Pippi and Emil on Spotify

All of the beloved songs from Astrid Lindgren's equally beloved children's stories have recently become available over the Swedish streaming service. 

  • 12-year-old Inger Nilsson as Pippi in Amsterdam, 1972. You can now listen to Inger sing the theme song from the original Pippi film, on Spotify. Photo: Nationaal Archief
  • Pippi and Emil on Spotify
    All of the beloved songs from Astrid Lindgren's equally beloved children's stories have recently become available over the Swedish created streaming service.
    "Idas sommarvisa," "Du käre lille snickerbo," and "Här kommer Pippi Långstrump" are all beloved songs from Astrid Lindgren's equally beloved children's stories that have hitherto been hard to get hold of. But now 193 original songs from all the film versions are available on Spotify. The music was released on Spotify earlier this summer.

  • Swedish composer Georg Riedel’s music to Astrid Lindgren’s famous children’s stories is now available on Spotify. Photo: Bengt Oberger
  • “I can hardly believe it, but the music hasn’t really aged,” says Georg Riedel, who is still active as a composer and musician. “It didn’t really hit right away when it was released. My impression is that it is more known today. But perhaps it is the oral tradition among the kids, that makes the music live on. On the train the other day, I heard a little kid spontaneously sing ‘Sjörövar-Fabbe,’ he didn’t know who I was of course, but situations like that are unforgettable.”
    On the original tapes of the 19 Lindgren films, the actors who sing the famous songs are Inger Nilsson (Pippi), Jan Ohlsson (Emil) and Allan Edwalll (“Rasmus på luffen”). On the app that carries Astrid Lindgren’s name, you can easily find the songs you’re looking for. All in all there are 193 songs—that's 14 hours of music. You can also listen to “Emils bästa hyss” (Emil’s best pranks) being read by Astrid Lindgren herself. “The idea is to eventually complete the music associated with Astrid Lindgren and her readings of the stories,” says marketing director Johannes Sjöberg at the Universal Music company. It is thanks to Sjöberg that Spotify and Saltkråkan AB have found each other.
    Saltkråkan is the company in charge of managing the Astrid Lindgren legacy. In connection with Svensk Filmindustri negotiating the film rights with Universal the issue of the rights to the music came up. The 19 home recordings have not had any distribution in many years, and not even at Junibacken (a children’s museum dedicated to Astrid Lindgren’s books) has it been possible to get hold of them. Says Sung-Kyu Choi, international director at Spotify and himself a father of small children: “I have personally looked for these songs but not found them anywhere. New parents have asked for them. So now we are super excited to have them, we want to be a modern music store with the best and most to offer.” Sung-Kyu Choi says he can hear influences from the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak in Riedel’s children’s music. And Riedel himself agrees.
    Riedel was born in Karlsbad, Czechoslovakia in 1934 (he moved to Sweden at the age of 4), and as a young man his favorite composer was Dvorak. About his collaboration with Lindgren, Riedel says: “(She) sent me the texts with friendly letters, sometimes I had to add an extra word for the sake of rhythm. But we rarely met, only from time to time over dinner officially. In those days I was a pure jazz musician, even though I had done some popular musical arrangements, for instance for Monica Zetterlund.”
    More on Spotify here: http://www.nordstjernan.com/news/people/4505/ and here: http://www.nordstjernan.com/news/people/4090/