It Must Have Been Love: Farewell, Marie Fredriksson
December 11, 2019 8:08 AM Subscribe
The voice of Roxette, Frediksson died on the 9th of December. Roxette sold more than 75 million albums and were the best-selling Swedish act after ABBA. Not bad for a group who only broke out internationally after an American exchange artist passed on their cassette to a radio station.
Fredriksson had been a successful musician before joining Per Gessle in 1986 to form a band after Gessles' former group had failed to break the US, even after changing their name to Roxette after a Dr. Feelgood song. Both of them had individual careers and had worked together before becoming an official duo. Fredriksson continued to release solo work while with Roxette, and it wasn't until 1988's Look Sharp! that they began to break through beyond Sweden; their track The Look charted in the Billboard Hot 100 when the band didn't even have an American recording contract.
One of their biggest hits was originally an album track from their debut album Pearls of Passion, recorded after EMI Germany requested "an intelligent Christmas song". It Must Have been Love (Christmas for the Broken-Hearted) was over two years old by the time the producers of the Pretty Woman soundtrack approached Gessle for a song, and he offered it to them because Roxette were "too busy" to write and record a new one. Allegedly the producers initially rejected it before adding it to the movie. The incredible success of arguably "the greatest 80s power ballad of them all" owes a lot to Fredriksson's crisp, controlled vocals. (Personally, when it comes to their ballads I was always a sucker for Fading Like a Flower).
Look Sharp! was one of their many snappily-titled albums, which included Crash! Boom! Bang!, Charm School, Room Service, Have a Nice Day, and their greatest hits collection: Don't Bore Us - Get to the Chorus!
Fredriksson grew up in a tiny village called Össjö, which as of 2005 had a population of 192. Her father was the postman, and he'd take her along on his route and sing to her. She begun singing as a teen and was part of a punk band called Strul in the late 70s, and performed the single Ki-i-ai-oo on Swedish TV in 1981. In 1994 she married music producer Mikael Bolyos and they had two children. In 2018 she released a jazzy single, Sing Me A Song: My life is such a dream/All that I see/The love I had and gave/Makes it hard to say goodbye.
Fredriksson had been a successful musician before joining Per Gessle in 1986 to form a band after Gessles' former group had failed to break the US, even after changing their name to Roxette after a Dr. Feelgood song. Both of them had individual careers and had worked together before becoming an official duo. Fredriksson continued to release solo work while with Roxette, and it wasn't until 1988's Look Sharp! that they began to break through beyond Sweden; their track The Look charted in the Billboard Hot 100 when the band didn't even have an American recording contract.
One of their biggest hits was originally an album track from their debut album Pearls of Passion, recorded after EMI Germany requested "an intelligent Christmas song". It Must Have been Love (Christmas for the Broken-Hearted) was over two years old by the time the producers of the Pretty Woman soundtrack approached Gessle for a song, and he offered it to them because Roxette were "too busy" to write and record a new one. Allegedly the producers initially rejected it before adding it to the movie. The incredible success of arguably "the greatest 80s power ballad of them all" owes a lot to Fredriksson's crisp, controlled vocals. (Personally, when it comes to their ballads I was always a sucker for Fading Like a Flower).
Look Sharp! was one of their many snappily-titled albums, which included Crash! Boom! Bang!, Charm School, Room Service, Have a Nice Day, and their greatest hits collection: Don't Bore Us - Get to the Chorus!
Fredriksson grew up in a tiny village called Össjö, which as of 2005 had a population of 192. Her father was the postman, and he'd take her along on his route and sing to her. She begun singing as a teen and was part of a punk band called Strul in the late 70s, and performed the single Ki-i-ai-oo on Swedish TV in 1981. In 1994 she married music producer Mikael Bolyos and they had two children. In 2018 she released a jazzy single, Sing Me A Song: My life is such a dream/All that I see/The love I had and gave/Makes it hard to say goodbye.
