Roxette


Roxette is a Swedish pop rock duo originally consisting of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle, both of whom were already established musicians in Sweden prior to the band's formation. Fredriksson had released a number of successful solo albums, while Gessle had been the lead singer and songwriter of Gyllene Tider, a band which had three number one albums in Sweden. Acting on the advice of Rolf Nygren, the CEO of their mutual record label EMI, Fredriksson and Gessle collaborated to record "Neverending Love", the first single from Roxette's 1986 debut album Pearls of Passion, which was a hit in Sweden.
Their international breakthrough came with the release of Look Sharp! in 1988. The album contained two Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles: "The Look" and "Listen to Your Heart". "It Must Have Been Love", from the soundtrack to the 1990 film Pretty Woman, reached number one as well, as did the lead single of their third studio album, 1991's Joyride. That album is Roxette's most successful, selling eleven million copies worldwide. They performed for over 1.5 million people during the "Join the Joyride! Tour". Subsequent albums included 1992's Tourism, 1994's Crash! Boom! Bang!, and 1995's greatest hits compilation Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!, which each sold at least five million copies worldwide.
Have a Nice Day and Room Service were released in 1999 and 2001, respectively, and earned numerous gold and platinum awards in Europe and Latin America. Fredriksson was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2002, leading to an extended hiatus. The two then released several solo albums, with Gessle also reuniting with Gyllene Tider. Roxette reformed in 2009 for an extensive world tour, which ran until 2016. During this period, they released the albums Charm School, Travelling, and Good Karma. Fredriksson announced her retirement from touring in 2016 due to poor health and died on 9 December 2019 due to complications from cancer.
Roxette is Sweden's second-best-selling musical act, after ABBA. They have sold between 75 and 80 million records worldwide, and are recognised as one of the highest-certified acts of all time in Germany, achieving sales of almost six million units. They had nineteen top-40 hits in the United Kingdom, where the British Phonographic Industry awarded them certifications of over three million units. In the US, they achieved four number ones on the Billboard Hot 100, and have been certified for over three million units by the Recording Industry Association of America. Since 2021, Gessle has released music under the name PG Roxette; their debut album Pop-Up Dynamo! was issued in 2022. In 2024, he announced a Roxette tour, with Lena Philipsson hired as vocalist.

History

1978–1987: Formation and ''Pearls of Passion''

and Marie Fredriksson had been friends since 1978. Both musicians had successful careers in Sweden in the early 1980s. Gessle was a member of Gyllene Tider,, whose first two albums each sold at least 150,000 copies in Sweden. In 1981, Fredriksson performed backing vocals on Gyllene Tider's song "Ingenting av vad du behöver". The following year, Gessle invited Fredriksson to audition for Gyllene Tider's producer Lars-Göran "Lasse" Lindbom. Lindbom was impressed by Fredriksson's voice, and offered her a recording contract as a solo artist with the Swedish branch of EMI. However, she refused the deal, saying she "lacked the confidence" and was "too nervous" to be a solo artist. She then joined Lindbom's band as a backing vocalist for an extensive tour of Sweden.
In 1984, Fredriksson recorded backing vocals for Gyllene Tider's debut English album The Heartland Café, released in Sweden under the band's original name and in EP format in North America under the name Roxette—derived from the Dr. Feelgood song of the same name. Soon after, Fredriksson began releasing folk-based solo albums, beginning with Het vind in 1984. Gessle also turned to solo work, releasing his second Swedish-language solo album, Scener, in 1985, again featuring Fredriksson on background vocals. Fredriksson issued her second solo album, Den sjunde vågen, in February 1986.
Around this time, the CEO of EMI, Rolf Nygren, suggested Fredriksson and Gessle collaborate together to record a song in English. Fredriksson was warned by friends and industry advisers to not participate with the project, fearing it may impact her burgeoning solo career. Gessle translated a song he wrote called "Svarta glas" into English, which became their first single, "Neverending Love". It was released in the summer of 1986 under the name Roxette, and the single sold over 50,000 copies in Sweden. Roxette quickly recorded their debut album, Pearls of Passion, which was issued later in 1986. The album eventually sold over 280,000 copies in Sweden. "Neverending Love" and subsequent song "Soul Deep" were issued as singles internationally, but failed to chart outside Sweden.
In 1987, Roxette issued Dance Passion, a remix album of songs from their debut, and embarked on "Rock runt riket", a co-headlining tour of Sweden with Eva Dahlgren and Ratata. All three acts collaborated to record "I Want You", which was released as a non-album single in July. Fredriksson released her third solo album Efter stormen in October 1987. It was her most successful solo album to date, peaking at number one on the Swedish Albums Chart and being certified platinum by Swedish Recording Industry Association. It won Best Swedish Album at the 1987 Rockbjörnen awards, where Fredriksson also won the award for Best Swedish Female.
Later that year, Roxette released "It Must Have Been Love ". The song was written by Gessle in response to the German division of EMI asking Gessle to "come up with an intelligent Christmas single." The track was a top five hit in Sweden. However, international divisions of EMI – including Germany – chose not to release the song as a single.

