Blogocentric Formulations

It Must Have Been Love

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Song: "It Must Have Been Love"
Artist: Roxette
Album: Pretty Woman Soundtrack


Let's continue with Soundtrackers' Soundtracks week and go international to get a little Swedish influence. No, it's not ABBA. Or Ace of Base. Or Robyn (I really wanted to do "Dancing On My Own" but, alas, it's not a soundtrack song that I know of). Or the Cardigans. Or Avicii. Or Europe. Or Eagle-Eye Cherry (been there, done that!). Man, Sweden has had a pretty big impact on the American music scene! But today I'm going with the sensational Roxette, a band that's still recording and touring today, thirty years after they originally formed... although not without a couple breaks over the decades.

While I'm more of a "Listen to Your Heart" kind of guy (both the original and the cover by DHT are excellent), this track isn't too bad either and has the added benefit of being featured prominently in the classic film Pretty Woman.

"In case I forget to tell you later, I had a really good time tonight."

This was probably one of the first movies I watched where I was truly aware of the quality of the writing. Up until this point, I knew writers wrote screenplays that were turned into movies and television, but I didn't really have a grasp of what it meant to write good dialogue, or a compelling narrative, or endearing characters... and when I saw all of those elements of this movie work together for the first time, it was like a light bulb went off. "Oh, that's what a screenwriter does!"

Interesting side note: the screenwriting, J.F. Lawton, has had a rather eclectic career, going from a BAFTA-nomination with Pretty Woman to writing or co-writing such films as Blankman, Chain Reaction, and the Steven Seagal action extravaganza Under Siege. Before Pretty Woman was released, he even wrote and directed a pair of films: Pizza Man and Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death.

I find it fascinating that his story about a rich businessman who buys a prostitute's mostly non-sexual company for a week is the most normal piece of writing on his resume.

But I digress. Back to Roxette and my song choice today. Finishing 1990 at No. 2 on their year-end Billboard Hot 100, this song was certified gold in a number of countries (including the United States), and was the duo's third No. 1 hit in the United States, and garnered songwriter Per Gessle (one half of Roxette) an award from BMI commemorating the song's 4,000,000th radio play in 2005.

Overall, Roxette has had nineteen UK Top 40 hits, and have received a number of awards for their albums which have sold, at last count, an estimated total of 75 million copies worldwide.