Roxette

See also: List of Swedes in music. However, some of the people on Skid Row use tents rather than boxes. The latter was a complete box-office failure. First-time visitors to this area are often shocked by the sight of the cardboard box shantytowns lining the sidewalks; the juxtaposition with the gleaming glass-sheathed skyscrapers on nearby Bunker Hill is quite striking. A common joke about the high prices of houses and taxes in Los Angeles city and county limits is that, "you can't even buy a cardboard box for that price", with "that price" being a mentioned expensive house price. Another failure for Roxette was when the song "Almost Unreal" was dropped from the Hocus Pocus movie with Bette Midler and was instead used for the Super Mario Bros movie. Informal population estimates range from 10,000 to 30,000. To cater to their South American fans, Roxette covered a number of their most popular ballads in Spanish in 1996, but the album Baladas en Español has been criticized because the translator apparently did not take the project seriously, leading to some nonsense lyrics. Los Angeles's Skid Row, in the Wholesale District (an industrial district), is located southeast of the downtown area and is home to one of the largest stable populations of transient persons in the United States.

Roxette's main fan following is in Scandinavia, as well as the Netherlands and (parts of) South America. Seattle's Skid Row has been gentrified, and in 1970 was designated as the Pioneer Square Historic District. Despite the fact that Roxette have scored many hit singles, their latest albums were, according to some, not promoted properly by their record company and some albums were not even released in the USA at all, or released in altered form: for example Crash! Boom! Bang! was only available as a 10-track disc available from McDonalds in the USA. The term was memorialized in the song Skid Row from the musical Little Shop of Horrors.. Roxette's future is uncertain, as Marie Fredriksson is as of early 2004 recovering from a brain tumor, and Per Gessle is back with a reunited Gyllene Tider. There is a formally identified Skid Row in Seattle and Los Angeles as well as informally identified districts in almost every major American city, such as The Bowery in New York City. After Room Service, two compilation albums appeared: The Ballad Hits and The Pop Hits, which included only a few new songs. After the onset of the Great Depression, the area went into decline, and skid row became synonomous with being a bad neighborhood.

The song The Centre of the Heart from this album appears in the Dance Dance Revolution video game series, but charted moderately in places such as Argentina and Switzerland. The first skid row was Skid Road (Yesler Way) in Seattle, where logs were skidded into the water for delivery to Henry Yesler's lumber mills. Have a Nice Day was followed in 2001 by the album Room Service, an album which was extensively promoted on the Internet. The American term skid row is used to refer to the rundown area of a city where alcoholics and vagrants congregate. Originally criticized by many, including fans, because of the changed sound and the use of techno and house elements, fans nevertheless warmed to the songs, and Roxette were back on the radio in Europe. For the next three years nothing was heard from Roxette, and rumours went about that they had split up, but they returned in 1999 with a new look and sound and the album Have a Nice Day.

1995 and 1996 saw the release of two albums: a greatest hits album, Don't Bore Us, Get To The Chorus! (1995), which featured the single versions of tracks, as well as rare songs such as "Almost Unreal", and a Spanish cover-album, Baladas En Español (1996). A major hit worldwide, the album was not successful only in the USA, allegedly due to mismanagement by EMI. The two years after their tour were used to record 1994's Crash! Boom! Bang!. Some of the tracks from that recording, as well as more single-only tracks, were released on the album Rarities, which was only available in Japan and parts of South America.

In 1993 Roxette were the first non-English speaking artists to be featured on MTV's "Unplugged" series. Tracks recorded during the tour, as well as some tracks which had only been released as singles, appeared on their album Tourism in 1992. Roxette continued their musical assault on the hitsingles of the world in 1991 with Joyride, their third album, which sold 10 million copies worldwide, and prompted a worldwide tour that incorporated 108 concerts. The soundtrack sold over 8 million copies in the USA alone.

In 1990, a track which was by this time 3 years old, It Must Have Been Love (Christmas For The Broken Hearted), was used in the hit movie Pretty Woman (movie), without the Christmas references. The third single, "Dressed For Success", went to #14 in July 1989, and the fourth single, "Dangerous" got to #2 in February 1990. This was the first #1 which was available only in cassette form: previously all singles had been released on vinyl as well. The album was quickly officially released by a surprised EMI, and Roxette embarked on a worldwide promotional tour, which rewarded them with a second #1 from the Look Sharp! album, the power ballad "Listen To Your Heart".

Convinced he had a hit single in his hands, the station director copied the album and sent the copies to colleague stations, and with success: "The Look" went to #1 on the Billboard Top 100 in April 1989. An American exchange student from Minneapolis brought a copy of the Look Sharp! album home with him during Christmas break, and asked a friend at a local radio station to play it. A second real album, Look Sharp! followed in 1988, already sporting the classic Roxette sound, and featuring the hit single "The Look". With the release of Pearls of Passion in 1986 Roxette became a hit in Sweden and later also abroad, and it was quickly followed with a remix album, Dance Passion.

To everyone's surprise the single sky-rocketed to number one in Sweden and abroad, and Per and Marie quickly recorded a full album, using many songs Per had written for his planned third solo album. Per went on to do his second solo album, which was not a success either, and at the advice of their mutual record company EMI Per joined up with Marie Fredriksson again, recording a single: "Neverending Love" in 1985. The Heartland Café, released in 1984, was no great success, and the band split up. Feelgood song: Roxette.

The name chosen came from a Dr. Because the name Gyllene Tider was deemed too complex for the American audience, a new name was needed. Marie performed with Per's band Gyllene Tider on some tracks of their album The Heartland Café, an album which was later to be released in the USA. Roxette grew out of the cooperation between the Swedish singers Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson, who both were established artists, and had been friends since 1979.

Their music is best summed up by the title of their greatest hits album - fresh, melodic pop featuring Fredriksson's voice (though "The Look" was sung mainly by Gessle), and Gessle's jangly guitar. They had several Top 10 hit singles around the globe, including It Must Have Been Love, which featured on the soundtrack to the movie Pretty Woman, The Look, and Joyride. Roxette is a Swedish duo, consisting of pop musicians Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson. The Pop Hits (2003).

The Ballad Hits (2002). Room Service (2001). Have a Nice Day (1999). Baladas En Español (1996).

Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! - Roxette's Greatest Hits (1995). Rarities (1995, only released in Japan and South America). Crash! Boom! Bang! (1994). Tourism (1992).

Joyride (1991). Look Sharp! (1988). Dance Passion (1987, vinyl only: remix album). Pearls of Passion (1986, reissued in 1997)