Bamses Venner are a Danish pop/rock band whose career spans several decades, from the 1970s well into the next century. Most notably, the band was selected to represent Denmark in the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest with "Tænker Altid På Dig." Founded in 1973, the band was led by frontman Flemming "Bamse" Jørgensen. The band's latter-day lineup features Peter Bødker (piano, organ, guitar), Frank Thøgersen (drums), and Anders Lampe (guitar), though many other musicians had also been members at one time or another. Bamses Venner made their eponymous album debut in 1975 and released a new album annually for the remainder of the decade, plus a couple solo albums by Bamses himself: Din Sang (1977) and Solen Skinner (1979). The band's popularity peaked at the turn of the decade when the song "Tænker Altid På Dig" from the album Sådan Set (1979) was chosen to represent Denmark in the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest. During the '80s and '90s, Bamses Venner continued to release new albums with regularity, beginning with a pair of live albums in 1980, and solo albums were also released from time to time. Little changed with the turn of the century, as Bamses Venner continued releasing new albums with regularity. He established himself as a more active solo artist. Beginning with Stand by Me (1999), he released a series of solo albums comprised of English-language standards (in contrast to the Danish-language output of his band). Subsequent solo albums of English-language standards include Always on My Mind (2001), Be My Guest (2005), and Love Me Tender (2007). In addition, after the turn of the century numerous retrospective compilations were released, among them 30 af de Bedste (2003), Komplet 1973-1981 (2005), and Komplet 1982-1994 (2006). ~ Jason Birchmeier