Per Gessle sometimes comments on his demos and songs on social media sites, so we decided to gather those comments here before they get lost in the digital universe.
Here you have the collection of Per’s thoughts and info shared about his demos, covers, songs, remixes and other strange musical stuff. Songs are in alphabetical order and by clicking on the title, you can watch / listen to which version he is talking about. The list is updated continuously.
/PP
7Twenty7: ”727. Recorded just outside Marbella in Spain. Nice.”
A Girl Like You: ”An old song from 1998 I wrote for Rox but we never recorded it. Wound up as a bonus track on SOAP instead if I remember things right…. There’s a couple of demos around as well…”
Allt gick så fort: „Min favoritlåt på “En vacker natt”-plattan? Hmmmm. Svårt att välja. Tror nog att det är “Allt gick så fort”. Jag gillar den annorlunda stämningen på gitarren (EBDGAD istället för vanliga EADGBE) och jag gillar texten som börjar med en sann händelse från en strand i södra Frankrike. Så får det bli.”
Almost Unreal: ”Roxette got a request to make the theme song for a Bette Midler-movie called “Hocus Pocus” back in 1993. So I wrote this one and did the demo with MP at the Tits&Ass palace in Halmstad. But suddenly the US girlband “En Vogue” got involved in the HP-project and did the main song instead. So we withdrew and found ourselves with a finished track (most of it recorded in London) but no movie. Someone suggested we should try to get it into the Dennis Hopper/Bob Hoskins-film “Super Mario Bros” which I thought was a so-so idea but hey….I’m from Furet…. Anyway, we got there…..and the film turned out to be ridiculous (so thought Dennis Hopper by the way… I met him at a Formula 1 race many years ago discussing this…) but the song isn’t that bad…… We changed the title to “Almost unreal” to get rid of the Hocus Pocus-connection. I think it was quite big in the UK. Or maybe it was Greenland.” ”Yep, this one was written for the movie “Hocus Pocus” (starring Bette Midler if I remember things right) but in the end the producers wanted an En Vogue-track instead to be the main theme. So we wound up in the Super Mario Bros-movie (starring Dennis Hopper and Bob Hoskins) instead. That’s why the “Hocus Pocus”-reference are in the lyrics. Ain’t life strange?”
Always Breaking My Heart (Belinda Carlisle version): ”Belinda recorded this. I think I wrote it for Roxette but we had a break for a while. Marie had small kids. Or at least one.”
Always Breaking My Heart (demo): ”The power pop days. MP and me on guitars, MP on bass and the mighty Mike South on drums. Not bad. Recorded May 1995.”
Always The Last to Know (Marie): ”This is Marie’s demo and her music. Sometimes she asks for some lyrics to work with and I gave her “Always the last to know” since I’m very fond of them. This must be end of the 90’s or maybe early 00’s, can’t remember.”
Always The Last to Know (demo – Per: 1998; 2004): ”This is my very first demo (or a short part of it….) of Always The Last To Know. Made in 1998 at the T&A Studio. Then there was a second try with just a piano in 2004. Same lyrics, same music. Then I gave up the music, gave up most of the lyrics, re-wrote everything and made a great demo with Chris at the AGM Studio in 2010. You haven’t heard that one! Yet. PS. Not to be confused with Marie’s music to my ATLTK-lyrics. But that’s a different story.” ”I wrote this one for Roxette’s Have A Nice Day-album in 1998. It didn’t make it. Then I did a new demo in 2004.”
Angel Passing: ”Always loved this one. Original title was “Angel”. Marie and Helena are singing the backing vocals. For some reason it fit my voice quite well. Made for Travelling and will stay there.”
Anyone (demo): ”This was my first intention writing “Anyone”. To combine it with “I love how you love me”. I always loved the Paris Sisters version of that song. Still do.”
Anyone / I Love How You Love Me: ”Always loved The Paris Sisters’ “I love how you love me”. Much better version than mine!”
A Thing About You: ”Nice one, don’t you think? This was one of eight songs I wrote for The Ballad Hits + The Pop Hits compilations late 2001/early 2002. Jonas Åkerlund directed the video, Marie looked amazing and I had hot pants!”
Beautiful Things: ”It’s really nice, Marie wrote the wonderful music to my lyrics.”
Being With You: ”I wrote this one for Roxette in 1997. I just found a demo from June 2000 with Marie singing it. This version is from the Small Town Talk-album and I love Ola’s 12-string Rickenbacker-melody. Beautiful.” ”I wrote this one for Roxette’s HAVE A NICE DAY-album. There are numerous demo recordings available (I’m sure you know…) but this is the only proper version made. I like it a lot. Ola Gustafsson plays really beautiful 12-string Rickenbacker + pedal steel on it. It was recorded at the Aerosol Grey Machine in 2018 with Andreas on drums, Magnus on bass, Clarence on keys + Chris on additional gtrs. And Helena of course. Amazing. As always.”
Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla (You Broke My Heart) (demo): “This is also much better as a demo. MP plays fantastic electric guitar on this. I’m doing the powerchords on the choruses and the piano and the strings. You can hear a lot of Oasis-influences here. Nice! I wrote this for the Room Service-album. I think. We didn’t use at the time. It came out as a bonus-track on The Pop Hits collection.”
Blue Umbrella (demo): ”I wrote this a very long time ago. Probably for Rox. I forgot about it for many years. I think we included my demo on the RoxBox, can’t really remember.”
Blå december: ”A slightly strange recording (who chose the key? – probably me…) from 1984. The record company managed to release it in January 1985. Quite fun actually.”
Breathe (demo): ”Oh yea! One of my favourites! I actually think the demo is way better than the final Rox-version. Don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I loved the song much more than Marie who weren’t really into it. There’s a certain tone and warmth in the demo that’s lacking in the “real thing”. It happens sometimes.”
Breathe: ”One of our finest songs in my humble opinion. Shame it didn’t become a single (or a video). So many songs, so little time.”
Call of The Wild: ”This was written for my third Swedish solo album back in 1985-86. Original title: “En känsla av en kvinna” (A sense of a woman). Wound up on the first Rox album instead. Life is strange sometimes.” ”Did you know that Al Stewart recorded CALL OF THE WILD back in the days? Found it on YouTube. Doesn’t sound like a “proper” mix though, most likely just guide vocals and rough mix. But nice anyway, don’t you think? PS. If you haven’t heard Al S…. check out his songs Year Of The Cat + Time Passages. Amazing stuff!”
Charm School (“Touched by the Hand of God” demo): ”Sep 10, 2009, Tits & Ass Studio, me and my guitar! This song was written for… you guessed it… Charm School… but never made it. The chorus is quite nice though, it had something special. We recorded it but left it wide open. had another go for the Travelling-album, I changed the title and off we went!”
Church of Your Heart: ”We never chose COYHeart as a single, that decision was made by EMI USA at the time. We didn’t even include COYH on the “real” LP, remember? Only on the CD (which wasn’t the standard at the time). There were so many songs… A VERY creative period.”
