Roxette’s music becomes a musical

Roxette’s vast catalogue of hits is the soundtrack for generations all over the world. It is now time for it to be used in a brand new musical, based on the hit author Jane Fallon’s novel “Got You Back”. The opening is scheduled to be in the autumn of 2024 at Malmö Opera in Malmö, Sweden.

The Swedish duo Roxette, Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle, is one of the most successful pop groups ever. Their iconic songs like “Listen To Your Heart”, “It Must Have Been Love”, “The Look”, “Joyride” and many more have ruled the charts around the globe. The classic Roxette catalogue will be the soundtrack for a brand new musical, based on the English hit novelist Jane Fallon’s book “Got You Back” with a script by the Swedish playwright and director Klas Abrahamsson. Per Gessle is the hugely successful songwriter and frontman of Roxette which he formed with singer Marie Fredriksson in 1986. Their sales to late exceeds 80 million albums since their first release.

Per Gessle says:

My immediate feeling is that Roxette’s music is perfect for a musical, a rich bunch of songs with lots of familiar melodies. The mix of our legacy and Jane Fallon’s brilliant story feels like a match made in heaven. I look forward to this exciting project.

Jane Fallon is the celebrated TV-producer who became a successful author. Fallon has published eleven novels since her debut “Getting Rid Of Matthew” in 2007 and the sales has passed the million mark in UK alone.

Jane says:

I love musicals and I love Scandinavia and I love Roxette’s music so this is like a dream come true. I’m so happy to be part of this production.

The playright and director Klas Abrahamsson has been praised for several of his plays like “Camping”, “My Friend The Fascist” and “Ingvar! A Musical Furniture Tale” – the two latter together with composer Erik Gedeon.

Klas says:

The music is so great and cool and the story is important and has a most relevant intrigue. I’m so thrilled.

Malmö Opera is one of Sweden’s biggest producer of musical theatre. Carina Ostrander says:

Malmö Opera has yet again shown the power to launch new projects, from the first idea to a full stage production. We do look forward to the collaboration with Per Gessle, Jane Fallon, Klas Abrahamsson and all of the skilled professional craftsmen necessary for a successful stage show.

The musical is a collaboration between Per Gessle, Nordiska ApS and Malmö Opera.

Tickets will go on sale in 2023/24.

Per Gessle demo cassettes TEAC At Home No. 1-2-3

Yet another 3 cassettes are out „from the Drawer Of Dreams”, as Per says. He had a TEAC four-channel tape recorder which he used all the time for a couple of years. Tricky but it worked, he says. PG adds:

Amazing to think I actually did this on my own. I’ve always been lousy with technology. But there you go. Don’t give up!

“Studio Tor” on cassette No. 3 refers to Mr. G’s apartment that was situated on Torsgatan in Halmstad.

Those magic drawers surely contain some more cassettes and that TPGA box vol. 2 is shouting for a release. Only on these three cassettes there are so many tracks we haven’t heard so far!

TEAC AT HOME #1

A

1. Krig (Instr.) (6th September 1983)

2. Krig (7th September 1983)
Released on The Per Gessle Archives – På väg – Demos 1982-86. Monica Törnell released the song in 1984.

3. The Sound Of My Falling Tears (2 vers.) (10th/12th September 1983)
The September 12th version is released on The Per Gessle Archives – Demos & Other Fun Stuff! Vol. 3.

Info from PG: „I bought this 4-track Tascam machine and I did all these things on my own, which is quite scary, being me. So I recorded this at home with just a small synthesizer and a Roland drum machine. Very distinctive 80’s sound. I probably wrote it for „The Heartland Café” album, Gyllene Tider’s English album. That was in the can at the time. It’s sometimes good to work on your own, because you have to solve all your problems yourself. You have to be the engineer, you have to play the instruments, you have to do everything on your own. Which means that you learn a lot. So I did that for a couple of minutes in my life, before I decided to get some collaborators on board. I like to work very rapidly, so if things grew up like technical stuff grew up, I’m lost in the shuffle. It’s just terrible. I had really big studios in my homes over the years, but I always gave it up in the end of the day, because I need an engineer, I need someone to make things work for me. If I have a musical idea, I want to play it now, I want to record it now and if I’m gonna do it on my own it’s gonna be made in like two hours, because I have to find all the wires and connections, hit the right buttons. And when I’ve done that finally, I forgot about all the idea that I had in the first place. That’s why I use my iPhone, my smartphone to do very simple demos on.”

4. Rosa vind (4th November 1983)
Info from PG: „It’s an early version of “Om jag en dag”, the final cut on the “Scener”-album.”

5. Liksom fåglar (26th November 1983)
Probably the Fåglar demo released on The Per Gessle Archives – På väg – Demos 1982-86.

Info from PG: „It’s an early version av “Fåglar”.”

6. Fri som en fågel (26th November 1983)
Info from PG: „It’s a waltz I wrote on the piano for “Scener”. Never made it. Stupid lyrics.”

7. From One Heart To Another (8th December 1983)
Info from PG: „I wrote this even prior to the last Gyllene Tider album, which was in English of course, so it could have been written for that album. I don’t know, I can’t remember. It was a little bit more guitar-driven in 1983 than in 1984 when I did another demo, which was a bit more sequencer and synthesizers. Then in 1985 it was a reggae. The reggae version was what I played for Marie and then we went into the Montezuma studio in 1986 to do an acoustic demo of it, which eventually lead to its inclusion on the first Roxette album. It was never a favourite song for me. Especially in the Roxette version. I had it in so many versions. When it was written, it was supposed to be a guitar-driven song and that’s the way it should have stayed. It’s got a big chorus and you can actually pump it up with guitars. The Roxette version is a little bit more easy-listening, more smooth. When a song lies around for so many years it travels. This song was sent into the Swedish Eurovision Song Contest in 1985 or so in Swedish with a lyric by Ingela “Pling” Forsman, called „Skepp utan roder”. That didn’t go anywhere, of course.

8. En man av väntan (11th December 1983)
Info from PG: „It’s a very boring piano ballad. Next please.”

9. Dreaming (14th December 1983)
Demo of Dreaming by Gyllene Tider.

10. Light Of Love (29th December 1983)
Info from PG: „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”.”

11. Don’t Want To Live Alone (4th January 1984)
Info from PG: „It’s an early version av “30 skäl”.”

12. Rickie Lee (2 vers.) (19th January 1984)
Demos to the song Rickie Lee that was released on Per Gessle’s second solo album, Scener. It was composed for Marie Fredriksson’s Het vind album, but she released the song only when the album was reissued in 2003.

B

1. Stand By Me (24th January 1984)
Is that a Ben E. King cover?

Info from PG: „It’s not the Ben E. King standard. It’s an original song I probably wrote for “The Heartland Café”. This demo from January is made by me on my own. There is another one from later in the year, in July, with Gyllene Tider playing. It’s a pretty cool one. And a nice song. Might release it one day.”

2. Ros (26th January 1984)
Released on The Per Gessle Archives – På väg – Demos 1982-86.

3. Like Lovers Do (3rd February 1984)
Info from PG: „Most of the songs on „Pearls Of Passion” are songs written in Swedish, including „Like Lovers Do”. I can’t remember what the title was, but it was written in Swedish.”

