Tim Norell, Ola Håkansson and Ulf Wahlberg in the studio
Secret Service is a legendary Swedish pop/new wave band, originally formed 1979. Ola Håkansson, former vocalist of Ola & The Janglers and then a publishing manager at Sonet Music, teamed up with Tim Norell and Ulf Wahlberg to write a few songs that they submitted to the European Song Contest. They did not win but decided to continue working together and changed their band's name from Ola+3 to Secret Service. Besides Ola Håkansson (vocals), Tim Norell and Ulf Wahlberg (keyboards), the original lineup included Tonny Lindberg (guitars), Leif Paulsen (bass) and Leif Johansson (drums).
Tim Norell however, who along with lyric writer Bjorn Håkansson, penned most songs of the band, did not appear with the band on stage or on the album covers. Secret Service's first single "Oh Susie" became a hit in Sweden and several other countries of Europe and South America. "Oh Susie"was no 1 in 29 countries.
The same titled album included another hit, "Ten O'clock Postman" Other successes followed, with their synthesizer based number "Flash in the Night" hitting the charts all over continental Europe, the duet with ex-ABBA's Agnetha Faltskog, "The Way You Are", also to be mentioned.
In 1987, Håkansson, Norell, and Wahlberg released "Aux Deux Magots", their sixth album as Secret Service. The other members of the band had quit by then and were replaced by multi-instrumentalist Anders Hansson and bassist Mats Lindberg. Björn Håkanson had at that time left the group as lyricist and Ola had taken over that part together with Alexander Bard (Army Of Lovers).
Tim Norell, Ola Håkansson and Ulf Wahlberg in the studio
1988, Håkansson, Norell, and Wahlberg decided to go separate ways. Håkansson continued as Norell's partner together with Anders Hansson and became known as the Megatrio, a Swedish equivalent to Stock-Aitken-Wateman. In 1992, Håkansson and his associates established Stockholm Records as a joint venture with Polygram. They produced such artists as Army Of Lovers and The Cardigans, among others.
Wahlberg continued working as a producer, songwriter and had great success with both local and international artist. He started his own company XTC Productions in 1989 and successfully launches Swedish artists abroad. He also started up his own professional recording studio - XTC Studios.
1999 Ola, Ulf and Tim got together to compile a new compilation with Secret Service songs, Top Secret – Greatest Hits. The work took place in XTC Studios and it all led to the recording of four new tracks for the album. The Top Secret – Greatest Hits album was never released in long-play format.
Secret Service had many admirers in the Soviet Union and other countries of Eastern Europe during the Cold War. Faced with a 1980-century gala in Moscow in December 2006, Ulf and Tim re-assembled the band, however, with a new lineup. Because of family and business reasons Ola decided to not join the band at live perfomances and tours. So together with Mats Lindberg (bass) from the 2:nd lineup they invited Mikael Erlandsson (vocals and guitar) and Jaime Borger (drums) to join the new live version of the band. Since then the band has successfully toured all over Russia and other territories with this lineup.
2012 was the time for a world-wide release of ”The Lost Box”. An album consisting of more or less forgotten and never completed songs from the years behind. Never the less an album of great songs that was very well achieved by the audience. The album was also distributed as a vinyl album 2017 by B-Stars.
Secret Mission album contains ten brand new songs recorded over 2020-2022. Some of them were released as singles and had independent success (Lit de Parade, Jane, Go On), and some songs were first heard by fans only on the album. Most of the material was sung by the band's new vocalist John Becker, however, there was a place on the record for the previous live vocalist Mikael Erlandsson (Mama Tell Me Why), and one song was sung by Tim Norell himself (Little Zhora), previously seen only on backing vocals. The theme of most of the songs is human relationships and love, although two songs stand out and are dedicated to the war in Ukraine (Little Zhora and Mama Tell Me Why). In addition, two compositions are instrumental, continuing the tradition of the legendary Aux Deux Magots.
Secret Service 2023
In December 2023, after a year of fighting cancer, Tim Norell died in Stockholm. He continues to live in his beautiful songs and in the hearts of his loyal fans, and his music continues to be heard at Secret Service concerts all over the world.
Secret Service 2024
Tim Norell
Tim Norell, the composer whose extraordinary talent elevated pop music into an art, died on Saturday, December 16th, in Stockholm after a long battle with a serious illness. He was 68.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest songwriters in Swedish pop history, Tim was the composer behind a long list of international megahits such as "Oh Susie," "Flash In the Night," "Ten O'Clock Postman," and Swedish classics like "En dag," "Dansa i neon," and "Give My Life," among many others.
With his pop group Secret Service, the song "Oh Susie" topped the charts in 29 countries.
During the '80s and '90s, Tim was behind a long series of hits performed by some of the biggest Swedish artists of the time.
Some examples of the music he wrote include "Dansa i neon" with Lena Philipsson, "Allt som jag känner" with Tommy Nilsson & Tone Norum, "Give My Life" with Army of Lovers, "It Started with a Love Affair" with Jerry Williams, and "Jeannie's Coming Home" with The Boppers.