For the brief period in the early Nineties, Roxette, the pop/rock duo from Sweden, stood among the top elastic inside worldwide sales & ill fame, brandishing the elementary eventually effectual blend of pop by having the cold-shoulder edge & occasional hints of dance. A class action claims influences ranging from either The Beatles to Blondie to new wave music to Joni Mitchell and Aretha Franklin.

Perchance, years when a fact, Roxette's popularity may be hard to read or potentially appreciate inside weak of what critics considered its infective however yet lightweight music, even in comparison what was otherwise on a airwaves at the period. Disregardless, there wwhen the period around 1991 after Roxette can comm& an arena filled sustaining tens of hundreds to thousands of fans in situ when diverse as Buenos Aires, Frankfurt and Sydney. A 1992 release Tourism: Songs from Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places -- with a recording of audience members singing along to the tune of the group's biggest hit, "It Must Have Been Love" -- exemplifies this temporary but impressive hold Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson had.

Worldwide, Roxette has sold other than 40 million copies of its albums & singles, there are no minor accomplishment for any pop work. A class action's profits in the United States alone was arguable. Patch apparently non interested around doing thus, potentially by default Roxette may not associate its image sustaining a currently-iconic ABBA, another Swedish popular class action that struggled for recognition inside United states spell however intact in the late 1970s, however that managed, across revisionism beginning in the early Nineties, to turn into something additional intriguing as a bequest.

ABBA did have a select few Billboard Top 10 singles and 1 There is no. One in the Seventies. Potentially though Roxette couldn't finally leave behind a equivalent bequest, a class action did ABBA better on the singles chart, achieving four There are no. Single hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1989 and 1991. Roxette besides got 2 There is no. Two singles & two or three more Top 40 peaks until falling away from places of the Hot 100 in 1994. However, by that token, Roxette may be considered the extremely successful singles work. A class action has been qualified per Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) with ii atomic number 78 albums -- 1988's Look Sharp! (released in the U.S. within 1989) & 1991's Joyride -- and 2 gold singles -- "The Look" and "It Must Have Been Love."

Inside Sweden the class action has experienced Seventeen Top 10 hits, & Roxette has developed a big resulting throughout South United states of america.

The Music

Roxette's music is better summed higher per title of its 1995 greatest-hits album: ''Don't Wore United states - Acquire to the Chorus!'' Mostly written by Gessle and produced by Clarence Öfwerman, the songs were melodic pop, what Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor of the All Music Guide, called "extremely catchy and simple hooks and melodies that are sweet but not saccharine." A releases tended to oscillate between lead vocals by Gessle -- whose light, nigh sunny voice fronts hits like "The Look" and "Joyride" -- and Fredriksson -- whose grainy, throatier delivery may be heard in "Listen to Your Heart" and "It Must Have Been Love," among others.

Though it develop claimed that a original aim of Roxette was to use Gessle's pop compositions to Fredriksson's vocals, they too claim that a spontaneously-written & -recorded "The Look," the class action's worldwide breakthrough hit, come as a surprise by owning Gessle taking lead. Maybe a claim may be questioned inside weak of a fact that the number 1 lone Gessle and Fredriksson released inside Sweden in late 1985, "Neverending Love," was the good-in duet (similar to "Dangerous"), as were many more lone releases prior to a class action's email expanded beyond its personal united states.

The Beginning

By the period singer/songwriters Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson came together officially as Roxette, two were constituted creative person inside Sweden. It met inside 1979 patch inside separate elastic. Above a years -- when Fredriksson moved from Strul and MaMas Barn (Mama's Barn) to going solo & Gessle performed with his band, a popular Gyllene Tider, and mass produced 2 solo albums -- them found every more repeatedly around local music circles. Around 1981, Fredriksson sang for the first time by using Gyllene Tider & was featured as the background vocalist for a Swedish-language album the band freed within 1982 and for a Swedish-language solo album Gessle released in 1983.

was an attempt to reach into a moneymaking Western market.

A 11-track Heartland Café was released around February 1984. Capitol took six of the tracks & freed a long-play (EP) record in the United States, however the company insisted in a different title for the band. Gessle and the more members of Gyllene Tider (Swedish for "Golden Times" or even "Golden Age") chose the title of a 1975 Dr. Feelgood song, "Roxette."

