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, re-recorded 1990 | |
| Genre | Pop | |
| Length | 04:18 | |
| Writer(s) | Per Gessle | |
| Chart positions | ||
| Roxette singles chronology | ||
| "Dangerous" (1989) |
"It Must Have Been Love" (1990) |
"Joyride" (1991) |
"It Must Have Been Love" (IMHBL) is a pop song written by Per Gessle. It is the Swedish pop duo Roxettes's most commercially successful single and its best-charting and selling release in the United States. It rivals "The Look" as the song most closely associated with the Swedish duo.
Though not originally part of any Roxette album, that "It Must Have Been Love" was released as a single in 1990 from the soundtrack to the hugely popular film Pretty Woman ensured its success. Also, it was a close follow-up to the group's single "Dangerous," which spent two weeks at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February of that same year.
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[edit] Christmas single
"It Must Have Been Love" was originally released as a single in Europe on 23 November 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 — began its chart run and singles releases, mostly in Sweden.
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 number one in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989, and the aforementioned "Dangerous".
[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 through 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 lyric about Christmas. Per Gessle claimed the soundtrack producers initially turned down "It Must Have Been Love" but changed course 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 May-June of 1990 and charted through the middle of the year. 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 issues 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 number three on the UK singles chart, Roxette's best showing there.
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 into the UK singles chart Top 10 in late 1993 as well.
[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").
[edit] Acoustic version
The British pop duo Journey South made an acoustic version version of "It Must Have Been Love" on their 2006 album Journey South.
[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"). She released that as a single on April 26, 2006. Ingela "Pling" Forsman wrote the Swedish text, which has the same theme. On June 11, 2006, När kärleken föds entered the eight place at Svensktoppen. Her version stayed for three rounds at Svensktoppen. När kärleken föds has no words related to Christmas or other seasons or holidays.
[edit] Tracklisting: "När kärleken föds", single by Shirley Clamp
- När kärleken föds - 5:08
- Öppna din dörr - 4:12
[edit] Other covers
Other artists who have recorded "It Must Have Been Love" include Polly Esther, Digital Bitch, The Chipmunks and Sanne Salomonsen.
| Preceded by: "Hold On" by Wilson Phillips |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single June 16, 1990 |
Succeeded by: "Step by Step" by New Kids on the Block |
