), Svante Elfgren (bass guitar) and Tor-Erik Rautio (drums), their debut single "Gunfight Saloon" became a hit on Tio i Topp, which shot them to sudden stardom. After their two other instrumental singles were commercial failures, the band started perform vocally on the insistence of Berggren, scoring a string of hit singles in the rhythm and blues genre before Berggren left in the autumn of 1965. He was replaced by keyboardist Kit Sundqvist, who drove the band to pop music. After further hit singles and getting conscripted, they recruited Rolf Carvenius on saxophone and started performing dansband music before splitting up right before the decade was over.

According to Sundqvist, the group's music can be categorized into three distinctive eras; "an instrumental-Shanes, a rhythm’n’blues-Shanes and a pop-Shanes"

Formation and early years (1961–63)
Four of the group's members stem from Tuolluvaara, a suburb of Kiruna. Two of which, Svante Elfgren and Staffan Berggren, attended the same class at their primary school in 1957. Elfgren would soon get to know about Tommy Wåhlberg, who was in the grade below the pair. Berggren owned a guitar, but Elfgren did not own an instrument while while Wåhlberg had previous musical experience as he had played in a band together with Tor-Erik Rautio and an acquaintance of them, Stefan Nordin. Rautio had played drums since the age of ten, and Wålhberg had some experience playing the guitar as well. No major changes occured until 1960, when, the trio stopped playing because of boredom and because of their inexperience, according to Rautio, Nordin only "knew two or three chords" on the guitar, but they decided to still stick together.

Instead, they joined up with Berggren, who accepted them. The primary reason is cited as being the fact that Wåhlberg's father, who worked as a groundskeeper at the school, let them use a room in the school's basement for rehearsal. Around the same time, Elfgren purchased a bass guitar and started practicing. The group bore the name Whisky Bottle Slickers at the time, which was an erroneous translation; Slickers was most likely an unintentional anglicisation of the Swedish word for licking. Because of Berggren, they had started performing instrumental music, heavily inspired by Cliff Richard's backing band the Shadows. Nonetheless, this line-up lasted for just half a year, until Nordin was kicked out because his lack of musical talent. Elfgren, who by now was knowledgeable enough on his instrument was instead recruited.

Following the introduction of Elfgren, they picked up the name The Jayhawkers. During this time the members held regular jobs which heavily affected their touring schedule; Wåhlberg and Rautio plowed driveways during the winter, Elfgren worked for LKAB and while many members occasionally took up part-time jobs in construction; they got fired because of their musical reputation growing along with the fact that they wouldn't stop talking about their music. They could now focus on touring, with Berggren's father as their touring manager they could get across Norrbotten very quickly, and with Lennart Lindström as their new manager, they managed to receive bookings. After hearing of other groups with the same name in September 1962, they once again needed to change it. According to some sources, Lindström was responsible for the name the Shanes. However, rumours persisted that it was a misspelling of "the chains" by Berggren. Alternatively, other sources claim Berggren watched the 1953 movie Shane and stole the name from there.

Instrumental era (1963–64)
The Shanes still performed across northern Sweden at the time, but according to legend broke through after a performance in Älvsbyn, where Thore Skogman was present. He contacted the head of EMI Records, Ivan Nordström who quickly wanted to sign the band. Allegedly, there had been another record label interested in signing the Shanes, under the condition that they perform in sámi costume, despite the fact that none of the band members were Sámi. To this, Elfgren responded "We asked him more or less to fuck off. Then he said he would make sure we never went to Stockholm" Nonetheless, the band signed Skandinaviska Grammophon, who quickly assigned them to Odeon Records; following this, the band moved to Stockholm.

With a recording contract now signed, on 8 March 1963, the group entered EMI Studios in Stockholm to record their debut single, which was "Gunfight Saloon", written by Berggren and Wåhlberg. "Gunfight Saloon" was an instrumental heavily based on the Guitar-rock of the Shadows, whom Berggren admired, and as such he included flashy guitar parts on the song. Released in May 1963, the song was backed by Berggrens composition "The Ripper" and surprisingly became a hit, reaching number ten on Tio i Topp and number 18 on Kvällstoppen. With this newfound and sudden success, the group's bookings heavily increased and some days after it had entered Tio i Topp, they gained new members to their management.

