Top Songs of 1989: #17: "The Look" by Roxette

I definitely have good memories of the #17 Billboard hit of 1989. Hunter and I were always singing the boy and girl parts to the whole "Look Sharp!" album. Screaming the songs at the top of our lungs! Hysterical.

Were it not for the song "The Look", Roxette might have not broken in the US market. This little blurb from Wikipedia caught my attention....

"Everything changed when the third single The Look was released in Sweden. It was while studying in Sweden, that an American exchange student from Minneapolis, Dean Cushman^[1], heard "The Look", and brought a copy of Look Sharp! home for the 1988 holiday break.^[2][3] He gave the album to a Minneapolis radio station^[2][3], KDWB 101.3 FM.^[4] The station started playing "The Look" and based on positive caller feedback, the song became very popular^[3][4], and quickly spread to other radio stations.^[3] The song became a radio hit before any Roxette product had been commercially released or promoted in the US market.^[3] The story was covered by radio, newspapers and TV in the US and in Sweden, making for good press for many years, with Gessle telling this as the story which highlighted the beginning of their international success."

I love that! I wish some Italian exchange student would do that with my music! Spread the word around Europe or something!

These lyrics make absolutely no sense! "Walking like a man/ hitting like a hammer/ she's a juvenile scam/ never was a quitter/ tasty like a raindrop"....what?!! But maybe they were translating their lyrics from Swedish to English, who knows. The best part of the song, for me, by far, is the NA NA NA NA NA NANANA....and especially when everything cuts out of the song and there is this pregnant pause. The listener wonders--is the song over?? Has Roxette abandoned me?? But no--they come right back with more "nana".

The song was written by the male member of Roxette, Per Gessle. Even he, apparently, knew the lyrics were a little sub par: " 'Walking like a man, hitting like a hammer'.. the first two verses are guide lyrics, words just scribbled down to have something to sing. Couldn't come up with anything better, so we kept them. Everybody gets lucky sometimes..."

Thank you to my boyfriend Ben, who kindly learned this song (he had never heard it before)and even put on a headband and costume! I am a lucky girl!!

Top Songs of 1990: #2: "It Must Have Been Love" by Roxette

Let me just say this song is a LOT harder to sing and play than I thought. First of all, the woman from Roxette (which she probably has to introduce herself as at cocktail parties), Marie Fredriksson really has this incredible range. One I do not share. I had to find a key that didn't make me look ridiculous. There is also this strange key change at the end of the song that kind of threw me for a loop. For this blog I try and learn the song in 15 minutes and then do a few "takes"....(I dont' really want it to take much more time than that) but this took me a good hour to learn. Thanks a lot Roxette. Kidding. I really thought learning this song would be a piece of cake. It was very far from a slice of cake.

This song was from the "Pretty Woman" soundtrack. I can kind of picture Julia Roberts in the limo, leaving the hotel, looking longingly back at what she was leaving. I'm not even sure if that is when the song was played in the movie, but I somehow picture that moment.

Roxette seemed to be trying to be a 90's version of the Eurythmics. Girl/Guy duo, girl doing most of the singing....Fredriksson's male counterpart was Per Gessle, who also was the songwriter to "It Must Have Been Love" and most of their other biggest hits.

Just was reading about Roxette on Wikipedia and they apparently have had this wildly successful career in Sweden that continues to this day.

I have special associations with Roxette b/c Hunter and I would drive around in his car and I would sing the girl parts and he would sing the boy parts. We would sometimes circle around the neighborhood, instead of turning off the car, so that we could sing a song in it's entirety.