Cinnamon Street (with Marie’s voice): ”There are two different versions of Cinnamon Street. One with me on lead vox, one with Marie. I never liked any of them. Wrong environment, wrong band. Next life, maybe!”
Come Back (Before You Leave) (demo): ”I always liked this one for some strange reason. We didn’t include it on the “Joyride”-LP due to lack of space but it popped up on the “Tourism”-album, didn’t it? A good way to learn how to program a new synthesizer is to write a song! I did that with “The Look” and “Don’t Believe In Accidents” and also with this one. Then I just added some string pads with MP at the T&A Studio. Voila! The Rox version with Marie’s vox sounds terrific. Great programming by Clarence and Jonas’ guitar parts in the outro are awesome. I’m sure it’s on “Tourism” if you want to check it out.”
Come Back (Before You Leave): ”Nice one. Love this production by Mr Ubermensch!”
Couldn’t Believe My Luck: ”I wrote CBML for Marie a couple of weeks after we’d finished the Charm School album. However, we never recorded it with Roxette. On the Mono Mind version Clarence, ooops sorry…. Rain Davis, used the same synth-sound we used on Roxette’s The Voice. Back to Square One. Nice sometimes.”
Crash! Boom! Bang! (demo): ”This demo was recorded at the Tits&Ass Studio in May 1993! I knew immediately it had the muscles to become a big one with Marie singing it! Such a beautiful melody-line, very dramatic and also a great title (which btw comes from Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock” -“The drummer boy from Illinois went Crash Boom Bang”. Marie sounds SOOOO good on this. So convincing you trust every word she sings. A big big talent that makes brilliant singers stand out from the rest! And Clarence’s string arrangement is superb! I’m lucky to work with ppl of that calibre!”
Crash! Boom! Bang! (video): ”You know we had to re-shoot this entire video!!! The first version turned out to have technical problems with the audio synch. So we had to start all over again. Phew! Michael G (the director) + the insurance company almost had heart attacks! Took two extra days (and nites).” ”London 1994. Did you know we had to record this video twice? Technical f##k-ups happened after it was done so the first version couldn’t be used at all. Lots of tears, anger and a slightly frustrated insurance company were the main ingredients in this particular milkshake. PS. The second version (that’s here) turned out even better than the first one! Marie+Per = happy!” ”I notice some of you want to know where to find the “first version” of the CBB-clip. Thing is that the director eventually noted a serious sync problem so it couldn’t be seen or edited at all. In those days it was pretty complicated to correct big mistakes/issues like that. Don’t ask me exactly what happened cos I don’t really know. Technical stuff has never been my cuppa tea. So all in all… there was never a final version of “the first one”. We had to record everything once more. No big deal. We regarded it as a 250.000GBP-rehearsal. Aaah the music biz in those days….”
Crazy About You: ”I always considered this song to be a first single candidate but it never even made any album!!!! I’m not a hitpicker!!!!! I still like it though!” ”There were a few weeks when I thought this was gonna be the first single off the Crash! Boom! Bang!-album. Nobody agreed! Eventually it didn’t make the album at all. Still, quite cool in my book. Love that Jonas guitar-riff in the outro.”
Cry (demo): ”Tits&Ass demo from Feb 1988. Marie and I wrote “Cry” and “Dance away” and a few other ones that you haven’t heard early that year. “Cry” is a great song I couldn’t have written on my own. Fits Marie perfectly with those “crying” melody-lines.”
Dangerous (demo): ”This demo was made in that FourDaysDemoingLookSharp-session in Stockholm Sep 1987. Jonas plays fantastic guitar as always. Clair did the programming. My original demo was done in Feb 1987 with just me + an acoustic guitar in the T&A Studio in Halmstad. I think we played Dangerous live at the Rock Runt Riket-tour before it was released on any record. But I’m not sure. Does anyone know???? Turned out to be a huge song for us hitting #1 on the Cashbox-chart in the US and #2 on its competitor, the Billboard-chart. Nowadays, Cashbox is dead and gone! To everything there is a season.”
Dangerous (playback, Jacobs Stege, Sweden, 1988): ”This is so funny. Swedish TV-show 1988. The recording, with loads of confused cameramen (and artists…), took forever….. Pelle Alsing had to leave, he had a gig with another band. Look at the beginning you can see a drum kit but no drummer!!!! Wunderbar!” (Just to prove the story is true, here is the same explanation in other words from another post. /PP 🙂 ) ”1988! This is very funny. Check who’s “playing” the drums. No one. Why? Pelle Alsing had to leave before this take. Everything was running late (pre-recorded TV-show) and he had another gig somewhere in Sthlm with some other artist. Life in the fast lane.”
Dangerous (video): ”When we showed this video (and LTYH = shot at the same time) to EMI USA they thought we had built the castle just for the videoclip!”
Detektiv: ”Detektiv is a classic GT song, fast and concentrated as a detective should be! Awesome guitar riff by MP, fresh-daring-half-won-tunes by Micke, who also plays world-class pop drums, dexterous bass by Anki, squeaky Italian organ from Göran and light consonant-crooked song by PG. It was recorded for the “Samma skrot och korn” album in France last spring but was cancelled due to its overly catchy chorus.”
Don’t Believe in Accidents: ”I wrote this song because I had to learn how to use my new synthesizer (Ensoniq ESQ-1). I wrote another one as well, probably the same day…. that was The Look. A decent Tuesday.”
(Do You Get) Excited?: ”“Excited” was supposed to be the fifth single off the Joyride album, that’s why the video was made. However EMI USA changed their minds, their staff and their overall support of our little band so it never happened. A shame. Great video and the song doesn’t smell that bad either!”
Do You Wanna Be My Baby? (demo): ”Oh yeah! This demo. Forgot about it. Made by MP and me in the old Tits & Ass Studio. Could have made a great Rox-track (with Marie on vocals), don’t you think?”
Do You Wanna Go The Whole Way?: ”Yep, I’ve always loved this one (could have skipped the the m8-part when I’m singing though…) but I think we should have sped it up a bit. It’s got a great groove but it’s too slow! Dynamite vocals by Miss Effe (as always). Someone young & fresh. feeeling sexy should make a cover out of this. A surefire hit! And I love the title. That’s how it all started!”
Dressed for Success (Globe Arena opening): ”I think this is from the opening of the Globe Arena in Stockholm back in 1989. We flew in from the States to do two songs live then back to LA….. Aaaah youth!”
Dressed For Success (video): ”This was fun!!!!! Directed by Peter Heath!!!!” ”Recorded at the same time as The Look-video. New York 1989.”
Entering Your Heart (extended version): ”Great vox by Miss Effe! And splendido guitarlix by Jonas. PS. This version has en extra verse. We erased verse 2 for the single-release….” ”Always loved this one. Outtake from the Room Service-album. This is the long version. Pretty long.”
Every Day (Outside My Window) (demo): ”This was written for CBB, I think. The music is not by MF (she made her own music to this lyrics a couple of years later on…but that’s a different story). Micke Syd is playing drums on this. MP + me on guitars.”
