Wadenius was born in 1945 on Kungsholmen in Stockholm and grew up with his grandmother, after his father left the family and his mother, a concert pianist, toured frequently.
"I was very lonely but didn't understand that it wouldn't be like that. I can't remember anyone ever hugging me," he told the newspaper Allas.
Self-taught guitarist
His mother was also the bandmaster at the Casino Revyn, and the young Wadenius learned to play on her grand piano. When he turned 13, he got a guitar and the guitarist in his mother's band taught him the basics. Otherwise, he - who was considered one of the world's best guitarists - was completely self-taught.
In 1968 he formed the group Made in Sweden, but soon began playing with Solar Plexus before leaving to play with the American jazz rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears.
By then he had already released his first children's album, "Goda' goda'", with lyrics by the author Barbro Lindgren. Later he became increasingly associated with children's music, for example through the theme song for the children's program "Kalle's Climbing Tree".
There was a lot of good children's music being written at that time. Everyone was experimenting with different time signatures and forms. Children are open. You shouldn't "play down" children, Wadenius told Expressen in 2017.
He moved to New York in 1978 and became a frequent studio musician. Over the years, Wadenius played with everyone from Pugh Rogefeldt to Luther Vandross, Steely Dan and Aretha Franklin. For several years, he was also the guitarist in the studio band of the comedy show "Saturday Night Live."
Album for his wife
He had two daughters in the US, but moved back to Scandinavia in the 1990s when he met his second wife, Norwegian Brit, who passed away in 2022. Three years later, he released the album "Life is more than music", dedicated to her with lyrics by the poet and author Lotta Olsson.
"When we wrote the songs, it was initially just as a therapeutic thing for ourselves," he told Dagens Nyheter.
"God-blessed"
Wadenius was active until the very end and his influence on Swedish music cannot be underestimated, colleagues in the industry say.
"He was one of the founders of the Swedish music wonder," Janne Schaffer told SVT.
Tommy Körberg got to know Wadenius back in the late 1960s. The news of his death hit him hard, he told TT.
Körberg guested with Made in Sweden after winning the Schlager Festival in 1969.
"They played jazz. Since I won the Schlager Festival, we were always greeted with boos," Körberg says, laughing.
In the mid-1970s they restarted Made in Sweden, this time with Körberg as a permanent member.
"He was a gifted guitarist. Especially as a backing guitarist, no one could beat him."
