It Must Have Been Love (10")

LPA

1. It Must Have Been Love

LPB

1. It Must Have Been Love (Christmas For The Broken Hearted)
2. It Must Have Been Love (LA Version 1992)

25 years ago the film “Pretty Woman” had its premiere, kicking off an extraordinary success story that reverberates to this day. It became the blockbuster film of 1990, turned the unknown actress Julia Roberts into an international superstar, and sent the soundtrack’s leading single “It Must Have Been Love” by Roxette to the top of the Billboard Hot 100.

For Roxette, the timing with “Pretty Woman” couldn’t have been better. The Swedish group had made a sensational worldwide break with their debut single “The Look”, which raced the US charts and became their first #1 Billboard hit in the early spring of 1989.  

While on tour in Europe, and preparing the release of their upcoming single—and soon to be second US #1 song— “Listen To Your Heart”, the movie company Disney/Touchstone asked whether the new Swedish hit phenomenon might be interested in writing a song for a film called ”$ 3,000”, a romantic comedy about a rich businessman falling in love with a charming prostituted woman.

There was no chance that Roxette in the summer of 1989 would be able to write and record a new song due to the crazy tight schedule of tours and promo travels to countries around the world. Instead they offered a three year old song which had been a hit in Sweden in the autumn of 1987: “It Must Have Been Love (Christmas For The Broken Hearted”).

While “Listen To Your Heart” zoomed up the charts in the early autumn of 1989, director Garry Marshall realised that Roxette hade delivered a key song to the film—if only the Christmas references could be removed from the lyrics.

Despite their heavy schedule, Roxette were thrilled by the chance to be involved in a major Hollywood production, and agreed. Per Gessle rewrote the lyrics, Marie Fredriksson recorded a new vocal take, some new guitars were added, and the updated version was sent to Hollywood. After that, no one thought much about it for a while. With “Listen To Your Heart” becoming Roxette’s second US #1, there simply wasn’t any time to contemplate what might or might not happen with the film that was now called “Pretty Woman”.

Again, everything seemed to go Roxette’s way. The romantic and mournful ballad “It Must Have Been Love” turned out to fit the film’s story like a glove, and on June 13 1990 the song reached the #1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart—Roxette’s third US #1 in little over a year, not counting in-between hits like “Dressed For Success” (#12) and “Dangerous” (#2).

To date “It Must Have Been Love” has been one of Roxette’s most classic songs, only rivalled by the equally successful ballad “Listen To Your Heart”. At the 2014 BMI London Awards Per Gessle received a Million-Air Award for “It Must Have Been Love” having been played more than 5 million times on American radio (a feat it shares with songs like “All Right Now” by Free, “Another Brick In The Wall” by Pink Floyd, “Rocket Man” by Elton John—and their own “Listen To Your Heart”).

To commemorate one of the most successful and loved songs ever to come out of Sweden, Parlophone/Warner releases a digital version of the song on Monday March 23, while a limited edition 10” single in red vinyl (what else?) is due out on May 6. During the US tour in the spring of 1992, Roxette recorded a new version of ”It Must Have Been Love” in the Ocean Way studio in Los Angeles. This was coupled with a live recording of the same song, and released on the ”Tourism” album in 1992. But for the first time, an edited version of the studio recording will now be released as a bonus track.

And with Roxette touring the world as we speak it just goes to show that it certainly must have been love, but it’s far from over.