Every Day: ”Great song by Marie. I had these lyrics lying around for many years. And you’ve probably heard my own demos…. Marie’s interpretation on them is def the best!” ”Since Marie very rarely wrote lyrics for Roxette I gave her, when she asked for it, some of mine. She wrote amazing music to this one.”
Fading Like A Flower (video): ”Suddenly remembered this one. It was freezing cold in Stockholm, Doug Freel directed the video and loved the scenery. He was right, it looks awesome.” ”Shot in The Golden Room at Stadshuset (City Hall), Stockholm almost yesterday.”
Far Too Close: ”Far Too Close was written for Roxette’s Good Karma album but wound up on my Small Town Talk-album instead.”
Fingertips ’93: ”Always loved this Jonas Åkerlund-video clip. Pelle’s got that amazing moustache he created for the occasion. Marie was pregnant while Anders showed off his Flea/Red Hot Chili Peppers-moves. Instant entertainment in my book!”
Fireworks (video): ”Busking in Piccadilly Circus early in the morning. I remember that!” ”We had lots of fun recording the video clip in London, stopping the earlybirds at Picadilly Circus.”
Fool: ”Fool! Yep, it was a single in my mind for five minutes…”
From One Heart To Another: ”Well. Felt like it wasn’t really part of that album. Glad you enjoy it, though…”
Go To Sleep: ”Great music by Marie set to an old lyric by me. And BRILLIANT production by Clarence. Don’t ever underestimate the producer. Clarence is one of the best!!!”
Half a Woman, Half a Shadow: ”Marie wrote this (the music) to my lyrics. Great stuff!”
Happy on The Outside (demo): ”This is a pretty old demo made by me at the Tits&Ass Studio in August 2005. It was lying around for many years until it found its way to the Charm School-album. A nice vibe, don’t you think?”
Happy Together (demo): ”Yea! Always loved this! This is the T&A demo I had lying around. Listen that drumloop going round and round and round and round forever and ever…how artistic! I liked the vibe of it all so we just added Marie’s vocals to the demo. I think we recorded her vox at ABBA-Benny’s studio in Stockholm. She did a great job. The coda is brilliant. Have to use that again one day… PS. And no, this is NOT a remix.” ”Personally I wish we would’ve spent time on this track back in Marbella when we recorded Have A Nice Day. I thought it was a wonderful little gem but we had so many songs!!! What eventually was released (as the b-side of the Wish I Could Fly-single) is actually my T&A-demo with some Marie vocals added to it afterwards. MP is playing those great guitars.”
Heart of Gold (unplugged): ”One of my fav Neil Young-songs of course. We didn’t do it that well. It made sense in the early 90´s though….”
Here Comes The Weekend: ”A song standing loud and proud on the “Tourism”-album. But hey, I actually wrote it for “Look Sharp!” back in 1988.”
I Call Your Name (Montezuma demo): ”Very early demo from the Montezuma Studio in Stockholm. We did about ten songs in a day….. preparation for the first Rox album.”
I Call Your Name (remix): ”This is some sort of remix EMI Europe wanted us to do. We never liked this version. It sounded much better on the P.O.P-album in Clarence Ubermensch’s production!”
(I Could Never) Give You Up: ”This was written for the LS-album but wasn’t included on the original LP! We had too many songs and this fell off the shelf! However, it was included on the CD-release. I have no big story to tell about this. It was written and demoed in the middle of so many songs at the time. Still have the demo somewhere. Probably on a cassette…”
I din hand (Svante Thuresson’s version): ”90-tals revival! Superhärlig version av I din hand som jag skrev 1993 tillsammans med min chef Åsa! Svante T och Anne-Lie Rydé gjorde en smått magisk version.” ”Oh yea, back to the 90’s. Svante Thuresson + Anne-Lie Rydé made a beautiful version of I DIN HAND. A song I wrote together with the missus Åsa back in 1993 while preparing for the Crash! Boom! Bang!-sessions.”
I din hand (demo – 14th June 1993): „Recorded hours after it was written. And hey, MP is playing the accordion! Always a treat.”
I din hand (Svante Thuresson’s version): ”I wrote the music to “I din hand” in 1993. The boss (Åsa) came up with some very nice phrases that I used in the lyrics so this one is very much a collaboration with her. I was, of course, on another planet at the time, working on the Crash! Boom! Bang-album so I gave this to Svante who was a favourite + an outstanding singer. Anne-Lie Rydé sang as well. Always loved their version. If you want to hear my old demo it’s on Spotify + I made a quite recent acoustic version on the “Gammal kärlek rostar aldrig” album in 2020. But I like Svante’s the most!”
If I Knew Then (What I Know Now): ”I wrote “If I Knew Then (What I Know Now)” late 2002, translated it into Swedish – “Om jag vetat då (vad jag vet nu)” – in 2003, used it on the “En Händig Man” album in 2006 or so. Finished an English version in 2019, mixed it in 2023. Here it is!”
I Found My Soul At Marvingate: ”This is also quite an old one. I started writing it in the summer of 2013 and the working-title was “Mercy”. This is all about the chorus. Classic Roxette-style killer-chorus. You can arrange a song like this in so many ways and if you listen to the version that’s on the EP (not the album version which is the Sofa Tunes-remix) you can hear pretty classic rock style guitars in there, both in the verses and in the choruses. “Marvingate” is the only MM-track (so far) where we have used guitars a la power pop in the production. I didn’t use the EP-version on the album since I felt the Sofa Tunes-remix gave the album a more “groovy” touch. Dr. Robot sounds in top shape here. Love that voice. I wish I sounded like that for real when I’m answering the phone. Have you noticed the Rolling Stones-references in the lyrics? Jumpin’ Jack? Paint it, black? Neither did Christoffer and Clarence! Aaaaah, I’m so misunderstood!”
I Like It Like That: ”I write this for Marie to sing. Never happened.” ”Still like this song. Written for Roxette and Marie to sing (in January 2002) but we never got the chance to record it. It stands out a bit on the “Son Of A Plumber”-album, it’s much more mainstream than anything else (Hey mr DJ excluded…). In the mix you’ll find the drums to the left (a little production gimmick we picked up from Nick Lowe’s “Crackin’ Up”).”
I’m Glad You Called (AGM demo 2008): ”One of my favs. Couldn’t really nail it in the studio with that Party Crasher-vibe. Couldn’t really nail it with Marie for Charm School either. Next time = third time lucky?”
I’m Sorry: ”Nice one from the Crash-album. Always been one of my favourites. There’s a certain mood to it which is…hmmmm…. magnetic to me.”
In Control: ”This was the first song we recorded for the Mono Mind-project. At the time I didn’t have the Mono Mind name, the project was called “Honesty Jam” since the guideline was to follow only my gut feeling and instincts (“honesty”) and mash ideas together with other people and collaborators (“jam”). Basically I just wanted to enjoy myself and screw around with my voice and my songs and see what happened. A little bit off-the-wall like the Son of a Plumber-project but, of course, totally different style-wise. The lyrics are actually a poem I wrote in 2013. The music was written on an acoustic guitar just like so many other songs I’ve done. The line “just leave it neat and tidy, no fake, no confusion, no cracks, no beginning, no end” was at one point the album-title since it was used in several songs. I placed it here and there then took it away. Now it’s only “In Control” and “Marvingate” that include it. I think.”
