Arista 18740
Producers: Joker, Buddha, PoP, Ekman, Adebrratt, Carr, and T.O.E.C.
Track listing: All That She Wants / Don’t Turn Around / Young and Proud / The Sign / Living in Danger / Dancer in a Daydream / Wheel of Fortune / Waiting for Magic (Total Remix 7″) / Happy Nation / Voulez-Vous Danser / My Mind (Mindless Mix) / All That She Wants (Banghra Version)
April 4, 1994
2 weeks (nonconsecutive)
When the Swedish quartet Ace of Base first washed up on U.S. shores, the group was compared with ABBA, another Swedish foursome with two male and two female members. The comparison irked Ace of Base, who claimed it was cooked up by the group’s European record label. Although Ace of Base’s coed lineup and pop sensibilities certainly could be compared to ABBA, Ace of Base accomplished something that neither ABBA nor any other Swedish group has ever done: score a Number One album in America.
Ace of Base, which includes Jonas “Joker” Berggren, his sisters Jenny and Linn, and Ulf “Buddha” Ekberg, officially formed in 1991. At first Jonas and Ulf wrote their own music and produced reggae acts at a studio in Gothenburg.
Eventually, after most of the songs that would turn up on The Sign were written, Jonas’s sisters were recruited to round out the group. “We had around 40 songs and then we picked the best ones to record,” recalls Ekberg. One of those tracks, the mid-tempo “Wheel of Fortune” was released by a Danish independent label called Mega Records, a label name that became most appropriate when the single became a smash in Denmark, garnering the attention of the German label Metronome, which signed the band to a European licensing agreement. On Metronome, Ace of Base scored a European hit with “All That She Wants,” which in turn caught the ear of Arista Records in the U.S.
“Before our album was released in the U.S., we had time to refresh the album, because it was two years [old],” says Ekberg. “We did some remixes and we added a few new songs.” Added for the U.S. release were “Living in Danger,” “Don’t Turn Around,” and “The Sign.” Says Ekberg of the latter track, “‘The Sign’ is about teenage memories. It was probably the fourth reggae tune we wrote. We wrote it at the same time we wrote ‘All That She Wants,’ ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ and ‘Happy Nation,’ but it was the last song we produced. We did ‘All That She Wants’ two years before that, and you can tell that the sound has developed.”
The public may have been able to tell the difference. “All That She Wants,” Ace of Base’s debut U.S. single, peaked at number two in December 1993, but “The Sign” did the trick. On March 12, the single topped the Hot 100. Four weeks later, the album joined the single at Number One.
Then, something truly remarkable happened: The single and the album both returned to the Number One position after being displaced. When “The Sign” returned to Number One on May 7, 1994, it marked the first time a single had reclaimed the top spot in 11 years. The album’s return to the top on June 11 wasn’t as dramatic or unexpected. “Don’t Turn Around,” the group’s third single, had entered the top 10, spurring album sales.
Ekberg could scarcely believe that the group had gone to Number One even once. “I had a dream that we would be Number One in maybe Germany or France,” he says, “but to reach over to the U.S., I never ever even dreamed of that.”
THE TOP FIVE
Week of April 4, 1994
1. The Sign, Ace of Base
2. Superunknown, Soundgarden
3. 12 Play, R. Kelly
4. August & Everything After, Counting Crows
5. Music Box, Mariah Carey