Roxette

Sat 25 Feb ,

Rock

Hey, you fool, they love you: the Swedish hit machine return

First published on 6 Aug 2011. Updated on 26 Feb 2012.

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1. ‘The Look’, 1989
This was the song that broke the Swedish duo in the US and, from there, the world. They’d released a few respectable hits in their homeland but things changed after an American exchange student took his copy of Look Sharp to an LA radio DJ. Take note, local bands: maybe you should start dropping off demos at youth hostels.

Key lyric: “Na na na na, na na na na na/Na nana nana na na, na na na na na na na…”

2. ‘It Must Have Been Love’, 1990

Their super-ballad was written for the Pretty Woman soundtrack and cemented the band’s position as crazy-massive hitmakers. And the song has it all: key changes, soaring held notes, indistinctly romantic lyrics. It’s a wonder Celine Dion hasn’t covered it.

Key lyric: “It must have been love but it's over now/It must have been good but I lost it somehow”

3. ‘Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)’, 1991

The duo took note of their American success and released this, a power ballad in the spirit of Heart with big chunky power chords and an impassioned video clip in which roses fell and shattered in slow motion. And the planet lapped it up.

Key lyric: “Every time you leave the room I feel I'm fading like a flower/Fading like a rose”

4. ‘Sleeping in My Car’, 1994

By the time Roxette released Crash! Boom! Bang!, the hits were starting to dry up a bit. The pair were also working on more stuff outside of the band and the pace of tours and albums slowed over the next decade, until 2002 when the band were forced on hiatus when Marie Fredricksson underwent treatment for a brain tumour. She’s fine now, though it was touch and go for a bit there.

Key lyric: “My heart is going boom/There's a strange taste in my mouth”

5. ‘She’s Got Nothing On (But the Radio)’, 2011

Their comeback single from last year’s Charm School, marking their first new material in five years, their world tour and three Sydney EntCent shows, the first two of which sold out in a scant few days. You’d be well advised to hurry up if you plan to get along to show #3 too.

Key lyric: “Like the break of day/She takes my breath away”

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Words by Ellison Ward