I Never Quite Got Over The Fact That The Beatles Broke Up: ”I’ve written a lot of “summer songs” over the years, both in Swedish and English, and this one stands out for me. It was the very first song we recorded for the Son Of A Plumber-album and it gave us high hopes for what’s gonna come. I loved it then and still think it brings a nice piece of summer magic even after 19 years.”
Ingen annan: ”INGEN ANNAN is one of my favourite tracks from SÄLLSKAPSSJUK! It was the first song I recorded for the new album, HOPPAS was next. Both of them were written in 1984 for SCENER, my 2nd solo album. I re-wrote parts of the lyrics but kept the music the way I preferred it when I was 25!!!”
Innan du går, kom tillbaka: ”1983. I wrote the lyrics, Marie & I did the music, Gyllene Tider is the backing band. Yea!”
Inte tillsammans, inte isär (demo): ”Demo from June 2003. Re-wrote the lyrics a bit and had another go of this song. I like it a lot even though I have to improve my pianoplaying….. Great to play live!”
I Remember You: ”This one was called “Boom Boom (And Boom Boom Again)” when I wrote it. We recorded it but never really liked it so it was left off the Joyride-LP. Wound up on the CD because EMI wanted three additional songs on the digital release.”
It Hurts (demo): ”Wrote this a long long time ago. I don’t know why we never recorded it properly and put it out. So many songs, so little time….”
It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted video): ”It’s an old one from 87. My Veilette-Citron guitar is present!” ”IT MUST HAVE BEEN LOVE: The very first video. Or? Not really, this was made for a Swedish Chart-show called “Listan” and was later used a semi-official video-clip. Low budgets. High hair.”
It Must Have Been Love (demo): ”Yea, this is the original demo to IMHBLunch. EMI Germany asked us to make a xmas record. – “It’s gonna be easier for you guys to get airplay in this market”, they said. Danke Schön. So I wrote IMHBL and made this slightly clumpsy demo. We then recorded it properly with Marie & Clarence at the brand new digital Audio Sweden Studio in Stockholm, released it in Sweden and had a huge xmas hit! Germany? Nah, they didn’t want it! No release there. Sorry guys, next time….. Then of course, after we had made it in the US with The Look and LTYH etc, we got invited to write a song for the Pretty Woman-movie (it was called something else at the time, can’t remember what…). But I didn’t have any time left since we were busy doing promo all over the world so we offered them IMHBL with slightly new lyrics /xmas day became winter’s day etc/. Life was never the same again. PS. The Pretty Woman-movie has grossed around 500 million USD! Amazing, isn’t it?”
It Must Have Been Love (official music video – Pretty Woman): ”Check this warehouse-turned-into-a-filmstudio out! Same as we used in the It Must Have Been Love-video!” [It’s the ”Traveling Wilburys – Handle with Care” video] ”I wrote “It Must Have Been Love” as a christmas song suggested by our German record label. They had a hard time getting Roxette on the radio at the time and wisely thought a christmas ditty might do the trick. We recorded it and we sent it to them. Our disappointment was hard to hide when we heard they didn’t like it. So it never got released. However, it popped up on our home turf in Sweden where it actually became a gold record just in time for the christmas festivities in 1987. Then, two years later, when we got the request to take part in the “Pretty Woman”-soundtrack Roxette was on a roll internationally. We toured constantly and there wasn’t any time to write anything new for the movie so I suggested to use a slightly re-written version of “It Must have Been Love” instead. It was still a decent song. I removed the christmas-reference in the lyric and we made a new intro and an updated mix. The rest is, as they say, history. When I listen to it today I’m still mesmerized by Marie’s outstanding vocal performance. You truly believe every word she sings and how she managed to reach those high notes in the end without using her falsetto voice beats me. Also, Clarence Öfwerman’s production is wonderfully precise with lots of “air” that leaves plenty of space for Marie’s expressions and the song’s melody lines. Brilliant. Thank you.- Per Gessle, proud father.”
It Will Take A Long Long Time: ”This song is included in the Runaway Bride-movie. Yes, we know. It was the same director (Gerry Marshall) who did Pretty Woman and he wanted another Rox song in his new movie. Nice thought, don’t you think?”
I Wanna Be with You (demo): ”Oh yea! This was recorded at the Tits&Ass Studio in November 1994. Micke Syd plays the drums, MP grooves on the bass and MP + me pump the guitars! Guess I was in a PowerPop-mood after the CBB Tour! Recorded it with Nisse Hellberg for the Lonely Boys-project a couple of years later. Sounds more like a Gyllene Tider-track than Roxette, don’t you think?”
I Want You (Roxette / Eva Dahlgren / Ratata): ”This song was written by all of us (can’t remember how we managed to do that…) and released as a single just before the Rock Runt Riket Tour in 1987. Recorded at the classic Polar Studio in Stockholm (it’s sadly not there anymore).”
I Want You to Know: ”Think I wrote this for Rox but since we had a year off at the time…..I couldn’t help but recording it.”
I Was So Lucky (demo): ”This is very special to me since it started out as a song for my son, Gabriel. The demo was made in June 1998. Hate that vocal performance of mine but the vibe in the track is really strong.”
I Was So Lucky: ”A very dear and special song to me since it was written for my (nowadays hipster-lookin’) son. Beautiful soprano saxophone by the amazing Jonas Knutsson.”
Joy of a Toy (live): ”A funny one, co-written with MP in the 80’s. This clip is live from 1988. I think.”
Joyride (demo): ”A typical example of how “produced” demos MP and me did back in the days. This sounds very much like the final version, don’t you think?”
June Afternoon: ”Yea, this is a nice one. Written for The World According To Gessle-album but Marie loved it so it became a Rox-song instead…. Good choice, Marie!! One of my favourites. Great little video clip by Jonas Åkerlund.”
Jupiter Calling (demo): ”Hahaha! There are so many demos of this I’ve lost count. This one was made at the Tits&Ass Studio in August 1995 for no particular reason at all. I always liked this style of music. A little touch of the 50’s made into something else. There is a really sleazy demo of JC featuring a tenorsax! So glad you haven’t heard that one! Finnish band Leningrad Cowboys recorded this as well. Cheers!”
Jupiter Calling (Leningrad Cowboys version): ”I wrote this one in Swedish (“Jupiter kallar”) in August 1984 for my second solo-LP “Scener” but it didn’t make it. Too cute hahaha? Anyway, nine years later I made an English translation (“Jupiter Calling”) and made a new demo with MP + Micke from Gyllene Tider. For some forgotten reason it wound up with the wonderful Finnish band Leningrad Cowboys who recorded it and also made this videoclip in 1996! I have my old Swedish demo in a drawer somewhere. It will probably pop up one of these years! Fasten your seatbelts! The English demo was btw released as a b-side on some single way back. Don’t know where, don’t know when.”
