Sometimes
when it comes to picking topics for the blog, I get a mild case of
writer's block.
No,
actually, I don't think that's quite the word I want to use. I think
I'm going to coin a new phrase.
Topic
block.
I
suppose in some cases, it makes a lot of sense. I have been keeping
up this blog for almost two years now. Sometimes it gets harder and
harder to come up with fresh ideas when there comes a time in which
you believe you have used them all up.
So,
for today's edition of the Sunday Jukebox, I thought I would use a
rather unconventional method in choosing a song to spotlight. I
would put my iPod on shuffle, skip ahead to song #421 (the number
chosen because this entry will be posted on April 21), and go from
there.
As
it turned out, that method was a rather ingenious one, as the 421st
song on my iPod had an interesting story behind how it became a huge
hit in North America.
And
that story begins roughly around the holiday season of 1988.
At
the time, a musical duo was on tour promoting their second album all
around Scandinavian Europe, particularly in their native country of
Sweden. Although the duo had had several hit singles in their home
country, and even released their 1986 debut album in Canada, they
struggled to find an audience outside of their native country.
That
is, until an American exchange student by the name of Dean Cushman
inadvertedly helped the duo achieve their biggest worldwide hit ever.
At
the time that Cushman was visiting Sweden, the duo had just released
the third single from their album, “Look Sharp!”. Their previous
two singles, “Dressed for Success” and “Listen To Your Heart”
had already been released to some success in Sweden. Upon hearing
the single on the radio, Cushman bought a copy of the album, and upon
flying back home to America, sent the album to a radio station in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, and asked them to play the single on the air.
KDWB began to play the single, and within a few days, it made a huge
impact on the radio station, as listeners kept calling the station
requesting the song be played again, demanding to know who performed
it.
By
the beginning of 1989, the copy of the single had spread to other
radio stations throughout the nation, and it eventually hit the top
of the charts, despite the fact that the album had not even been
released in the United States! By the time “Look Sharp!” was
released in the United States later on in the year, it debuted at #50
on the Billboard 200 – a fantastic claim to fame for a new artist!
So,
would you like to know what the song was that helped make “Roxette”
a household name? It happens to be the one below.
ARTIST:
Roxette
SONG:
The Look
ALBUM:
Look Sharp!
DATE
RELEASED: January 12, 1989
PEAK
POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1
for 1 week
I
remember “The Look” being played almost constantly during my
elementary school years. I think that during the period between 1989
and 1994, I must have heard that song playing approximately five
hundred times. Not that I minded though. It was a great song back
in the day, and it's still a good song today!
In
fact, I'll actually admit to owning the “Look Sharp!” album back
in the day. What can I say? There's just something about Sweden.
Of course, they also brought us ABBA and ABBA lookalike band Ace of
Base.
Anyway,
less about them. More about Roxette.
Roxette
is made up of the duo of Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson. Both
musicians can be heard singing vocals, though Marie tends to sing a
lot more than Per did.
(Part
of the reason I'm glad that “The Look” was chosen for my as the
topic was because it's the perfect song that showcases both singers.)
The
duo first met in the year 1979 in Halmstad, Sweden. At the time,
both were committed to other projects. Marie was in the band Strul
and MaMas Barn, while Per was enjoying success as a member of the
band Gyllene Tider (at the time, one of Sweden's most successful
bands).
TRIVIA:
Per also worked on former ABBA singer Frida's album “Something's
Going On”.
When
Marie Fredriksson left her band in the early 1980s, she began singing
background vocals for Gyllene Tider in 1981, and by 1984, she joined
the band on background vocals again for their only English album,
“The Heartland Cafe”.
That
album was released in Sweden in February 1984, and sold a modest
45,000 copies in Sweden. Doesn't sound like a lot, does it? Though
the English-language album did attract attention from Capitol/EMI,
and they made plans to release six of the eleven songs on an EP
record under the name “Heartland”. The only catch was that the
band needed a new name, as Gyllene Tider didn't quite roll off the
tongue.
(In
fact, I'll be honest. I have no idea how to pronounce Gyllene Tider,
and if I tried, I'd likely sound like the Swedish Chef.)
Bork!
Bork! Bork!
Ahem...anyway,
the band settled on their new American name after the title of a 1975
single from Dr. Feelgood.
Roxette.
Now,
Roxette did attempt to break out into the United States market four
years before their big break came. In 1985, the group released a
single, “Teasing Japanese”, and the music video actually found
its way to the MTV headquarters in New York City. But while the
singles did well in their native Sweden, they fizzled everywhere
else, and by the end of the year, the band had broken up, and Per and
Marie split off to record solo albums recorded entirely in Swedish.
But
Rolf Nygren, then the Managing Director of EMI, refused to give up on
Per Gessle and Marie Fredrikssen. He came up with the idea that Per
and Marie should begin singing together as a duo using the Roxette
name that they used for the American release that never came to be.
The two agreed to try it out, and their first single was a song that
Per had initially written in Swedish, but had translated in English
to become “Neverending Love”. It sold 50,000 copies in Sweden,
and peaked within the Top 10 in 1986.
Riding
on the wave of success, the duo went to the studios to record their
first full-length album, “Pearls of Passion” in October 1986.
And, once again, their songs did very well in Sweden, but not so much
anywhere else in the world.
It
wasn't until Dean Cushman brought over a copy of the band's second
album back home with him that their big break in America came.
“The
Look” was only the first of many hits for Roxette stateside. Just
have a look at the songs that they also released in North America as
well as their peak position on the charts. In fact, if you click the
links, you can hear these songs in full.
So,
as you can see, their popularity in the United States lasted about
five years. Their last Top 50 hit was nineteen years ago, and they
have not had one since. However, they are still, wildly popular in
their native Sweden, as well as all throughout Europe and Latin
America. They have had hits in Europe as recently as 2010, when
their single “She's Got Nothing On (But The Radio)” hit the top 10
in Austria and Germany.
But
their career and their partnership together was threatened in
September 2002 when Marie became ill. She suffered a concussion
after falling in her home and striking her head. It was discovered
shortly after that the reason behind the fainting spell was due to a
brain tumour. Surgery was performed immediately, and Marie spent the
next few years recovering. At that time, Per Gessle embarked on a
solo career. By 2005, Marie's condition had improved enough for her
to begin recording music again, and four years later, Gessle and
Fredrikssen reunited as Roxette for the first time in nearly eight
years.
And,
that's our “look” back on Roxette.
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