It Must Have Been Love
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| “It Must Have Been Love” | |||||
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| Single by Roxette | |||||
| Released | 1990 | ||||
| Recorded | 1987, sections re-recorded 1990 | ||||
| Genre | Pop | ||||
| Length | 04:18 | ||||
| Writer(s) | Per Gessle | ||||
| Certification | Gold (USA), Gold (Germany), Gold (NZ), Gold (Austria), Silver (UK) | ||||
| Roxette singles chronology | |||||
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| Roxette singles chronology | |||||
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"It Must Have Been Love" is a pop song written by Per Gessle and performed by the Swedish pop duo Roxette. It is the best-charting and selling single release for the duo in the United States. It rivals "The Look" and "Joyride" as the song most closely associated with them.
Though not originally part of any Roxette album, "It Must Have Been Love" was released as a single in 1990 from the soundtrack to the hugely popular film Pretty Woman. Also, it was a close follow-up to the group's single "Dangerous," which had charted in February of that year.
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[edit] Christmas single
"It Must Have Been Love (Christmas For The Broken-Hearted)" was originally released as a single in Europe on November 23, 1987 for the Christmas season. The title included the parenthetical phrase "Christmas for the Broken-Hearted" and featured the line "and it's a hard Christmas day," later replaced for the film by "and it's a hard winter's day." The single came out a year after Pearls of Passion — the first full Roxette album to feature permanent members Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson.
While the song gained some notice, it seemed to serve mainly as radio filler between 1986's Passion and its follow-up, 1988's Look Sharp!, which would result in Roxette's first international big hits, such as "The Look" and "Listen to Your Heart," both of which reached #1 in the United States in 1989.
[edit] Movie soundtrack
During the run of chart-topping singles from Look Sharp!, Touchstone Pictures approached Roxette's record label EMI and the group about contributing a song to the soundtrack of the upcoming romantic comedy release Pretty Woman, starring Richard Gere and Oscar nominee Julia Roberts. Gessle has claimed that "It Must Have Been Love," by then a 2-year-old recording, was chosen because Roxette did not have time to compose and record a new song while touring Australia and New Zealand. Gessle and producer Clarence Öfwerman took the original 1987 recording with Fredriksson's lead vocal and added guitar and background vocal overlays to enhance the sound, as well as changing and re-recording the Christmas lyric. Gessle claimed the soundtrack producers initially turned down "It Must Have Been Love" but changed their minds after re-editing the film.
Though the lyrics refer to a lonely winter's day after the break-up of a relationship, "It Must Have Been Love" became an international hit in 1990. It was not the first single released from the Pretty Woman soundtrack — the film itself was released in U.S. theaters on March 23, 1990 — but "It Must Have Been Love" became the most successful, spending its first of two weeks at number-one on the Hot 100 in the June 16 issue. It was certified gold for sales of 500,000 copies, and Billboard magazine listed "It Must Have Been Love" as the number two Hot 100 single of the year, behind Wilson Phillips' "Hold On." The single peaked at #3 on the UK singles chart, Roxette's best showing there. It later became Roxette's second of three number-one singles to date in Australia, spending two weeks at the top spot in July 1990.
According to Fredriksson shooting the video was a surreal experience :-
...the video was a weird experience. The director wanted all movements in slow motion, so I had to lip sync the vocals in double speed. My first lesson in how to sing an emotional ballad Mickey Mouse-style. A strange way to make a living.
—Marie Fredriksson, Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! liner notes.[1]
A revised version of the song was recorded in a Los Angeles studio during Roxette's 1991 worldwide tour in support of the album Joyride. This slower "countrified" version, featuring a steel guitar solo in place of the original's piano, was included in the 1992 album release from that tour, Tourism: Songs from Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places. A re-issue of the 1990 version of the song entered the UK Top 10 in September 1993 as well, after Pretty Woman was first shown on UK terrestrial TV.
[edit] Charts
It Must Have Been Love was a huge hit for Roxette, reaching the #1 position on the Billboard for two weeks and charting in the top 5 most everywhere else in the world.
[edit] 1990 Track listing
- "It Must Have Been Love"
- "Paint"
[edit] No sé si es amor
On the 1996 album Baladas En Español, Roxette recorded the song in a Spanish language version named "No sé si es amor" ("I don't know if it's love"), reaching #6 in Spain.
[edit] Covers
[edit] När kärleken föds
In 2006, the Swedish pop singer Shirley Clamp recorded a Swedish language cover version of "It Must Have Been Love". This version was named "När kärleken föds" ("When Love is Born"), and was released as a single in April of that year. On June 11, 2006, "När kärleken föds" entered eighth place on Svensktoppen. "När kärleken föds" had no words related to Christmas or other seasons or holidays.
[edit] Tracklisting
- "När kärleken föds" - 5:08
- "Öppna din dörr" - 4:12
[edit] Other covers
- Polly Esther, Digital Bitch, The Chipmunks, Sanne Salomonsen and German singer Jeanette Biedermann have all covered this track.
- The British pop duo Journey South made an acoustic version of "It Must Have Been Love" on their self-titled 2006 album.
- Mexican singer Rocio Banquells recorded her own acoustic version for her 1991 album Escucha el infinito.
- S.K.Y. recently covered the song for the 2006 compilation S.K.Y. Presents Christmas Trance.
| Preceded by "Hold On" by Wilson Phillips |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single June 16, 1990- June 23, 1990 |
Succeeded by "Step by Step" by New Kids on the Block |
| Preceded by "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You" by Heart |
Australian ARIA Singles Chart number-one single July 7 - July 21, 1990 |
Succeeded by "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer |
