Ragnar Hasselgren
Ragnar Hasselgren [1][2] | |
---|---|
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Born |
Dalarna, Sweden | June 3, 1904
Died |
September 1, 1982 78) Pacifica, California | (aged
Occupation |
singer, recording artist |
Spouse(s) | Walberg M. Hasselgren |
Ragnar Hasselgren (1904-1982) was a Swedish-born singer and recording artist, who was active on the West Coast during the 1940s and 1950s.[3]
Life and legacy
Hasselgren was born in 1904 in the Swedish province of Dalarna. His birthplace was the town of Strömshyttan, which is located between Hedemora and Vikmanshyttan. He emigrated with his parents when not quite two years old and as a child spoke only English. When he was eighteen, he was hired by a Swedish building contractor in California, who gave preference to Swedes and people of Swedish descent. A company benefit enabled workers to learn English. Since Hasselgren already knew that language he learned Swedish instead.[3]
Ragnar Hasslegren played guitar and sang at Swedish-American clubs in the Bay Area for much of his adult life and recorded nearly two dozen songs in the 1940s and 1950s. His recordings were distributed by Harmony Music of Berkeley and Gaare Records of Oakland. Performing in Swedish and English, he had a repertoire that encompassed Swedish folk songs, American popular music and novelty numbers in Scandinavian dialect.[4]
In the early 1960s Harmony Music released two albums featuring Ragnar Hasselgren.[5] [6] The Centre for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research also had one of Hasselgren's recordings on its album "From Sweden To America", which was released as an LP in 1981 [3] and as a CD in 1996.[7] In 2011 the twenty-three tracks on the CD were released on iTunes and Amazon mp3.
References
- ↑ Ragnar Hasselgren faqs.org. Retrieved: June 14, 2014.
- ↑ Walberg M. Hasselgren ancestry.com. Retrieved: June 14, 2014.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 From Sweden To America (Stockholm: Caprice Records, 1981).
- ↑ Harmony Music atspace.cc. Retrieved: April 15, 2015.
- ↑ Scandinavian-American Comedy Songs (Berkeley: Harmony Music, c. 1960).
- ↑ Swedish Folksongs (Berkeley: Harmony Music, c. 1960).
- ↑ From Sweden To America (Stockholm: Caprice Records, 1996).
External links
Ragnar Hasselgren album covers
Swedish media database
Swedish music and film
Record companies
Sheet music
Song lyrics recorded by Ragnar Hasselgren
- Ack Värmeland, du sköna
- Barndomshemmet
- Hälsa dem därhemma
- Hästhandlar-Pelle
- John Johnson's Wedding
- Jungman Jansson
- Motorcykeln
- Nikolina (Swedish)
- Nikolina (English)
- Näckens polska
- Svinnsta skär
- Vid Siljan är mitt hem
Songbook
Videos
- Ragnar Hasselgren on Harmony Music.
Streaming audio
- Ragnar Hasselgren 01 at the Internet Archive.
- Ragnar Hasselgren 02 at the Internet Archive.
- Harmony Music at Gustavus Adolphus College.
- Swedish-American songbooks at the Internet Archive.