Roxette
 | This article is written like a personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic. |
Roxette |
|---|
Roxette is a Swedish pop-music double act, sometimes rock-influenced, whose members are Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle.
For a significant period in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Roxette was among the top bands in worldwide sales and fame, brandishing a simple, effective blend of pop with a slight edge and occasional hints of dance. The group claims such influences as The Beatles, Blondie, new-wave music, Joni Mitchell, and Aretha Franklin.
In 1991, Roxette performances could fill an arena with tens of thousands of fans in places as diverse as Buenos Aires, Frankfurt, Mexico City, Paris, Rome, Santiago de Chile, Stockholm, and Sydney. The 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 Roxette's temporary but impressive hold.
Though there is no firm figure, Roxette is said to have worldwide sales of 75 million copies of its albums and singles. The group's success in the United States was arguable. While seemingly not interested in doing so, even by default Roxette could not associate its image with the now-iconic ABBA, another Swedish pop group that struggled for recognition in America while still intact in the late 1970s, but that managed, through revisionism beginning in the early 1990s, to grow into something more intriguing as a legacy.
ABBA did have some Billboard Top 10 singles and one No. 1 in the 1970s. Even though Roxette couldn't ultimately leave behind the same legacy, the group did outperform ABBA on the singles chart, achieving four No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1989 and 1991. Roxette also had two No. 2 singles and a few other Top 40 peaks until falling out of sight of the Hot 100 in 1994. Even so, by that token, Roxette can be considered a highly successful singles act. The group has been certified by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) with two platinum albums - 1988's Look Sharp! (released in the U.S. in 1989) and 1991's Joyride - and two gold singles - "The Look" and "It Must Have Been Love."
In Sweden the group has had 17 Top 10 hits, and Roxette has developed a large following throughout South America, South Africa and Europe.
The music
Roxette's music is best summed up by the title of its 1995 greatest-hits album: Don't Bore Us - Get 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.' Jon Pareles of The New York Times, however, thought that 'Roxette's music is a matter of efficiency and control, not fun... and won't be accused of too much originality'. Single releases tend to oscillate between lead vocals by Gessle - whose light, almost sunshiny voice fronts hits such as 'The Look' and 'Joyride' - and Fredriksson whose grainy, throatier delivery can be heard on 'Fading Like a Flower, 'It Must Have Been Love', and 'Listen to Your Heart', among others.
Though they've claimed the original aim of Roxette was to apply Gessle's pop compositions to Fredriksson's vocals, they also claim the spontaneously written and recorded 'The Look', the group's worldwide breakthrough hit, came as a surprise with Gessle taking lead. Perhaps the claim can be questioned in light of the fact the first single Gessle and Fredriksson released in Sweden in late 1985, 'Neverending Love', was a full on duet (similar to 'Dangerous') as were several other single releases before the group's reach expanded beyond their home country.
The beginning
By the time singer/songwriters Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson came together officially as Roxette, both were established artists in Sweden. They met in 1979 while in separate bands. Over the years - as Fredriksson moved from Strul and MaMas Barn (Mama's Children) to going solo and Gessle performed with his band, the popular Gyllene Tider, and made two solo albums - the two encountered each other repeatedly in local music circles. In 1981, Fredriksson sang for the first time with Gyllene Tider on stage and was featured as a background vocalist for a Swedish-language album the band released in 1982, which brought Gyllene Tider its first Rockbjörnen award as a Best Swedish Group, and for a Swedish-language solo album Gessle released in 1983.
While working on her first solo album, Fredriksson performed more background vocals and some solo work for Gyllene Tider's next album, The Heartland Café, what some fans consider to be the first Roxette project, But not so by Roxette themselves, According to liner notes written by Gessle on a 1990 re-issue of the album, the group's first English-language release was in response to interest expressed by Capitol Records, an American label affiliated with Gyllene Tider's parent EMI Group. Though Gessle had written one English-language song that appeared on a 1982 album by ex-ABBA singer Frida, it was, in fact, music set to a Dorothy Parker poem. Writing songs in English for Gyllene Tider was an attempt to reach into the lucrative American market.
