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The Look

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This article is about the Roxette song. For other uses, see Look (disambiguation).
"The Look"
Song

"The Look", written by Per Gessle and performed by Roxette, was released as a single in early 1989 from the album Look Sharp!. The song became Roxette's international "breakthrough" song, finally exposing the duo to music consumers outside of the duo's native Sweden and Europe after more than one attempt. It topped the U.S. singles chart in 1989 becoming their first U.S. #1 success and scored #7 on the UK Singles Chart. The song also topped the charts in 24 other countries.[1]

Background

While still unknown outside of Sweden, Roxette released their second album Look Sharp! With the success of the first two singles from the album, they toured Sweden again. When "The Look" was about to be released in Sweden as the third single, an American exchange student named Dean Cushman returned from Sweden and urged radio station, KDWB in Minneapolis, to play "The Look". From there, "The Look" spread on cassette copies to other radio stations. With the song's radio success, EMI quickly released "The Look". Suddenly, Roxette had a #1 scoring single in the United States, and the record wasn't even released. When Look Sharp! was finally released, it was able to debut on the U.S. album charts at #50, an unusual feat at the time for a newcomer artist, and later scored #23, eventually staying in the charts for 71 weeks.

According to Gessle the first two verses lyrics were guide lyrics but were kept anyway; however, many listeners interpret such lines as "tasty like a raindrop", "heaven's got a number when she's spinning me around", and "shaking like a mad bull" as sexually connotative.

"Walking like a man, hitting like a hammer"... the first two verses are guide lyrics, words just scribbled down to have something to sing. Couldn't come up with anything better, so we kept them. Everybody gets lucky sometimes...

Per Gessle[2]

Track listings

All formats were released on 12 January 1989, (by EMI/Parlophone; 1363337). Also released on many formats, including 3" CD, 5" CD, and 12" vinyl. Included on most of those was The Look (Head-Drum Mix). The first edition of the vinyls was in red vinyl. A few exist in clear vinyl.

Remix: "The Look '95"

"The Look"
Song

Background

"The Look '95" is a remixed version of Roxette's hit song and it was only released commercially in the UK in connection with the release of their greatest hits album Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! - Roxette's Greatest Hits.

This version of the song does not appear on the album, but two of the versions from this single were eventually included on the European release of the single "She Doesn't Live Here Anymore".

Track listings

CD maxi 1
  1. "The Look" (chaps 1995 remix) (5:08)
  2. "The Look" (chaps donna bass mix) (6:53)
  3. "The Look" (rapino club mix) (5:22)
  4. "The Look" (rapino dub mix) (5:14)
CD maxi 2
  1. "The Look" (chaps 1995 remix) (5:10)
  2. "The Look" (original version) (3:59)
  3. "Crazy About You" (3:59)
  4. "Dressed for Success" (U.S. mix) (4:53)

Charts

Chart (1989)[3][4][5][6][7][8] Peak
position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart 1
Austrian Singles Chart 2
Dutch Singles Chart 2
European Hot 100 1
Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)[9] 1
French Singles Chart 12
German Singles Chart 1
Irish Singles Chart 10
Italian Singles Chart 1
New Zealand Singles Chart 1
Norwegian Singles Chart 1
Spain (AFYVE)[10] 1
Swedish Singles Chart 6
Swiss Singles Chart 1
UK Singles Chart 7
Chart (1995)[11] Peak
position
UK Singles Chart 28
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play 47

End of year charts

End of year chart (1989) Position
Australian Singles Chart[12] 2

Cover versions

  • An English language cover of the song was recorded by the Spanish band, The Stunned Parrots, for their debut album Vol. 1 - Pining for the Fjords. An audio sample can be heard on their official website.[13]
  • A rockabilly cover of this song recorded by the German band The Baseballs was included on their debut album Strike in 2009.
  • A Cantonese language cover of "The Look" was perform by the Hong Kong pop singer, Alan Tam.(Chinese name of the song:你知我知)
  • Austrian band I Am Cereals recorded a cover of the song. An audio sample can be heard on their official website.[14]
  • In 2011, Tommy Johansson of the band ReinXeed covered the song for the compilation Swedish Hitz Goes Metal, with guest vocals by PelleK.
  • Candlelight Red included a modern rock cover of the song on their 2011 album The Wreckage, and released the single "She's Got the Look" in March 2012.[15]

Appearances in other media

In 1990s, an adaptation of "The Look" was used in a television advertisement of India's Lakmé Cosmetics featuring Aishwariya Rai. In 2009, "The Look" was used in a trailer and TV commercial for the game Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City.[16][17] Also it can heard on ingame radio station Vice City FM.

"The Look" appears as a playable track in the 2010 music rhythm game Rock Band 3.

The song appeared in the Family Guy episode "Baby Not on Board" when Stewie announced his remorse for staying up all night listening to Persian radio.

Danniella Westbrook skated to the song during props week as a sexy secretary in the UK reality show Dancing on Ice where, after being in the skate-off for the previous two weeks, she came top of the leaderboard, beating the favorite skater, and being safe in the results, taking her to the semi-final.

References

  1. ^ "Roxette - News". Roxette.se. Retrieved 2011-12-11.
  2. ^ "[[Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!]] liner notes". www.pergessle.net. {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  3. ^ "The Look", in various Singles Chart Lescharts.com (Retrieved 10 April 2008)
  4. ^ German Singles Chart Charts-surfer.de (Retrieved 10 April 2008)
  5. ^ Irish Single Chart Irishcharts.ie (Retrieved 10 April 2008)
  6. ^ Italian Single Chart Hit parade Italia (Retrieved 30 May 2008)
  7. ^ UK Singles Chart Chartstats.com (Retrieved 10 April 2008)
  8. ^ Billboard Billboard.com (Retrieved 10 April 2008)
  9. ^ Nyman, Jake (2005). Suomi soi 4: Suuri suomalainen listakirja (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Tammi. ISBN 951-31-2503-3.
  10. ^ Salaverri, Fernando (2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  11. ^ UK Singles Chart Chartstats.com (Retrieved 10 April 2008)
  12. ^ "ARIA Charts - End of Year Charts - Top 50 Singles 1989". Aria.com.au. Retrieved 2011-12-11.
  13. ^ "Stunned Parrots". Stunned Parrots. Retrieved 2011-12-11.
  14. ^ "Galaxy". I Am Cereals. Retrieved 2012-04-14.
  15. ^ "Candlelight Red Hits Radio Hard With She's Got The Look Single / Prepare To Hit The Road With Trapt". Evigshed. 2012-03-01. Retrieved 2012-03-06.
  16. ^ "Roxette's official website".
  17. ^ "GTA: The Ballad of Tony Gay - official website".
Preceded by Billboard Hot 100 number-one single
8 April 1989 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Norwegian number-one single
17/1989 – 24/1989 		Succeeded by
Preceded by New Zealand (RIANZ) number-one single
5 May 1989 – 12 May 1989
26 May 1989 		Succeeded by
Preceded by German number one single
26 May 1989 – 23 June 1989 		Succeeded by
"Das Omen (Teil I)" by Mysterious Art
Swiss number one single
28 May 1989 – 16 July 1989 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Australian (ARIA) number one single
2 July 1989 – 6 August 1989 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Look&oldid=532149343"