"The Look
", written by Per Gessle and performed by Roxette, was released as a single in early 1989 from the album Look Sharp!
. The song became Roxette's international "breakthrough" song, finally exposing the duo to music consumers outside of the duo's native Sweden and Europe after more than one attempt. It topped the U.S. singles chart in 1989 becoming their first U.S. #1 success and scored #7 on the UK singles chart.
|
THE LOOK TICKETS
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Background
While still unknown outside of Sweden, Roxette released their second album
Look Sharp!
With the success of the first two singles from the album, they toured Sweden again. When the "The Look" was about to be released in Sweden as the third single, an American exchange named Dean Cushman returned from Sweden and urged
radio station,
KDWB in
Minneapolis, to play "The Look". From there, "The Look" spread on
cassette copies to other radio stations. With the song's radio success,
EMI quickly released "The Look" Suddenly, Roxette had a #1 scoring single in the
United States, and the record wasn't even released. When
Look Sharp!
was finally released, it was able to debut on the U.S. album charts at #50, an unusual feat at the time for a newcomer artist, and later scored #23, eventually staying in the charts for 71 weeks.
According to Gessle the first two verses lyrics were guide lyrics but were kept anyway.
"Walking like a man, hitting like a hammer"... the first two verses are guide lyrics, words just scribbled down to have something to sing. Couldn't come up with anything better, so we kept them. Everybody gets lucky sometimes...Per Gessle [1]
Cover versions
- A cover of the song in English-language was recorded by the Spanish band, The Stunned Parrots.
- There is also a new rockabilly version of this song recorded by the German band "The Baseballs" on their first Album "Strike".
Track listings
All formats were released on
12 January 1989 (by
EMI/
Parlophone; 1363337). Also released on many formats, including 3" CD, 5" CD, and 12" vinyl. Included on most of those was The Look (Head-Drum Mix). The first edition of the vinyls was in red vinyl. A few exist in clear vinyl.
|
; 7" single
# "The Look" (3:56)
# "Silver Blue" (demo) (4:05)
; 12" maxi
# "The Look" (headdrum mix) (7:16)
# "The Look" (7" version) (3:56)
# "Silver Blue" (demo) (4:05)
|
; CD maxi
# "The Look" (head-drum-mix) (7:22)
# "The Look" (7" version) (3:58)
# "Silver Blue" (demo) (4:06)
# "Sleeping Single" (demo) (3:46)
; 12" Remixes
# "The Look" (Visible Mix) (6:03)
# "The Look" (Power Radio Mix) (4:09)
# "The Look" (Big Red Mix) (7:33)
# "The Look" (Invisible dub) (5:11)
# "Silver Blue" (demo) (4:00)
|
Remix: "The Look '95"
Background
"The Look '95" is a remixed version of
Roxette's hit song and it was only released commercially in the
UK in connection with the release of their greatest hits album
Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! - Roxette's Greatest Hits
.
This version of the song does not appear on the album, but two of the versions from this single were eventually included on the European release of the single "
She Doesn't Live Here Anymore".
Track listings
; CD maxi 1
# "The Look" (chaps 1995 remix) (5:08)
# "The Look" (chaps donna bass mix) (6:53)
# "The Look" (rapino club mix) (5:22)
# "The Look" (rapino dub mix) (5:14)
; CD maxi 2
# "The Look" (chaps 1995 remix) (5:10)
# "The Look" (original version) (3:59)
# "Crazy About You" (3:59)
# "
Dressed for Success" (U.S. mix) (4:53)
Charts
| Chart (1989) [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
| Peak
position
|
| U.S. Billboard
Hot 100
| 1
|
| U.S. Billboard
Hot Dance Club Play
| 47
|
| U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40
| 1
|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart
| 1
|
| Austrian Singles Chart
| 2
|
| Dutch Singles Chart
| 2
|
| Eurochart Hot 100
| 1
|
| French Singles Chart
| 12
|
| German Singles Chart
| 1
|
| Irish Singles Chart
| 10
|
| Italian Singles Chart
| 1
|
| New Zealand Singles Chart
| 1
|
| Norwegian Singles Chart
| 1
|
| Swedish Singles Chart
| 6
|
| Swiss Singles Chart
| 1
|
| UK Singles Chart
| 7
|
| Chart (1995) [8]
| Peak
position
|
| UK Singles Chart
| 28
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References
- ''Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!'' liner notes.
- "The Look", in various Singles Chart Lescharts.com (Retrieved April 10, 2008)
- German Singles Chart Charts-surfer.de (Retrieved April 10, 2008)
- Irish Single Chart Irishcharts.ie (Retrieved April 10, 2008)
- Italian Single Chart Hit parade Italia (Retrieved May 30, 2008)
- UK Singles Chart Chartstats.com (Retrieved April 10, 2008)
- Billboard Billboard.com (Retrieved April 10, 2008)
- UK Singles Chart Chartstats.com (Retrieved April 10, 2008)