The 11-track Heartland Café was released in February 1984. Capitol took six of the tracks and released an extended-play (EP) record in the United States with an abridged title, Heartland, but the company insisted on a different name for the band. Gessle and the other members of Gyllene Tider (Swedish for "Golden Times" or "Golden Age") chose the title of a 1975 Dr. Feelgood song, "Roxette".
The Heartland Café sold 45,000 copies in Sweden, which is considered a minor success. It proved even less so internationally. The newly-named Roxette issued one near-invisible hit in the United States, "Teaser Japanese", whose video reached MTV's studio but received no rotation to speak of. It and subsequent singles fared better in Sweden, and Gyllene Tider briefly toured the country to support the album. However, "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..."
Gessle recorded a second Swedish-language solo album, released in 1985 and again featuring Fredriksson on background vocals, and Fredriksson recorded a second solo album and received the 1986 Rockbjörnen award as Best Swedish Female Artist. Upon the advice of their mutual record company, the Swedish subsidiary of the EMI Group, Gessle and Fredriksson joined to record an English-language single. "Neverending Love", credited to Roxette, was released in late 1985 and reached the Swedish Top 10.
Pearls of Passion
Gessle and Fredriksson quickly recorded a full length album using songs Gessle had written originally for his third solo album. With the release of Pearls of Passion in October 1986 Roxette became an even bigger success in Sweden with singles such as 'Soul Deep' and 'Goodbye to You'. Pearls of Passion was released in 1997 in Spain with the single I Call Your Name, and was followed by a compilation of remixes of the same songs entitled Dance Passion. Some of the releases originally from Passion reached European radio outside Sweden.
In 1987 Fredriksson released and publicised her third solo album and won the 1988 Swedish Grammis Award as Best Female Pop/Rock Artist and two Rockbjörnen awards for Best Swedish Album and Best Swedish Female Artist. Meanwhile Roxette released the single 'I Want You' in collaboration with Eva Dahlgren and Ratata. Later in the year they released 'It Must Have Been Love (Christmas For the Broken Hearted)', a holiday themed song that received some attention and kept Roxette's name alive on European radio as Gessle and Fredriksson prepared their next album. Gessle has said the single was Roxette's first earnest endeavour to reach beyond Sweden towards European markets such as Germany, though EMI Germany decided against releasing the single.
Look Sharp!
The full-length follow-up, 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 released the uptempo "Chances" and "Dressed For Success" as the first singles.
After "Success's" run on Swedish radio emerged "The Look", a novelty song highlighted by synthesizers and a clangy guitar line as well as esoteric lyrics sung by Gessle about a woman "walking like a man, hitting like a hammer." Fredriksson can be heard in the recording mirroring the chorus' main line, "she's got the look", and singing harmony.
Roxette lore has it that, while studying in Sweden, an American exchange student from Minneapolis, Dean Cushman, heard "The Look", then one of the most played songs on radio, and brought a copy of Look Sharp! home for the 1988 holiday break. According to Gessle, Cushman "badgered" a Minneapolis radio station, KDWB 101.3 FM, to play the song. Based on positive caller feedback, the station's program director copied the song and distributed it to other stations, and within weeks the song became very popular.
In reality, KDWB was not the only American station to pick up on the song, and EMI officials had already planned to release and market the single. The "Dean Cushman story", as some longtime Roxette fans call it, made for good press. For many years, Gessle and Fredriksson told this as the story highlighting the beginning of their international success.
In short order, in early 1989, EMI issued "The Look" to American record stores and radio stations and pressed copies of Look Sharp!. "The Look" reached No. 1 on the April 8, 1989, Billboard Hot 100, where it remained for one week. 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 and Gessle singing short parts for accentuating, was the second single in the United States, and Roxette went on its first world tour. The single peaked at No. 14 on the Hot 100. "Listen to Your Heart" was released thereafter. A power-ballad, the song managed to garner listener interest even though it differed from the synth pop of "The Look" and the pluckiness of "Success", instead resembling the guitar-heavy ballads of Heart. The single, the first ever to be released in cassette-only format without a 45 RPM 7" vinyl alternative, spent a single week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending November 4, 1989.