Their second single "Pistoleros", recorded 14 August 1963, was also written by Berggren and followed the formula of their previous single. The B-side "Oh, Wow!", composed by Berggren and Wåhlberg, on the other hand, unexpectedly broke away from their standard instrumental rock music; it was a vocal track sung by Berggren and marked the first time any members of the band sung on a recording. The somewhat rushed production of the vocals may have contributed to the fact that it was less well received than the predecessor; it failed to chart on either of the Swedish charts. Additionally, George Martin reportedly heard the song and stated that "the Shanes were five years behind current trends"

They nonetheless carried on, touring the capital and parts of Sweden. However, most of the members agreed that instrumental music was on it's way out, and with the rise of the Beatles on the Swedish charts, they saw no reason to continue recording that genre of music. They decided to give it one more shot, and the group's third single, with a similar theme to their debut was titled "Gun Rider" and was once again written by Berggren. This time both sides were instrumental, as they wanted to commit to the genre one last time. It was as expected not a hit, not reaching the Swedish charts.

Breakthrough and popularity (1964–65)
With "Gun Rider" being a chart failure, the group decided to perform vocally instead. Unlike contemporary group Tages, who primarily harmonized during their performances, Berggren was the one to sing on most of the Shanes early output, with Wåhlberg occasionally getting a lead vocal. Elfgren stuck to singing backing vocals. The instrumental rock was ditched, and instead on the insistence of Berggren, the band started performing more rhythm and blues songs instead, inspired by idols such as Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Ray Charles. An early highlight of their career also happened during this time; on 28–29 July 1964, they acted as the opening band for the Beatles during the Swedish part of their 1964 world tour. The Beatles were reportedly very impressed by the Shanes sound, stating that "they were the best band in Sweden". Elgren stated that "When Tor-Erik [Rautio] whipped out his membership card, they became very interested: "Wow, have you been to Liverpool?". We talked for a while - we thought they would come to Kiruna and they agreed. But of course it never happened." During this time, the band started performing the song "Keep A-Knockin'" by Little Richard. Considered one of their earlier musical signatures, the audience reception of the song was so good that they decided to record it in the studio. Recorded and released in August of 1964, it was backed by Berggren's "Come On Sally" and managed to become their second charting single, reaching number eight on Tio i Topp on 28 August of that year, but failed to reach Kvällstoppen. With the success of the single, rumours that the band was a one-hit wonder with "Gunfight Saloon" were proven false.

Around the time "Keep A-Knockin'" was a chart success, the band began to look for a fifth member. The reason was that Berggren, who sang lead on all of their vocal tracks, wanted to focus more on his guitar playing, along with the fact that he was somewhat insecure over his voice. The solution came through Lennart Grahn, whom they met in Luleå. Grahn had played in the biggest band in Luleå, the Marshals, who recently had split up. According to Love magazine, his initial role in the band was to sing and play maracas, futher stating "In addition, he is supposed to be able to stand-in to any of the others should anyone become ill". Grahn himself said that he was destined to become a pop star, and when he was invited to the Shanes, he said that his dream could be fulfilled. With Grahn in the band, their instrumental roots were further deplenished as they started phasing out instrumental songs from their setlist.

Following his arrival, the band embarked on a tour of Finland, supporting the Renegades who had a song named "Cadillac" in their setlist. The Shanes were allegedly so impressed by the song that they cancelled the rest of the tour in order to get to EMI Studios in Stockholm to record it. After learning the song, they were just about to start the recording session when Berggren stated "no, this won't work for us." Only five months later, Swedish band the Hep Stars recorded it, becoming one of their biggest hits and their signature song. Of the incident, they were upset, with Wåhlberg proclaiming "what can we do really?"October 1964 marked the introduction of producer and writer Anders Henriksson into their lives. Berggren had composed another song, "Let Me Show You Who I Am", but needed help with some chords for it. Henriksson, who worked at EMI Studios in Stockholm, was more than willing to help and seeing the potential of them, also produced the song. Grahn was not present when it was recorded and is not featured on the cover. "Let Me Show You Who I Am" was released in October 1964, and backed by another Berggren compositon, "Say You Want Me", it shot its way to the top of Tio i Topp and number ten on Kvällstoppen, providing them their biggest hit yet. However, it was revealed that they had cheated their way on to the top of Tio i Topp, which at the time was a chart based on voting. According to legend, the day before the voting was supposed to take place, the group went to Spegeln cinema in Luleå and performed for free there; 97% of all votes from Luleå went to the Shanes, whereas only 8% voted on them in Stockholm. However, Grahn justified it by stating that they werent the only band to do so. It was nonetheless their only number one single in Sweden.