Keep Me Waiting: ”Yep. Always liked this one. There is a demo where I’m whispering the lyrics instead of singing them. Something for the next demo-box maybe?”
Keep the Radio On (This Is the Perfect Song): ”It was written for GT in 1980. There is a very cool demo with GT in the vaults somewhere. Always liked the song but the Swedish lyrics were too far out. Even by my standards.” ”I actually created it (in Swedish) for Gyllene Tider’s “Moderna tider”-album in 1980 but kept it in the drawer until the mid-90’s. I wrote an English lyric and made a power pop demo (to be found in the PG Archives demo box; “Demos and other fun stuff, vol. 4”) + a Lonely Boys-recording before The Plumber version was made.”
Kom ut till stranden: ”It was written a long time ago for my third Swedish solo album. That album was never recorded. I had the songs but no record deal anymore. Tough luck. So….. all those tunes were lying around in my drawer and when Roxette got the opportunity to make the debut album in 1986 I translated my “lost Swedish album” into English and suddenly most of “Pearls Of Passion” existed. The only song that was left behind was “Kom ut till stranden”. I always liked it but I couldn’t translate it!!! And maybe it didn’t fit the P.O.P.-album anyway, who knows. Anyway, here it is.”
Kvar i min bil: ”Recorded for the “En händig man”-album in 2007 but was never included. Became part of the “Let The Right One In”-movie instead. Wonderful picture btw.”
LaLaLove (LaLaL’amour): ”Helena can have this very fragile tone in her voice which is extremely attractive and, to me, very French. When I heard her sing LaLaLove it reminded me of those wonderful Francoise Hardy and France Gall recordings from the ‘60s. Knowing that Helena’s husband, Martin, speaks French fluently I asked him if he could translate the second verse into French and he did. It’s funny how a song transforms when it’s sung in different languages.”
Let’s Party! (demo): ”Oh no! Let’s Party! Clarence H A T E D this one!!!!! And who can blame him! I wrote this early in the summer of 1988 and this demo was made with MP at the Tits&Ass Studio in July the same year. Six months later we had a hit in the US with The Look. Time changes fast sometimes. PS. Swedish band Sha-Boom made a cover of this. Does anyone remember?”
Liberty (demo): ”This song was written for Belinda Carlisle but she and her A&R-staff in London didn’t like it very much. But they wanted me to be involved with her album “A Woman And A Man”. So she recorded “Always breaking my heart” (Top 8 in the UK!!) + “Love doesn’t live here” instead. ABMH I co-prodcued, LDLH was done by somebody else in LA I think…. The “Liberty”-demo was the first song ever to be recorded at my brand new studio in Stockholm together with highly talented programmer Anders Herrlin and Dr Clair Ubermensch who was spreading his tastebuds all over the place. Great fun.”
Listen To Your Heart: ”LTYH became NUMBER ONE on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart in the US. November 4, 1989. First song ever to reach the No 1-slot WITHOUT being released as a vinyl 7″-single. How about that! Still sounds OK, don’t you think?” ””Listen To Your Heart” was released as the second single off “Look Sharp!”. Not that many songs on that album used “real” drums. I think “Shadow Of A Doubt” is the only other track where Pelle Alsing was allowed to show his magic abilities. Rest of the tracks were programmed in the “new” production style we were looking for after our debut album “Pearls Of Passion”. Anyway, LTYH became really big in Sweden in the autumn of 1988 and eventually became our 2nd NUMBER ONE in the US in 1989. Hallelujah!”
Listen to Your Heart (demo): ”The first demo of this song before Clarence came up with that famous intro on the piano. This is how it sounded from the beginning. It was perfect for Marie…..”
Listen To Your Heart (TV playback): ”This looks so strange, doesn’t it? Sometimes in the old days EMI hired some local musicians to be “the Roxette band” when we did TV shows. I think this is from Australia.” (”Hey Hey It’s Saturday” – Australia – 14th October, 1989)
Little Miss Sorrow: ”Yep, another leftover from the HAVE A NICE DAY-sessions in Marbella, Spain. Can’t remember why this didn’t make the HAND-album, both Marie and I liked it a lot. I guess it was because HAND was growing REAL LONG. Sometimes you just have to kill your darlings. My lead vocals are taken from my original demo recorded at the T&A Studio in Halmstad. I think. Or…hmmm…no? Do you remember pls enlighten me!” ”I wrote this for the Have A Nice Day-project but it didn’t make it to the final album for some reasons no one can remember. Popped up on the Pop Hits-compilation instead. No musical updates were made after the recording in Marbella and Stockholm 1998. However, we did a new mix at the Polar Studio (the old ABBA temple!). Ronny Lahti was in charge.”
Loud Clothes (demo): ”I wrote this for the Have A Nice Day-album but we never recorded it. Had so many songs around at the time. This is the third demo I made, recorded at the T&A Studio in Halmstad much later in August 2002. Made with love together with the mighty MP!”
Lover Lover Lover: ”My favourite song from TRAVELLING. It’s way too long but hey… who’s in a hurry? I love the cellos, always did.”
Lover Lover Lover (demo): ”This is from the Tits&Ass Studio in Halmstad. Still like this one…”
Lycklig jul (demo): ”I wrote in 1985 after The Scener-album came out. The demo was made in Oct 85. In English? Nah, won’t happen. It was fun to make though. Lots of silly stuff goin’ on in the T&A Studio!”
Make My Head Go Pop: ”The MMHGP-phrase came from an interview I read with Frank Black from The Pixies. It sounded just like it should’ve come out from my mouth, don’t you think!”
Making Love To You: ”Yep, another leftover from HAVE A NICE DAY. We never really worked properly on this one. Marie and I only did a couple of guide vocals to get into the groove. Lots of ballads around at the time.”
Ma?la mitt minne (demo): ”I wrote it for the Mazarin-sessions but we never recorded it. Many years later, it turned up under a new banner as the title track for the “En vacker dag” album in 2017, recorded in Nashville. This version was made at T&A in Halmstad, played mostly by me (I think MP is playing bass). Anna Lönnberg-Volden was singing the harmony vocals. Beautiful. Looking back, I actually prefer this version to the Nashville one!”
Me & You & Terry & Julie (demo): ”Terry & Julie? Those characters came from “Waterloo Sunset” by Ray Davies. Think he was writing about Terence Stamp and Julie Christie. The legend says so anyway. WS is one of the best songs ever in my book.”
Milk and Toast and Honey (demo): ”Yea, this is one of my favourite Rox songs. Recorded at Tits&Ass in August 1999 by MP and me. I don’t like my vocals on this but our good old friend Milla (Camilla Andersson) is doing a great job with the chorus. She’s done that on a couple of occasions when I make my demos. “A thing about you” is another one. Marie is, of course, just perfect on the final Rox-version. A beauty.”
Milk and Toast and Honey: ”Superb vocals by Miss Effe. Wonderful scenery just outside Stockholm.”