4. From One Heart … (13th February 1984)
See what’s written at side A track 7.

5. Ingen kan som du (17th February 1984)
Released on The Per Gessle Archives – På väg – Demos 1982-86.

6. Skyldig (20th February 1984)
Skyldig is a song written by Per Gessle, released as a bonus song on Basse Wickman’s 2001 compilation album, Da Capo.

7. Sommardans (20th February 1984)
Info from PG: „It’s another piano ballad. I wrote a lot of those! It’s… hmmmm… OK. Next life, maybe?”

8. Like Lovers Do (Marie) (24th February 1984)
See what’s written at side B track 3.

9. 12 23 05 (28th February 1984)
Per wrote this song and The Pinks [Swedish boyband of kids aged 8-14] released it in 1984 in Swedish. It made headlines in the newspapers, because the number in the title was an existing phone number of a 83-year-old lady in Örebro who got a tremendous amount of calls. According to The Pinks, Per said the song was originally written in English.

10. Never Say Goodbye (29th February 1984)
Later, in 1990 the track was released as a song written by Per Gessle and Clarence Öfwerman under this same title by Passagerarna [band members: Clarence Öfwerman, Mats Persson (not MP!), Micke Jahn, Pelle Alsing, Tommy Cassemar].

Info from PG: „It’s an original song by me. There is actually another demo from July 1984 which is much better. Uptempo pop ditty. Catchy chorus. I gave the lyrics to Clarence many years later and he wrote new music to it for his band “Passagerarna”. They recorded it (with Clarence music) and it was sung by Mats “Myrdal” Persson who played percussion with Roxette on the CBB tour. Small world.”

11. Sheik (6th March 1984)
Info from PG: „It’s an early version of “Physical Fascination”.”

12. Ingen annan (9th March 1984)
Info from PG: „It’s a pretty cool song in 6/8-beat. Forgot about this one. Thanks for bringing it up. I might use it some day.”

13. ”Sköna juveler” / Tema #? (26th March 1984)
There was a 1984 Swedish movie with this title. Can it have any relation to this demo? Hm.

Info from PG: „Yes, I got a request to write some music to this movie. But the people in charge didn’t really like my home made electronic stuff. Who can blame them?”

TEAC AT HOME #2

A

1. Innan du går, kom tillbaka (4th March 1984 – 27th March 1984)
As Marie mentions in her biography, she and Per wanted to play and sing together and they started writing songs together. One of them was Innan du går, kom tillbaka. Per wrote the lyrics and they wrote the music together. The song was released on Hi Fidelity (Various Artists) with Marie singing, Gyllene Tider playing.

2. Fascination (3rd April 1984)
Anything physical?

Info from PG: „It’s yet another early version of Physical Fascination. How many does the world need?”

3. I Call Your Name (11th April 1984)
The Montezuma demo is only from 1986.

Info from PG: „It’s my first demo of what became a Roxette song.”

4. Mandolindagar (16th April 1984)
The song was released on the Inte tillsammans, inte isär EP in 1986 and as a bonus track on the 1994 re-release of Scener.

5. See (16th April 1984)
Regarding the 1989 demo version of See on demo cassette No. 7 Per said: „It’s still unreleased, but there was a Swedish translation and recording made by Sylvia Vrethammar in 1990 with the title „Öppna dina ögon”. My music, Sylvia’s lyrics. Produced by Clarence. How about that? Also… “See” + “See Me” has got the same lyrics. But different music. “See” = music by me. “See Me” = music by sweet Marie.”

6. Innan du går (M. GIT) [if I can read it correctly]
Probably another demo version of Innan du går, kom tillbaka.

Info from PG: „It’s the same demo as the one from March but “M GIT” which means “med gitarr/with guitar”. Duet with Marie. It’s always a joy to hear her sing. I have to release this one. Thank you.”

7. Önskar att du (27th April 1984)
Might be an earlier version of the 1986 Önskar demo, which later became Sleeping Single.

Info from PG: „It’s not the same song as “Önskar” (which became “Sleeping Single”). This one is also uptempo, not terrible, not amazing, pretty dull actually if you play it twice.”

8. Lidelsens vita flagg (2nd May 1984)
Info from PG: „It’s not a bad song. Uptempo, great chorus. Chords sound pretty classic, a little bit like Dressed For Success. It actually sounds like Marie is singing backing vocals on this one. Major problem is that the lyrics stink. That’s probably why it was left in the ditch.”

9. Den tunna linjen (1st May 1984)
Den tunna linjen was released on Scener.

10. Flickor älskar att dansa (5th May 1984)
Info from PG: „It’s an early version of ”Dreams Of Love And Devotion”. Sounds a bit like the Cars. Pretty good.”

11. (I Feel) Fire (8th May 1984)
Info from PG: „It was my favourite for a month or so. This version is sung by Marie. And it sounds “SO MUCH MARIE” from those days. High pitch. Brilliant and strong emotions. Could have been fab on the first Rox album but it never happened. Am I making you curious, hahaha?”

12. Om jag en dag (9th May 1984)
Om jag en dag was released on Scener.

B

1. Anytime (14th May 1984)
Anytime was released on Hi Fidelity (Various Artists) and as a bonus track on the 1990 CD release of The Heartland Café. There is a demo on YouTube. Can it be this one from the cassette?

2. Run To Me (21st May 1984)
It’s the English version of Regn, the song released on Per’s first solo album. There is a demo of Run To Me on YouTube. Can it be this one from the cassette?

Run To Me by the way was released by Christopher Barker in 1994 on his All In Love album.

3. Lycklig en stund (22nd May 1984)
Lycklig en stund was released on Scener in 1985 and another version later in 2020 on Gammal kärlek rostar aldrig.

4. Hi Fidelity (22nd May 1984)
Hi Fidelity was released on the compilation album, Hi Fidelity.

5. Girl On The Phone (25th May 1984)
Info from PG: „It’s an uptempo song. A smaller and younger brother to, let’s say, “The Big L”. Efva Attling wrote a Swedish lyric to it and released on her first solo album in 1985. It was called “Leka på pojkars vis”. Badabam bam bam.”

6. Den bästa tiden (27th May 1984)
Released on The Per Gessle Archives – På väg – Demos 1982-86.

7. Fly Like The Wind Thru … (28th May 1984)
The first version of the 1986 Fly Like The Wind demo.

Info from PG:Fly Like The Wind Through My Hair was the original title.”

8. Dreams Of Love & Devotion (29th May 1984)
Info from PG: „Part of the lyrics is the same [as LaLaLove by Mono Mind]. Not the music, though. Have to recycle. Good for Planet Earth!”

9. Dancing On The Night Wire (7th June 1984)
Info from PG: „This song was written in the spring of 1984. At that time I was preparing for my second Swedish solo album, „Scener”, so I don’t really know why I wrote this one. It was a very complicated time for me, so I wrote so many things going different directions.”

10. Jag hoppas att du finner (7th June 1984)
Info from PG: „It’s another song written for the “Scener”-album. I’ve always liked this one. Unfinished lyrics. That’s probably why it was left out in the cold.”