My favourite Roxette song is Joyride.
posted by night_train at 8:56 AM on December 11, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by night_train at 8:56 AM on December 11, 2019 [4 favorites]
I liked Roxette well enough, but I'm a big fan of Glenn McDonald's Roxette fandom "The Look" underscored a montage in this season of Pose where Angel came into her own, and it sounded more powerful than I remembered.
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posted by pxe2000 at 8:57 AM on December 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
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posted by pxe2000 at 8:57 AM on December 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
The Look and Joyride are not only great on their own but they instantly make me feel like I am back on roller skates at Skateville (which is still there and still exactly the same!) in the late 80s/early 90s.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 9:10 AM on December 11, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 9:10 AM on December 11, 2019 [7 favorites]
What a lovely write-up, Gin and Broadband, thank you. I was in Sweden 88-89 and then returned to the US to find them everywhere, including one song (maybe Joyride?) on the two-hour tape loop of "KRO-Grrreat Radio!" that played in the grocery store I worked in.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:15 AM on December 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Lyn Never at 9:15 AM on December 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
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posted by Joey Michaels at 9:16 AM on December 11, 2019
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:16 AM on December 11, 2019
Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:20 AM on December 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
The band's U.S. breakthrough began in the Twin Cities. Dean Cushman of Minnetonka heard Roxette's album while he was studying in Sweden and naively showed up one day in December 1988 at KDWB in downtown Minneapolis to pitch the Swedish recording to the station's program director, according to a 1992 Star Tribune story by Jon Bream. "The Look" landed on KDWB, and four months later it was a nationwide hit..
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:20 AM on December 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
So, I used to read Nth Man as an 8th grade-ish kid and this was around the time of their peak. Must have been love, Joyride, etc...
She was my real life Vavara Novikova.
In all seriousness though she such a presence . Per was ok on keyboards too, he could write a hook. But damn. RIP Marie!
posted by symbioid at 9:22 AM on December 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
She was my real life Vavara Novikova.
In all seriousness though she such a presence . Per was ok on keyboards too, he could write a hook. But damn. RIP Marie!
posted by symbioid at 9:22 AM on December 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
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Thank you for being one of the best parts of my child- and teenhood.
posted by cendawanita at 9:39 AM on December 11, 2019
Thank you for being one of the best parts of my child- and teenhood.
posted by cendawanita at 9:39 AM on December 11, 2019
I love the line from Per Gessle: "You painted my black and white songs with the most beautiful colours.”
posted by bonehead at 9:45 AM on December 11, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by bonehead at 9:45 AM on December 11, 2019 [9 favorites]
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posted by lalochezia at 9:47 AM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by lalochezia at 9:47 AM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by Silverstone at 9:56 AM on December 11, 2019
posted by Silverstone at 9:56 AM on December 11, 2019
I’m on a binge of collecting all the 80s pop and new wave that I remember from my younger days and the moment I saw the word Roxette, I knew which song I was missing.
Time is catching up on my pop heroes ...
posted by drivingmenuts at 9:58 AM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
Time is catching up on my pop heroes ...
posted by drivingmenuts at 9:58 AM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by Halloween Jack at 11:09 AM on December 11, 2019
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:09 AM on December 11, 2019
sha nah nah nah nah sha nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah no no nah
sha nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah no no nah
...
she's got the look
posted by Dillionaire at 1:07 PM on December 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
sha nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah no no nah
...
she's got the look
posted by Dillionaire at 1:07 PM on December 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
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posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 1:11 PM on December 11, 2019
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 1:11 PM on December 11, 2019
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posted by dipping_sauce at 6:13 PM on December 11, 2019
posted by dipping_sauce at 6:13 PM on December 11, 2019
Listen to Your Heart (Live in Zürich 1991)
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posted by tonycpsu at 8:01 AM on December 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
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posted by tonycpsu at 8:01 AM on December 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
Huffington Post: The Incredible True Story Of How A College Student Launched Roxette To Fame In The U.S..
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:00 AM on December 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:00 AM on December 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
First Aid Kit pay tribute to Marie Fredriksson
posted by Gin and Broadband at 12:58 PM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Gin and Broadband at 12:58 PM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by mecran01 at 8:21 AM on December 11, 2019 [14 favorites]