A fourth single in the United States, "Dangerous", was released at the end of the year, entering into the Hot 100 at the end of December. A full-on duet between Gessle singing the first half of each verse ("you pack your bag/you take control...") and Fredriksson singing the second half ("hey, what's your work/what's your game..."), the single ultimately spent two weeks at No. 2 on the Hot 100 in February 1990.
Look Sharp! won Gessle his first Swedish Grammis award in the category Best Composer. Roxette received two Rockbjörnen Awards: for Best Swedish Album and Best Swedish Group while Fredriksson won her third consecutive Rockbjörnen for Best Swedish Female Artist.
"It Must Have Been Love"
It was around this time that Touchstone Pictures approached EMI and Roxette about contributing a song to the soundtrack of the upcoming film Pretty Woman starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. Gessle has claimed that "It Must Have Been Love", by then a 2-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 successful 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, while topping the charts in more than 20 other countries around the world.
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 On." 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.
In Sweden, Roxette collected their second Rockbjörnen as Best Swedish Group and Fredriksson won her fourth award as Best Swedish Female Artist.
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 more than just well-constructed hooks; this music has heart, something that makes even the catchiest melody more appealing."
The title-track single took off quickly, bearing a similarity to "The Look" and featuring Gessle whistling and singing lines like "Hello, you fool, I love you", 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. The single also achieved a huge success in Canada which resulted in Roxette being nominated in 1992 for Juno Award in a category Best Selling Single by a Foreign Artist.
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.
Reviewing the Roxette's New York debut concert at Beacon Theater, Jon Pareles wrote in The New York Times: "Roxette seems to have learned staging through careful mimicry of MTV. On a set painted in a Piet Mondrian primary colors, Miss Fredriksson struts, leans on the other band members, makes symmetrical arm motions, pouts and straps on a guitar to take a few chords; she took off her leather jacket and later her long sleeves, like a G-rated stripper".
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, 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 UK chart, where "The Big L." (another bouncy pop-rock song), "Spending My Time" and "Church of Your 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 with which Roxette's music had seemingly blended perfectly.
The group's European success was reflected in a 1992 Germany's ECHO Award (the equivalent of the Grammy) nomination for the International Group of the Year. They also won a Swedish Grammis Award as Best Pop Group and two Rockbjörnens: for Best Swedish Album and Best Swedish Group.
Tourism
Roxette continued the Join the Joyride tour through the end of 1991. Instead of releasing a brand-new full-length album, Gessle and Fredriksson re-mastered older recordings, including several slated for but not included on Look Sharp! and Joyride. They also recorded some of their live performances, recorded a country-and-western-inspired version of "It Must Have Been Love" in a Los Angeles studio, and recorded new material in various locations around the world — an empty dance club, an un-air-conditioned hotel room — and compiled everything on to the album Tourism: Songs from Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places, released in October 1992. Gessle has said that the album was meant to "capture the energy within the band", especially in the spontaneous performance of songs such as "Here Comes the Weekend" and "Never Is a Long Time."
The first single off the album was "How Do 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 UK in over a year with "How Do You Do!" (#58 in the U.S.).
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). It brought her second Swedish Grammis Award, this time as Artist of the Year.
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. At home, Roxette won a Rockbjörnen Award for Best Swedish Group, the last Rockbjörnen the group would receive, though there have been nominations in the years since.
"Almost Unreal"
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 UK Top 10 at the end of 1993 as well.
Also in 1993, Roxette received their second ECHO Award nomination for the International Group of the Year.
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Roxette took a turn – "adult", as Marie Fredriksson described – with the 1994 release of Crash! Boom! Bang!, an ambitious set of music both loud and, at times, somber. Bryan Buss of the All Music Guide wrote, "To go from the painfully pretty 'Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)' on Joyride to the apathetic 'Vulnerable' to the haunting and powerful title track of the same name on this album shows a serious downward slide.... Though the two have an edge on this album, they almost seem to have become 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 UK Top 20, as well as returning Roxette to No. 1 in Sweden after several years. Subsequent releases, including the title track, "Fireworks", and "Run To You", 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, albeit scaled-down, worldwide tour, skipping the United States in the process. It was during this tour that Roxette became the first Western band to be allowed to perform in China (Indoor Workers Stadium, Beijing) since Wham! in 1985. The procedure to get permission for this concert had taken years, and included self-censoring the lyrics. The band did re-write some of their lyrics but used the original lyrics after all during the concert.