1988–1991: International breakthrough

In the duo's native Sweden, "Dressed for Success" and "Listen to Your Heart" were chosen as the first two singles from their second album Look Sharp!, as Gessle and EMI Sweden chose to highlight Fredriksson's singing. Gessle said, "I always thought we should promote the songs Marie sang. Me being a lead singer wasn't part of the plan, not for me anyway." Both singles reached the top 10 of the Swedish singles chart, while the album, which was released in Sweden in October 1988, held the No. 1 position for 14 weeks. Music critic Måns Ivarsson was underwhelmed by the album, writing derisively: "To consist of two such original persons as Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle, the album sounds unbelievably conventional. Most striking are the lyrics. Gessle's once so subtle Swedish lyrics have became desolate English nonsense." However, the album won Roxette their first Rockbjörnen awards in Sweden and Gessle his first Grammis award in the category Best Composer.
When the third single from Look Sharp!, "The Look", became another top 10 single in their home country, Roxette were still unknown internationally. While studying in Sweden an American exchange student from Minneapolis, Dean Cushman, heard "The Look" and brought a copy of Look Sharp! home for the 1988 holiday break. He gave the album to a Minneapolis radio station, KDWB 101.3 FM. The station started playing "The Look"; based on positive caller feedback, the song became very popular, and quickly spread to other radio stations. The song became a radio hit before any Roxette product had been commercially released or promoted in the US market. The story was covered by radio, newspapers and TV in the US and in Sweden. Fredriksson dismissed rumors that Cushman was paid to take the record to the radio station.
EMI had previously rejected Roxette as unsuitable for the American market and they did not have a recording contract there, but after the popularity of "The Look" in the US, EMI officials made the decision to release and market the single worldwide. "The Look" and pressed copies of Look Sharp! were issued in early 1989 to record stores and radio stations. "The Look" became their first No. 1 in the US on 8 April 1989, where it remained for one week. The breakthrough for Roxette became international when the song also topped the charts in 25 other countries, and at the end of the year, Billboard named "The Look" one of the 20 biggest Hot 100 singles of the year.
"Dressed for Success", featuring Fredriksson on lead vocals with Gessle singing short parts, was the second international single. The single peaked at No. 14 on the Hot 100 as well as at No. 3 in Australia. "Listen to Your Heart" was released thereafter; it differed from previous singles and instead resembled the guitar-heavy ballads of Heart. Spending a single week at No. 1 in the US in November 1989, it bore the distinction of being the first US Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 not to be commercially available on 7-inch vinyl.
A fourth single, "Dangerous", was released at the end of the year, entering the Hot 100 at the end of December. The single, a duet between Gessle and Fredriksson, spent two weeks at No. 2 on the Hot 100 in February 1990, and again becoming a worldwide success by reaching the top 10 in important music markets such as Germany and Australia. "Dangerous" was released as a double A-side single in the UK with "Listen to Your Heart".

"It Must Have Been Love" – ''Pretty Woman'' soundtrack

It was around this time that Touchstone Pictures approached EMI and Roxette about contributing a song to the soundtrack of an upcoming film, Pretty Woman, starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. Gessle maintained that "It Must Have Been Love", by then a two-year-old recording, was chosen because Roxette had no time to compose and record a new song. The film's producers turned it down, asking for another song, but Gessle declined to produce another song. Some weeks later after re-editing the film before release, the producers re-requested "It Must Have Been Love", but Roxette had to remove the Christmas lyrics. Gessle and producer Clarence Öfwerman then took the old recording, had Fredriksson replace a single Christmas-reference line in the song and added some instrumentation and background vocal overlays.
Though it was not the first single released from the soundtrack, "It Must Have Been Love" would prove to be Roxette's most successful single release. The song spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in June 1990, three months after the film's release, and stayed for two additional weeks at No. 2, spending a total of seventeen weeks in the top 40. Billboard named the song the No. 2 Hot 100 single of the year, behind Wilson Phillips's "Hold On". The single also topped the charts in more than 20 other countries around the world. In Germany the single spent 9 months in the top 75, and peaked at No. 3 in the UK, the duo's highest singles chart position there. The soundtrack went on to be certified three times platinum by the RIAA.