Karl-Gerhard "Little Gerhard" Lundkvist died on Tuesday night, his wife Theptong Lundkvist told Aftonbladet.
Little Gerhard, along with Owe Thörnqvist and Rock-Ragge, was among the first to take the new American rock music and adapt it to a Swedish context in the 1950s.
The song "What You've Done for Me" on Little Gerhard's debut EP was his big breakthrough, and he became a folk favourite with songs like his own version of Louis Prima's hit "Buona Sera" and "The Last of the Mohicans". In 1958 he was crowned Sweden's rock king.
Even after the 1950s, Little Gerhard continued his career as an artist, but he also worked as a record producer. Among other things, it was Little Gerhard who discovered Agnetha Fältskog.
"I had an acquaintance in Jönköping who told me about Agnetha, who was singing in a local dance orchestra at the time. She first thought someone was messing with her when I called, but then we got in touch," Little Gerhard said in an interview with Dansbandsnytt this year.
Little Gerhard was also a songwriter for one of Melodifestivalen's biggest cult songs of all time, "Shall We Pick Cherries in My Garden" with Ann-Christine Bärnsten.
Little Gerhard made his debut in 1952 at the Trocadero nightclub in Amsterdam, where he worked as a sailor.
He broke through in 1958 with the EP Little Gerhard and the song "What You've Done to Me". In the same year he was named both "Sweden's Rock King" and "Nordic Rock King".
His greatest successes include the cover "Buona Sera", which became the best-selling Swedish rock 'n' roll album of the 1950s, and his first gold record.
In 1961, the EP "The Last Mohican/Petter and Frida" became the year's best-selling album in Sweden.
Little Gerhard has also appeared in films such as his debut "It's Swinging at the Castle" and "Åsa-Nisse in the Clothes of the Crown" (both 1958).
Internationally, he recorded and sang in German in West Germany.
During his time as a producer and songwriter at the record label Cupol, he is also credited with having discovered Agnetha Fältskog. He produced her breakthrough song "Jag var så kär" and wrote, among other things, "Allting har sändrat sig".
