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Roxette formed in 1985 to eventually become one of the world's top Pop-Rock
duo with 55 million albums and 20 million singles sold; vocalist Marie
Fredriksson and guitarist Per Gessle first met in the laid-back town of
Halmstad, SWEDEN, in the late '70s, but individual success prevented them
from working together in the following years.
Their first single, "Neverending Love" under the name Roxette
became a big summer hit in Sweden in 1986 and songs originally planned
for Gessle's third solo album was used for the band's debut album, "Pearls
Of Passion".
The duo's sophomore effort, "Look Sharp!", was released in October
1988 and soon appeared on the Swedish chart but it was with the smash
track "The Look" that Roxette really hit its stride in the Pop
music world, the single rose to the #1 position on The Billboard Hot 100
in March 1989 and topped the charts in 24 other countries sending the
album into the U.S. top 30 and into the U.K. top 5; "Look Sharp!"
eventually went on to sell 8 million copies worldwide and spawned three
more U.S. top 20 hits including the #1 "Listen To Your Heart",
the #2 "Dangerous" and "Dressed For Success".
A rewritten "It Must Have Been Love" became Roxette's third
#1 on The Billboard Hot 100 in June 1990, the song, originally issued
as a Christmas single three years earlier, was used for the soundtrack
to the hit movie "Pretty Woman".
The duo's third album, "Joyride", was released in spring 1991;
the title-track was the first single and shot to the #1 spot on The Billboard
Hot 100 within a month. The follow-up single, the power Rock ballad "Fading
Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave)", which peaked at #2 in the
States, with two more top 40 hits, "Spending My Time" and "Church
Of Your Heart", helped the album rocket to #12 on The Billboard Top
200 chart and to #2 in Britain; during the 108-date "Join The Joyride"
world tour, which starts in Helsinki on September 4 and includes gigs
in Europe, Australia, U.S. and South America, before finishing in Stockholm
on July 22, 1992, "Joyride" album passes the 10-million mark.
August 1992 saw Roxette unleash "Tourism Songs From Studios, Stages,
Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places", a worthy compilation which
included "How Do You Do!", released as a single, the track,
reached #58 on The Billboard Hot 100.
One year later the duo recorded a new song, "Almost Unreal",
which was used on the "Super Mario Bros." film soundtrack, the
single was a summer hit in Europe but only scraped the lower reaches of
the U.S. Hot 100 chart.
Fredriksson and Gessle released their fourth album of all-new-material,
"Crash! Boom! Bang!", in April 1994; it climbed into the top
3 in the U.K. but failed to dent the charts in America and the main single,
"Sleeping In My Car", made a mid-chart appearance peaking at
#50 on The Billboard Hot 100.
Two years later the two returned with a Spanish-language album of Roxette's
greatest ballads, "Baladas En Español", which was warmly
received in all Spanish-speaking countries.
It wasn't until February 1999 that they delivered a new album; even though
"Have A Nice Day" failed to make it past #28 on the U.K. Albums
chart, the first single, "Wish I Could Fly", became a major
European hit and peaked at #27 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart.
"Room Service", the band's seventh album, was virtually ignored
upon its spring 2001 release, failing to chart and receiving little attention
from radio.
In 2006 Roxette celebrated their 20th anniversary with the release of
the 4-CD set "The Rox Box Roxette 86-06", another collection
named "A Collection Of Roxette Hits Their 20 Greatest Songs"
and the single "One Wish".
Roxette biography is an exclusive of 100xr.com
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