11. Victoria (10th June 1984)
Info from PG: „VICTORIA / SISTA CHANSEN VÄSTERUT / HJÄRTA OCH SJÄL. Same song, different lyrics. All terrible.”

12. Sista chansen västerut (11th June 1984)
Info from PG: „VICTORIA / SISTA CHANSEN VÄSTERUT / HJÄRTA OCH SJÄL. Same song, different lyrics. All terrible.”

13. Hjärta och själ (11th June 1984)
In the Att vara Per Gessle book on side 97 this song is listed as a side A track on PG’s planned – but never recorded – third Swedish solo album.

Info from PG: „VICTORIA / SISTA CHANSEN VÄSTERUT / HJÄRTA OCH SJÄL. Same song, different lyrics. All terrible.”

TEAC AT HOME #3 (Studio Tor – 6.84. – . )

A

1. Body & Soul (13th June 1984)
In the Att vara Per Gessle book it’s written on side 85 that Per got into contact with Dale Tedesco Music in Los Angeles and sent this song to them, but nothing really happened. However, the fact that Dale – an American who had a record label – liked Per’s songs made PG more self-confident.

2. Cherry Gardens (16th June 1984)
Info from PG: „Extremely bad English version of Gyllene Tider’s “Cilla 16, söt som socker”.”

3. Blå December (17th June 1984)
Blå December was released on Scener.

4. Jag är en liten pojk (21st June 1984)
Pugh Rogefeldt has a song with the same title, released in 1972.

Info from PG: „It’s a bad cover of the Pugh Rogefeldt-song.”

5. Juli-natt (24th June 1984)
Info from PG: „No. No. No. Not very good. Take me out of here!”

6. Lycklig en stund (25th June 1984)
Lycklig en stund was released on Scener in 1985 and another version later in 2020 on Gammal kärlek rostar aldrig.

7. Afrikas <3 (27th June 1984)
In the Att vara Per Gessle book on side 97 a song titled simply Afrika is listed as a side B track on PG’s planned – but never recorded – third Swedish solo album

8. Magic Spell (3rd July 1984)
There is a track on YouTube from the Myths. Can it be this demo?

Info from PG: „Magic Spell was written and demoed twice in the summer of 1984. It will pop up one day!”

9. Vitt Café (5th July 1984)
Info from PG: „It’s another leftover that was written for the “Scener”-album.”

10. Love Darts (7th July 1984)
Info from PG: „It’s the English version of Gyllene Tider’s “Bara vara nära”.”

11. Ge allt du kan o vill (10th July 1984)
Ge allt du kan was demoed again in 2016 and released on En vacker dag in 2017. Sven-Ingvars released the song in 1996.

12. Kyss från en främling (13th July 1984)
It was recorded in English with Gyllene Tider for The Heartland Café album, but it became a leftover because of the little too much country flair to it, says Per. It was later released on Andra Tider – Bonuslåtar och alternativa versioner 82-84. A later demo from 1999 was released on The Per Gessle Archives – Demos & Other Fun Stuff! Vol. 1. Blue Light released the song in 1985.

13. Springer i cirklar
Info from PG: „It’s a demo by Gyllene Tider. Pretty good backing track, terrible vocals by me. Wrong key. Lousy lyrics on top of it all.”

B

1. La Luna (13th August 1984)
The first Spanish roots?

Info from PG: „Instrumental saxophone (!) version of “Scen” from the “Scener” album. Interesting is a word I could use. But I don’t.”

2. Jupiter kallar (17th August 1984)
The 1995 English demo, Jupiter Calling was released on the extended version of The World According To Gessle.

3. Speedo (23rd August 1984)
Speedo was released on Scener.

4. FOX (27th August 1984)
Info from PG: „I wrote this one for Anne-Lie Rydé. She never recorded it. I can understand why.”

Västervik fest (8th July 1985)

1. Vandrar …
2. En känsla …
3.
Ännu doftar …
4.
Love The One …

Info from PG: „It was the mighty “Exciting Cheeses” that performed at Västervik. Same set as we played at the ANC-gig at Scandinavium in Gothenburg in november 85. Just yesterday.”

Info from Marie’s biography: „In the summer of 1985, we went on a minor tour with acoustic guitars and sang vocals. In addition to Per and I, Mats MP Persson and Lasse Lindbom were present. We called ourselves Exciting Cheeses. The name came about because Lasse was asked what we should call ourselves while he was in a grocery store and saw the sign “Spännande ostar”.”

The songs above are: Vandrar i ett sommarregn, En känsla av regn, Ännu doftar kärlek and Love The One You’re With.

Here you can watch the TV broadcast of the 1985 ANC gala. Exciting Cheeses perform Love The One You’re With from 1:08:41.

Per Gessle demo cassettes No. 5 and No. 6

Per shared another two demo cassette covers the other day, No. 5 and No. 6, so why not have a closer look at those tracklists, too. Again, you’ll find only those PG comments added here that are related to the exact demos (date and version) on the list. Links in the article are listening links.

Keep posting those cover scans, Mr. G!

Demo cassette No. 5

A

1. Önskar (8th July 1986)
Released on The Per Gessle Archives – Demos & Other Fun Stuff! Vol. 4.

Info from PG: „We [Roxette] were scheduled to do some demo recordings in late summer. I was still working on my third Swedish solo album. Some people who hear this recognize it as a Roxette song called „Sleeping Single”, which eventually came out on the „Look Sharp!” album. We never used this on the first Roxette album at all. I think the main reason is that we didn’t have any English lyric for it. It was never a contender for the first Roxette album. My third Swedish solo album became the first Roxette album basically. Most of the Swedish songs were translated into English and became the „Pearls Of Passion” album by Roxette. In 1987 I had a different approach to the song and also a great title, „Sleeping Single”, a great lyric and as soon as Marie started to sing it, it was just heaven. It sounded perfect. But this is the very first Swedish version. Diamond in the rough.”

2. Young (11th July 1986)
The song was released in Swedish by Ofwerman (Staffan Öfwerman) in 1987 as his debut single released on Jimmy Fun Music. It’s not strange if it sounds familiar. Listen to Per Gessle’s Detective Jones demo from 1996 or Detektiv by Gyllene Tider!

3. Joy Of A Toy (14th July 1986)
Released on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 1.

Info from PG: „This is one of the few songs that was written straight for Roxette’s debut album, „Pearls Of Passion”. This is a song I wrote together with Mats Persson and we recorded the demo in July 1986, just ten days or two weeks prior to the Montezume demos, which was the first time Clarence, Marie and myself worked together to do demos for the „Pearls Of Passion” album. So this is the summer sound of Halmstad in 1986. I’m sorry for singing out of tune a little bit, but we didn’t have the digital equipment in those days to correct the voices.”

4. Ingen är en ö (12th August 1986)
There is a song with this title by Ingemar Olsson from 1970. Can it be a cover of that one?

Info from PG: „It’s an original song by me. It sounds like Gyllene Tider being hit by a monster truck. And not in a positive way…

5. Lazer Age (12th August 1986)
Info from PG: „It’s not my song. It’s a demo made by Thomas Hafström and was supposed to be the follow up to his “Tillbaka till sommaren”-single which I produced in 1985 or 1986. It never happened.

