Listen to Your Heart
"Listen to Your Heart" was the third single issued in the United States from Swedish pop duo Roxette's 1988 album Look Sharp! It was written by Per Gessle and Mats M.P. Persson. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on November 4, 1989, their second chart-topper of the year. They rose to #1 the same week the dominant New Kids on the Block rose to number two with their song "Cover Girl", thus preventing the group from taking the top spot. The song was released in the UK in October 1989 and reached a lowly number 62, but was re-issued in August 1990 as a Double A-Side with "Dangerous" after the success of their previous single "It Must Have Been Love", and reached number six.
Production and video
According to Gessle the song was conceived as :-
"The Big Bad Ballad. This is us trying to recreate that overblown American FM-rock sound to the point where it almost becomes absurd. We really wanted to see how far we could take it." [1]
Three different versions of the song are available: the original, a slightly modified version that was included on Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus, Ballad hits and Roxette hits and the so-called Us remix which is used in the music video and in Kuschelrock vol.4.
Roxette recorded the video for "Listen to Your Heart" in the Borgholm Castle ruin on the Swedish Baltic Sea island of Öland.
Accolades
In 2008, the song had reached four million American radio plays.[2] The D.H.T. dance cover is included in the total of plays. The song has been voted The Best Roxette Song ever by readers of fan-site The Daily Roxette.[3]
Live versions
At the Wembley Arena gig on their 1991-92 Join The Joyride / The Summer Joyride World Tour, before playing this song as part of the encore, Per said "We can't leave you tonight without playing you this absolutely true story."
Track listings
- "Listen to Your Heart" — 5:12
- "(I Could Never) Give You Up" — 3:59
- "Listen to Your Heart" (Single Mix)
- "Dressed for Success" (New Radio Mix)
- "(I Could Never) Give You Up"
- "Neverending Love" (Live)
- "Listen to Your Heart" (Swedish Single Version)
- "Dangerous" (LP Version)
- "Listen to Your Heart" (U.S. Remix)
- "Dangerous" (U.S. Club Edit)
Charts and sales
Peak positions
| Chart (1989) |
Peak
position |
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart[4] |
10 |
| Austrian Singles Chart[4] |
2 |
| Canadian Singles Chart |
1 |
| German Singles Chart[5] |
7 |
| Irish Singles Chart[6] |
5 |
| Swedish Singles Chart[4] |
3 |
| Swiss Singles Chart[4] |
8 |
| UK Singles Chart[7] |
62 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100[8] |
1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks[8] |
2 |
| Chart (1990) |
Peak
position |
| UK Singles Chart 1 [9] |
6 |
|
Certifications
| Country |
Certification |
Date |
Sales certified |
| Austria[10] |
Gold |
March 7, 1990 |
15,000 |
| Sweden[11] |
Gold |
February 6, 1989 |
25,000 |
|
1 "Listen to Your Heart" / "Dangerous"
Chart successions
D.H.T. cover
In 2005, Belgian dance group D.H.T.'s trance-cover of "Listen to Your Heart" became a worldwide club hit after being released as single from the album "Listen to Your Heart". Originally released in Belgium in 2003, the various mixes of the song reached U.S. clubs in late 2004. The song was released in the U.S. in November 2004. By June 2005, the song reached number one on Billboard Hot Dance Airplay chart and the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number eight in August. The same year, the group also released an acoustic ballad version of the song, which also received substantial airplay.
