In 1979, Ola HÃ¥kansson, a former vocalist of Ola & the Janglers and then a publishing manager at Sonet Records, teamed up with Tim Norell and
Ulf Wahlberg to write a few songs that they submitted to the Melodifestivalen, a popular Swedish song contest. They did not win but decided to continue working together and changed their band's name from Ola+3 to
Secret Service . Besides Ola HÃ¥kansson (vocals), Tim Norell and
Ulf Wahlberg (keyboards), the original lineup included Tony Lindberg (guitars), Leif Paulsen (bass) and Leif Johansson (drums).
Norell, who penned along with HÃ¥kansson most songs of the band, however, did not appear with them on stage or on the album covers.
Secret Service 's first single "Oh Susie" became a hit in Sweden and several other countries of Europe and South America. The same titled album that included another hit, "Ten O'Clock Postman," went gold in Scandinavia. Other successes followed, with their synthpop number "Flash in the Night" (1982) hitting the charts all over continental Europe. In the mid-'80s Norell and HÃ¥kansson started writing and producing songs for other artists. Ola HÃ¥kansson's duet with ex-
ABBA 's
Agnetha Fältskog , "The Way You Are," became a gold single in Sweden.