Crash! Boom! Bang! would be the last Roxette release EMI would issue in the United States.
Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!
In 1995, Roxette released the greatest-hits compilation Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!, which featured new songs released as singles as well, 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.
Also that year, Roxette received their third ECHO Award nomination for the International Group of the Year.
Baladas En Español
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, Chile and other parts of South America, reaching platinum in Spain. Also in 1996, Marie Fredriksson released another solo Swedish-language album, I En Tid Som Vår ("In a Time Like Ours"). Meanwhile, Gessle reunited with Gyllene Tider for what turned out to be a wildly successful tour in Sweden that brought the band two Grammis awards — Best Artist and Best Song ("Gå och Fiska") — and a Rockbjörnen for Best Song.
Have a Nice Day
Per Gessle released a solo English-language album, The World According to Gessle, in 1997. One song "I'll Be Alright", featured Fredriksson singing background.
Gessle and Fredriksson reunited in 1998 to record material for a new Roxette album, Have a Nice Day, which was released in March 1999. Containing elements of techno and house music, Have a Nice Day produced singles that returned Roxette to the upper half of the Swedish singles chart. The first single, "Wish I Could Fly", came as close to the UK Top 10 (no. 11) as any single Roxette had released since 1993. It was named the 7th most played song of 1999 on European radio. Damas of the All Music Guide called Have a Nice Day "an effort to encapsulate Roxette's trademark sound with Brit-pop and electronica, and, by gosh, it works." He called one of the tracks, "You Can't Put Your Arms Around What's Already Gone", "quite possibly the best song (Gessle has) ever written." Sales were brisk in South America as well, but there was no U.S. release of Have a Nice Day.
In 2000, Fredriksson released her own greatest-hits compilation of her Swedish-language material, titled after one of her songs, "Äntligen" ("At Last"). The album went on to be a big seller in Sweden, peaking at No. 1 for three weeks, sold respectably abroad, and resulted in a successful tour. Meanwhile, Roxette signed a U.S. distribution deal with Edel Music, which re-released Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!, replacing some non-U.S. hits with songs from Have a Nice Day. It resulted in the most recent chart action for Roxette in US: the single Wish I Could Fly included in the album reached No. 27 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and No. 40 on the Adult Top 40 tally.
Room Service
Room Service followed in 2001 to some critical raves. "Probably the best Roxette album since Joyride", wrote Leslie Mathew of the All Music Guide. "Room Service is an exciting, immediate, high-gloss pop gem that contains very 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 United Kingdom. It was followed by "Milk and Toast and Honey." Roxette again went on tour all over Europe.
The Ballad Hits / The Pop Hits
After that came a 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 and never heard before tracks.The single A Thing About You was released as the lead single from The Ballad Hits. The album was released in the UK for valentine's day 2003 and entered the chart at number 11, their biggest album hit since 1995. The single "Opportunity Nox" was released from The Pop Hits in 2003.
In 2001, at the Grammis ceremony, Roxette received a Music Export Prize from the Swedish Government, and the group won the World Music Award as the Best Selling Scandinavian Artist of the Year with The Ballad Hits which sold over a million copies within a year.
Solo albums success of 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 (300,000 copies shipped). The album brought Gessle four Grammis awards: Best Artist, Best Male Pop Performer, Best Composer and Best Song ("Här Kommer alla Känslorna (På en och Samma Gång)"). He also won three Rockbjörnen awards— Best Swedish Male Artist, Best Swedish Album and Best Swedish Song — and a Guldälgen (The Golden Moose) Award for Best Song.
