reportedly inspired by Andersson's girlfriend at the time, who was Norwegian. It was not originally a slow-drawn out ballad. Andersson had envisioned a faster version of the song. However, Hep Stars sound engineer Gert Palmcrantz suggested that he'd play the spinet, something he agreed on and promptly slowed down the arrangement of the song. Andersson later admitted that he was heavily influenced by classical music on both "Sunny Girl" and the follow-up "Wedding". "Sunny Girl" was introduced to their manager Åke Gerhard, who saw great potential in Andersson as a songwriter, and who liked the track. It was recorded in March 1966 at Europafilm Studios with Palmcrantz producing. Release and commercial performance The band did not initially agree on releasing "Sunny Girl" as a single, as drummer Christer Pettersson and guitarist Janne Frisk weren't too fond of the slow-baroque sound that the single had produced; all their previous singles had been high-tempoed rock or rhythm and blues recordings. However, Andersson, singer Svenne Hedlund and bassist Lennart Hegland liked the song. The members would eventually agree for the single to be released, and in March 1966, "Sunny Girl" was released by Olga Records with the catalogue number SO 21. Heavily promoted, the single entered Kvällstoppen on 15 March 1966 at a position of number 15. The following week it had for the first time entered the top-10, at number 7. The week after it had reached number 6 and on 5 April it had reached the top-5 for the first time, at number 3, almost a year after their first charting single. On 12 April, it reached number 1 on the charts, a position which it held for 5 weeks, before finally leaving on the week ending 17 May where it was at number 2, a position it held for two weeks. The week after, it had ascended to number 4, with number 5 following the next week. On 14 June, it had exited the top-5 for the first time at number 8, and the following week it left the top-10 at number 12. "Sunny Girl" was last seen on the chart on 28 June at a position of number 14. In total, the single spent 16 weeks on the charts, of which 13 were in the top-10, 10 were in the top-5 and 5 at number 1. The single was equally successful on Tio i Topp, where it was voted