Roxette was a Swedish pop rock duo, consisting of Marie Fredriksson (vocals) and Per Gessle. Formed in 1986, the duo became an international act in the late 1980s, when they released their breakthrough second album Look Sharp! Their third album Joyride, released in 1991, became as successful as its predecessor. Roxette went on to achieve nineteen UK Top 40 hits, and several US Hot 100 hits, including four US number-ones with "The Look", "Listen to Your Heart", "It Must Have Been Love", featured on the soundtrack of Pretty Woman, and "Joyride". Their other hits include "Dressed for Success", "Dangerous", and "Fading Like a Flower".
Per Håkan Gessle is a Swedish singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the male half and primary songwriter of the pop rock duo Roxette, which he formed with Marie Fredriksson in 1986 and which was disbanded after her death in 2019. The duo achieved international success in the late 1980s and early 1990s with their albums Look Sharp! (1988) and Joyride (1991), and topped the charts in the US four times, most notably with "It Must Have Been Love" which was featured in the film Pretty Woman. Prior to the formation of Roxette, he had a successful career in his native Sweden as the frontman for Gyllene Tider. The band released three number-one albums during the early 1980s but disbanded shortly after their fourth album, The Heartland Café (1984).
Pearls of Passion is the debut studio album by Swedish pop duo Roxette, originally released on cassette and vinyl on 31 October 1986 in Scandinavia and Canada. The album was remastered and released on CD on 31 October 1997, with several previously unreleased bonus tracks. It was remastered and re-released again in 2009.
Have a Nice Day is the sixth studio album by Swedish pop duo Roxette, released worldwide from 22 February 1999 by Roxette Recordings and EMI. Recorded over an 18-month period in studios in Sweden and Spain, the album was produced by Marie Fredriksson, Per Gessle, Clarence Öfwerman and Michael Ilbert, and was their first studio album since Crash! Boom! Bang! in 1994. The album was not released in the US, as the duo were no longer signed to a label there. A deluxe edition was released in Spanish-speaking territories and, in Arabian regions, the naked babies on the cover were digitally removed, due to religious concerns.
The Ballad Hits is the second greatest hits compilation album by Swedish pop duo Roxette, released on 4 November 2002 by Roxette Recordings and Capitol Records. It was the first of a two-part series of "best of" albums released by the duo in quick succession, and was followed by The Pop Hits in March 2003. Two new songs were recorded specially for The Ballad Hits: lead single "A Thing About You" and "Breathe". The album was a commercial success upon release, and has been certified gold or platinum in a number of territories.
The Pop Hits is the third greatest hits compilation album by Swedish pop duo Roxette, released on 24 March 2003 by Roxette Recordings and Capitol Records. It was the second in a two-part series of "best of" albums released by the duo in quick succession, and was preceded by The Ballad Hits in November 2002. The album was not as commercially successful as its predecessor, although it did peak within the top twenty of various Scandinavian record charts. It was also certified gold in Brazil.
Gun-Marie Fredriksson was a Swedish singer, best known internationally as the lead vocalist of pop rock duo Roxette, which she formed in 1986 with Per Gessle. The duo achieved international success in the late 1980s and early 1990s with their albums Look Sharp! (1988) and Joyride (1991), and had multiple hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including four number ones.
"The Look" is a song by Swedish pop duo Roxette. It was released in early 1989 as the fourth single from their second studio album, Look Sharp! (1988). It became an international hit, and was one of the most successful singles of 1989. It topped the charts in 25 countries, and was the first of their four number ones on the Billboard Hot 100. The song received mostly positive reviews from music critics.
"Anyone" is a song by Swedish pop music duo Roxette, released on 10 May 1999 as the second single from their sixth studio album, Have a Nice Day (1999). Composed by Per Gessle, the song was inspired by the work of Burt Bacharach and Phil Spector, and the album version of the song was mostly performed in a single take at Atlantis Recording Studio in Stockholm. In Japan, the single was released as a double a-side with "Pay the Price", although no music video was created for that song.
The Roxbox is a boxed set compilation by Swedish pop duo Roxette, released on 18 October 2006 by Roxette Recordings and Capitol. It is an expanded companion piece to the single-disc greatest hits album A Collection of Roxette Hits: Their 20 Greatest Songs!, which was also released on the same date. The box set consists of four CDs (HDCD) containing singles, album tracks, non-album singles and B-sides, as well as previously unreleased outtakes, alternate versions and demos. It also includes two DVDs: the first is of their previously unreleased 9 January 1993 performance at the Cirkus arena in Stockholm for MTV Unplugged; the second contains every music video ever recorded by the duo. In fact, it is a Dual layer DVD.
"You Don't Understand Me" is a song by Swedish pop music duo Roxette. Written by Per Gessle with American composer Desmond Child, it was released as the lead single from the duo's first greatest hits compilation album, Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! Roxette's Greatest Hits (1995). It was also the only new song from the original edition of the album to appear on the 2000 U.S. edition. The song was a hit in several European countries, reaching the top 20 in Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the duo's native Sweden. The song was also a hit in Germany where, despite peaking at number 44, it would spend over three months on the German Singles Chart.
"Milk and Toast and Honey" is a song by Swedish pop music duo Roxette, released on 10 September 2001 as the third and final single from their seventh studio album, Room Service (2001). It was the only single from the album to be released in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number 89. The song performed better elsewhere, becoming the album's highest-charting single in Portugal, and Roxette's longest-charting single in several years in both Sweden and Switzerland.
The discography of Swedish pop duo Roxette consists of ten studio albums, one live album, thirteen compilation albums, one remix album, eleven video albums, three box sets, fifty-six singles and twenty promotional singles, as well as fifty-two music videos. The duo, which consisted of Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson, are the second most commercially successful Swedish act of all time, after ABBA. They sold over 75 million records worldwide, although a report by the Los Angeles Times put the figure as high as 80 million. The RIAA awarded them certifications of 3.5 million units in the US, where the duo have sold over two million albums since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales data in May 1991. The BPI in the UK certified Roxette for shipments of at least 2.2 million. They were particularly successful in Germany, where they are recognised as one of the highest-certified acts of all time, with shipments of 5.725 million units.
Charm School is the eighth studio album by Swedish pop duo Roxette, released on 11 February 2011 by Roxette Recordings and Capitol. It was their first studio album since 2001's Room Service, and their first since vocalist Marie Fredriksson's brain tumour diagnosis in 2002. "She's Got Nothing On " preceded the album as its lead single, which became the duo's highest-peaking single in almost two decades in territories such as Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The song also entered Billboard's Adult Contemporary Chart—making Roxette the only duo who appeared on that chart in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s.
"Speak to Me" is a song by Swedish pop music duo Roxette, released on 18 April 2011 as the second commercial single from their eighth studio album, Charm School. The single version of the track was a remix created by Swedish producer Bassflow. The song was released internationally, excluding in Germany and Austria, where "Way Out" was released as the second and final single from the album. The track failed to appear on any international sales charts, although it peaked in the top twenty of Finland's Radiosoittolista chart, and also entered the Russian TopHit chart. The music video was directed by Mikael Sandberg.
Travelling: Songs from Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places is the ninth studio album by Swedish pop duo Roxette, released on 23 March 2012 by Roxette Recordings and Capitol. It is a direct sequel to their 1992 album Tourism. Unlike that album, which was recorded in numerous locations all over the world during the "Join the Joyride! Tour", Travelling was primarily recorded in Swedish studios in-between legs of "The Neverending World Tour". The album also contains three live recordings and four studio re-recordings of older songs, two of which were previously unreleased.
Good Karma is the tenth and final studio album by Roxette, a Swedish pop rock duo consisting of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle. Released on 3 June 2016 by Roxette Recordings and Parlophone, it was the only album issued by the duo under an international recording contract signed with Parlophone's parent company Warner Music Group. The album was produced by Gessle alongside Christoffer Lundquist and Clarence Öfwerman, with co-production on several tracks by Addeboy vs. Cliff, among others.
"Let Your Heart Dance with Me" is a song by Swedish pop music duo Roxette, released on 2 October 2020 as the second single from their compilation album Bag of Trix. The song was written by Per Gessle, and contains vocals by Marie Fredriksson. The track was released on a limited edition gold-coloured 7" vinyl, which was limited to 1,500 copies worldwide and contained their previous single – a cover of the Beatles song "Help!", recorded live at Abbey Road Studios on 15 November 1995 – as the b-side. A music video was also released for the song, featuring previously unseen footage from both Gessle and Fredriksson's private archives.
"Piece of Cake" is a song by Swedish pop music duo Roxette, released on 20 November 2020 as the fourth single from their compilation album Bag of Trix. Originally recorded for their 2016 album Good Karma, it was the last song Per Gessle wrote for Roxette, and features the final vocal Marie Fredriksson recorded for the duo prior to her death in December 2019. A music video was created for the song, consisting of archive footage of the band on previous tours.