6. Secrets That She Keeps (15th August 1986)
Released on the extended version of Pearls Of Passion.

7. Jag tror att jag älskar (17th October 1986)
This is what later became Surrender by Roxette. There is another T&A demo called Jag älskar (jag tror inte hon förstår) (Surrender) from spring 1986, released on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 4. and the Montezuma demo from 25th-26th July 1986, Jag älskar (Surrender) was released on Bag Of Trix – Music From The Roxette Vaults Vol. 4.

The song (Jag tror att jag älskar) was released in Swedish by Anna (Anna-Carin Borgström) in 1988.

8. I din hand (11th November 1986)
There is another, later demo released as B-side of the Ömhet single recorded on 14th June 1993 at T&A. There is a big question mark here, because Per once said regarding the 1993 demo: “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. Recorded hours after it was written. And hey, MP is playing the accordion! Always a treat.”
In the PG talks with Sven Lindström on Per’s Gammal kärlek rostar aldrig release he also talks about 1993 when the song was written.

So what about this 1986 demo?

Info from PG: „Oh no not that song again! This particular demo from November 1986 is sung by Milla (from Millas Mirakel), who helped me out with some vocals once in a while for many years. This is actually the second demo of “I din hand”. However the music is totally different compared to the 90’s versions. The lyrics are similar.”

9. Sänder 1 S.O.S. (16th November 1986)
Info from PG: „”Sänder ett SOS” is a terrible song. MP and me did lots of tracks trying to figure out how to program our new sequensers and synths. This is one of them.

10. Varje gång (4th December 1986)
The song was released in Swedish by Anna (Anna-Carin Borgström) in 1987 and by Wizex also in 1987.

11. A Little Bit Dangerous (11th February 1987)
The Dangerous demo released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition and on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 5.

Info from PG: „It [Dangerous] was No. 1 on Cashbox and No. 2 on Billboard, so those days we preferred Cashbox. Maybe we even played it on the first Roxette tour [Rock runt riket]. In the summer of ’87. This song we definitely rehearsed. Nowadays Marie always says it’s one of her favourite Roxette songs, but in those days she didn’t really approve it that much. Maybe it was written to become a single, but we never recorded it at all until the „Look Sharp!” session. This is actually the first demo and just a couple of weeks later I did another demo, which is just me and an acoustic guitar. Then we did a third demo with Clarence and Marie and Jonas in Stockholm. Either this version or the acoustic one was posted to Don Johnson. It’s a good question, which one, but I hope it was some other version. He got it in a padded envelope with a printed message „If you don’t like it, you’re wrong.” I have this letter that came back to me from his management saying he didn’t like the song. Of course it’s hard to hear what it was gonna be like when it was fully produced a couple of years later. That’s the nature of the game when it comes to demos. The whole intention with demos is that you try things out. Maybe it’s the first time ever you sing the song and you go back, you change some chords, change some lyrics here and there and you just restructure the song differently. That’s why you make demos in the first place. The key here is too low for me, but that’s the way it goes.”

12. För långt ifrån (ak. vers) (25th February 1987)
Translating the title into English, it could be So Far Away, but So Far Away started out as Som i en dröm

Info from PG: „It isn’t that bad….. It’s an original song written for… can’t remember. Will probably pop up in an Archives-box one of these years…”

13. Dangerous (ak. vers) (25th February 1987)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition.

B

1. Kom ut till stranden (25th February 1987)
There is another demo on The Per Gessle Archives – På väg – Demos 1982-86 from May 1986.

2. The Voice (24th March 1987)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition and on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 3.

Info from PG: „It was recorded for the „Look Sharp!” album, but we never included it on the album. We recorded it, but we used it as a B side on a single. I think it was „Dressed For Success”. It got a Pino Palladino treatment here. He had his heydays in the 80’s on those Paul Young records. MP is playing this bass on the synthesizer and using all this fretless feel to it, which is really interesting. I thought it was Paul McCartney style of playing bass guitar. This song I guess didn’t make the album, because in those days of course you had the LP format, so you had to keep around 20 minutes on each side to make it sound proper.”

3. Rocket (9th April 1987)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition and on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 1.

Info from PG: „I thought this was one of the coolest songs that I wrote for „Look Sharp!”, but Clarence Öfwerman who produced us, he didn’t like this at all. He thought it was too much bubblegum. So we scrapped it and I actually kept it, rewrote it, changed the beat into some sort of shuffle and it became „Knockin’ On Every Door” instead. So it’s the same song, same chords in a different beat. That became one of the main tracks on the „Joyride” album instead in 1991. It was pretty disguised since it was a totally different beat to it and I think Clarence felt that beat fit the song better. I like this demo, because I like this acoustic guitar with a small, little drum machine. It’s got a really cosy feel to it. So I thought it was a really nice demo. Sometimes you keep songs, time goes by, so many things happen and then you just pick them out again and dress them up a bit and they find a new home.”

4. Night Wire (9th April 1987)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition and on The Per Gessle Archives – Demos & Other Fun Stuff! Vol. 4.

Info from PG: „This song was written in the spring of 1984. At that time I was preparing for my second Swedish solo album, „Scener”, so I don’t really know why I wrote this one. It was a very complicated time for me, so I wrote so many things going different directions. However, this version must have been demoed for the „Look Sharp!” album. Of course it didn’t make it. There is something about it that I like, but it’s all history now.”

5. Xmas For The Broken-?? (14th April 1987)
It’s the It Must Have Been Love (Christmas For The Broken Hearted) demo released on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 2.

Info from PG: „When this demo was made, we were trying to do our best to get interest from the record companies outside of Sweden. Then EMI Germany, they say „why don’t you write a Christmas song?”, because it’s easier to get on the radio, to get airplay for the Christmas season if you have a Christmas song, if it’s good. So off I went and I wrote this one. „It Must Have Been Love” with the Christmas reference in there in the lyrics. We recorded it and they didn’t want it, because they didn’t really like it that much. It eventually became a big Christmas song for us here in Sweden. So it was high on the charts and became a gold record in the end of ’87. We didn’t put it on any album, because of the Christmas reference and we just had this like an off single. A couple of years later, after we had our international breakthrough, we got this request or offer to be part of this Hollywood movie, eventually called „Pretty Woman”. They asked for a ballad. „Pretty Woman” at the time wasn’t a big budget movie, Richard Gere was on his way sliding down, Julia Roberts was a debutant. The original title of the movie was „3000”. It was very vague. They asked us if we wanted to be involved and we said we don’t have any time to make new recordings, because we were travelling all over the world doing promotion with the „Look Sharp!” album. But I remembered we had this ballad, this Christmas song. And I said „we have a great ballad, you could have that one. We can change the lyrics.” We changed Christmas day to winter’s day and stuff like that. Refreshed it up a bit with a new guitar intro and stuff like that and then we didn’t hear anything. Suddenly, while we were recording something else, I got a phone call from Garry Marshall, who was directing the movie and he said „I just wanna tell you that I love this song so much and I have re-edited the movie and made a great spot for the song. There’s no dialogue over the song, the lyrics speak for itself. It’s a very strong scene in the movie. It’s just fantastic. I just wanna thank you for this, bla bla bla”. And I said „yes, OK, nice, bye-bye”. Time went by and eventually this „Pretty Woman” movie became a super smash. I think it grossed 800 million dollars or something. One of the biggest movies ever. Out of the blue we just had this super hit all over the world. Together with „Listen To Your Heart”, „It Must Have Been Love” became our biggest song ever. I think it’s fascinating that the difference between having a big hit record and having a flop record is so small. I mean it’s the same song and if that film wouldn’t have happened, nobody would have heard of this song anymore. It would have been hidden under the Christmas tree forever. That’s the way it goes. Sometimes when you work with pop music that I’ve been writing all my life, the difference between the song that makes it as the first single or the song that doesn’t even make the album is so tiny. There are points in the lifespan of songs when they are equal. One makes it and one won’t make it.”