The Heartland Café sold 45,000 copies in Sweden, which is considered the profits. It proved far less therefore internationally. A newly-known as Roxette issued a single touching-invisible hit in the United States, "Teaser Japanese," whose cd reached MTV's studio but received there are no rotation to speak of. It & subsequent singles fared better inside Sweden, & Gyllene Tider briefly toured a united states to trend lines the album. Nonetheless, "the album died soon enough and the international career died before it even started," Gessle wrote. "We decided to put Gyllene Tider to rest... until further notice..."

joined to record an English-language single. "Neverending Love," credited to Roxette, was freed within late 1985 & reached a Swedish Top 10.

Pearls of Passion

Gessle and Fredriksson quickly recorded a to the full album, utilizing songs Gessle had written originally for his third solo album. By having a release of Pearls of Passion in October 1986, Roxette became an even large profits inside Sweden using singles like "Soul Deep" & "Goodbye to You." Passion was followed by a compilation of re-mixes of people equivalent songs, coroneted Dance Passion. A bit of of the releases originally from either Passion reached European radio outside of Sweden.

Inside 1987, Fredriksson released and publicized her third solo album. Late in the season, Roxette freed "It Must Have Been Love (Christmas For the Broken Hearted)," a holiday-themed song that received a few attention & saved Roxette's title alive in a few European radio when Gessle and Fredriksson prepared the next album. Gessle has said that the individual was Roxette's number 1 ernest endeavor to email beyond Sweden toward markets like Germany, though EMI Germany decided against releasing a lone.

Look Sharp!

A good-length watch-higher, Look Sharp!, was released in Europe in October 1988, two years after Pearls of Passion. Gessle and EMI Svenska chose to highlight Fredriksson's singing and freed "Chances" & "Dressed For Success" when a number one singles.

Fallowing "Success's" begin in Swedish radio emerged "The Look," the novelty song highlighted by synthesizers & a clangy guitar line likewise when esoteric lyrics sung by Gessle about a woman "walking like a man, hitting like a hammer."

, Cushman "badgered" a Minneapolis radio station, KDWB 101.Iii FM, to play a song. According to caring caller feedback, a station's program director copied a song & distributed it to more stations, & in weeks a song became uniquitous throughout a vicinity &, finally, countrywide.

EMI Svenska's parent group, which got non antecedently agreed to an Western distribution of Look Sharp!, immediately issued a single to American record stores and radio stations and pressed copies of Look Sharp!. "The Look" reached No. I on the April 8, 1989, Billboard Hot 100, where it remained for seven days. At a prevent of the month, Hoarding known as "The Look" one of the Twenty large Hot 100 singles of the season.

Roxette so assembled an international tour when EMI issued "Dressed For Success" when a 2nd lone in a United States, & the song peaked at There is no. Xiv. "Listen to Your Heart" was released thenceforth. a power-ballad, a song managed to garner groovy attender interest potentially though it differed from either the synth popular of "The Look," instead resembling the guitar-strong ballads of Heart. the lone, a number one ever to exist as freed within cassette-single format while forgoing a 45 RPM 7" vinyl alternative, spent a single week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending Nov. 4, 1989.

A fourth single in the United States, "Dangerous," was released at the end of the year and spent two weeks at No. 2 on the Hot 100 in February 1990.

"It Must Have Been Love"

," by then a two-year-old recording, was chosen because Roxette didn't have time to compose and record a new song while touring through Australia and New Zealand.

Gessle and producer Clarence Öfwerman took the old recording, had Fredriksson replace a single Christmas-referenced line in the song, added some instrumentation and background vocal overlays, and gave the song to the soundtrack producers, who Gessle claimed turned it down. Gessle also claimed that, after re-editing the film before release, the producers re-requested the song, and it was added to the soundtrack.

Pretty Woman was released in March 1990 and went on to make more than $178 million at U.S. box offices and more than $460 million worldwide, becoming the most succesful film of the year. The soundtrack went on to be certified three times platinum by the RIAA. Though not the first single released from the soundtrack, "It Must Have Been Love" would prove to be the most successful, spending two weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 beginning in the June 16, 1990, edition.

