The Wannadies played their first concert, a festival in support of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, in October 1988 and only weeks later entered local studio KN to record the three tracks that would become their debut release—the Smile EP.

Smile was released in February 1989 and managed to pick up several 'single of the week' accolades from national newspapers as well as airplay on indie radio shows such as 'Bommen' despite little or no marketing.

In the summer of 1993 Björn Malmquist moved to Stockholm and left the band (he did make a contribution to The Wannadies next album however, playing violin on the track "Dreamy Wednesdays").

"Love in June", the only song to be completed with Micke Herrström, was released as a single while the band tried again to record Be a Girl, this time with producer Nille Perned.

In Spring 1997 drummer and founding member Gunnar Karlsson left, to be replaced by Erik Dahlgren (born 25 August 1965), a long-term friend of the band.

Relations with the label had sufficiently improved for the band to begin recording their next album in the autumn of 1998 with a ten-day session at the Chateau De La Rouge Motte studio in Normandy, France with producer Mike Hedges.

Despite not having a record company The Wannadies toured extensively throughout the summer of 2000, played the Glastonbury and Carling festivals in the UK, Roskilde in Denmark, Hultsfred and Arvika in Sweden and completed a mini-tour of Japan.

In 2003, "You and Me Song" was used in the climax to an episode of the long-running British soap opera Coronation Street in which Richard Hillman drives his new wife, Gail Platt and her family into a canal (in which he dies); and later, in 2007, an episode in which his stepson, David Platt, drives his car into that same canal as a suicide attempt, only to survive, ruining his sister Sarah's wedding day.

The band were thought to be writing and recording songs for their seventh album, and are preparing to release a twenty track best of,[1] however, in April 2009, they announced they had split with Pär Wiksten going solo.