![]() ![]() The group has been certified by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) with two platinum albums – 1988's Look Sharp! (released in the U.S. Even so, by that token, Roxette can be considered a highly successful singles act. 2 singles and a few other Top 40 peaks until falling out of sight of the Hot 100 in 1994. Even though Roxette couldn't ultimately leave behind the same legacy, the group did outperform ABBA on the singles chart, achieving four No.ġ hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 19. While seemingly not interested in doing so, even by default Roxette could not associate its image with the now-iconic ABBA, another Swedish pop group that struggled for recognition in America while still intact in the late 70s, but that managed, through revisionism beginning in the early 90s, to grow into something more intriguing as a legacy.ĪBBA did have some Billboard Top 10 singles and one No. The group's success in the United States alone was arguable. Though there is no firm figure, Roxette is believed to have worldwide sales of as many as 75 million copies of its albums and singles, no minor achievement for any pop act. The 1992 release Tourism: Songs from Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places – with a recording of audience members singing along to the tune of the group's biggest hit, "It Must Have Been Love" – exemplifies this temporary but impressive hold Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson had. Regardless, there was a time in 1991 when Roxette could command an arena filled with tens of thousands of fans in places as diverse as Buenos Aires, Frankfurt and Sydney. Perhaps, years after the fact, Roxette's popularity can be difficult to understand or appreciate in light of what critics considered its infectious but nonetheless lightweight music, lightweight even compared to what was otherwise on the airwaves at the time. Formed in 1986, the duo became an international act in the late 1980s, when they released their breakthrough album Look Sharp!. The group claims influences ranging from The Beatles to Blondie to new wave music to Joni Mitchell and Aretha Franklin. In 100 years’ time, people will remember the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Joni.In the end of the 80s and in the early 90s, Roxette, a pop-rock duo from Halmstad, Sweden, stood among the top bands in worldwide sales and notoriety, brandishing a simple yet effective blend of pop with a slight edge and occasional hints of dance. I’m proud to have been a part of her life. I wanted her to be as free as possible, to be as brilliant as possible. Like the song suggests, I asked her to marry me but I think she thought I wanted a “wife” to cook meals and so on, which was never my intention. I’m sad that it’s about me again, but it’s so brilliant. I remember leaving the house to give her the space to finish My Old Man. River made me sad, because it chronicled the end of our relationship, but also elated, because it was such a beautiful song and she had the courage to bare her soul. She didn’t finish it until after we parted. We were a couple for two years – and I watched her write many of the songs on Blue. So Joni witnessed the birth of Crosby, Stills and Nash. We smoked a big one and Stephen played this fabulous song, You Don’t Have to Cry, with David and myself singing harmonies. The Byrds had thrown David out and Stephen’s band, Buffalo Springfield, were over. David Crosby and Stephen Stills were having dinner with her. When I arrived, I could hear voices in the house. Later, I flew from London to spend a few days with her in Los Angeles. I met Joni in 1967 when I was in the Hollies and we played Ottawa. She is totally real and self-invented and it’s one of the best things in my life that I’ve known her. Maybe she sensed the wreckage of my next 15 years and didn’t want to be tied down. When I was taking her to meet my family in North Carolina, between flights she suddenly said she had to return to California and left me at the airport - at the altar, so to speak. After travelling, your home has a different context within the world and California captures that. It’s pure Joni.Ĭalifornia, which she wrote in Paris, is a coming home song. It thrives on her voice, melody and personality. Blue’s brilliance lies in its minimalism. There were very few people in the sessions. It felt natural and easy for me to play on the album. She quit smoking and her voice was excellent. It was a calm, peaceful, amazing, creative time. I’m not saying I was sober, but my then addiction to heroin was relatively quiet. We moved in the same circles and ended up together. After a year or two travelling in Europe with her portable dulcimer, she came back with lots of songs and ideas. She had a house and an automobile and wanted to have fun and see the world. Photograph: Jim McCrary/Redferns James Taylor: California ‘It’s one of the best things in my life that I’ve known her’ … James Taylor with Joni around 1970.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |