Pearls of Passion

Last updated
Pearls of Passion
PearlsOfPassion.jpg
Studio album by
Roxette
Released31 October 1986
RecordedMarch–September 1986
StudioEMI (Stockholm)
Genre Dance-pop [1]
Length48:27
Label EMI
Producer Clarence Öfwerman
Roxette chronology
Pearls of Passion
(1986)		 Dance Passion
(1987)
Singles from Pearls of Passion
  1. "Neverending Love"
    Released: 8 July 1986
  2. "Goodbye to You"
    Released: 27 November 1986
  3. "Soul Deep"
    Released: 18 February 1987
  4. "I Call Your Name"
    Released: 20 January 1988

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. [2] It was remastered and re-released again in 2009.

Contents

Background and recording

Roxette are a Swedish duo consisting of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle, who were both established artists in their home country prior to the duo forming. Gessle had experienced considerable commercial success with his previous band Gyllene Tider, releasing three number one albums in Sweden during the early '80s. When the band broke up in 1984, however, Gessle's solo albums failed to replicate that level of success: 1983's Per Gessle and 1985's Scener both failed commercially. [3] The latter peaked at number 39 on Sverigetopplistan, [4] and sold less than 20,000 copies—a substantial drop from 400,000 copies sold by Gyllene Tider's self-titled debut album five years earlier. Gessle later revealed his contract with EMI Sweden was close to being terminated after the commercial performance of Scener. [3]

Meanwhile, Fredriksson was also signed to EMI Sweden, and had released two commercially successful albums: 1984's Het vind and 1986's Den sjunde vågen , as well as several hit singles. On the advice of Rolf Nygren – the managing director of EMI Sweden – Gessle translated a song called "Svarta glas" ("Black Glass") into English. It was originally written for Pernilla Wahlgren. Nygren then suggested that Gessle record the song as a duet with Fredriksson. This became the duo's first single, "Neverending Love", [3] which peaked at number three on the Swedish Singles Chart. [4] The rest of the album was recorded sporadically throughout the summer of 1986. [3]

Dance Passion , a compilation EP containing seven remixed versions of tracks found on Pearls of Passion, was released in Sweden in 1987, and a further two songs from the album were re-recorded for inclusion on later Roxette albums: CD versions of 1991's Joyride contained a version of "Soul Deep", while Tourism , released the following year, contained an acoustic version of "So Far Away". [2]

Critical reception

Jason Damas from AllMusic gave the album a negative review, rating it one-and-a-half stars out of five and writing: "Nothing here is bad, but it lacks nearly all of the elements that made Look Sharp! and Joyride massive hits just a few years later." He elaborated that "Roxette's most intriguing qualities are that they are a pop band that can rock, and that Per Gessle is a crack songwriter that almost never produces a bad tune. Here, however, there's a lot of indistinguishable dance-pop, and their trademark gritty guitars are completely absent". He went on to say that the album contained three great songs: "Soul Deep", "Neverending Love" and "Secrets That She Keeps", but charactised the rest of the album as being "insignificant, except to the most serious of fans." [1]

Commercial performance

The record was an immediate commercial success in Sweden, [1] peaking at number two on the albums chart, [4] and going on to sell over 200,000 copies by the end of 1987. [3] However, it failed to chart internationally. [1] "Neverending Love", "Goodbye to You", "Soul Deep" and "I Call Your Name" were released as singles, with the first three becoming top twenty hits in Sweden. [4] A non-album single, "It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted)", was released in December 1987, and became their second top five hit there. [4] The song was later re-recorded – with the reference to Christmas changed to a neutral winter reference ("It's a hard Christmas Day" replaced by "It's a hard winter's day") – and became a substantial international hit after appearing on the soundtrack to the 1990 film Pretty Woman . [5]

Pearls of Passion was remastered and released on CD for the first time eleven years after its original release, on 31 October 1997. Three songs were re-released as promotional singles in selected territories to promote the reissue: "From One Heart to Another" was issued as a promotional single in Brazil, and a slightly remixed version of "I Call Your Name" – "I Call Your Name '97" – was released as an airplay-only single in Spain. EMI Spain also reissued "Neverending Love", to commemorate shipments of over 50,000 units of the album in that country. [2] As of 2001, Pearls of Passion has sold 800,000 copies worldwide. [6]

Track listing

All lyrics and music written by Per Gessle, except where noted.