Track listings
- "Listen to Your Heart" — 4:32
- "My Dream" — 3:55
- "Listen to Your Heart" (Edmée's unplugged vocal edit) — 3:45
- "Listen to Your Heart" (furious F.EZ radio edit) — 3:11
- "Listen to Your Heart" (uniting nations remix) — 7:11
- "Listen to Your Heart" (furious F.EZ extended mix) — 4:54
- "Listen to Your Heart" (hixxy remix) — 7:11
- "Listen to Your Heart" (Friday night posse remix) — 7:29
- "Listen to Your Heart" — 4:32
Charts
Peak positions
|
|
Year-end charts
| Chart (2005) |
Position |
| Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart[17] |
78 |
| Dutch Top 40[18] |
37 |
| French Singles Chart[19] |
34 |
Certifications
| Country |
Certification |
Date |
Sales certified |
| U.S.[20] |
Gold |
October 5, 2005 |
500,000 |
|
Chart successions
Other cover versions
- "Habla El Corazón", the Spanish version of the song, was released in March 2007 by Mexican artist Yuridia, who covered the track for her second album Habla El Corazón. The song quickly gained both airplay and digital sales, debuting at #89 in the Mexican Top 100, that week's highest debut. To this date, the song has peaked at #58. On the week of April 28, 2007, "Habla El Corazon" debuted in the U.S. Hot Latin Songs at #50. It is the first time her second single appears on a U.S. chart, as "Maldita Primavera", the second single off of her debut album, only charted in the Mexican Top 100.
- In 2008, Finnish Gothic metal band Reflexion recorded a cover version of the song as a bonus track on their EP Twilight Child, and later released the cover as a bonus track on their 2008 album Dead to the Past, Blind for Tomorrow.
- In 2009, Scottish power metal band Ascension recorded a cover and released it as a single.
- In 2009, Filipino singer Sarah Geronimo recorded a cover version of the song for her album Music and Me.
- In 2010, Lebanese-German singer Fady Maalouf included a cover of the song on his album Into the Light
- In 2011, Tommy Johansson of the band ReinXeed covered the song for the compilation Swedish Hitz Goes Metal.
Sampling
Appearances in other media
- "Listen to Your Heart" was used by the dissident political party Civic Forum in its television advertisements for the 1989 Czechoslovakian elections, one of the first elections in Eastern Europe that came with collapse of communism.
- The song appeared in a 1989 episode of the Brazilian soap opera O Sexo dos Anjos by Globo TV.[21]
- The song was used in the Cold Case first season episode "Maternal Instincts" which aired in 2004.
- In 2005, the song was featured on the TV show Reunion.
- The song can be sung in the 2008 Xbox 360 video game, Lips.
References
- ^ "Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! liner notes.". http://www.pergessle.net/pearls/roxette/bdbugttc.html.
- ^ "2008 BMI awards ("Listen To Your Heart")". www.bmi.com. http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/537308.
- ^ "And The Best Roxette Song Ever IS". The Daily Roxette. http://www.dailyroxette.com/node/17823. Retrieved 2011-12-11.
- ^ a b c d "Listen to Your Heart", in various singles charts Lescharts.com (Retrieved August 23, 2008)
- ^ German Singles Chart Charts-surfer.de (Retrieved August 1, 2008)
- ^ Irish Single Chart Irishcharts.ie (Retrieved August 1, 2008)
- ^ UK Singles Chart Chartstats.com (Retrieved August, 2008)
- ^ a b c d e f g Billboard allmusic.com (Retrieved August 23, 2008)
- ^ UK Singles Chart (1990 release) Chartstats.com (Retrieved August 1, 2008)
- ^ Austrian certifications ifpi.at (Retrieved August 23, 2008)
- ^ Swedish certifications Ifpi.se (Retrieved September 11, 2008)
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Listen to Your Heart", in various singles charts Lescharts.com (Retrieved April 7, 2008)
- ^ German Singles Chart Charts-surfer.de (Retrieved April 7, 2008)
- ^ Irish Single Chart Irishcharts.ie (Retrieved April 7, 2008)
- ^ UK Singles Chart Chartstats.com (Retrieved April 7, 2008)
- ^ Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks Chart Listing For The Week Of Oct 08 2005, Billboard.com, (Retrieved June 16, 2008)
- ^ 2005 Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart Ultratop.be (Retrieved August 23, 2008)
- ^ "Single top 100 over 2005" (in Dutch) (PDF). Top40. http://www.top40.nl/pdf/Top%20100/top%20100%20-%202005.pdf. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
- ^ 2005 French Singles Chart Disqueenfrance.com (Retrieved August 23, 2008)
- ^ U.S. certifications riaa.com (Retrieved August 23, 2008)
- ^ Teledramaturgia.com
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