The song had staying power on the chart, spending two additional weeks at No. 2 after falling from the perch, a total of nine weeks in the Top 10, and a then-impressive 17 weeks in the Top 40. Billboard named "It Must Have Been Love" the No. 2 Hot 100 single of the year behind Wilson Phillips' "Hold In." The song would prove to be Roxette's most successful single release, peaking at the top of the singles charts in many countries and No. 3 in the United Kingdom, the group's highest chart position there.

Join the Joyride

As 1990 wound down, Roxette completed its tour and returned to Sweden to record its full-length follow-up to Look Sharp! The 14-track collection, titled Joyride, was released in March 1991, peaking almost immediately at No. 12 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

J.D. Considine of Rolling Stone magazine reviewed Joyride: "By emphasizing its sense of personality, Roxette delivers to a higher degree good easily-constructed hooks; this music has heart, something that makes possibly a catchiest melody additional importunate."

The title-track single took off quickly, bearing a similarity to "The Look" and featuring Gessle whistling and singing lines like "Hullo, smart shoppers fool, We love busy people," which he claimed his girlfriend left in a note to him one day. "Joyride" the single reached No. 4 in the U.K. and spent a week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the May 11 issue.

Its follow-up, "Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)," a power-rock song similar to "Listen to Your Heart" but uptempo with Fredriksson on lead, spent a week at No. 2 on the Hot 100 in July. It was then that Roxette embarked on an even more ambitious tour, eventually reaching more than 1 million fans in 108 concerts, including a few dates in the United States.

But it was at this time, as Per Gessle has contended, that EMI's American subsidiary made personnel changes that resulted in a downturn in the publicity for Roxette. Though Gessle has never fully explained, Roxette fans and close watchers could easily see that the momentum in America was slowing down dramatically. Though Joyride was certified platinum and made impressive worldwide sales, even surpassing Look Sharp!, subsequent singles from the album -- the ballad "Spending My Time" and the bouncy "Church of Your Heart" -- failed to reach above the No. 30 position on the Hot 100. The same can be said for the U.K. chart, where "A Large L." (another bouncy pop-rock song), "Disbursal Our Instance" and "Church of Your systems Heart" failed to reach even the Top 20.

Some longtime Roxette and Per Gessle fans have contended as well that Roxette was not able to compete, especially in the American market, with the changing tide of popular music. The Billboard Hot 100 singles and Billboard 200 album charts were showing an increasing dominance toward the end of 1991 by new or emerging genres such as new jack soul and grunge. Groups like Boyz II Men, Color Me Badd and Nirvana were sitting at No. 1, and harder-core rap and hip-hop showed signs of their eventual rise to prominence, pushing aside simpler, more commercialized pop into which Roxette's music had seemingly blended perfectly.

Tourism and "Almost Unreal"

has said that the album was meant to "capture a energy inside a band," especially in the spontaneous performance of songs such as "On this button Comes a Weekend" and "Never Occurs as Long Instance."

The first single off the album was "How else Launder You Do!" followed by the ballad "Queen of Rain" and an electrified version of the song "Fingertips," originally recorded acoustically for the album and re-titled "Fingertips '93" for single release. Tourism barely dented American radio and record stores but gave Roxette its first Top-20 single in the U.K. in over a year with "How else Run You Do!"

It was also in 1992 that Marie Fredriksson released her first solo album in Swedish in five years, titled Den Ständiga Resan (The Eternal Journey).

In early 1993, Roxette became the first non-native-English speaking artists to be featured on MTV's Unplugged series, though the songs from the performance were never released on an official Unplugged album.

It was also in 1993 when Roxette recorded and released "Almost Unreal," a song originally slated for the film Hocus Pocus starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Nijimy. However, the song was moved to the soundtrack to the film based on the Nintendo video game Super Mario Bros. starring Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper. The film, which cost more than $40 million to make, earned only $20 million at the box office. Supported by an expensive video and ultimately receiving respectable airplay, "Almost Unreal" managed to briefly reach the lower end of the Billboard Hot 100 but reached the Top 10 on the U.K. singles chart, the group's first time there since "Joyride" two years before.

A yet second re-issuing of "It Must Have Been Love" managed to reach the U.K. Top 10 at the end of 1993 as well.

Crash! Boom! Bang!

'' to the apathetic 'Vulnerable' on this album shows a good downwards slide.... Though them use an edge on this album, it nearly seem to use at times be a bit bored."

Though considered successful throughout Europe, the full 15-track set of Crash! Boom! Bang! tanked in the United States despite a successful campaign by McDonald's, which advertised and sold a 10-track "favorites" compact disc. The "favorites" CD reportedly sold more than 1 million copies, ranking as one of Roxette's most successful releases in the United States.

Moreover, the first single release from Crash! Boom! Bang!, the distortion guitar-heavy pop hit "Sleeping In My Car," managed to grab attention, reaching the Billboard Top 50 and the U.K. Top 20, as well as returning Roxette to No. 1 in Sweden after several years. Subsequent releases, including the title track, "Pyrotechnic," and "Redo To Wise shoppers," made chart showings worldwide but not in the United States. They did each make the Top 30 in the U.K. Roxette embarked on another, all be it scaled-down, worldwide tour, skipping the United States in the process. It was during this tour that Roxette became the first Western band invited to tour China.

Despite the effort, Crash! Boom! Bang! would be the last Roxette release EMI would issue in the United States.

In 1995, Roxette released the greatest-hits compilation ''Don't Bore Us - Get to the Chorus!'', which featured as well new songs released as singles, including the ballad "You Don't Understand Me," co-written by Desmond Child. The song managed to hit the Swedish Top 10. Also that year, a compilation of singles-only (B-side) recordings, alongside some of the 1993 Unplugged material, was released in Japan and parts of South America under the title Rarities.

In 1996, Roxette took instrumental masters of many of its ballads and recorded translated Spanish lyrics over them, released on the album Baladas En Español, which sold well in Argentina and other parts of South America. Also in 1996, Marie Fredriksson released another solo Swedish-language album, I En Tid Som Vår ("Around the Period Prefer Ours"). And Gessle reunited with Gyllene Tider for what turned out to be a wildly successful tour in Sweden.

Have a Nice Day and Room Service
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Room Service followed in 2001 to some critical raves. "Probably a better Roxette album since Joyride," wrote Leslie Mathew of the All Music Guide. "Room Service is an exciting, immediate, high-gloss popular gem that contains super little filler indeed." The first single, "The Centre of the Heart," emerged as a result, hitting No. 1 in Sweden and making a slight dent in the U.K. It was followed by "Milk & Toast & Honey." Roxette again went on tour.

After that came another set of compilations, The Ballad Hits in late 2002 and The Pop Hits in early 2003. Each set contained a separate CD with material previously available only on CD singles. The single "Opportunity Nox" was released from The Pop Hits in 2003.

Solo albums Mazarin and The Change

In June 2003, Gessle released what had originally planned to be a small side project: his first Swedish-language solo album in 18 years. One of the tracks, "På Promenad Genom Staden" ("Strolling Through the Town"), featured Fredriksson singing back-up. Titled Mazarin'' ("Cupcake"), the album ended up solidifying Gessle's legacy in his home country, reaching No. 1 on the Swedish album chart and eventually going five times platinum. In 2004, Gessle and Gyllene Tider reunited for the band's first album in 20 years, Finn 5 Fel!, and another wildly successful tour in Sweden.

Meanwhile, in September 2002, after a fainting spell, Marie Fredriksson was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which was subsequently removed in surgery. It was during her recovery that she wrote and compiled songs for her first-ever English-language solo album, The Change, which was released internationally but not in the United States in October 2004. Inspired by Fredriksson's brush with mortality and made mostly in partnership with her husband, Mikael Bolyos, The Change was a far bluesier and melancholic set of songs than anything Roxette recorded. The album entered the Swedish chart at No. 1, reportedly selling 30,000 copies in its first week. The first single, "2:nd Risk," entered the Swedish singles chart in the Top 10. The album to date has sold more than 350,000 and has seen several other international radio releases, including "Tons Wise shoppers" and "The Table in the Sun."