In 2004, Gessle and Gyllene Tider reunited for a 25th-anniversary celebration that included the band's first album in 20 years, Finn 5 fel!, and another wildly successful tour in Sweden. By the end of the tour, the band had played to almost half a million (492,252) fans, resulting in the second biggest tour in Europe that year. As a result, the group was honored with two Grammis awards, for Best Pop Group and Best Music DVD, and two Rockbjörnen awards, for Best Swedish Group and Best Swedish Album.
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 alone. The first single, "2:nd Chance", entered the Swedish singles chart straight in at number 1, and entered in some other charts around Europe, i.e Germany, Finland. Leading to it being critically acclaimed and showed up on a number of import charts pick of the month. The album to date has sold more than 350,000 and has seen several other international radio releases, including "All About You" and "A 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 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 re-mixes and covers. Among them: two prominent versions of "Fading Like a Flower", one a trance cover by German group Mysterio and one a sampling by Dancing DJs that reached the UK's dance chart. Also, there was a"white label" (independent, unauthorized) release, "Joyride 2005" which clubs in the United Kingdom played, and still does seem very popular by white label standards, but roxette's management is slow to pick up on the success.
Son of a Plumber/Min bäste vän and a reunion of sorts
On November 23, 2005, Per Gessle released his first English-language solo album in eight years. Titled Son of a Plumber.
He was in the middle of publicizing for the album when, on November 29, 2005, Gessle and Marie Fredriksson appeared at the Dorchester Hotel in London at a presentation of awards by Broadcast Music Incorporated, better known as BMI. Gessle received an award for "It Must Have Been Love", which, by 2005, had been played on U.S. radio more than 4 million times. He and co-songwriter Mats Persson also received an award for Dance Song of the Year for D.H.T.'s cover of "Listen to Your Heart." The single was certified platinum the previous month by the RIAA.
The ceremony marked the first time Gessle and Fredriksson had appeared in public together since before the onset of Fredriksson's brain tumor and subsequent surgery in 2002. When asked by an Aftonbladet reporter if there would be a Roxette reunion, Gessle replied, "We haven't decided yet. No doors are closed.… We're still young".
Marie returned in 2006 with an album of Swedish cover songs, titled "Min bäste vän" (My Best Friend). The single Sommaräng was released on May 17, 2006. Min bäste vän is a cover album with songs from the 1960s and 1970s from Marie's childhood.
A Collection of Roxette Hits and The RoxBox
In mid 2006, Roxette released to radio "The Rox Medley" to promote the forthcoming "20th Anniversary package" made up of the new single, "One Wish", a new standard compilation Greatest hits album, "A Collection of Roxette Hits - Their 20 Greatest Songs!", and a 4cd+DVD boxset known as "The Rox Box / Roxette 86-06". The cover of the Rox Box bore the line "It Was Twenty Years Ago Today...", a nod to Gessle's lifelong fandom of the Beatles, coming as it does from the song Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Shortly afterwards "The Rox Medley" was released as a digital download on iTunes - even reaching no.1 on download charts in Sweden.
The medley includes six Roxette hit singles: "The Look", "Joyride", "Listen to Your Heart", "Dangerous", "It Must Have Been Love" and "Fading Like a Flower (Everytime You Leave)."
This medley was eventually released as the b-side to the single "One Wish".
"One Wish" was released internationally on October 6. It is described as "uptempo" and features both Fredriksson and Gessle singing lead. It was their first new song in 4 years and was recorded to commemorate Roxette's successful 20 years in the music Industry. The cover art for the new single shows Per and Marie in a bowling alley. The new video was made up of new and old images from different music videos by roxette over the years.
A new compilation album, "A Collection of Roxette Hits - Their 20 Greatest Songs!" was released on October 18, 2006 and is expected to be released in the United States on January 16, 2007. It features the single, "One Wish", as well as another newly recorded song, "Reveal".
On February 14, 2007 the single "Reveal" was released, not internationally, but "here and there". Following rumours that Per Gessle was somewhat unhappy with the album version of "Reveal" a special "single version" has been created and released to radio. It is slightly altered and features a new middle eight with a guitar and new backing vocals. A new "Attic remake" version has also been created and should be released soon.
