How The Hives Turned a Rejected ‘Swedish ZZ Top’ Track Into a Global Smash
Long before signing a multi-million-dollar deal with Universal Music, The Hives were just an underground garage punk band operating out of the industrial town of Fagersta, Sweden. Looking for ways to expand their sound, guitarist Nicholaus Arson and his bandmates took inspiration from New Jersey garage punks Electric Frankenstein.
“We could never figure out what they did – every part either twice or four times as long as you’re supposed to do,” Arson recalled to Vice. “It was kind of a joke, like, to see how long you could play the riff before you felt like you needed to go to another part… if you keep going for a minute, people go bananas for that.”
From ‘Boring Trite Rock’ to a Studio Breakthrough
That hypnotic, driving repetition became central to their songwriting, eventually leading to their signature anthem, “Hate to Say I Told You So.” But the track almost didn’t make the cut in its initial form. When the band entered the studio for their second album, 2000’s Veni Vidi Vicious, producer Pelle Gunnerfeldt was initially unimpressed.
According to frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, Gunnerfeldt thought the early recording sounded like “a Swedish ZZ Top or something.” Almqvist noted, “He didn’t like the song. He thought it was boring trite rock, so he made all these sonic changes like adding the swooshing effects, which were all the way through the song at one point.”
Refusing to scrap the track, Almqvist collaborated with the producer to remix the arrangement. They stripped away much of the constant swooshing guitar effects, creating a punchier, highly intense finish. Veni Vidi Vicious was released in April through Burning Heart, with “Hate to Say I Told You So” following as a single in November.
“It’s pretty easy to get, it’s total spinal rock,” Almqvist later explained to Entertainment Weekly. “There’s nothing intellectual about it. It hits your reptile brain. Plus, it’s fairly monotonous, and I think people need that on the radio.”
Alan McGee, Poptones, and Mainstream Explosion
The song’s trajectory shifted dramatically when Creation Records founder Alan McGee spotted the music video on German TV. He quickly signed the Fagersta five to his new label, Poptones, and packaged their first two albums and an EP into a compilation titled Your New Favourite Band. The release peaked at number seven on the UK albums chart.
“The title was ballsy and funny because we didn’t actually have any hits, but maybe if you say something enough people start believing it,” Almqvist recalled.
Following a re-release of the single in February 2002 and an electrifying appearance on Top of the Pops, the band found themselves thrust into mainstream stardom. An ensuing major label bidding war landed them a $10 million deal with Universal Music, with label head Jimmy Iovine praising their self-made momentum: “They created a buzz on their own. I respect that. I will pay for that. I will let them drive.”
More than two decades later, the track remains a cornerstone of the band’s live set and stands as their most popular track on Spotify with over 303 million streams.
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