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June afternoon 4:15 The look 3:56 Dressed for success (U.S. single mix) 4:11 Listen to your heart (Swedish single edit) 5:14 Dangerous (Single version) 3:48 It must have been love (From the Pretty woman soundtrack) 4:19 Joyride (Single edit) 4:02 Fading like a flower (everytime you leave) 3:53 The big L. 4:28 Spending my time 4:38 How do you do! 3:12 Almost unreal (From the Super Marion Bros. soundtrack) 3:59 Sleeping in my car (Single edit) 3:33 Crash! Boom! Bang! (Single edit) 4:25 Vulnerable (Single edit) 4:30 She doesn't live here anymore 4:03
What did Roxette says about their songs: June
afternoon Marie
Fredriksson: This
is a very Per Geslle-ish song... straight, simple, sunny. Per Gessle: A
summer sing, written in the winter. Geslle-ish? Yeah, maybe. Marie: Yes,
it’s so much you,,, perfect for you to sing. Per: well, in my little
world songs like this have always topped the charts. I’ve sent lots of dead
simple songs like this to other artists and they all seem to have problems doing
them right, especially when they’ve got big voices – whereas I can get away
with it – almost. Marie: almost always. Per: you know, our
producer Clarence Öffwerman sometimes jokes about my songs being too much
„ice cream and balloons”, too jolly and lightweight – but this is actually
the first Roxette song to include both „ice cream” and „balloons” in the
lyrics. A nice first. You
don’t understand me Per:
Co-written with American songwriter Desmond Child, actually the first song ever
to be written with someone from the „outside”. It wasn’t intended to be
recorded by Roxette. Desmond came to Halmstadt in this summer, just to see if we
could create something together. He had this idea, I changed it around a bit,
and asked Marie to sing on the demo. Then I realized it suited us very well.
Marie: You can hear that there are two songwriters working here… it’s
like a mix between Europe and the US. Per: Greenland, almost. The
look Marie:
This is still one of my all time favorites, maybe the best thing we’ve ever
done – seven years old and it sticks out as much now as it did then. Per:
Our first American #1 and of course the Big Break. It topped the charts in some
30 countries but at the time I just thought it was a throwaway. Marie: I
couldn’t sing it, it suited Per perfectly. But he didn’t believe himself as
a singer in those days. Per: I always thought that we should promote the
song Marie sang. They were all written for her anyway, but some of them didn’t
suite her style. I mean, the whole idea behind Roxette was me writing clever
songs and Marie singing like a goddess and together we’d conquer the world. Me
being a lead singer wasn’t part of the plan, not for me anyway. Marie:
Proves that a great pop songs more about personality and attitude than just
singing technically good. Per: Thank you. Marie: After the first
studio playback do „The Look!” I said: „here’s our #1 hit in the
States”, which was just a wet dream for a Swedish band. Per: „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… Dressed
for success Per:
This was the first single of the „Look sharp!” in Sweden. I think this is
one of Marie’s best vocals performances ever. Marie: I was so mad when
I did it. Everything about the session went wrong, we argued about the
arrangement, we changed the key, I was dead tired of the song when I went in to
do a guide vocals. Did it in one blast and suddenly realized, „hmm…this is
it”. Per: We were knocked down in the control room. All thumbs up, all
differences forgotten and no need at all to mention the war. Marie: In
the beginning we used to misunderstand each other guide a lot. Per had all these
ideas that he tried to communicate. „No, that’s not the important word, do
it more this was”… it could really make me mad sometimes, as in this case. Per:
How to turn anger into hit singles. Listen
to your heart Per:
The Big Bad Ballad. This is us trying to recreate that overblown American
FM-rock sound to the point where it almost become absurd. We really wanted to
see how far we could take it. Marie: It sounds a bit dusty today, but it
was our second #1 in the US… Per: …which of course we couldn’t ever
dream about since it was more or less made for Sweden. When it hit big in the
States, we suddenly found ourselves lumped together with bands like Heart and
Starship, which wasn’t the intention behind Roxette at all. But we got out of
that one… I hope. Marie: the video was great. Shot with an American
crew at the Borgholm Castle. The director thought we had built the ruin just for
the video. Per: it took some time to convince them that the place
actually was for real. Marie: today we perform it in a stripped down
version, with acoustic guitars. Still love the melody. Dangerous Per:
This was written just before Roxette’s first tour in 1987. „She’s armed
and extremely dangerous” inspired by an early 70’s action movie. A nice
piece of bubblegum. Marie: hmm… Per: I know… you never liked
it that much. Neither did Don Johnson. He was recording an album at that time,
so I sent him „Dangerous”. He sent it back. Marie: Well, yeah… I
like the chorus… Per: …but as a whole this is probably more my thing.
Back to the Balloon Farm again. Ice cream and funny hats. Marie: it was
very big in the US, #2 and just a millimeter from Janet Jackson, who was #1. Per:
I didn’t take this personal, Don. It
must have been love Per:
It must have been lunch, but it’s over now… Marie: This is a
fantastic song… I love it… one of the best we’ve ever done… but I like
the original title more. Per: „Christmas for the broken-hearted”…
yeah, it was EMI Germany who said they could get us on the radio if we could
come up with and intelligent Christmas-single. it was a massive hit in Sweden,
but nothing happened elsewhere. It wasn’t ever released in Germany, not until
the „Pretty woman” soundtrack came out a few years later and the song just
exploded everywhere. Marie: Our third
in the US… not bad for a song that was lying around gathering dust. But
the video was a weird experience. The director wanted all movements in slow
motion, so I had to lip sync the vocals in double speed. My first lesson in how
to sing an emotional ballad Mickey Mouse style. A strange way to make a living. Joyride Per:
The fourth #1 in America. It all started with a message my girlfriend left on
the piano: „Hello, you fool – I love you”. Sounds like a chorus, I
thought. Marie: Absolutely wonderful to do live this one. Per: It’s
us doing a Magical Mystery Tour. Got the title from an interview with Paul
McCartney, when he said that writing songs with John Lennon was a long joyride.
