Sir Henry and his Butlers
Encyclopedia
Sir Henry and his Butlers was a Danish
rock
/pop
group which was formed during the summer of 1964 in Copenhagen
, Denmark
. The group is mostly known for its two front figures Ole "Sir Henry" Bredahl and especially Tommy Seebach
and also the song Let's Go. Characteristic for the group has been Ole Bredahl as organiser, whereas the rest of the ensemble of Sir Henry and his Butlers have been changed many times since the creation of the group.
The band is a continuation of another band called Five Danes which was desolved in the spring of 1964. In the beginning, this new band consisted of Ole "Sir Henry" Bredahl (vocals, bass
), Carsten Elgstrøm (guitar
) together with Leif Davidsen (drums
). As a trio they participated in a The Danish Beatles
competition in Holte Hallen in April of 1964. Shortly thereafter the band was expanded with Poul Petersen (guitar) and Leif Davidsen was replaced with Jens Bøgvad, former the Flintones. The group became popular around the Copenhagen music venues, in particular at Bakkens Place Pigalle where they played as house orchestra. This was a result of their single debut Hi-Heel Sneakers
/Sick and Tired from 1964. During the autumn of the same year the band got there breakthrough with the release of their second single Let's Go. The single became a hit, not only in Denmark, but also in Sweden
and Norway
and the sale of the single exceeded 50,000 copies.
In January 1965 Sir Henry and his Butlers expanded the band with Tommy Seebach
(organ
, vocals), who at the time was only 15 years old. He would become very popular and together with Ole Bredahl they made up the front figures of the band. The same year the band changed record label to EMI
and achieved a number of hits among other: Times Are Getting Hard, Beautiful Brown Eyes and Marianne which were all released in 1966. During the autumn of 1967 the single Camp was released and became an international hit, especially in the Netherlands
and Belgium
. The song was an instrumental track where the main instrument was a comb. During the years after Tommy Seebach joined the group the band changed its style. Originally their music was replicas of English beat music
but this changed to a more original pop sound with songs that was composed by the members of the band themselves, primarily Ole Bredahl and Tommy Seebach. This new musical style ended up becoming an LP
which was released in 1968 with the name H2O. In 1970 the bands name was shorten to Sir Henry. Two years later, Ole Steen Nielsen was replaced by Claus Asmussen, former The Noblemen and later Shu-Bi-Dua
. This constellation recorded and released the 10 year anniversary album "Listen" in 1973.
Ole Bredahl and Tommy Seebach decided in 1975 to reorganise the group together with Torben Johansen (guitar) and John Roger (drums), the latter was a former member of Teenmakers. The same year the four would record the album Flashback. During that year Tommy Seebach
began a solo career which would become very successful. Due to this success Tommy Seebach choose to leave the group in 1977. The same year Ole Bredahl recorded a solo LP with the title of Tivoli/O. Henry on which there are feature some of the popular Sir Henry songs. The success was not on the same scale as for Tommy Seebach. Following this Sir Henry was re-established several times by Ole Bredahl but without major success. Though, they got a minor hit in 1980 with the song Juicy Lucy, where Sir Henry consisted of Ole Bredahl, Søren Bundgård (keyboard), Kurt Bo Jensen (guitar) and Ole Carsten Juul (drums) (was later replaced by Sten Kristensen in 1983). At the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix in 1983 they participated as backing group for Kirsten Siggaard with the song Og livet går. The next year Søren Bundgård and Kirsten Siggaard again participated in the Danish Melodi Grand Prix as the duo Hot Eyes
with the song Det' Lige Det, with which they win. The same year Sir Henry (and his Butlers) was desolved.
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
/pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
group which was formed during the summer of 1964 in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. The group is mostly known for its two front figures Ole "Sir Henry" Bredahl and especially Tommy Seebach
Tommy Seebach
Tommy Seebach , born Tommy Seebach Mortensen in Copenhagen, Denmark, was a popular Danish singer, composer, organist, pianist and producer. He is best known as front man of Sir Henry and his Butlers and for numerous contributions to the Danish version of the Eurovision Song contest, Dansk Melodi...
and also the song Let's Go. Characteristic for the group has been Ole Bredahl as organiser, whereas the rest of the ensemble of Sir Henry and his Butlers have been changed many times since the creation of the group.
