#Roxette joyride album archive
In addition, a richly illustrated 32-page booklet is included, which in text and with unique images from Roxette’s archive tells the story of how a classic Swedish pop album came to be.
The Joyride anniversary is celebrated with a vinyl box consisting of 4 LPs and a 3-CD box, which in addition to the original edition contains lots of unreleased or hard-to-get material that paints a larger picture of a piece of Swedish music history: demos, alternative versions and leftovers. Thus, the group set a record that no Scandinavian group or artist has managed to surpass. The album not only became Roxette’s bestseller, the title track zoomed all the way up to the top of the US charts on 1st May 1991 – giving Roxette their fourth US No.1. Joyride was the album that was supposed to cement the unlikely successes of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle. Roxette had in record time turned into a global hit phenomenon thanks to the three US hits The Look, Listen To Your Heart, It Must Have Been Love and other big hits such as Dressed For Success and Dangerous. This year marks 30 years since Roxette released her third album Joyride, which followed up the band’s record global breakthrough with the album Look Sharp! in 1989. To celebrate the album’s anniversary, Joyride will be released as a 4LP and a 3CD box, containing the original release as well as previously unreleased or hard-to-get material, released this Autumn.The Joyride 30th anniversary box with the whole story, demos and previously unreleased material will be released on 26th November.Īlready tomorrow, 8th October, the single Small Talk will be released with two previously unreleased versions of Small Talk and Hotblooded. Beside the big hits, Joyride also contains Perfect Day, Hotblooded, (Do You Get) Excited? and not least Watercolours In The Rain, a song that Marie had written wonderful music to, and I happened to have a fitting lyric in the drawer”, Per says. Around this time, she was at the absolute top of her game, effortlessly creating lasting wonders with my songs. “Marie’s superb vocals is one of the main reasons that Roxette – and not least our biggest album Joyride – was such a huge success. Soon the album had passed the 11-million mark. The cheery title track zoomed up the charts, giving the group their fourth No 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in the US – setting a record that still holds for Scandinavian acts – while future singles like Fading Like A Flower, Spending My Time and Church Of Your Heart were waiting in the wings. In the spring of 1991, most things seemed to go Roxette’s way. With Joyride the whole album was in the can.”
The song came very easily, and I instantly knew it was a hit: it would provide the album with a great title, ‘hello, you fool I love you’ was a cool hook. I had read an interview with Paul McCartney, where he said that ‘writing songs with John Lennon was just a long joyride’. And that’s exactly how I felt about Joyride. But despite that pressure, they never thought it was difficult to deliver. Their sound was spot-on, they had produced a string of hits, and everybody was waiting for the next one. It was like the whole pop world revolved around them. “Björn Ulveaus once told me how he felt when ABBA recorded Mamma Mia. Some artists would have found this pressure hard to handle. Unsurprisingly, Joyride therefore carried a heavy weight on its shoulders the album was supposed to cement Roxette’s new-found status as a global success, proving that the hits of 19 were no fluke. The albums three US No 1 singles The Look, Listen To Your Heart and It Must Have Been Love”and other big hits like Dressed For Success and Dangerous had almost transformed the dynamic duo of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle into an overnight world-wide hit phenomenon that would soon pave the way for other Swedish pop acts during the 90s. Today, Sunday 28th March, Roxette celebrate the the 30th anniversary of their third album Joyride – the much anticipated follow-up to the band’s spectacular 1989 global breakthrough, Look Sharp!.`