This article is about the Swedish music group. For the Spanish phrase, see ¡Ay, caramba!

1981 studio album by Caramba

Caramba was a Swedish music group. They released one self-titled album in 1981, with the single "Hubba Hubba Zoot Zoot" peaking at number 1 in Sweden.[1] The album is chiefly notable due to the entire album being recorded in nonsense language. Songs which imitate certain regional styles of music generally imitate the phonemic structure of languages from the appropriate regions. It was produced by Michael B. Tretow, who is primarily famous for engineering ABBA's records, and featured vocals by another Polar Music artist, Ted Gärdestad. While a number of other noted Swedish musicians and singers are rumoured to have taken part in the Caramba recordings, Tretow and Gärdestad are the only ones that have actually been named.

The track "Hubba Hubba Zoot Zoot" has been re-issued as part of Michael B. Tretow's 1999 album Greatest Hits, the Ted Gärdestad four-CD box set Solregn in 2001, and a number of other compilations of 1980s hits and Swedish novelty recordings, and the Caramba album was released on CD in 2011.

Members of the group [ edit ]

The artists of Caramba all used pseudonyms. This is how they were credited on the album sleeve:

Carlos Ih Lura, ahllo

Zoltan Zull, violotta

Dr. Fritz Höfner, baribasso

Tudor Ludor, batterie

Abdullah Presley, tomba

Zingo Allah, prutto

Ihto Amin, paahuve

Gaston El Ton Yon, pianissimo

King Nam, a nam

Clapton Combo, gitaronimo

King Kong, tango

Hazze Kamikaze, teknico del son

Giorgio Martini, producto

Production [ edit ]

Recordeli pour Studio Garage De Garbage

Picturella par Bengto Hoo

Coloretta par cartong: Torsk Prod

Track listing [ edit ]

Blaztah 1 (Side 1)

"Ali Baba" – 3:51 "Spottnjik" – 3:51 "Hubba Hubba Zoot Zoot" – 3:23 "Eine Feine" – 3:43 "Fido" – 3:47

Blaztah A (Side A)

"Aitho" – 3:28 "Anna Kapoe" – 4:17 "Donna Maya" – 3:07 "Ahllo" – 2:42 "Carhumba" – 3:37

Influences on culture [ edit ]

The "Hubba Hubba Zoot Zoot" track was parodied in the UK on a Quakers Harvest Crunch cereal ad, with the tag line of Hubba Hubba Yum Yum.

The track "Fido" was slightly reworked by Caramba, named "Fedora" and used in an advertising campaign for Kia-Ora throughout the early 1980s. This version was released as a single on the "Billco" label (BILL 101) in 1983 titled "Fedora (I'll be your dawg)" – Caramba (B side "Ralph and Rolph")[2]

See also [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Parkvall, Mikael (2006). Limits of Language. London: Battlebridge. ISBN 1-903292-04-2.