The band is a continuation of another band called Five Danes which was desolved in the spring of 1964. In the beginning, this new band consisted of Ole "Sir Henry" Bredahl (vocals, bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
), Carsten Elgstrøm (guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
) together with Leif Davidsen (drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
). As a trio they participated in a The Danish Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
competition in Holte Hallen in April of 1964. Shortly thereafter the band was expanded with Poul Petersen (guitar) and Leif Davidsen was replaced with Jens Bøgvad, former the Flintones. The group became popular around the Copenhagen music venues, in particular at Bakkens Place Pigalle where they played as house orchestra. This was a result of their single debut Hi-Heel Sneakers
Hi-Heel Sneakers
"Hi-Heel Sneakers" is a 1964 twelve-bar blues song and single by Tommy Tucker. Tommy Tucker's original recording hit number one on the Cash Box R&B Locations chart and number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100....
/Sick and Tired from 1964. During the autumn of the same year the band got there breakthrough with the release of their second single Let's Go. The single became a hit, not only in Denmark, but also in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and the sale of the single exceeded 50,000 copies.
In January 1965 Sir Henry and his Butlers expanded the band with Tommy Seebach
Tommy Seebach
Tommy Seebach , born Tommy Seebach Mortensen in Copenhagen, Denmark, was a popular Danish singer, composer, organist, pianist and producer. He is best known as front man of Sir Henry and his Butlers and for numerous contributions to the Danish version of the Eurovision Song contest, Dansk Melodi...
(organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, vocals), who at the time was only 15 years old. He would become very popular and together with Ole Bredahl they made up the front figures of the band. The same year the band changed record label to EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
and achieved a number of hits among other: Times Are Getting Hard, Beautiful Brown Eyes and Marianne which were all released in 1966. During the autumn of 1967 the single Camp was released and became an international hit, especially in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. The song was an instrumental track where the main instrument was a comb. During the years after Tommy Seebach joined the group the band changed its style. Originally their music was replicas of English beat music
Beat music
Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a pop and rock music genre that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. Beat music is a fusion of rock and roll, doo wop, skiffle, R&B and soul...
but this changed to a more original pop sound with songs that was composed by the members of the band themselves, primarily Ole Bredahl and Tommy Seebach. This new musical style ended up becoming an LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
which was released in 1968 with the name H2O. In 1970 the bands name was shorten to Sir Henry. Two years later, Ole Steen Nielsen was replaced by Claus Asmussen, former The Noblemen and later Shu-Bi-Dua
Shu-Bi-Dua
Shu•bi•dua or Shu-bi-dua is a Danish pop group which was formed in 1973 in Copenhagen with an expansion of the group Passport. Throughout their 30-year history, Shu-bi-dua has changed its lineup many times, however its lead singer Michael Bundesen has been with the band throughout, except...
. This constellation recorded and released the 10 year anniversary album "Listen" in 1973.
Ole Bredahl and Tommy Seebach decided in 1975 to reorganise the group together with Torben Johansen (guitar) and John Roger (drums), the latter was a former member of Teenmakers. The same year the four would record the album Flashback. During that year Tommy Seebach
Tommy Seebach
Tommy Seebach , born Tommy Seebach Mortensen in Copenhagen, Denmark, was a popular Danish singer, composer, organist, pianist and producer. He is best known as front man of Sir Henry and his Butlers and for numerous contributions to the Danish version of the Eurovision Song contest, Dansk Melodi...
began a solo career which would become very successful. Due to this success Tommy Seebach choose to leave the group in 1977. The same year Ole Bredahl recorded a solo LP with the title of Tivoli/O. Henry on which there are feature some of the popular Sir Henry songs. The success was not on the same scale as for Tommy Seebach. Following this Sir Henry was re-established several times by Ole Bredahl but without major success. Though, they got a minor hit in 1980 with the song Juicy Lucy, where Sir Henry consisted of Ole Bredahl, Søren Bundgård (keyboard), Kurt Bo Jensen (guitar) and Ole Carsten Juul (drums) (was later replaced by Sten Kristensen in 1983). At the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix in 1983 they participated as backing group for Kirsten Siggaard with the song Og livet går. The next year Søren Bundgård and Kirsten Siggaard again participated in the Danish Melodi Grand Prix as the duo Hot Eyes
Hot Eyes
Hot Eyes was the name adopted for international acts by the Danish singing duo known in their home country as Kirsten and Søren. It was formed by Kirsten Siggard and Søren Bundgaard ....
with the song Det' Lige Det, with which they win. The same year Sir Henry (and his Butlers) was desolved.