Editing Roxette (section)

=== 1988–1991: International breakthrough ===
In the duo's native Sweden, "[[Dressed for Success]]" and "[[Listen to Your Heart (Roxette song)|Listen to Your Heart]]" were chosen as the first two singles from their second album ''[[Look Sharp! (Roxette 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."<ref name="albumnotes">{{Cite AV media notes |last=Lindström |first=Sven |title=Don't Bore Us – Get to the Chorus! |url=http://www.pergessle.net/pearls/roxette/bdbugttc.html |year=1995 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120725152236/http://www.pergessle.net:80/pearls/roxette/bdbugttc.html |chapter=Album notes |others=Roxette |publisher=EMI |access-date=2024-06-16 |archive-date=2012-07-25 |url-status=usurped |type=booklet}}</ref> Both singles reached the top 10 of the [[Sverigetopplistan|Swedish singles chart]], while the album, which was released in Sweden in October 1988, held the No.&nbsp;1 position for 14 weeks.<ref name=Swedishcharts>{{cite web|url=http://swedishcharts.com/search.asp|title=Swedish charts archive|publisher=Hung Medien|access-date=29 November 2010}}</ref> 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."<ref name=Roxettestory-p1/> However, the album won Roxette their first [[Rockbjörnen]] awards in Sweden and Gessle his first [[Grammis]] award in the category Best Composer.<ref name="grammis">[http://www.ifpi.se/wp/wp-content/uploads/Grammmis-vinnare-genom-%C3%A5ren.pdf] {{dead link|date=December 2017|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref><ref name=rockbjornen>{{cite web |url=http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/musik/rockbjornen2011/article12332776.ab |title=Rockbjörnen&nbsp;– tidigare vinnare |date=27 May 2010 |trans-title=Previous winners |publisher=[[Aftonbladet]] / [[Rockbjörnen]] |access-date=9 January 2012}}</ref>

{{listen
   | filename = Roxette - The Look sample.ogg
   | title = "The Look"
   | description = "[[The Look]]" topped the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the US on 8 April 1989 and would go on to top the charts in 25 other countries.
}}
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.<ref name="latimes"/><ref name=Roxettestory-p2>{{cite news |url=http://www.expressen.se/article.asp?id=63685 |title=Sagan om Roxette: Tacka Dean för succén |trans-title=Lord of Roxette: Thank Dean for success (part 2) |newspaper=Expressen |date=14 April 2001 |first=Ninni |last=O Schulman |language=sv |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010420035208/http://www.expressen.se/article.asp?id=63685 |archive-date=20 April 2001 |access-date=22 December 2011}}</ref><ref name=bbctalkingshop>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7990226.stm|title=BBC news Talking Shop: Roxette's Per Gessle |date=15 April 2009 |work=BBC News |access-date=22 December 2011}}</ref><ref name=latimes1989>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-09-23-ca-741-story.html |title=Sweden's Roxette Is Making It Big Almost by Accident |date=23 September 1989 |first=J.D. |last=Considine |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=23 December 2011}}</ref> Fredriksson dismissed rumors that Cushman was paid to take the record to the radio station.<ref name="latimes"/>

EMI had previously rejected Roxette as unsuitable for the American market and they did not have a recording contract there,<ref name="latimes"/><ref name=latimes1989/> 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.&nbsp;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,<ref name=roxofficial>{{cite web|url=http://www.roxette.se|title=Roxette's official website (Click on Biography)|access-date=11 January 2012}}</ref> and at the end of the year, ''Billboard'' named "The Look" one of the 20 biggest Hot 100 singles of the year.

{{quote box
| width = 28%
| quote = "The Big Bad Ballad. This is us trying to recreate that overblown American FM-rock sound to the point where it almost becomes absurd. We really wanted to see how far we could take it. When it hit big in the States we suddenly found ourselves lumped together with bands like Heart and [[Starship (band)|Starship]], which wasn't the intention behind Roxette at all. But we got out of that one... I hope."
| author = Gessle, talking about "Listen to Your Heart".<ref name=albumnotes/>
}}

"Dressed for Success", featuring Fredriksson on lead vocals with Gessle singing short parts, was the second international single. The single peaked at No.&nbsp;14 on the [[Billboard Hot 100|Hot 100]] as well as at No.&nbsp;3 in Australia.<ref name=RoxBillboard>{{cite magazine |url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p5312|tab=charts-awards/billboard-singles|pure_url=yes}} |title=Roxette's Billboard chart history |magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] |access-date=11 January 2012}}</ref><ref name=Auscharts>{{cite web |url=http://australian-charts.com/search.asp |title=Australian charts archive |access-date=27 January 2012}}</ref> "Listen to Your Heart" was released thereafter; it differed from previous singles and instead resembled the guitar-heavy ballads of [[Heart (band)|Heart]]. Spending a single week at No.&nbsp;1 in the US in November 1989, it bore the distinction of being the first US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 No.&nbsp;1 not to be commercially available on 7-inch vinyl.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mroOLw8XZr8C&q=roxette+listen+heart+vinyl&pg=PT106 |title=1989: Bob Dylan Didn't Have This to Sing About |page=106 |first=Joshua |last=Clover |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-25255-4 |year=2009}}</ref><ref>The Look for Roxette discography confirms "Listen to Your Heart" wasn't commercially available on vinyl.{{cite web |url=http://www.thelookforroxette.com/search.html?search_id=144272&offset=0 |title=The Look for Roxette discography |access-date=8 March 2010}}</ref>

A fourth single, "[[Dangerous (Roxette 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.&nbsp;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.<ref name=Auscharts/><ref name=Gercharts>{{cite web |url=http://www.musicline.de/de/chartverfolgung_summary/artist/Roxette/22279/single |title=German charts archive |publisher=Phononet |access-date=27 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613044931/http://www.musicline.de/de/chartverfolgung_summary/artist/Roxette/22279/single |archive-date=13 June 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref> "Dangerous" was released as a double A-side single in the UK with "Listen to Your Heart".<ref name="OCC"/>

==== "It Must Have Been Love"&nbsp;– ''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]].<ref name=roxbook>Lundgren & Wikström: (1992) p.?</ref> 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.<ref name=roxbook/> The film's producers turned it down, asking for another song, but Gessle declined to produce another song.<ref name=roxbook/> 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.<ref name=roxbook/> 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.&nbsp;1 on the Hot 100 in June 1990, three months after the film's release, and stayed for two additional weeks at No.&nbsp;2, spending a total of seventeen weeks in the top 40. ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' named the song the No.&nbsp;2 Hot 100 single of the year, behind [[Wilson Phillips]]'s "[[Hold On (Wilson Phillips song)|Hold On]]".<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_display.jsp?f=The+Billboard+Hot+100&g=Year-end+Singles&year=1990 |title=Billboard's 1990 year end chart |magazine=Billboard |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061020154216/http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_display.jsp?f=The+Billboard+Hot+100&g=Year-end+Singles&year=1990 |archive-date=20 October 2006}}</ref> The single also topped the charts in more than 20 other countries (including Australia<ref name=Auscharts/>) around the world. In Germany the single spent 9 months in the top 75, and peaked at No.&nbsp;3 in the UK, the duo's highest singles chart position there.<ref name="OCC"/><ref name=Gercharts/> The soundtrack went on to be certified three times platinum by the [[Recording Industry Association of America|RIAA]].<ref>{{cite certification |title=Pretty Woman |region=United States |access-date=1 February 2012}}</ref>