6. Dressed For Success (20th May 1987)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition and on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 2.

Info from PG: „It’s like a month after we recorded the demo of „It Must Have Been Love”. It’s a good spring for sure. My aim at the time was to write material that I knew Marie could deliver and wanted to sing and loved. „Dressed For Success” was very much written for Marie and it had that little thing in the bridge where I’m asking „Whatcha gonna tell your mother?” and she’s answering, but it’s Marie’s song. She just makes it unbelievably good. Immediately, when we recorded it we felt like we had the first single. It’s a stand-out track, especially Marie’s vocals. This is how the demo sounded in May 1987 and yeah… it’s cool.”

7. För spänningens skull (20th or 21st (?) May 1987)
Info from PG: „It’s an uptempo, quite catchy pop ditty that had many titles. One was “Varje hjärtas detektiv”. Has that one been released?” [Varje hjärtas detektiv was released by Fredrik in 1985.]

8. Silver Blue (21st May 1987)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition.

9. Sleeping Single (22nd May 1987)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition and on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 2.

Info from PG: „This was of course made for the „Look Sharp!” album. I had the Swedish lyric, but I didn’t have the English lyric, so I wrote „Sleeping Single”. It was customized for Marie. It just made sense. It’s a great little track. I wanted to make a little bit more danceable songs at the time, so the whole idea of having Mats playing some sort of funk guitar and these guitar licks, we tried to make it a little bit more groovy. Mats had to play those licks all through the song, 3 minutes and 45 seconds, poor him. He did a great job, as always. It’s a good song. I like it a lot. When Marie sang it in the studio together with Clarence’s production – very sparse production, but it just sounded terrific. For me „Sleeping Single” and „Paint” are just as important on „Look Sharp!” as „The Look”, „Dressed For Success”, „Dangerous” and „Listen To Your Heart”. It’s got a very special sound to it.”

10. Pocketful Of Rain (12th June 1987)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition and on The Per Gessle Archives – Demos & Other Fun Stuff! Vol. 4.

Info from PG: „It was between the first Roxette album and „Look Sharp!”. I bought this new synthesizer, the Ensoniq SQ1 and I tried to learn how to program it. I actually did a couple of songs on that synthesizer. „The Look”, „Don’t Believe In Accidents”, „Come Back (Before You Leave)” and „Pocketful Of Rain” as well. So it was basically done at home in my apartment, but then I took it to the Tits & Ass studio and did sum overdubs and vocals. The finished version was created in June 1987 for the „Look Sharp!” album, but we never recorded it at all. Anne-Lie Rydé made a single out of this in Swedish. I can’t remember who wrote that one, but I don’t think it was me.” [Anne-Lie Rydé – Ta mig hem; lyrics by Jane Larson]

11. Dressed For Success (ak. vers.) (12th June 1987)

Demo cassette No. 6

A

1. One Is Such A Lonely … (26th August 1987)
The One Is Such a Lonely Number demo released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition.

2. Thrill Of It All (26th August 1987)
It’s The Thrill Of It All demo released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition.

3. Den perfekta lögnen (27th August 1987)
Info from PG: „It’s nice. I’ve kept that one in the shade and will probably use it one day. At least the music. Me like. Still.”

4. Som i en dröm (reggae) (28th August 1987)
Info from PG: „It’s terrible.”

5. From Head 2 Toe (15th September 1987)
Info from PG: „It’s an acoustic version sung by me. For some reason.”

6. Love Spins (15th September 1987)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition.

7. Boom Boom … (15th September 1987)
The Boom Boom (And Boom Boom Again) demo released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition.

8. In My Own Way (15th September 1987)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition.

9. Never Is A Long Time (24th September 1987)
Info from PG: „It’s a live piano version I made on my own in my apartment on Torsgatan 9 in Halmstad.

10. Never Is A Long Time (11th November 1987)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition.

11. Från topp till tå (Lene) (12th November 1987)
The song by Lene (Johansson). She says it was recorded in November 1987 in EMI studios in Stockholm. Words and music by Per Gessle who was also the producer. Technician was Anders Herrlin. It was their contribution to Melodifestivalen 1988. It didn’t get through.

12. View From A Hill (17th November 1987)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition and on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 3.

Info from PG: „This was recorded for the „Look Sharp!” album and I loved that track when I did it. I felt it sounded perfect. It sounds so 80’s and you can hear all those Pet Shop Boys influences in that British synthesizer techno sort of sound in there. It turned out to be one of those three songs that Clarence Öfwerman didn’t produce on „Look Sharp!”. We went to England with an English producer called Adam Moseley and he produced three tracks for us. He did „Cry”, „Chances” and „View From A Hill”. But I always preferred my demo to the Roxette version. Because my demo, the demo we did here in the Tits & Ass studio is much more pop music. Adam’s production was a little bit more funky. Something different. Also, of course since we didn’t have any Roxette players playing on those three songs, it was English session players, it sounded not that much Roxette. Anyway, I love this demo. It was a very creative period of time for us. It also just shows the direction I felt Roxette should go into, more modern sounds than the first album.”

13. Love Spins (18th November 1987)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition.

B

1. Chances (24th November 1987)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition and on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 1.

Info from PG: „It was of course written for the „Look Sharp!” album. If I remember things right, the whole idea with this was to show what kind of direction I want Roxette to go. I wanted it to sound like modern pop. As you can hear from the demo it sounds almost like a Pet Shop Boys track. It’s got lots of Pet Shop Boys influences. Of course I didn’t want us to sound like Pet Shop Boys, but I wanted us to get rid of that sort of organic band feel that we had on the „Pearls Of Passion” album. I was really in favour of going into the technology side. This was never a big song with Marie or with Clarence Öfwerman, our producer. It wasn’t produced by Clarence, it was produced by an English guy, Adam Moseley, who did three songs on the „Look Sharp!” album and this was one of them. ”

2. Satellite (1st December 1987)
Info from PG: „It’s an early version of I Could Never Give You Up!”

3. Boom Boom (9th December 1987)
Info from PG: „It’s made by MP and me. A clumpsy version with a big guitar riff and heavy drums. Hmmm……”

4. I Could Never Give … (18th December 1987)
The (I Could Never) Give You Up demo released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition and on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 5.