With "Let Me Show You Who I Am", Odeon sold their recordings to Columbia Records instead, who, with a backlog of material, decided to release their debut album Let Us Show You! in December 1964. The album features the title track along with "Gunfight Saloon" and "Keep A-Knockin'" amongst the content. Grahn was not a member of the band when it was recorded and is as such not featured on it. Uniquely for a debut album, it featured primarily original content, with eight out of the twelve tracks on the album being songs written by Berggren, while the other are covers of either The Everly Brothers ("All I Have to Do Is Dream", "Cathy's Clown") or soul / rhythm and blues singers Ray Charles, Little Richard. Nonetheless, it was not a big seller, not reaching Kvällstoppen.

Departure of Berggren and arrival of Sundqvist (1965–66)
By early 1965, the band's success proved important enough for them to not be able to walk the streets anymore unnoticed, with the media comparing the situation to Beatlemania. According to Keijo Liimatainen, the band had now also were one of Sweden's most expensive acts to hire, costing an estimated 3000 kronor per booked gig (equaivalent to 32 696 kronor in 2022), something that earned them alot of money as they could tackle almost 3 or 4 per day. Because of their newfound popularity owever, they were attacked for the length of their hair, which was considered extremely long by most people. Newspapers allegedly called the members "long-haired scum" and articles about how they were refused entry into restaurants became prevalent. However, this proved to be invaluable exposure for the band, who considered it "free advertising" for rebellious teenagers.

Both sides of their sixth single "Georgia's Back In Town" were taken from Let Us Show You! and were per standard written by Berggren. Released in February 1965, it failed to chart on both Kvällstoppen and Tio i Topp, something that critics attribute to its length of 3 minutes and 40 seconds, as opposed to singles at the time coming out at between 1:30-3 minutes. The risk of the members getting conscripted into the military became increasingly higher and a serious threat loomed by April 1965 However, the Swedish minister of defence, Sven Andersson, sympathised with the band and as a result their conscription was post-poned when he saw that they were an extremely popular group. The group never seriously attempted to break through in the UK, however, Columbia arranged for one of their singles to be released there; the follow-up to "Georgia's Back In Town", "I Don't Want Your Love", which was released in Sweden during April 1965 and was their most commercially successful release of 1965, reaching number four on Tio i Topp. In the UK, it was released on 11 June 1965, but due to lack of promotion failed to chart.

1965 proved to be the least successful of their hey-day years, as only one of the four singles they releeased that year became a hit. The blame was put on Berggren, who up until this point had acted as their kapellmeister and primary songwriter. However, the other members saw him as too dominating person who only wanted to play non-commercial songs. Berggren had been the most shy member of the band but Grahn suggested his dominance was due to the fact he had a "complex over being the least popular member" amongst audiences. According to Wåhlberg, Berggren had several disagreements with them over genres, as he wanted compose "difficult songs" with "hundreds of harmonies" while the rest of the band wanted to play "straigh-on songs" that "went well with the audiences."

Berggren's last gig with the band occured in Östersund when the band tried to encourage him to take space on the stage. According to Rautio, they told him to turn up the amplifier, but when his guitar drowned out all other instruments he was told to turn it down, something he got very mad about, refusing to play for the rest of the night. Upon returning to the hotel room that night, he told the band that he would not continue playing with them if that was how they were acting; they told him "okay" and didn't think much of it. However, when he didn't turn up to a rehearsal a few days later, they understood he was serious. Playing as a quartet for two weeks destined to find a replacement, they settled for Kit Sundqvist. Sundqvist was a 17-year old keyboard player from Stockholm, and he was an experienced songwriter, having performed in the band the Wild Ones which led to him being recruited. Berggren would join Jerry Williams backing group the Violents briefly before moving to Eskilstuna and retiring from music on a professional level. He passed away on 3 July 2017 at an age of 72. His final recording with the Shanes was "Crazy Country Hop", written by Johnny Otis which was released as a single during the summer of 1965, it failed to chart. Sundqvist's debut with the band was on the single "Skinny Minnie", which was a cover of the 1958 song by Bill Haley and His Comets. Recorded at EMI Studios in September 1965, it was released in October but failed to chart. A rather peculiar release followed the single, that being the EP Shanes-Moonlighters LIVE!, a collaboration between the Shanes and the Moonlighters which allegedly was recorded live; it was infact recorded in a studio with audience overdubs added. It was released in December of that year. In November 1965, the Shanes released their second studio album, The Shanegang through Columbia Records. The title was taken from a song from their debut album and was a homage to Berggren. In contrast to their debut album, only five songs on The Shanegang are original compositions, three of which are composed by Grahn and Rautio. The other two, "Don't Try To Make A Fool Of Me" and "Where Can She Be?", were written by Sundqvist. Henriksson also greatly contributed to several songs on the album, arranging strings on several songs and produced the album. Around the same time, Shanes: fyra dygn med ett popband was broadcast on television. Produced and directed by Erik M. Nilsson, it chronicles a hectic touring schedule with the band and was recorded when Berggren was still in the band.

