Not just an infectious pop song band, Roxette could adapt to the era, juggle between styles and even sing like Mickey Mouse Double Speed ​​• Farewell to solo artist Marie Fredrickson, who passed away

• Marie Frederickson

  Photography:

  REUTERS

As it is, it is easy to forget how rocket was, or at the very least, significant, influence of the late-century pop-rock bands. During their years of activity, duo Marie Fredrickson and Per Gisel were lightning rod producers of huge hits, always moving on the spectrum between the exciting kitsch to tears and the rock-as-kicking but actually mostly fun and joyfully received on the radio or on dancefloors (during the days the distortion also dominated these) .

Knowing Fredrickson's sad death, an excellent singer with high vocal abilities who may not have been appreciated enough in her life, is a great opportunity to return to five of the band's biggest hits.

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Not just pop kitschy. Rocket // Photo: EPA

It Must Have Been Love

Perhaps the biggest hit in Rocket's repertoire is this eighties ballad, which in less than five minutes demonstrates the greatness of the lineup, alongside being a faithful representative of the guitar rock that characterized the 1980s. Like most of the band's songs, "Probably It Was Love" (in Hebrew it could have been a titular song by Rona Keenan), written by Per Gissell, and along with Predikon the duo recorded the song in 1987 as a disconnected single from an album. He came out when the label's German division EMI asked the two to come back with "Intelligent Christmas Xmas", and even the people in the record labels' suits probably didn't think he'd become such a huge hit.

The song was recorded by Roxette with no less than four different versions (in 1987, the year of its original release, it was not released internationally) - including a country version and even a Spanish version. He became a huge hit around the world in 1990 when he was part of the blockbuster soundtrack "Beautiful Woman" with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. Due to the fact that when it came out again it was no longer intended to be a Christmas single, the line "This is a hard Christmas day" was changed in the international version to "This is a hard winter day".

The song came in third on the British singles parade, and it remains on the parade for another 14 weeks. He also spent an impressive 12 weeks on the Australian march, becoming one of the band's most successful and best-selling singles.

In the clip that accompanied him, the director wanted to shoot everything going on in slow motion. And so Frederickson was required to do the opposite - in terms of singing speed. "I had to do lip-sync for double speed," the singer said. "It was my first lesson in singing like Mickey Mouse an exciting ballad."

Joyride

Four years after this power ballad, Roxette has proven that she is not only in emotion but also in pressing the glands. And this is definitely the most accurate way to define "Joyride" - "Pleasure Ride," if you will, which came out in the early '90s as the lead single for the album of the same name. "Hello, you dumb, I love you!", Gisel and Fredrickson sing, all the way to the first place across Europe, in places like Sweden, Austria, Finald, Norway, Germany (where he was at the top of the table for two months) - and for the first time also in the country of origin Of the band, Sweden.

The inspiration for the song was inspired by a note written by his wife (who at the time was still his partner) and left on his piano. The inspiration for the song came from a completely different direction: originated in an interview where Paul McCartney imagined the shared writing experience with Beatles partner John Lennon for "long fun riding."

The Look

Another song from the band's fun repertoire, and also accurately illustrates what a rock-pop hit is towards the end of the 1980s. Contrary to other hits on this list, some of the lyrics do not really mean (say, the part with "Nah nah nah nah"), for the simple reason that they were supposed to be temporary and accompany the tune of the song - until they found good lyrics. That didn't happen, and finally the two decided to keep the "look" or "look", you decide, in its original version.

"These are just words I wrote to have something to sing (on top of the music)," the musician recounted years after the song was released. "I couldn't come up with anything better, so we left it like that. Everybody's lucky now and then." Like quite a few other songs of the band, "The Look" was too hit in Sweden, but at that point the band had yet to break into the United States market (in fact, rejected by American EMI on the grounds that it was "not suitable for the local audience").

Everything changed when an American student who was in Sweden as part of a student exchange heard the song and returned to his country to persuade a regional radio station to play it. "The Look" has become a hit on the station, and in many ways, the poetry song is considered to rocket the road to global success and has helped it to do what every artist and successful vehicle in Europe dreams of doing: crack the American market.

Listen to Your Heart

Another pop duo from the Swedish duo, originally released before "Must Have Been Love" and almost ignored, before being re-released as a kind of "sister ballad" of the previous song. In the second round, the song was very successful, mainly due to the fact that by the time of its second release, Rocket was already a more established band. It is also possible that the iconic clip, which was filmed on the ruins of Burghholm Fortress in Sweden, contributed to making it so popular.

"The Big and Bad Ballad," Gisell described the song, explaining that he was trying to recreate with him the bombastic American guitar rock sound of those times. "We really wanted to see how far we could take it, down to absurd levels." Apparently, it worked for him, too, and it's hard not to blame the song, as beautiful as it was, for the over-dramatic and pathos that the radio so loved at the time.

The song's name, which begs a certain person (and indeed all of us) to "listen to the heart," was born after Gisele's friend found himself torn between an old relationship and a new love. "Years later, I called him in the middle of the night after too many glasses of champagne," the singer said. "I told him, 'Hey, you're the No. 1 hit in the United States.'

Sleeping In My Car

The album "Crash! Boom! Bang!" From the middle of the nineties, Roxette presented it with full force, almost as if it had not been nearly a decade since it broke into consciousness. It contained songs like "Fireworks" and "Vulnerable," but by far the most prominent, cheeky, and singular single was "Sleeping in My Car." This time, deep into the 1990s, Roxette demonstrated her ability to change and adapt her sound and spirit to the spirit of the time.

Therefore, it is an almost punk-rocky single that was no different from the other guitar hits that burned the radio of those days. In addition to being a light and fun pop candy, Frederickson's vocal range spans three octaves - so it's not just a catchy chorus song, but an impressive work.

"Sleeping" was the last song written for the album and if it sounds a little different to you from the production of the collection of songs - it's not accidental. When they finished recording "Trah! Boom! Bang," the duo realized he needed a little lighter song among the other songs that exemplified what critics like to define as "musical maturation." Just before the work on the record was over, the song that joined the album was written, became the lead single out of it and became an especially beloved guitar hit by nineties enthusiasts.

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