Look Sharp! (Roxette album)

Look Sharp!
Studio album by Roxette
Released 21 October 1988
Recorded March–June 1988
EMI Studios, Stockholm, Sweden
Trident II Studios, London
Genre
Label EMI
Producer
Roxette chronology
Dance Passion
(1987)		 Look Sharp!
(1988)		 Joyride
(1991)
Singles from Look Sharp!
  1. "Chances"
    Released: 28 December 1988
  2. "The Look"
    Released: 12 January 1989
  3. "Dressed for Success"
    Released: 28 June 1989
  4. "Listen to Your Heart"
    Released: 19 August 1989
  5. "Dangerous"
    Released: 9 December 1989

Look Sharp! is the second studio album by the Swedish rock duo Roxette. It was recorded at EMI Studios in Stockholm and at Trident II Studios in London between March and June 1988. The album was released on 21 October 1988, two years after their debut Pearls of Passion (1986). The album became an international hit, reaching #1 in the group's native Sweden and being certified 6x platinum. In the United States, the album reached #23 on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum. It spawned the major hit singles "The Look" (U.S. #1), "Listen to Your Heart" (U.S. #1), "Dressed for Success" (U.S. #14), and "Dangerous" (U.S. #2). Because of the worldwide success of the album and its singles, Look Sharp! is considered as Roxette's breakthrough.

The album has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

Background

"The Look", "Chances", "Dressed for Success", "Listen to Your Heart" and "Dangerous" were released as singles. In native Sweden, "Dressed for Success" and "Listen to Your Heart" were chosen as the first two singles, as Gessle and EMI Svenska chose to highlight Fredriksson's singing. The singles reached #2 and #3 on Swedish chart respectively. But despite huge popularity in their homeland Roxette were still unknown globally.

Everything changed when the third single "The Look" was released in Sweden. It was while studying in Sweden, that an American exchange student from Minneapolis, Dean Cushman,[1] heard "The Look", and brought a copy of Look Sharp! home for the 1988 holiday break.[2][3]

He gave the album to a Minneapolis radio station, KDWB 101.3 FM. The station started playing "The Look" and based on positive caller feedback, the song became very popular, and quickly spread to other radio stations.[4] The song became a radio hit before any Roxette music had been commercially released or promoted in the US market. The story was covered by radio, newspapers and TV in the US and in Sweden, making for good press for many years, with Gessle telling this as the story which highlighted the beginning of their international success.[5]

As of July 2009, Look Sharp! had sold over 9 million copies worldwide[6] including over 1 million copies in US alone, which gave the album platinum certification by RIAA in January 1990[7] (it has sold 402,000 since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991).[8] Look Sharp! peaked at #4 in UK, where it stayed on the charts for 53 weeks and was certified platinum by BPI in the UK in December 1990 for sales in excess of 300,000.[9] It is also the second best selling album in Swedish music history (only behind ABBA's Arrival) where it held the top spot for 14 weeks and has gone 6× platinum. Furthermore, Look Sharp! collected gold and platinum certifications all around the world.

The CD edition of the album features the track "(I Could Never) Give You Up", which was omitted from both the cassette and vinyl editions. "Chances" is also 40 seconds longer.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[10]
Los Angeles Times[11]

Gessle won his first Grammy Award for Best Composer.[12] Roxette also received two Rockbjörnen awards for Best Swedish Album and Best Swedish Group.[13]

Track listings

CD original release

All songs written and composed by Per Gessle, except where noted. 

No. Title Length
1. "The Look"   3:57
2. "Dressed for Success"   4:09
3. "Sleeping Single"   4:38
4. "Paint"   3:30
5. "Dance Away" (Marie Fredriksson, Gessle) 3:25
6. "Cry" (Fredriksson, Gessle) 5:19
7. "Chances"   4:57
8. "Dangerous"   3:48
9. "Half a Woman, Half a Shadow" (Fredriksson, Gessle) 3:35
10. "View From a Hill"   3:40
11. "(I Could Never) Give You Up"   3:58
12. "Shadow of a Doubt" (Gessle, Mats MP Persson) 4:14
13. "Listen to Your Heart" (Gessle, Mats MP Persson) 5:28
Total length:
 53:12

Singles

  1. "Chances"
  2. "Silver Blue" (Demo)
  1. "The Look"
  2. "Silver Blue" (Demo)
  1. "Dressed for Success"
  2. "The Voice"
  1. "Listen to Your Heart"
  2. "(I Could Never) Give You Up"
  1. "Dangerous"
  2. "Surrender"/"Neverending Love" (Live)

Charts

Country Peak Certification
Australian Albums Chart[14] 2
Austrian Albums Chart[15] 3 2× Platinum
Canadian Albums Chart 8 6× Platinum
German Albums Chart[16] 7 2× Platinum
New Zealand Albums Chart[17] 12 2× Platinum
Norwegian Albums Chart[18] 1
Swedish Albums Chart[19] 1 6× Platinum
Swiss Albums Chart[20] 2 2× Platinum
UK Albums Chart[20] 4 Platinum[9]
U.S. Billboard' 200[21] 23 Platinum[22]

Credits

References

  1. ↑ "Expresson's Article on Roxette's History". Expressen. October 10, 2014. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Gessle bio. on Sirus Satellite Radio". Sirius. October 16, 2014. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Nokia Night Of The Proms". Koeln. October 16, 2014. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Nokia Night Of The Proms (Roxette-Comeback)" (in German). Koeln.de.
  5. ↑ "BBC news Talking Shop: Roxette's Per Gessle". BBC News. April 15, 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-12.
  6. ↑ "Roxette's history by Expressen newspaper" (in Swedish). archive.org. Archived from the original on 2001-06-05.
  7. ↑ "AWARDS FOR ROXETTE FROM RIAA". Riaa. October 25, 2015. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Ask Billboard section on Billboard". Billboard. October 25, 2015. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
  9. 1 2 "BPI certification database". www.bpi.co.uk.
  10. ↑ Allmusic review
  11. ↑ "MILLI VANILLI "Girl You Know It's True; ROXETTE "Look Sharp"". Latimes. October 25, 2015. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Grammis award winners history" (PDF) (in Swedish). IFPI Sweden. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
  13. ↑ "Rockbjörnen – tidigare vinnare" [Previous winners]. Aftonbladet / Rockbjörnen. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
  14. ↑ "Australian charts archive". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2010-11-21.
  15. ↑ "Austrian charts archive". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2010-11-21.
  16. ↑ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (Roxette)" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie.
  17. ↑ "New Zealand charts archive". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2010-11-21.
  18. ↑ "Norwegian charts archive". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2010-11-21.
  19. ↑ "Swedish charts archive". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2010-11-21.
  20. 1 2 "Swiss charts archive". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2010-11-21.
  21. ↑ "Billboard 200 charts archive". Billboard. Retrieved 2010-11-21.
  22. ↑ "Awards for Roxette from RIAA.". www.riaa.com. Retrieved 2009-09-23.

External links

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