Chart success and Spanish tour (1966–67)
Their tenth single was taken from The Shanegang, which was "Blue Feeling", which had originally appeared as the B-side of the Animals version of "Boom Boom". However, while the Animals version is credited to Jimmy Henshaw, the Shanes interpreted it as a traditional folk song, therefore it is credited to Grahn, Wåhlberg, Rautio, Elfgren and Henriksson. Backed by "Break Down" did not appear on The Shanegang which was written by Henriksson and Thorstein Bergman, who had written several songs for Tages during the same time. Released as a single in January 1966, It reached number six on both Kvällstoppen and Tio i Topp, marking their first appearance on the charts for almost an entire year, not having a single song chart since 1965's "I Don't Want Your Love". Nonetheless, "Blue Feeling" boosted confidence for the band during a time where commercial success started waning. According to Sundqvist, the level of stardom he was almost instantly thrown into made him relatively uncomfortable, stating that in Skåne "they [audience] threw ören at us so that we could afford to cut our hair", and that fans tugged and pulled on their clothes, arms and hair. Allegedly, the band had to spend several hundred swedish krona per week in replacing car parts and license plates which were constantly being stolen by crazed fans. Sundqvist claims that this experience happened "too fast for comfort" but admitted that it gave him a chance to cope with stress by constantly being exposed to it.

While "Blue Feeling" was still high in the Swedish charts, the group sat down and composed a follow-up to it. The result was "I Don't Care, Babe", written by Grahn, Rautio and Sundqvist. "I Don't Care, Babe" was the Shanes first A-side not written by Berggren that wasn't a cover, and largely leaves the rhythm-and-blues style fans now had accustomed to listening to. Instead, the single was written as commercial as it could, leading to it having a very distinctive pop-sound and features organ played by Sundqvist through a fuzzbox; according to him, this was the first attempt by the band to do something unique, as he believed no other artist had previously used that method. Backed by Sundqvist own "I Like To Know", the single was recorded and released in March 1966. Much to the disappointment of the members, it failed to chart and increased a sense of uncertainty over their future.

Members

 * Lennart Grahn - vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonic (1964–1969)
 * Tommy Wåhlberg - rhythm and lead guitar, vocals (1960–1969)
 * Staffan Berggren - lead guitar, vocals (1960–1965; died 2017)
 * Tor-Erik Rautio - drums (1960–1969)
 * Kit Sundqvist - keyboards, rhythm guitar, vocals (1965–1969)
 * Rolf Carvenius - saxophone (1968–1969)
 * Stefan Nordin - bass (1960)
 * Svante Elfgren - bass (1960–1969)

LPs

 * Let Us Show You! (1964)
 * The Shanegang (1965)
 * Shanes Again! (1966)
 * Ssss Shanes! (1967)
 * VI (1967)

EPs

 * Shanes-Moonlighters live! (1965; Columbia SEGS-138)
 * Let Me Tell Yah (1966; Columbia SEGS-147)
 * Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo (1966; La Voz De Su Amo [Spain] EPL-14.302)

Compilations

 * The Best Of Shanes (1969)
 * Shanes, 1963-68! (1983)
 * Strictly Instrumental (1987)
 * Hep Stars! Tages! Shanes! (1991)
 * Bästa (1991)
 * Hi Lili Hi Lo (1997)
 * The Shanes (2000)
 * The Shanes Original Album Series (2012)
 * Let Them Show You: The Anthology 1964-1967 (2014)