Daniel Malmedahl | Updated

In 1997, 16-year-old Daniel Malmedahl was hanging out with friends in Gothenburg, Sweden. To pass the time, he started imitating the sound of a weak, puttering moped engine. The result was a frantic, nasal, and impossibly catchy "meep meep... ring-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding."

Malmedahl recorded the sound on his computer and posted it online. A few years later, his friend, animator Erik Wernquist , used the audio loop as the soundtrack for a CGI animation of a deformed, scrawny green creature. They called the video "The Annoying Thing." daniel malmedahl

The animation spread like wildfire on early peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa and eMule. A German ringtone company, Jamba!, licensed the character, renamed it Crazy Frog , and hired producers to lay the "Axel F" melody over Malmedahl’s vocals. The resulting single sold over 500,000 copies in the UK alone on its first day. In 1997, 16-year-old Daniel Malmedahl was hanging out