The best Roxette song?

Fading Like a Flower:

Dangerous:

Dressed For Success:

Joyride:

I dislike all their "songs". They're like the Bon Jovi of Europe.

I have a soft spot for Roxette. I voted for "Must Have Been Love." But, I do also love "Dangerous" and "Spending My Time." Oh crap, I forgot about "The Look." I probably would have voted for that had it not been alphabetised under "T" (tsk, tsk) and the "L" of "look" wasn't lowercase, hiding at the bottom.

They were a poor man's ABBA. Yikes. What does that make Ace of Base?

This is actually my favourite Roxette song:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlVI7ZNiFlI

First time I went to Sweden, in the arrivals hall in Stockholm as you approach Customs, the walls were decorated with photos of famous Swedes welcoming us to their airport. It had pictures of Princess Victoria and Stefan Edberg. To my pleasant surprise, the second last picture was of Roxette.

(The last was Stellan Skarsgard),

[quote] But, I do also love "Dangerous"

I know there will be some rude comments in this thread. That said, an album with "Dangerous" as the *fourth* single shows how strong pop music was during that time.

Your link didn't work R7, can you repost?

Also, I think you mean their peak was from 1988 - 1991, OP. But, if we're measuring by US charts for the songs:

That gives you: (4) #1's: The Look, Listen to Your Heart, It Must Have Been Love, Joyride (2) #2's: Dangerous, Fading Like a Flower (1) Top 20: Dressed for Success (2) Top 40: Spending My Time, Church of Your Heart (1992)

(Sleeping In My Car, and How Do You Do! fall outside that parameter)

This pretty much covers their stateside success. Back then, all that mattered were Top 40's. That would have been from just two albums (9M and 11M copies WW) and "Listen to Your Heart" off of the Pretty Woman soundtrack.

If you shift the parameters just one year back, 1987 - 1990, Madonna would blow them out of the water. But, even sticking with 1988-1991: (3) #1's: Like a Prayer, Vogue, Justify My Love (2) #2's: Express Yourself, Cherish (3) Top 10's: Keep It Together, Hanky Panky, Rescue Me (1) Top 20: Oh Father

Like a Prayer sold 15M WW, I'm Breathless 7M WW, The Immaculate Collection 30M WW. She still seems to have fared better.

With Janet, Control was 1986 and janet. was 1993 (both huge successes), which just leaves the monumental piece of work that is Rhythm Nation:

(4) #1's: MIss You Much, Escapade, Black Cat, Love Will Never Do (2) #2's: Rhythm Nation, Come Back to Me (1) Top 5: Alright

12M WW. A staggering success.

Great poll. Nice memories. Roxette seems to have faded like a flower, though.

R7 If I could figure it out, I would! :(

Also, Must Have Been Love is just a gorgeous song. I think I'm glad I voted for it, but I hope The Look gets more attention, because that song is so much fun and it rocks!

Those are fair arguments, R11. I believe Billboard charts the number of weeks on the charts.

In 1989 Roxette had 2 hits (#17 and #22).

Madonna had 3 hits (#25, #55, #59).

Janet had a single hit (#5).

In 1990, Roxette is the winner (#2, #34).

Madonna had a single hit at #5.

Janet's big hit was at #15 with Escapade.

For the longest time I mistakenly thought "Listen to Your Heart" was by the band Heart.

I love Roxette! So many great pop songs. They never appeared to take themselves too seriously and their brand of pop often seemed at odds with music trends of the day but the music was quite well-crafted. Marie had to retire from performing in recent years due to fragile health.

Another barely top 100 hit (#94) was "Almost Unreal" from the flop movie Super Mario Bros. The chorus line 'I love when you do that hocus pocus to me' was because they originally wrote the song for the movie Hocus Pocus but Disney opted to use an En Vogue song on the soundtrack instead.

Roxette (with Joyride/Fading Like a Flower) also outperformed Madonna/Janet in 1991.

Most important factor of all: did Roxette ever make The Gap In-Store Playlist?!

Crash boom bang was a favorite of mine back then.

I actually became a fan of their music after their active time. Like a previous poster I never took them seriously as musicians. That changed when I started reminiscing the 90s. They had good songs, and their music is perfect pop music.

R13, that is not how Billboard Hot 100 works. Songs aren’t ranked by number of weeks on the chart.

Yes, Roxette was quite popular. However, in the US, Madonna and Janet Jackson were more popular. That doesn’t diminish Roxette.

R19, same thing happened to me with A-ha.

They also never changed their music style.during their early years. They kept doing their songs the same way and the fans loved it. I think that's what killed The Cranberries which went for more hard rock than the folk pop (because Zombie became a huge hit).

I love their B-Side Paint.

That's one of my favorites too, r23! I almost posted it myself.

[quote] that is not how Billboard Hot 100 works. Songs aren’t ranked by number of weeks on the chart.

It's how the year end Top 100 works:

[quote] Billboard Year-End charts are a cumulative measure of a single or album's performance in the United States, based upon the Billboard magazine charts during any given chart year.

Prior to incorporating chart data from Nielsen SoundScan (from 1991), year-end charts were calculated by an inverse-point system based solely on a title's performance (for example a single appearing on the Billboard Hot 100 would be given one point for a week spent at position 100, two points for a week spent at position ninety-nine, and so forth, up to 100 points for each week spent at number one). Other factors including the total weeks a song spent on the chart and at its peak position were calculated into its year-end total.

R19, Crash, Boom, Bang is my favourite too, but the full album cut not the pointlessly truncated single version.

R13 R14 R17 R25 Fair enough. I didn't realise you were using this metric. While it measures staying power within the confines of the Year End Top 100, it does seems a bit arbitrary to me. The cutoff is at #100. What if, hypothetically, an artist had five songs from #101 - #105? Not knowing this dampens things a bit. Also, for his same period of 1989 - 1991, Paula Abdul has one more year-end hit than Roxette.

Paula Abdul (7) Janet Jackson (7) Mill Vanilli (6) New Kids on the Block (6) Roxette (6) Bobby Brown (5) Mariah Carey (5) Phil Collins (5) Madonna (5)

If the measure of success here is meeting or surpassing 6 hits which reached the Top 44 on Year End Lists for 1989 - 1991 (which is what Roxette achieved), Paula Abdul hit that (including duet Opposites Attract). But those are very specific parameters. Needless to say, it goes to show just how successful Roxette was back in the day.

Also, I've settled on Must Have Been Love as their best pop hit. It's a truly magical improvement on power ballad Listen to Your Heart.

R18 Hahahahahaha!

Sad news.

Thanks for this thread OP. It inspired me to go a bit deeper in their catalogue. Great pop music that truly stood the test of time.