Info from PG: „This demo was made just before Christmas in 1987 and was intended of course for the „Look Sharp!” album. It didn’t really make the LP, but managed to squeeze in as a bonus track on the CD. How about that? In those days the LP was still the standard format. Even „Joyride” had like three extra tracks on the CD, which weren’t intended to be on the album at all in the first place. The real version is the LP. I don’t think this song is up the same quality as other songs on the album. That’s why it was left out in the first place. This is like an OK song. There was really tough competition on that album and this is a left-over. MP was trying his best to do Nile Rodgers-ish guitars, which was brilliant, but songwise it’s not really up there for me. It’s a lucky song, because it got on the B side of „Listen To Your Heart”, so it sold well. That’s typical, isn’t it? You put the bonus tracks, the left-overs on B sides. That’s how it used to be, so you get an additional value when you buy a single. Or maybe to sneak you in to the record store one more time to get the B side that you don’t have in your collection. Maybe that’s the case. I know all the tricks.”

Release The Tiger: Orig. Bootleg 88 (insp. v. 1 1988, mix 8th January 1988)

1. Om hon visste vad hon ville
2. Ny pojkvän
3. Småstad
4. Oh Yea Oh Yea (Oh Oh)
5. Vandrande man
6. Jo-Anna farväl

These songs were released on Gyllene Tider’s Instant Hits! – Samtliga hits 1979-1989 under the Pers Garage project [Pers Garage = GT without Anders Herrlin]. You can listen to them on GT’s Konstpaus on streaming services.

Småstad (högre sång)

From Head To Toe (18th December 1987)
Info from PG:It’s the EMI demo but only with my voice on it, no Marie in sight.”

 

Per Gessle demo cassettes No.7 and No.8

When Per posted the cover of two of his old demo cassettes from 1988-1990, I thought I would check which demos we haven’t heard yet. I hope I didn’t miss anything, but you know, the more demos are out the easier it is to get lost in PG’s demo jungle. Also, it’s always possible that there wasn’t only one demo recorded of the same track on the same day. You never know when it comes to workaholic PG.

Mr. G fortunately loves sharing info about his ditties and there are many comments he made on the songs themselves, but here you’ll find only those details added that popped up related to the exact demos (date and version) we are talking about. Links in the article are listening links.

And hey, we are happy to have a glance at the covers of demo cassettes No.1-6 and No.9-? anytime!

Demo cassette No. 7

A

1. Dance Away (9th February 1989)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition.

2. Cry (9th February 1989)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition.

3. Shadow Of A Doubt (9th February 1989)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition and on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 3.

Info from PG: „I love this song. This was really cool and I thought it sounded terrific and it had this boo-doo-boom boo-doo-boom, which is always very efficient if you can take control over it. You have the arena vibe to it. It’s just a great track. The demo for me still makes more sense than the finished Roxette album version. I had really high hopes for this song. It became OK, but I thought it would go even further. I thought it had all the melody lines and the rhythm, the groove, killer chorus and Marie was in there.”

4. Don’t Believe In Accidents (9th February 1989 -> if the date stated on the cover was meant for this track as well)
There is another demo from spring 1988 on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition and as B-side of the Run To You single.

5. Start! (19th February 1988)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition and on The Per Gessle Archives – Demos & Other Fun Stuff! Vol. 3.

Info from PG: „This was written for the „Look Sharp!” album. I actually hesitated a bit to include it on this archive series, because I’m not really happy. I think this is not the best song I have ever written. But on the other hand, it also shows that to be able to write all those songs that became really great in my book, like „The Look” or „Listen To Your Heart” or „Dressed For Success” or „Dangerous”, all those songs that were included on that album, I wrote some rubbish as well. Like this one. I played this demo for Clarence and Marie and nobody really liked it. Looking back, I think it was a wise choice not to include it on „Look Sharp!” The sound of that particular era is by far more interesting than the song itself, I think. This has a lot of Scritti Politti style, all this blipping and blopping synthesizers all over the place, sequence synthesizers.”

6. The Look (29th March 1988)
There is another demo from one day later (30th March 1988) on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition and on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 3.

Info from PG about the March 30th demo: „I actually started it at home with my new synthesizer. This is an exercise in how to work on it. So I wrote this song, using the sequencer. I wrote a melody and I basically kept the words just to memorize the rhythm of the melody. It could be anything. Then when I tried to rewrite the lyrics I just felt that hey, it’s impossible to replace those words, those lines, those phrases. And if you put on your Magical Mystery Tour cap, it sort of makes sense. With the rest of the lyrics I just tried to make the first verse intelligent in some way. When I wrote it I thought it was better if Marie were singing it, because that was the whole essence of Roxette. I was writing the songs, Marie was singing the songs. So in my demo the lyrics are „he’s got the look”, because it was supposed to be for Marie. It had a special power, you could feel it immediately when we recorded the demo. It just stood out, it was a great song. Everyone loved it. The only negative thing I could think of was that I was singing it, because that wasn’t the idea. And I was so surprised when it became the breakthrough song for Roxette. In my world, if there was a song that had to make Roxette big, it had to be sung by Marie. But fate wanted it differently.”

7. Here Comes The Weekend (30th March 1988)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition.

8. Physical Fascination (17th April 1988)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition.

9. Drowning In You (17th April 1988)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition.

10. Kärlekens skepp (17th April 1988)
There is another demo on The Per Gessle Archives – På väg – Demos 1982-86 from March 1986.

11. Paint (28th April 1988)
Released on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 1.

Info from PG: „This was a very special song, because this demo recording sounded very different to anything else we’d done before technically. And we were using the synthesizers. It just sounded very special. It was meant for me to sing the verse and Marie to sing the chorus, so I tried to make sort of a masculine verse and a feminine chorus. In this demo we used Camilla Andersson who did the vocals. She’s been helping me out with some of the female vocals over the years, especially in the early days. I just loved the song from as soon as it was done. I knew that was something very special and of course it became a great track for Roxette as well. Even better with Roxette, actually. But the demo has got lots of quality as well, I think.”

B

1. Listen To Your Heart (9th May 1988)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition and on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 4.

Info from PG: „It’s co-written with MP. As you can hear, the piano intro isn’t there on the demo. It’s something that Clarence came up with in the studio in Stockholm when we recorded the Roxette version. I didn’t expect it to be a huge song. It felt like a great song when we recorded the demo. It turned out to be this killer track when Marie took charge. I don’t think I’m singing it very well when I did the demo. The idea for the lyrics came to me from a friend of mine who went through a divorce and we sat up all night talking about his situation and then I wrote this sort of fictive story. It went very fast. Sometimes you just need something to inspire you. It can be something someone is saying in a movie or something you pick up from a commercial or a taxi driver says something funny, whatever. My friend’s story was just what I was looking for because I was in the middle of writing this song. So I wrote it down and made a story out of it. Mats and I wrote the music together, but I think we didn’t sit down together. I think the verse part of it is what Mats was writing and I wrote the chorus. He played me something that I thought was really cool, so I put that together with what I had.”

