#roxette

What's three songs that are your personal anthems? That remind you of something important about yourself, or something you're going to achieve, or something you have to remember?

Mine are Read All About It by Emeli Sande, Listen To Your Heart by Roxette, and Eyes Open by Taylor Swift.

@learningtoliveanddream11 @inleashlessconfusion @everasolace @cecil-speaks @bellabookworm @soundoflovetarotbygina @smorose

Roxette - The Look 1989

"The Look" is a song by pop duo Roxette; Sweden's second-best-selling music act after ABBA. It was released in early 1989 as the fourth single from their second studio album, Look Sharp! (1988). The album was an immediate commercial success in their home country, spending seven weeks at number one on the Swedish Albums Chart. "The Look" was written by Per Gessle as an exercise while learning how to operate the Ensoniq ESQ-1 synthesizer he had recently purchased, using a repeated A–G–D bass line as the song's core. The track's sixteenth-note rhythm was inspired by the work of ZZ Top. The original title was "He's Got the Look", with the lyrics using male pronouns. Gessle said this was done because he initially wanted Marie Fredriksson to sing the track. Both he and EMI Sweden had chosen to highlight Fredriksson as Roxette's lead vocalist. However, when recording the demo, Gessle realised the song "didn't fit her style that well, so I had a go and it sounded OK."

The singles from Look Sharp! at the time were only released in Sweden, Germany and France. However, an American exchange student from Minnesota named Dean Cushman returned from Sweden and gave his copy of the album to his local Top 40 radio station, KDWB-FM in Minneapolis. The station's program director Brian Phillips initially ignored Cushman's request to play a song from the album, leaving the CD unplayed in his office for several weeks. Phillips eventually listened to it after learning Cushman had come to the office requesting the return of his CD. Immediately impressed by the album's opening track, "The Look" was played by the station for the first time on US radio less than an hour later, and the response from listeners was overwhelmingly positive; the station immediately began receiving phone calls to replay the track.

KDWB began distributing the track to their sister radio operations, sending 500 copies to other stations throughout the United States. EMI America promptly signed the duo to a recording contract as a result of the airplay. The label had previously rejected Roxette as "unsuitable for the American market". The song had already entered the top fifty of the Billboard Hot 100 before official promotion began, peaking at number one on the chart eight weeks later. This made "The Look" the third number one single by a Swedish act on the Billboard Hot 100, following Blue Swede's "Hooked on a Feeling" (poll #152) in 1974 and ABBA's "Dancing Queen" in 1976.

The track went on to top the charts in 25 countries. It spent three weeks atop the New Zealand Singles Chart, and six weeks at number one in Australia, where it was certified platinum for sales in excess of 70,000 copies. It also topped the charts throughout Scandinavia. The song spent five weeks at number one in West Germany, and an additional five weeks at number two. It was a massive success in Spain and Switzerland, spending eight weeks at number one in both countries. It reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart.

"The Look" received a total of 80,5% yes votes!

1) over-the-top 80's - 90's aesthetics early on

2) tall (big doe eye) guy - short (dropdead gorgeous) girl duo

3) he's a genius goofball of a man, she's extremely good at her job

4) her friends advised against working with him at first

5) because at the beginning of their story he's somewhat of a loser, his prime time is far behind

7) yet she decides to stay with him, she believes in him

8) the chemistry. THE CHEMISTRY!!!

9) everybody around them thinks they're married

10) (they're not even dating)

Bonus similarities:

- (unfortunately) cancer arc

- "classic era" for both X-files and Roxette ended the same year, 2002

- reunions happened in 2008 (XF, 2nd movie) / 2009 (Rox, PG's Party Crasher tour)

- "revival" in the 10's

Thanks for coming to my TED talk, I'm sorry you had to read this.