Oh Boy

Album: Late Night Heartbroken Blues (2006)
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Songfacts®:

  • This was the first song written by Linda Carlsson, who records under the name of Miss Li. Carlsson is a Swedish singer-songwriter who performs piano-based jazzy-pop music. It was released as a debut single, peaking at #8 in the Swedish singles chart.
  • The song is known in some countries as "Oldboy."
  • "Oh Boy" was used in a 2010 television advert for the Volvo C70 convertible in the United Kingdom. It was also used in a trailer for Sky 1's screening of the TV series, Lost.
  • Linda Carlsson told the story of the song to The Daily Mail: "'Oh Boy' was one of the earliest songs I wrote under the name of Miss Li, just after I bought a piano, which I still had to learn to play.
    My initial compositions were slow, so I could take time on the piano, then Oh Boy became my first uptempo song. It is a true story: I was really desperate to catch this guy but he thought I was a bit too much - I was 23, had just moved to Stockholm (from my hometown Borlange) and was a little crazy.
    He met another girl and I was upset but now I'm glad he did, otherwise I wouldn't have written the song. It took 15 minutes to complete the music and lyrics. I didn't have any money in those days and I had to borrow some from friends and family to record it. It was made in the cheapest studio and I don't think the sound on it is that great, actually.
    One nice thing is, I'd started out in a band formed at school and one of the guys from that band made the video for Oh Boy. I love that song still. I don't see it as my masterpiece, but it was important for my self-confidence, making me think 'Maybe I can do this!'"

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