2. Let’s Party (14th July 1988)
Released on Look Sharp! 30th Anniversary Edition and as B-side of the I Want You To Know single.

3. Break It Up (23rd March 1989)
Info from PG: „It’s the same song as “Kärlekståg” (25th October 1989) [track 11 on this list]. Just different lyrics. Written together with Janne Bark.”

4. Rocket From Her Heart (16th June 1989)
Released on The Per Gessle Archives – Demos & Other Fun Stuff! Vol. 4.

Info from PG: „It was recorded in the Tits & Ass studio. Probably, I wrote it for the „Joyride” album. But of course, we never tried it out. I think nobody really liked that style. There’s a little 50’s touch to it, rockabilly. It wasn’t really our cup of tea, so I don’t really know why I did it, but I think it’s cool. I think it’s a nice little song. Maybe I felt like I needed a Roy Orbison dose or something. I haven’t got a clue. I remember I tried to convince Marie that this was really cool, but she didn’t want to listen to it that much. There was a Swedish band, The Boppers who did a cover version [Rocket From My Heart] of it, which I really can’t remember how it sounded, but they recorded it. They were a 50’s style Swedish band, so it made sense.”

5. Things Will Never Be The Same (17th June 1989)
Released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition. However, another version was released on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 3 from the same day – see track 7 here in the list.

6. Rocket From (Break!)

7. Things Will (Synt. Vers)
It might be the 17th June 1989 demo released on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 3.

Info from PG: „This was very early on for the „Joyride” album and became a magnificent track. I thought it was really cool. It’s pretty long though. The demo is around 5 minutes. You could hear it sounds typical Roxette and you could really hear Marie delivering the song. It’s a very classic ballad for me, it sounds like a typical Per Gessle ballad from those years. I could take advantage of the fact that Marie and I have different preferences when it comes to keys. In the Roxette version I’m singing a little bridge after the verse, before the chorus, which made the song interesting.”

8. See (18th June 1989)
Info from PG: „It’s still unreleased, but there was a Swedish translation and recording made by Sylvia Vrethammar in 1990 with the title „Öppna dina ögon”. My music, Sylvia’s lyrics. Produced by Clarence. How about that? Also…. “See” + “See Me” has got the same lyrics. But different music. “See” = music by me. “See Me” = music by sweet Marie.”

See Me on Crash! Boom! Bang! and on Travelling.

9. Knockin’ On Every Door (15th August 1989)
Released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition and on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 2.

Info from PG: „August ’89, it must have been when we prepared for the release of „Listen To Your Heart” in the States, I guess. So I don’t know how I had the time to record this one, but it’s a pretty old song. There is another version of it called „Rocket” [9th April 1987], so this song started its life as „Rocket”. I rewrote the lyrics, changed the groove and outcame „Knockin’ On Every Door”. You could hear the influence of the „Rocket” demo as well here, because this is like a drum machine and a certain kind of beat, but also it’s got a lot of accoustic instruments in there, which was the whole idea behind the song to begin with. So eventually, we recorded it for the „Joyride” album and it became one of my favourite songs on that album. I thought it was really cool. Lots of things happened to that song. The beat changed and also when Jonas Isacsson came in and played the guitar riff, lots of things changed for the song as well. I guess Clarence was kind of pleased in the end.”

10. (Do You Get) Excited (19th August 1989)
Released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition and on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 1.

Info from PG: „We made really produced demos, MP and me at the Tits & Ass studio. We worked really hard to arrange the songs as you could hear on this demo. You could actually hear that this is almost the same as the Roxette version. This is a pretty advanced song. Mats co-wrote it. It’s got lots of key changes and I don’t know how we could have made it without arranging it like this. Sometimes we spent days and days on just one song and I think this is one of them. It took a long time to do. I wanted to use modern technology into the songwriting and into the demo recordings as well. There’s a guitar riff in this song that was inspired by Led Zeppelin and the reason for that is that at the time we were recording this with Roxette, both Clarence and me were reading „Hammer of the Gods”, Led Zeppelin biography, so we were listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin music in the studio. Jonas who played the guitar on the Roxette version, he is like the biggest Led Zeppelin fan there is. All those little details take the songs into different directions. You could hear that this song has something special even in the demo. And of course when Marie started to sing it, it all made sense. The lyric was written for her. And the title is really cool when it comes from a girl. It’s one of my favourite Roxette tracks ever.”

11. Kärlekståg (25th October 1989)
Info from PG: „It’s the same song as “Break It Up” (23rd March 1989). Just different lyrics. Written together with Janne Bark.”

Maybe it’s THIS song released by Arvingarna?

 Demo cassette No. 8

A

1. Queen Of Rain (2nd January 1990)
It’s either the one released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition or the one released on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 4. As far as I can judge, these two are the same, just the fade-out in TPGA demo is longer.

Info from PG: „It’s one of the first songs that was made for „Joyride”. It’s co-written with MP and we probably spent the Christmas period in 1989 writing this. It’s one of my favourite songs. When „Perfect Day” was written, it had this accordion thing in it and we were going on a big world tour with „Joyride” and we realized that Vicki Benckert who was our backing vocalist could play the accordion. So we thought that would be a great ending of the show, so we skipped „Queen Of Rain”. Took it away, because that was the closing track and replaced it with „Perfect Day”. We left it for the next album, „Tourism” and it eventually became a single. A year later it hadn’t grown old that much, it was still a great track. It’s one of the best ballads we ever did.”

2. Physical Fascination (3rd January 1990)
Released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition.

3. Love Spins (2 Vers.) (3rd January 1990)
One version is released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition.

4. Church Of Your Heart (8th January 1990)
Released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition.

5. Another Place, Another Time (10th January 1990)

6. Run, Run, Run (10th January 1990)
Released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition.

7. Another Place, Another Time (11th January 1990)
Released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition.

8. Every Beat Of The Heart (21st January 1990)
Info from PG: „It ended up with happy Carola! The demo was sharper!” [Every Beat Of My Heart]

9. Hotblooded (24th January 1990)
Released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition.

B

1. Watercolours In The Rain (24th January 1990)
Released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition and on Bag Of Trix – Music From The Roxette Vaults Vol. 2.

Info from PG: „This was custom-made. I wrote some lyrics, I didn’t have any music to it. I gave it to Marie and she came back with this haunting and really beautiful song. I don’t know who is playing the guitar on this demo. It’s not me. Maybe it’s Mats Persson from Gyllene Tider or maybe it’s even Jonas Isacsson, the Roxette guitar player who came down to play on it. I can’t remember. The whole song is there already, you can hear that. It’s just a really beautiful song. One of Marie’s very best songs. I think the early part of 1990 was very much a writing time, writing period for us, for me, but I can’t really remember. When I heard „Watercolours In The Rain” for the first time I felt like this is one of the greatest and most beautiful Roxette songs ever. I thought this was really a masterpiece. I thought Marie interpreted the lyrics really really well. Marie’s style of writing is very different from mine. This was just a 5-star song for the „Joyride” album.”

2. I Remember You (15th March 1990)
Released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition.

3. The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye (16th March 1990)
Released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition.