Pearls of Passion– Original release
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Soul Deep"  3:41
2."Secrets That She Keeps"  3:48
3."Goodbye to You"  4:03
4."I Call Your Name"  3:39
5."Surrender"  4:23
6."Voices" 
4:46
7."Neverending Love"  3:30
8."Call of the Wild"  4:32
9."Joy of a Toy" 
  • Gessle
  • Mats "M.P." Persson
3:09
10."From One Heart to Another"  4:11
11."Like Lovers Do"  3:25
12."So Far Away"
  • Gessle
  • Hasse Huss
 5:17
Total length:48:27
Pearls of Passion– 1997 CD reissue (bonus tracks)
No.TitleMusicLength
13."Pearls of Passion" 3:35
14."It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted)" 4:49
15."Turn to Me"Fredriksson2:58
16."Neverending Love" (Tits & Ass demo / 1986) 2:45
17."Secrets That She Keeps" (Tits & Ass demo / 1986) 2:54
18."I Call Your Name" (Montezuma demo / 26.07.86) 3:04
19."Neverending Love" (Frank Mono-Mix / 1987) 3:19
20."I Call Your Name" (Frank Mono-Mix / 1987) 3:21
Total length:74:35
Pearls of Passion– 2009 reissue (CD bonus tracks)
No.TitleLength
13."Pearls of Passion"3:35
14."Neverending Love" (Tits & Ass demo / 1986)2:45
15."Secrets That She Keeps" (Tits & Ass demo / 1986)2:54
Pearls of Passion– 2009 reissue (iTunes bonus tracks)
No.TitleLength
16."I Call Your Name" (Montezuma demo / 26.07.86)3:04
17."Neverending Love" (Frank Mono-Mix / 1987)3:19
18."I Call Your Name" (Frank Mono-Mix / 1987)3:21

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Pearls of Passion. [7]

Charts

Chart performance for Pearls of Passion
Chart (1986)Peak
position
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [4] 2

Certifications

Certifications for Pearls of Passion
RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Sweden (GLF) [8] Platinum280,000 [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roxette</span> Swedish pop rock duo

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Per Gessle</span> Swedish musician and songwriter

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neverending Love</span> 1986 single by Roxette

"Neverending Love" is a song by Swedish pop music duo Roxette, released on 8 July 1986 by EMI as their debut single. The track was originally written in Swedish by Per Gessle, as "Svarta glas", for recording artist Pernilla Wahlgren, who turned it down. However, she offered the song to her brother Niclas Wahlgren, who recorded his own version. The release of his single was cancelled at the request of EMI, when Gessle recorded an English version of the song with Marie Fredriksson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goodbye to You (Roxette song)</span> 1986 single by Roxette

"Goodbye to You" is a song by Swedish pop music duo Roxette, released on 3 December 1986 by EMI as the second single from their debut studio album, Pearls of Passion (1986). The song was written by Per Gessle, and was backed by album track "So Far Away". It was only released commercially on 7" vinyl exclusively in Sweden, although a limited test pressing 12" vinyl was also created, containing an exclusive remix of the song. The single peaked at number nine on the Swedish Singles Chart. No music video was created for the track.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soul Deep (Roxette song)</span> 1987 single by Roxette

"Soul Deep" is a song by Swedish pop music duo Roxette, released on 17 February 1987 by EMI as the third single from their debut album, Pearls of Passion (1986). The song was originally written in Swedish by Per Gessle, and was called "Dansar nerför ditt stup i rekordfart", although Gessle later wrote new English lyrics for the song after deciding its Swedish lyrics were "too silly". The single was only released in Sweden, Germany and Canada. It spent three consecutive weeks at number 18 on the Swedish Singles Chart, but failed to chart in the other two countries.

<i>Live-Ism</i> 1992 video by Roxette

Live-Ism is the third concert film by Swedish pop music duo Roxette, released on 21 August 1992 on VHS and LaserDisc formats by Picture Music International and EMI. It contains a shortened version of the duo's 13 December 1991 concert in the Sydney Entertainment Centre in Australia during the Join the Joyride! Tour, which saw Roxette performing to over 1.5 million people during the tour's 100 shows. The video also contains behind the scenes footage, as well as the music videos to "Church of Your Heart", "(Do You Get) Excited?", and their then-current single "How Do You Do!".

<i>Travelling</i> (Roxette album) 2012 studio album with live tracks by Roxette

Travelling: Songs from Studios, Stages, Hotel Rooms and 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.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Jason Damas. "Pearls of Passion – Roxette". AllMusic . Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Thorselius, Robert (May 2003). The Look for Roxette: The Illustrated Worldwide Discography & Price Guide (1st ed.). Sweden: Premium Förlag Publishing. ISBN   978-9197189484.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Digital booklet". The Rox Box/Roxette 86–06 (liner notes). Roxette. Stockholm: Roxette Recordings and Capitol Records. 2006. 9463 67972–2 9.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Swedishcharts.com – Roxette – Pearls of Passion". Hung Medien. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  5. ↑ "Roxette Bio | Roxette Career". MTV . Viacom. Archived from the original on April 17, 2014. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  6. ↑ Ninni O Schulman (15 April 2001). "Sagan om Roxette: På väg tillbaka – eller?" [Lord of Roxette: On the way back – or?]. Expressen (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 5 June 2001. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
  7. ↑ "Digital booklet". Pearls of Passion (liner notes). Roxette. Stockholm, Sweden: EMI Records. 1997. 7243 836196–2 7.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  8. ↑ "Swedish Passion..." (PDF). Music & Media . Vol. 4, no. 4. 31 January 1987. p. 10. OCLC   29800226.
  9. ↑ Burnett, Robert (2002). The Global Jukebox: The International Music Industry. Taylor & Francis. p. 127. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
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