A new compilation of Ted Gardestad's work is now available since last July 1st, under the title “Helt Nara Dig”. It is, in fact, a collection of 8 CD with 91 songs, which cover most of the singer's career, from his debut album in 1972, until his last studio release, in 1994. The most interesting fact is that this is the very first time Ted's international album Blue Virgin Isles (including Satellit, in its second release back in 1979) is released on CD.

Ted Gärdestad committed suicide on June 22, 1997, at the age of 41. Since his sudden death, a lot of compilations have been released, proving that the man – who worked a lot with his brother Kenneth – is still considered as a major artist in his country.

A tribute CDwas recorded back in 2004, under the title "A tribute to Ted", introducing big names of the Swedish music business (some being former Eurovision entrants) singing his songs : Helen Sjöholm, Jill Johnsson, Josefin Nilsson, Mikael Rickfors, Fredrik Kempe, Fame, Janne Schaffer, Åsa Jinder as well as Nina & Kim, from Friends, singing Ted's own entry, Satellit.Ted spent all of his career in the famous Polar Music label, which published the albums of Abba and had its own recording studios in Stockholm. Abba's early producer, Stig Andersson, saw international potential for Ted. So, he and and brother Kenneth travelled to Hollywood, California, in the autumn of 1977 to record Ted's first English language album Blue Virgin Isles. The west coast rock orientated album featured contributions from an impressive number of famous American and English musicians, among them Jeff Porcaro, Steve Porcaro, Jim Keltner, David Hungate, Jay Graydon, Lee Ritenour, Steve Lukather, Fred Tackett, James Newton Howard, Dr. John and John Mayall, many of them Ted's personal heroes. The Blue Virgin Isles album was released worldwide in the autumn of 1978 on the Epic Records label, but the Swedish success did not translate internationally. A re-release of the album was made in 1979, when Ted won the national selection with Satellit. At that time, sort of a polemic appeared regarding the song, whose arrangement bore more than a few resemblances to Toto's 1978 hit Hold the Line. The similarities caused some speculation in the Swedish media of plagiarism and even disqualification from the contest. The connection between the two songs was that producer Janne Schaffer had heard four of the future Toto members, Steve Porcaro, Jeff Porcaro, David Hungate and Steve Lukather, experimenting with a guitar and bass riff during the Blue Virgin Isles sessions in Los Angeles which eventually evolved into Hold the Line. Jeff Porcaro himself told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet in February 1979: "No, it's not a rip-off, Ted didn't steal our song. That piano intro and that bass and guitar line goes back to the 1950's and the fact that we both have happened to use variations on the same theme in our songs right now is purely coincidental." As for Ted Gärdestad's connections to Eurovision, the man entered the national selection firstly in 1973, with the song Oh Vilken Härlig Dag, which placed 4th but became a big hit in Sweden. Two years later, Ted was a bit less lucky with Rockin' And Reelin' (7th). Together with his brother, Ted wrote Det Bästa Som Finns for Lena Andersson, who ended 8th in the 1977 Melodifestivalen. In 1980, Ted was back, with time in duet with Annica Boller. They sang Låt Solen Värma Dig and placed 5th.

Ted Gärdestad represented Sweden at the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Satellit, which placed 17th out 19 entries.