4. Sweet Hello (lugn) (29th March 1990)

5. The Big L (29th March 1990)
Either the one released on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 4 or the one released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition and on Bag Of Trix – Music From The Roxette Vaults Vol. 3.

Info from PG [from TPGA]: „When we recorded this one, I felt like it was supposed to be a single. It’s a very uptempo, catchy song. Later on Marie came down to the studio and we did an other version which is sort of similar to how it sounded on the „Joyride” album. She is answering me in the verses. In this version it’s just me singing it. I guess it was written for both of us to sing, I just tried to show what I meant. „Joyride” wasn’t written yet. There are similarities between „The Big L” and „Joyride”. It’s got the same sort of colourful vibe to it, it’s very catchy. They are like siblings in a way. This was a strong song for the album and eventually it became a single as well. With a very strange video.”

Info from PG [from Bag Of Trix]: „I wrote this song and I wanted it to be a little bit synthesized. When we came to the studio in Stockholm to record it for the „Joyride” album it became much more of a guitar-driven song than it was intended to. On this demo Marie is singing. We needed that sort of style on the „Joyride” album. It became a single and it became a very glamourous video as well. It’s not my favourite song. I just felt like there were better uptempo songs. I liked „Knockin’ On Every Door” more, I liked „Hotblooded” more, I liked „Joyride” more. This is like a sort of a bubblegum edge to it. I wouldn’t have written it again.”

6. The Big L (1st April 1990)
Released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition.

7. I Remember You (1st April 1990)
Released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition and on Bag Of Trix – Music From The Roxette Vaults Vol. 2.

Info from PG: „I was trying to write more uptempo songs. All the ballads we made at the time turned out really really wonderful, so we were desperately in need for uptempo songs. So I wrote for instance „I Remember You”, which in my book you can skip. I don’t really like it. I made a demo myself first, then Marie came in and sang on it and then suddenly it all made sense. As always when she was singing in something. Clarence didn’t really like it either. I think it made the CD version of the „Joyride” album. It didn’t make the LP. Those days the LP was the proper album, at least for us in the band. It turned out to be like a throw-away song for me. I guess for all of us. There are better songs to listen to in life.”

8. Memories… (1st April 1990)
Info from PG:I don’t think it’s my song. Could be that I “oversaw” the production. Or something. It’s probably an Eddie Jonsson-track. He was around a lot in those days. Btw, I don’t have any cassette player so I can’t check. I’ll ask MP!

9. Comeback (8th April 1990)
Probably(?) the Come Back (Before You Leave) demo released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition.

10. Joyrider (23rd May 1990)
There is a Joyrider demo from the day before, released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition and another one (longer) also from 22nd May 1990 on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 5.

Info from PG: „This one is a song called „Joyrider” which was the original title for this „Joyride” song. This is actually the very first demo that was made. When we did this demo, Mats and myself at the Tits & Ass studio, we immeditaely knew that this was gonna be a big song. So we went back the next day and basically produced the whole song. The produced demo is also available on this archive series and there you can hear all the main ingredients that were supposed to be there in the final version with Roxette. It was a very wonderful period in my life songwriting-wise. I did some great stuff in those months. This demo is just how it was written, exactly the same chords. It was written without thinking. It just came. The title came… I remember reading an interview with Paul McCartney saying something like writing songs with John Lennon was a long joyride. I didn’t really know what it meant, but I thought it was a really cool word. Then my wife left me a note on my piano saying in Swedish ’Hej, din tok – jag älskar dig’, which means ’Hello, you fool, I love you’, so I combined those two: ’Hello, you fool, I love you’ and ’join the Joyride’. That was fun. Great song.”

Question is if there was a different demo called Joyrider (with the extra „r” at the end from 23rd May [probably not? judging by the PG talks with Sven Lindström]) or it’s the Joyride demo that was released on Joyride 30th Anniversary Edition and on The Per Gessle Archives – The Roxette Demos! Vol. 2.

Info from PG: „If my memory serves me right, we recorded an accoustic version first on May 22nd and the day after we recorded this version, which is a little bit more produced. Or actually a lot more produced. This is very rare that a demo sounds so similar to the finished product. We spent so much time with this arrangement. It just fell into place. Everything we did just made perfect sense. It’s very rare that happens, to tell the truth, but for this one it felt so good immediately. The whistle part, the bassline with a sequencer. It was just a great little song. The idea for the song came from a little not my wife had left me saying ’Hej, din tok – jag älskar dig’ in Swedish, which means ’Hello, you fool, I love you’. So that was like „I have to write a song”. Then I just started to play this A major chord and off I went. The „Joyride” single was delayed due to the Kuwait crisis for 6 or 8 weeks, but we presented it for radio at this convention in the States. After the convention I remember staying in a bar with Marie and someone else and all these people, one after the other just came up and said „hello, congratulations to your next No. 1; it’s gonna be a smash when it finally comes out”, so we had a great feeling leaving that bar, that’s for sure.”

 

Update from PG regarding dates: “Just to clear things up a bit…. sometimes a demo gets two different dates. It can be because you make the backing track one day and the vocals the next. Then you remake the vocals (improve the lyrics maybe?) and wooops… you get a new date. But it’s the same song and recording. This means that there is no more demo of Shadow Of A Doubt for instance.”

“Joyride” by Roxette in animated award-winning documentary “Flee”

I remember I read it maybe a year ago or so that a documentary about a refugee who had to leave Afghanistan behind contains Roxette’s Joyride. Months have passed and it turned out that this animated documentary, Flee is a real award-winning film. It tells the extraordinary true story of a man, Amin Nawabi, on the verge of marrying his husband which compels him to reveal his hidden past for the first time. Director is Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Denmark) who has been close friends with Amin for appr. 20 years.

The documentary has already won several awards at bigger and smaller film festivals (e.g. Sundance Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, European Film Awards etc.; check Wikipedia for details) and is nominated as Best Picture – Animated at the Golden Globes and the Danish Oscar committee has selected it to represent the country as its contender for the 2022 Academy Awards in the best international feature category.

Now, during the Budapest International Documentary Film Festival I had the chance to watch Flee. It’s a very emotional and moving film. I don’t want to write a review of it, I think everyone in the 21st century should watch it and think about what’s happening around the world these days and how one’s life can change in a minute. The story starts in the 80’s and look what’s happening in Afghanistan still today… While I was watching the docu and heard A-ha’s Take On Me, then Roxette’s Joyride and Ace of Base’s Wheel of Fortune, music from my childhood and early teenage years, music from Amin’s childhood and early teenage years, I just couldn’t help comparing Amin’s life to mine. And it made the experience even more heartbreaking. What „problems” I had back then and what PROBLEMS Amin had. Shocking…

Joyride is on for appr. 1 minute in the movie. Amin starts to play it on his walkman while – together with another guy – he is being driven in a van by people smugglers to get from Russia via Turkey to Denmark. The song seems to be expressing his desires.

Fingers crossed the docu wins all awards it’s nominated for! HERE you can watch the official trailer.

Update on 8th February 2022: Flee is on the shortlist for the Oscars in 3 categories: Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary Feature, Best International Feature Film. Good luck!