Marie: Once again Per wasn’t sure that this should be the album opener… Per:
… I sang it, you know… but Marie was determined, so she had her way. It
turned out to be our biggest album to date, mainly because of this song. So
thanks for insisting. Marie: My pleasure. Fading
like a flower (every time you leave) Per:
Well, that’s us in those days. A pop tune followed by a power ballad. This was
written in a hotelroom in Canada late 1989. Marie: It’s probably the
most American sounding song we ever did. Per: A lot of people said we
sounded American. I always thought we came more from the English pop tradition.
Hard to tell here, though. Marie: A huge hit in Europe and #2 in the
US… Per: …after „Eternal flame” with the Bangles, another female
dominated American band. The
big L. Per:
Bubblegum time again, written in the spring of 1990 for the „Joyride” album.
Big single in Europe, never released in the US. Marie: I was a bit
skeptical in the beginning, but we changed the key in the chorus and there it
was. Per: We arranged it as a kind of dance tune, like „Dangerous”,
using sequencer and so on. Today I would have made it more lie „She doesn’t
live here anymore” – a quick rehearsal, tune up the guitars and go. A garage
tune should have a garage sound. Marie: Once again a very Gessle-ish
song. Per: Kinky guitar riff, instant chorus, the sun is out, bring the
beer. Spending
my time Marie:
This is a song I always love to perform. I do it without the band, just me by
the piano. Bittersweet and melancholic. It holds up very well through the years.
Per: Written the same day as „Joyride”, would you believe that? I
think the lyrics are what really makes this song word. It’s like a day full of
thoughts… but I never thought the melody matched the words really. Still I
believed this was going to be our biggest hit ever, which might have happened if
not our American record company had fired a lot of… ah, never mind. It’s a
big song for us, anyway. Marie: it’s got class. Per: The way
Marie sings this song make me proud of being part of this band. How
do you do! Per:
Groovy. Marie: Hmm… Per: The first single from „Tourism”,
which we recorded during the „Join the Joyride” World tour 1991-92. up to
this point our record sales had been almost ridiculous. Eight million „Look
sharp!”, nine million „Pretty woman”, ten million „Joyride”. It had
come down sooner or later. The idea behind „Tourism” was to record some new
tracks wherever we could book a studio, to benefit from the energy you get in a
touring band. Marie: We were back in Europe for stadium concerts in the
summer of 1992 and needed a single. One of our weakest, I think. Per: I
like it. It’s about a thousand ideas squeezed into one song. Hard to play
live, so we dropped it for a while. Had to get it back in the set, though. Fans
started to make flags and posters saying „Why
don’t you play How do you do?” I didn’t mind since Tiny Tim is mentioned
in the lyrics… Almost
unreal Per:
Written for a Bette Midler-movie, but ended up in the Super Mario Bros flop
instead. We thought it was cool to have a song in that movie, because we both
liked Dennis Hopper and Bob Hoskins. Marie: But that was before we saw
the movie. Per: I still like the song in a way… but if you wanted to
make a parody of Roxette, it would probably sound something like this. Marie:
Not one of our most inspired moments. Per: Right, no big surprises here.
Recorded in England and charted best there. That was a bit of surprise, though.
Marie: I was nine months pregnant when I recorded the vocals. Per:
That’s no surprise. Sleeping
in my car Per
and Marie:
This is a great song! Marie: A step in the right direction. It was just
before Christmas ’93 and we were listening to the first playback of the
„Crash! Boom! Bang!” album and realized we were all missing something. It
all sounded so… perfectly grown up. Per: We had worked for a year, much
too long, endless hours of studio time… I mean, I loved it but there was too
little P-O-P. Marie: The next day Per was back with this one and suddenly
we had something to start off the whole thing, a great first single. Per:
Went straight home, really pissed of, came up with this Neanderthal riff and
wrote it in an hour. We recorded it very fast with different musicians and it
was like becoming five years younger again… almost slim… haha. Crash!
Boom! Bang! Per:
Well, for a start everybody said that you can’t have a title like that on a
ballad like this. Marie: I just wished I’d written the lyrics myself.
This is the moment I wait for in our concerts. I love when the strings come
seeping in… Per: …Clarence at his best… a bit of Burt Bacharach
there, isn’t it? Always something to strive for. Yeah, this one is one of my
favorites too. The title’s from Elvis’ „Jailhouse rock”, by the way. Vulnerable Per:
The whole song was written around this wonderful word. Marie: Hard to say
for a Swede, though. Per: Yeah, vlnrbl… vullnr… it’s quite tricky.
This was written a week too late for the „Joyride” album and it didn’t
really suit the „Tourism” sessions, so we kept it in the drawer until we
started the „Crash” project in London. It’s a very dear song to me. She
doesn’t live here anymore Marie:
This was actually written a couple of years back and recorded for the
„Crash!” album, but that version sounded really tired. Per: A new
version was recorded with my former band, Gyllene Tider. We used to knock out
power pop tunes like this in our sleep back in 1980-81. this summer we re-united
shortly, just for the fun of it, and I was amazed by the energy level we had
both live and in the studio. Marie: This is the sound of Halmstadt in the
summertime. Per: Yeah, songs like these are the easiest to write, perform
and record. I feel totally at home here, it’s where I come from really. I
don’t want to get hurt
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