In a recent radio interview on Vancouver Island's CKWV-FM "The Wave", Gessle shared information about the Roxette single, "One Wish" and "The Rox Box / Roxette 86-06" "It's four CDs, a DVD, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, outtakes and demos and stuff. It's like a coffee table thing, and it's really, really big [with an] 80-page booklet and stuff."
The interview conducted by Producer, Ian Seggie
Gessle also shared his feelings about working with Fredriksson again:
"It was, in fact, wonderful, and emotional of course. But also ... it took about like an hour, and then we're back in the groove. It was the same jokes, the same... everything was like the same. So, even though time has gone by, it feels as if time has stood still for a bit so... It's not like it was before because, you know, Marie is somewhat a changed person because of all that she's gone through. But nevertheless, she still sings very well and, you know, it's just been a pleasure to be able to record these songs. If you had asked me like 2 years ago if this would ever happen, I would definitely would never believed it to have happened. I'm really pleased that we actually could do it."
By Anders Nunstedt, Expressen 2006
"20 Years of Making Pop History"
It's 20 years ago this year that Roxette made its single debut in Sweden. The rest is pop history, now with a happy ending. It could have ended considerably worse. When Marie Fredriksson in the autumn of 2002 was struck by a brain tumor, it was a shock not only for the Roxette singer but also for everyone close to her. "It was scary. There are different grades of cancer and of course one lived in suspense. I don't even think the chance was 50/50 for her to make it", Per Gessle says. "It's amazing that Marie has recovered. Now Roxette is back, even if on a different premise. Per Gessle, who has been amazingly productive during the 2000s, explains that the initiative to Roxette's comeback came from Marie. "When the compilation became viable it was she who suggested that we should record a new song." It became more than that. On the "Greatest Hits" record released October there is, in addition to the single "One Wish", the ballad "Reveal." "Actually we haven't discussed if we are going to do something more. I don't know what I want to do. On the one hand it's fun, of course, but I have no idea if there's a point in continuing. It doesn't feel so tempting to go on promotion trips and sing playback in Vienna, Hamburg and Madrid", Gessle says. The question is also if Marie Fredriksson wants to, and can manage, a full commitment to Roxette. "One reconsiders everything" "It's naturally a different Marie today. When something like this happens one reconsiders everything. It doesn't help how many gold records you have hanging on the wall when you get ill", says Gessle. Per explains that "the singing voice is back at full strength, but there are other circumstances. She has a problem reading fast and trouble remembering things. Everything goes a little slower. Maybe it can be worked on, but it takes time." Roxette's participation in the "Världens barn" (Children of the World) gala tomorrow is a comeback against all odds. But there's no doubt they're back. "One Wish" immediately swooshed up to second place of the Swedish single chart and has also started to climb internationally. Today Per goes to New York to prepare Roxette's upcoming U.S. release. "Who would've thought that", Gessle says with a laugh. "Now we're actually back, and have really no idea where it's gonna end."
source Expressen 2006
Unreleased tracks included in "The Rox Box / Roxette 86-06" collection are: Reveal, One Wish, New World, Staring at the Ground (demo), Myth, Cry (demo), Love Spins, Anyone/I Love How You Love Me, Better off on your own, Bla Bla Bla Bla (You Broke My Heart), and Help!. Also included is other rare tracks previoused released but hard to find.
Discography
Albums
Studio albums
- The Heartland Café (1984, credited to Gyllene Tider, though a six-track EP was released in the United States by Capitol Records under the name Roxette, most dismiss this as Roxette, as do Per and Marie)
- Pearls of Passion (1986, the first album 'Officially' with Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson appearing as the band Roxette — reissued in 1996 with bonus tracks)
- 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
- Have a Nice Day (1999) #28 UK, #62 AUS
- Room Service (2001)
Compilations
- Dance Passion (1987, vinyl-only re-mix album of Roxette's first album, Pearls of Passion.)
- 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)
- Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! - Roxette's Greatest Hits (2000, revised version released under Edel Records in the United States)
- The Ballad Hits (2002) #11 UK
- The Pop Hits (2003)
- A Collection of Roxette Hits - Their 20 Greatest Songs! (2006) #22 UK
- The Rox Box / Roxette 86-06 (4 cds and DVD compilation) (2006)
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)