Roxette
Roxette was a Swedish soft rock duo consisting of Per Gessle (guitars, vocals, main songwriter) and Marie Fredriksson (lead vocals). They were the second most successful pop group to come out of Sweden, and considering who's first, that's no mean feat. Their height of popularity was from the late 80s into the mid 90s, mainly because that's when their U.S. popularity faded and they went their separate ways. After a difficult period in the late noughties when Marie struggled with cancer, they announced their reunion and began a European comeback tour.
Already successful in their homeland, their international breakout came when the song "It Must Have Been Love" was included on the soundtrack of the film Pretty Woman and the highly successful single "The Look" was introduced on American radio by a DJ who bought the record while on holiday in Sweden. The duo subsequently gained nineteen UK Top 40 hits, and four US number one singles. They continue to be popular in Europe and South America, whereas they'll always be remembered in the U.S. as being strictly an 80s band.
- Pearls of Passion (1986)
- Look Sharp! (1988)
- Joyride (1991)
- Crash! Boom! Bang! (1994)
- Have a Nice Day (1999)
- Room Service (2001)
- Charm School (2011)
- Artist Existence Failure: Marie passed away in December 2019 from a brain cancer which she had fought for some seventeen years. A near miss with the initial tumor in 2002 left her with permanent disabilities which leads to...
- Determinator - Plucky Girl: After the surgery to remove the original tumor, Marie could no longer read or count, was blind in one eye and had some loss of movement in her right side - none of which stopped her performing a full world tour with the band.
- Greatest Hits Album: One of their best known ones acknowledged the Ear Worm qualities of their songs with the title, Don't Bore Us, Get To The Chorus!
- Intercourse with You: While rare compared to the songs about love and general happiness that make up the majority of the band's oeuvre, there are some examples of this too, "Sleeping In My Car" probably being the most obvious.
- New Sound Album: "Have a Nice Day" veered into this territory, the up-tempo songs in particular featuring a lot more electronic instrumentation than the fans were accustomed to.
- Non-Indicative Name: The title track of the album "Crash! Boom! Bang!" is a ballad. Not even one of Roxette's signature power ballads (see below), but an honest-to-goodness ballad, in 3/4 time and with violins.
- Power Ballad: A staple of the band's oeuvre. "Listen To Your Heart" is a pretty well known example. Per Gessle has explained that it was intended to be a homage to the FM radio tunes that were big in America during the eighties.
- Throw It In: The lyrics to "The Look" were originally "guide lyrics" -- words just scribbled down just to have something to sing to the tune while working on it. Per couldn't come up with anything better and decided to roll with it, saying, "Everyone gets lucky sometimes." That said, it didn't stop them from being...
- Word Salad Lyrics: "The Look", for reasons noted above:
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Fire in the ice |
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