Min hälsning: ”One of my favourites. Wrote it in 1978 (with slightly different lyrics) and this is a live recording we did in the Aerosol studio 2007! Good vibes!”
Myth (demo): ”Yea, this is Marie’s music and my lyrics. Btw, the lyrics in the video is NOT correct. “Slipped” has become “slept” etc…. This is pretty good but we didn’t need it at the time. I don’t know who’s playing on this, must be Marie’s band.”
My World, My Love, My Life: ”We were always very careful to pick a real good one as the closing track on any album. This is the finale from Room Service. Me like!” ”Final track on the Room Service-album. Wonderful guitar playing by Jonas Isacsson.”
Neverending Love (Svarta glas – demo): ”Oh yea! This is the very first demo of “Svarta glas” (it means “black glass”… or in this case “black glasses”…) Recorded at the tiny Tits&Ass Studio in Styrdal, Halmstad Oct 1985! I wrote it for Swedish artist Pernilla Wahlgren but she and her record company never returned my calls…… Instead it became the very first Roxette-recording (Neverending love) but without the synths/drum machines I used for the demo. Clarence wanted a more organic sound so off we went with a brand new band. However, MP was still playing the guitar-hook just like on this demo. Very catchy, don’t you think?”
Never Is A Long Time: ”From the TOURISM-album. We recorded it in an empty nightclub in Sao Paulo if my memory serves me well. Touring South America with the Join The Joyride-bonanza in 1992.”
Never Is A Long Time (demo): ”This demo was recorded in Sep 1987 at EMI Studios in Stockholm (it says 1995 in the video = big mistake!) with Clarence in charge. All in preparation for the Look Sharp!-album. We never recorded NIALT properly until we hit that closed Sao Paulo-nightclub making the Tourism-bonanza way later. I think the Tourism-version holds one of Marie’s finest vocal performance ever. I’m sure you all agree.”
Never Is A Long Time (reggae demo): ”January 1992 = the reggae day! Terrible version btw….”
One Is Such A Lonely Number: ”Also from the Look Sharp demo-sessions. Programmed + produced by mr Clair Ubermensch! We had better songs than this!!!!”
Opportunity Nox: ”One of my favourites. I’m so proud of that guitar solo. It took me so long I missed dinner.”
Pay The Price: ”Recorded in Marbella, Spain. Always liked this. Maybe it’s because I got the chance to play the guitar solo in the coda???? Swell!”
Pearls of Passion: ”This one was called “Pearls and Passion” when I wrote it. Someone misspelled it at EMI Sweden (think it was Kjell Andersson, head of A&R) so I kept the “new” title. Artistic, heh?”
Perfect Day (demo): ”One of the few demos of mine Marie is singing. I don’t think there exist any demo of PD sung by me. This was made at the Tits&Ass Studio in August 1990, MP plays the accordion. The accordion part was crucial to the song so when we realized that Vicki Benckert (who was joining us on the Joyride Tour) could play it live we decided to put it on the Joyride-album. Originally the final track was supposed to be Queen of rain. As you know we kept QOR in the drawer until Tourism came out.”
Queen of Rain: ”Back to 1992 for a few minutes! QOR was actually recorded for the Joyride-album but got ditched when Perfect Day was born. We thought it was cool closing the Joyride-album with PD which included an accordion. Vicki Benckert played the accordion live, remember? Looked and sounded really fab!” ”Talk about leftovers…… This was left out from the Joyride-album. We had decided to bring on Vicki Benckert for the Join the Joyride-world tour and she could play the accordion really well. MP and me had written this other ballad “Perfect Day” (featuring an accordion) so we chose that one as the closing number on Joyride instead of QOR. PD was to be an amazing last song to perform live. QOR, of course, became the closing song on “Tourism” + a single instead. Which one do you prefer? Tough choice for me….”
Queen of Rain (video): ”Queen Of Rain. Video shot at Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandie, France. Oui.” ”Great little video shot in northern France, directed by Matt Murray. We had to run when the tide came in.”
Regn: ”Cover version av “Regn”! Don’t think I’ve heard it before. I do remember writing the English lyric to it way back for some reason…. There must be a demo of it somewhere in the drawer next to The Heartland Cafe’-outtakes! Aaah, the lazy hazy crazy days of the 80’s.”
Reveal (Kleerup remix): ”I think this remix is quite good. Kleerup’s got his own very personal sound which I like.”
Theme From ”Roberta Right”: ”Recorded for the Party Crasher-album. Co-written with my son, Gabriel, who was ten years old at the time. He came up with the top line in the chorus (“Ro-Ro-Roberta Roberta Right” but he was singing “Robot robot robotdans”). Brilliant. Should have made it to the album!”
Run to You (demo): ”This was recorded in December 1992. The arrangement got a complete make-over in Capri when we recorded it for the CBB-album. I think it was Anders Herrlin who had some brilliant ideas at the time. It certainly wasn’t me….”
Run to You: ”I remember it being a so-so song (I didn’t really know what to do with it…) but was made great by Anders Herrlin who started programming things I hadn’t heard before. It fit the song perfectly. There you go. Now it’s a Rox killer track in my book.” ”This song was a problem child in the studio to begin with. Then Anders H came up with the brilliant idea to build the arrangement around acoustic guitars. Way to go, Anders!” ”I like this song. My demo was a little bit too similar to Fading Like A Flower but Anders Herrlin popped by (in Capri of all places) and had a new angle to the arrangement. It sounded amazing. Sometimes you have a song with all the goodies but you need a protein shot. Anders gave us that. Thanks dear!” ”A nice one. If you’ve heard my demo (it’s somewhere on The Per Gessle Archives) you’ve probably noticed that “Run To You” sounded pretty different when I created it. Anders Herrlin was in charge of the re-arrangement in the studio in Capri, Italy and it sounded amazing to my ears. I also love the sound of Marie’s voice on this one. Of course.”
Salvation: ”One of my favourites. Video directed by Anton Corbijn. A treat to work with him.” ”The video was shot in Amalfi + Napels in Italy, October 1999. Directed by the very tall Anton Corbijn.”
Seduce Me (demo): ”Tits & Ass demo of a song Marie and I wrote together. Summer of 1990. I think the lyrics are mine, the music we did by the piano in my apartment on Torsgatan in Halmstad. The mighty MP plays guitars. Btw, Clarence hated this one so we never recorded it!! And we didn’t really need it at the time. We had better tunes.” ”I’m sure you’ve heard this one already. Popped up officially as the b-side to the June Afternoon-single in 1996. Recorded in August 1990 at the Tits&Ass Temple and I wrote it for the Joyride-album. Didn’t make it. MP plays the guitars here.”
She Doesn’t Live Here Anymore: ”I think this is the only Rox song ever Clarence Öfwerman didn’t produce or co-produce. Yea. I think so.” ”Lots of Gyllene Tider here. I wrote it with MP. And Micke Syd on drums + Anders on bass from were onboard! Video by the amazing Jonas Åkerlund.”
