Sjörövar Fabbe

Sjörövar Fabbe (English: Pirate grandpa Fabian) is a Swedish shanty-style children's song originally written by Georg Riedel and Astrid Lindgren for the film Pippi in the South Seas (Pippi Långstrump på de sju haven) in 1970. The lyrics are about Pippi Longstocking's great grandfather Fabian "Fabbe" Longstocking who was a feared pirate captain on all seven seas. The last line of the chorus "Tjo-hej hadelittan lej" is a fictional language. The song was originally performed by Pippi Longstocking actress Inger Nilsson who published it in 1975 as B-side of the single Här kommer Pippi Långstrump.^[1] In 2001, it was covered as crossover version with the melody of Dio's Holy Diver by the Swedish metal band Black Ingvars. Other Swedish versions are by Plura Jonsson in 1999,^[2] by Siw Malmkvist & Tove from 2003^[3] and by Johanna Grüssner & Mika Pohjola who performed a jazz version of this song in 2006. A Norwegian version with lyrics by Marit Trulsrud is by Anita Hegerland and Frank Cook from 1970. There is also a German version called Seeräuber-Opa Fabian with lyrics by Helmut Harun. It was first performed by actress Eva Mattes in 1970 and covered in 2012 by German singer Lena Meyer-Landrut for the compilation album Giraffenaffen.

References

1. "Här kommer Pippi Långstrump" (in Swedish). Svensk mediedatabas. 1975. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
2. "Barn på nytt" (in Swedish). Svensk mediedatabas. 1999. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
3. "Guldkorn" (in Swedish). Svensk mediedatabas. 2003. Retrieved 19 May 2011.