In 2005, Belgian dance group D.H.T.'s trance-cover of "Listen to Your Heart" became a worldwide club hit. Originally released in Belgium in 2003, the various mixes of the song reached U.S. clubs in late 2004. By the mid-summer of 2005, the song reached the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 8 in August. Throughout 2005 several songs were released as remixes and covers such as "Fading Like a Flower", one a trance cover by German group Mysterio and one a sampling by Dancing DJs that reached the U.K.'s dance chart, and "Joyride 2005" a mysterous remix of "Joyride".

Son Of A Plumber

On November 23rd, 2005, Per Gessle's English solo album will be released. It has been delayed due to technical issues. Per has been interviewed about his new album and spilled the beans about some of the track listing: "Substitute (For The Real Treat)," "We've The Person Around Our Head (I personally Hope It Never Terminates)," "Keep A Radio In (This Is The Right Song)," "Making Love Or even Expecting Rain," "Hey Mr DJ (Won't Your family Play A second Love-song)," "We Never Quite Had Across A Fact That A Beatles Broke Higher," "Drowning Around Rattling Thoughts All about Her."

Discography

Albums

The Heartland Café (1984, credited to Gyllene Tider, though a six-track EP was released in the United States by Capitol Records and credited to Roxette) Scener (1985, credited to Per Gessle but, in some releases, containing the name and/or logo for Roxette) Pearls of Passion (1986, the first album with only Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson appearing as the band Roxette -- reissued in 1997 with bonus tracks) Dance Passion (1987, vinyl-only re-mix album) Look Sharp! (1988) #4 UK, #23 US Joyride (1991) #2 UK, #12 US Tourism: Songs from Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places (1992) #2 UK, #117 US Crash! Boom! Bang! (1994) #3 UK Rarities (1995, released in Japan and South America) ''Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! - Roxette's Greatest Hits (1995) #5 UK Baladas En Español (1996) Have a Nice Day (1999) #28 UK Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! - Roxette's Greatest Hits (2000, revised version released under a new distribution deal in the United States) Room Service (2001) The Ballad Hits (2002) #11 UK The Pop Hits'' (2003)

Hit Singles

1989 "A Look" #7 UK, #1 US 1989 "Dangerous" #2 US 1989 "Listen to Your computers Heart" #6 UK (double A-side with Dangerous, 1990 release in the UK), #1 US 1989 "Dressed for Profits" #18 UK (1990 release), #14 US 1990 "It Must Use at times Been Love" #3 UK, #1 US 1991 "Joyride" #4 UK, #1 US 1991 "Fading Rather the Flower" #12 UK, #2 US 1991 "A Large L" #21 UK 1991 "Spending The Period" #22 UK, #32 US 1992 "Church of The Heart" #21 UK, #36 US 1992 "How else Clean You Do!" #13 UK, #58 US 1992 "Queen of Rain" #28 UK 1993 "About Unreal" #7 UK, #94 US 1993 "It Must Stand Been Love" (re-issue) #10 UK 1994 "Sleeping around The Car" #14 UK, #50 US 1994 "Crash! Boom! Bang!" #26 UK 1994 "Fireworks" #30 UK 1994 "Do to Wise shoppers" #27 UK 1995 "A Look" ('95 remix) #28 UK 1999 "Wish We May Fly" #11 UK 2005 "Fading Rather the Flower" (Dancing DJs Vs. Roxette) #18 UK

Videography

Roxette - Sweden Live! (1989, LaserDisc & VHS Japan, VHS South Africa) ''Look Sharp Live! '88 (1989, VHS) The Videos (1991, LD & VHS) Live-Ism (1992, LD & VHS) Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! - Roxette's Greatest Video Hits (1995, LD & VHS) Crash! Boom! Live! - The Johannesburg Concert (1996, LD & VHS Japan, VHS ROW) All Videos Ever Made & More (2001, DVD, PAL only) Ballad & Pop Hits - The Complete Video Collection (2003, DVD)

See also: List of Swedes in music''