Shelter from the Storm: ”I wrote this in Swedish in 1982 for my first solo album but I never recorded it properly. It was originally called “Segla på ett moln” which translates “Sailing on a Cloud.” I gave it to Anne-Lie Rydé instead. She’s a very talented singer from Gothenburg (also signed to EMI at the time) and she nailed it and had a big hit with it. She still performs it and it has become a somewhat famous song in Sweden over the years.
Already back in the early ‘80s I was trying to get my songs covered internationally so I had “Segla på ett moln” translated by a friend of mine, DJ and great lyricist Hasse Huss. Hasse, by the way, wrote lots of lyrics for Swedish singer Mikael Rickfors (together they created “Yeah Yeah” on Cyndi Lauper’s massive “She’s So Unusual” album which probably paid their bar bills for a couple of years…)
Anyway, Diana Ross got interested in recording “Shelter from the Storm” in 1984, it was on hold for her for six months, but she never recorded it.
In 2017 I found Hasse’s lyrics, I still liked them, and I thought we should have a go with Mono Mind and Helena / Cooky. I sent some ideas to Andreas Broberger and he came up with a great production angle so off we went. Not bad, huh?”
Sleeping In My Car: ”Pelle Sirén on lead guitar, Mats Myrdal Persson on drums if I remember things right!”
Sleeping In My Car (demo): ”I had just written Sleeping In My Car. This is the demo. Recorded at EMI Studio 2 in Sthlm. The very talented herrn Anders Octopus Herrlin is playing the drums!!! I’m playing bass + all guitars. Marie is trying out the melody lines even though this version is made in the wrong key for her. Clarence and Alar were mixing Crash! Boom! Bang! upstairs in Studio 1. Lovely.”
Småstad: ”Mickes pappa mekar i början. Kolla in och lär!” (Dennis Erixon added: ”Featuring Denne Syd vid 0:54!” /PP); ”SMÅSTAD is a wonderful song written by the mighty MP. I loved it immediately first time he played it for me and I had the pleasure of writing lyrics to it. This little band (first called RELEASE THE TIGER… then PER’S GARAGE…) was born at xmas/new year 1987-88 several years after Gyllene Tider broke up. It was MP, Micke Syd and me. Göran added his Farfisa afterwards. Anders had moved to Stockholm and wasn’t around at the time. MP played bass! We did six tracks all in all. Everything is available nowadays on the KONSTPAUS album if you feel you suddenly have a PER’S GARAGE-addiction!!!!”
Small Talk: ”I don’t hate it. I think it’s cool. But for me Dressed For Success is better. ST follows the same tradition but didn’t really make the chequered flag!”
Snart kommer natten (Here Comes The Weekend’s Swedish version written by J. Larsson, performed by Jim Jidhed): ”I wrote this (in English) back in 1988, this Jim J version is from 91. Can’t remember who wrote the Swedish lyrics.”
Solens vän: ”Obscure song from the 90’s. Called “Plantera ett träd” in the beginning. The first time GT worked with Michael Ilbert. Listen to all the tough guitars!”
Something in The System (demo): ”Yea well….. this one was written for Roxette. However, it felt too long and we forgot about it for a couple of years. When we put together “The Junior Suite-medley” on the Son Of A Plumber-album this popped up in my head. So we used a bit of it, played it faster and suddenly…it all made sense. Me like.”
Som i en dröm (demo): ”Yea, this is the original demo to “So far away” from Pearls of Passion. I did another one (acoustic) not that long ago which I might use in the future. I like this track a lot. Especially in Swedish.”
Speak To Me (Bassflow remake): ”One of the best remixes in Rox history. In my book.”
Spending My Time (demo): ”Recorded May 24, 1990 at Tits & Ass. I knew we had a great song (MP and I wrote this one together) but the demo always sucked!!! I couldn’t sing it very well, I don’t know why. It was always meant for Marie. She did a tremendous job delivering it. I’m sure it would have become a Top 5 song in the US if EMI wouldn’t have scrapped the entire company and sacked 122 people in the middle of marketing this one. People loved it but radio never got the chance to catch up. The Music Business. You win some, you lose some.” ”If you heard my demo of this song you wouldn’t have believed your ears. It’s awful! Marie (and Clarence) made it happen!!!!!!”
Spending My Time (video): ”Spending My Time, directed by Wayne Isham.”
Staring at The Ground (demo): ”This demo was recorded at Tits&Ass Aug 29, 1997. Always loved this song (it’s actually Clarence’s fave also from HAND too… he’s got exquisite taste, right?). Strange piano-section in the middle (which we removed on the “real” recording in Spain) otherwise it’s right up my alley! Great vocals by Marie. As always.”
Stars (demo): ”Hey, I did really serious demos back in the days! Took forever. Nowadays it’s just me and a guitar. The rest is left open to the main brains and the studio wizardry of Chris and Clair.”
Stay (At Home, At Work, At Play) (demo): ”Hahaha! Stay! At home, at work, at play! That last phrase came from a Sparks-song. I always loved that! This demo was recorded at Tits&Ass in the summer of 1995 with Micke Syd on drums, MP on bass guitar and me fooling around with loads of guitars. I love that solo!!! It took off with the lyrics and then I wrote the music together with MP, I think most of the chorus came from him actually. There are some chords in there I wouldn’t have used myself…. This was just after the CBB-tour had ended and I geared up for the first Gyllene Tider-comeback in 1996. Neither Rox nor myself recorded it “properly”, this is the only version that exists that I’m involved in. However, a Danish girl, Ann-Louise did a version of it. You’ll probably find it on YouTube.”
Sugar Rush: ”One of my favourite tracks from the Mono Mind album. i wrote this one with Alex Shield. Love that chorus!!!!”
Sweet Thing (demo): ”Written for the Look Sharp!-album but got lost in the shuffle. Great chorus, though. MP plays guitar on this demo. Classic 80’s Tits&Ass-sound…”
Tell Him I Said Hi!: ”The first recording of THISH was sung entirely by Dr Robot and was called “Tell Her I Said Hi!”. It sounded fab. The sound of Dr Robot’s voice on the verses on this one is for me truly amazing. It’s my favorite Dr Robot-sound together with “Marvingate” and “Down By The Riverside.” However, when I suddenly had lots of Mono Mind-tracks piled up I felt I needed a little bit more “flesh and blood” when it came to the voices so I re-wrote it and re-recorded it and had Helena / Cooky join the party and sing on the choruses. I love this one and I especially adore Clarence’s hypnotic piano part in the middle.”
The Centre Of The Heart (video): ”Shot at The Madonna Inn, San Luis Obispo. Weird place.” ”Created during a few hectic days (and nights) in San Luis Obispo if my memory serves me right!”
