I don’t know exactly why this story became top of mind when I was talking to Grant Williams (TTMYGH, ex-Real Vision, etc.) and Craig Pearce (physical book nerd/publisher, Harriman House guy, aka the reason you know Morgan Housel, etc.), but I ended up telling them this crazy “how Ace of Bass got discovered” story and – somewhere between smash hit cultural products and a frustratingly high amount of market-driven luck, I think you’ll get it.
So Denniz PoP, who – don’t worry – you’ve never heard of, was a Swedish super-producer who ultimately helped put Max Martin on the map. Martin’s a god amongst men, which makes Denniz’s Swedish origins and success despite his (let’s be honest, kind of corny) “stylized” name even more fascinating.
Denniz was a known entity, and a then unknown band from around the way named Ace of Base sent him a demo. He got the tape, threw it in his car stereo, and pressed play. “Mr. Ace” was the song. He thought it was, “meh.”
He pressed eject and… nothing happened.
The demo got stuck. So for the next few days and then weeks, every time Denniz got into his car to go somewhere, he heard the song, and it started to grow on him. Maybe it wasn’t so bad. Maybe this song had some structure to it, and it was catchy, and if anybody was going to do something with it, it was him, right?
Like most demos and blind submissions, Denniz had kept the source but immediately lost/tossed the contact information. This presented a problem. Meanwhile, Ace of Base, from their side of town was feeling dejected. As a last ditch effort, they put in a phone call to see if he ever heard the demo, to which he said, “YES,” and then invited them to his studio to record and re-title their song as “All That She Wants.”
It was a little bit of a hit. It reached number one on charts around the world and if you were around in 1993/1994, you already have it playing in your head. All because the tape got jammed in the right person’s car cassette deck.
