Peak UK Chart Position: #1 in May 1993.

It’s a happy Birthday to Jonas Petter Berggren, born in Gothenburg, Sweden, who celebrates his 50th birthday today. Known to many as ‘Joker’, he founded Ace Of Base with younger sisters Jenny and Malin, together with Ulf Ekberg – the band’s name being inspired by Motörhead’s “Ace Of Spades”. They released four studio albums between 1992 and 2002, which sold over 30 million copies worldwide, making them the third-most successful Swedish band of all time, after ABBA and Roxette. The classic line-up gradually changed during the mid to late 2000’s, and no further material has been recorded since around 2012.

Quick facts:

• Berggren has written all of their biggest hits, including “All That She Wants”, “The Sign”, and “Beautiful Life”. He also plays the guitar and keyboards.
• “All That She Wants” was their debut single in the UK, number one for three weeks and the third best-selling single of 1993, with 600,000 copies.
• It was number one in ten countries, and narrowly missed out in America, peaking at number two behind Meat Loaf’s “I’d Do Anything For Love” – despite that, it still managed to become a million seller.
• They did eventually have an American chart-topper, when “The Sign” spent six non-consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also the fourth best-selling single of 1994, with 1.1 million sales.

Here, with slightly wonky lettering on the backdrop, is their Top of the Pops performance from May 27th 1993, on their second week at Number one in the UK.