The Finest Prize: ”It was written for ”Good Karma” but we never worked on it for several reasons. The ”original” version of ”Första pris” is called ”The Finest Prize”.” To the question how much Per changed the lyrics of ”Första pris” when he decided to do it in Swedish and if he had recorded an English demo to it: ”I tried to capture the same lyrical idea about a woman and a man living in their own universe. Content and strangely unaffected by life’s rewards. Yes, there are several English demos recorded. Tits & Ass have been on fire with this one!” ”I wrote it in 2014 for Roxette’s Good Karma-album but we never recorded it. Then I translated it into Swedish two years later and it became ”Första pris”.” ”The Finest Prize-lyrics are special to me. The song was written in December 2014 for the Good Karma-album but was never recorded. Then translated (or actually re-worked) into Swedish in 2016 for the Nashville sessions.”
The Look (demo): ”I was trying to mix a “dance-vibe” with powerful guitars. A little bit like ZZ Top a la Gimme All Your Lovin’. It was written for Marie but it sounded terrible when she tried it out. She needs “bigger” melodies so you can hear her fab voice properly! We always, by instinct, went for singles where Marie did the lead vox. When we heard about the airplay in the US we instantly thought it was Dressed For Success or Listen To Your Heart that started to happen. Big surprise to all of us that it was The Look. Badabam!”
The Look (first video clip): ”The is typical Swedish low budget video from 1989. We had to make a better one. We did.”
Theme From Roberta Right: ”Hahaha forgot this for a while. Co-written with Gabriel btw. He wrote the chorus. Brilliant.” ”A fake TV-show we made up. Kinda fun. Wrote the song with Gabriel! It almost made the PC album. Great vocals by miss Helena.” ”I co-wrote it with Gabriel when he was ten years old. He came up with the chorus singing “Ro-bot Ro-bot Ro-bot Dance”. Very catchy. I changed it into this persona Ro-Ro-Roberta Roberta Right. Maybe his lyrics were better hahaha?”
The Rain (demo): ”This one is the 2nd demo I made for THE RAIN. Must’ve been December 1991. The first one was made in July the same year and has got a totally different groove. Written for the Tourism-project. I always liked it, it’s got that “build-up”…grow grow grow til you die… in its DNA that made Rox sound like Rox. Beautiful. Marie, of course, did a fab job making it spectacular in the studio later on. Big songs need big voices!”
The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye (Bassflow remake): ””The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye” was a leftover from the Joyride-sessions back in 1990. For some reason it didn’t make the album (it could easily have replaced “I Remember You” or “Physical Fascination” in my book…) but destiny wanted it to appear here and there and everywhere instead as a single-b-side, on compilations, in box sets etc. This is the Bassflow remix version from a kupple o’years ago. Me like. Enjoy.” ”Great leftover from Joyride. I always loved this song but it didn’t make the album due to too many songs and limited output in those days (CD + LP). We hade Bassflow to do a remix two thousand years later and it turned out like this. Me = like!!! PS. Check out the original version as well. That’s how it sounded in 1991!!!”
The Voice (B-side to DFS single): ”This is the demo we made + freshed it up a bit to become a b-side for Dressed For Success.”
The Weight Of The World: ”One of my fav Rox ballads. Recorded at Atlantis Studio in Stockholm in 2000 for the Room Service album if I remember things right. It didn’t make the album, we kept some acoustic songs out. However, it was eventually released on The Ballad Hits album and in a slightly updated version on the Travelling album.”
Things Will Never Be The Same: ”Sorry we don’t have a proper video clip for this Joyride-gem. It deserves one in my book. Miss Effe and Clarence Ubermensch in top shape!”
Threnody (Gyllene Tider for a compilation album): ”Jeezus, this is very old! Frida in ABBA was doing a solo-album in 1982 (produced by Phil Collins) and asked me to write a song for her. And she gave me a book of Dorothy Parker’s poems. I wrote music to two of them; “Threnody” and “Light of love”. When her first single was released (“I know there’s something going on”) she had the good taste of putting “Threnody” on the b-side. It became huge in the US and sold 4 million copies worldwide and . My first international success….. Phew! PS. This version you hear is played by Gyllene Tider and was made for some compilation album. There must be a demo version by MP and me somewhere as well.”
Threnody (Anni-Frid Lyngstad version): ”It’s on ABBA-Frida’s solo album from 1982. I wrote the music to a Dorothy Parker-poem. Those were the days.”
TomTom: ”This is not the demo, this is from the Händig man-album. Chris & Clair’s favourite song from those sessions and I like as well. I still enjoy the lyrics and C&C’s very sparse arrangement and playing.”
T-T-T-Take It!: ”This one was written for Rox but I recorded it for The World According To Gee instead.”
Turn of the Tide: ”This one was written for Have A Nice Day. Did you know that?”
Un día sin tí: ”Marie did an unbelievable job learning all those Spanish lyrics for the Baladas en Espanol-album. I was only singing on one track, Vulnerable. I don’t understand a word but it sounds terrific!”
Varmt igen: ”Love this song. The finale on the Mazarin album. I wrote it, recorded a demo and gave it to Peter Jöback before I recorded it myself, Ms Dimberg heard my demo and Peter needed something special so off he went…… Then I did it myself.” (Here you can also listen to Peter Jöback’s version live.)
View From The Bridge: ”I was asked to write a piece of orchestral music for the opening of the mighty bridge between Sweden and Denmark in 2000. A great honour for me. It was arranged by Clarence + Christoffer. They did an amazing job. However, we had a hard time with the Danish conductor who wanted/tried to change everything when the big symphony orchestra came into the picture. I prefer our own demo! But hey, that’s me! PS. Demo is on Spotify. In the PG Archives box.”
Vulnerable (demo): ”This song came to me very easy. I had the title and most of the lyrics, the chords and the melodies in my head for a long time (about a year or so…) before I made any demo-recording. Wish I had sung it better, though. Can’t remember why Marie didn’t want to sing it. A few changes in the lyrics and it would have sounded fab with her.”
Vulnerable: ”Had the melody in my head for more than a year, wrote the lyrics in an airport lounge somewhere. The waiting’s the hardest part. Airports are made for waiting.”
What’s She Like?: ”One of the best vocal performances from Miss Effe in my book! Gorgeous!”
Wish I Could Fly: ”WICF was released Feb 1, 1999! Fifteen years ago today!* Makes sense, Gabriel was one year old in this video clip!” (*Per posted this on Feb 1, 2014)
Wish You The Best (acoustic version): ”Think I did this for some radio station. Could be Micke Nord on lead guitar and b-vox. Doesn’t sound like Christoffer L….” (TWATG promo in Spain. September 1997, in Barcelona.)
Writer (demo): “Hahahaha! My Gosh, forgotten gem, right? Micke Syd on drums, MP + me on guitars. It sounds better with “She’s such a good reporter”, don’t you think?. On the other hand “Paperback writer” has got a great touch to it! Oh well, guess I was trying to write some Gyllene Tider-candy in English at the time. The whole TWATG is full of power pop dreams.”
You Can’t Put Your Arms Around What’s Already Gone: ”Yep, always liked You can’t….. Michael Ilbert did a great sound on this one! Recorded in Marbella, Spain.”
You Don’t Understand Me (acoustic version – Abbey Road): ”Oh yeah, we did an acoustic version of YDUM at Abbey Road as well. We recorded four songs there in one day. Without rehearsing! My Gosh.”