Roxette - It Must Have Been Love
It Must Have Been Love is a song written by Per Gessle and performed by the Swedish pop duo Roxette. The ballad became the duo's third #1 hit in the United States, and is one of their best-selling releases, leading the single to be certified gold in a number of countries.
The song was included on the soundtrack to the popular film Pretty Woman.
In 2005, Per Gessle received an award from BMI after the song's four millionth radio play.
"It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted)" (1987)
"It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted)", the song's original title, was first released in 1987 after EMI Germany asked Roxette to come up with an intelligent Christmas-single. It went on to become a Top 10 hit in Sweden but EMI Germany decided not to the release the track.
This version of the song was not part of any Roxette album until the 1997 re-release of Pearls of Passion, where it was included as a bonus track. The B-side to "Christmas for the Broken Hearted", "Turn to Me", also featured as a bonus track.
Pretty Woman movie soundtrack (1990)
During the run of chart-topping singles from Look Sharp! Touchstone Pictures approached Roxette's record label, EMI, and the group about contributing a song to the soundtrack of the upcoming romantic comedy release Pretty Woman, starring Richard Gere and Oscar nominee Julia Roberts. Pretty Woman was released in March 1990 and went on to make more than $460 million worldwide.
Although "It Must Have Been Love" was part of the Pretty Woman soundtrack, the song was not part of a Roxette album until Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!, their 1995 greatest hits release. The album was not released in the United States until September 26, 2000, with a different track listing.
Chart success
Though the lyrics refer to a lonely winter's day after the break-up of a relationship, "It Must Have Been Love" became an international hit in the summer of 1990.
It was not the first single released from the Pretty Woman soundtrack but "It Must Have Been Love" became the most successful, spending its first of two weeks at #1 on the Hot 100 in June and onto sales of 500,000 copies in the U.S.
Billboard magazine listed "It Must Have Been Love" as the #2 Hot 100 single of the year behind Wilson Phillips' "Hold On".
The single was released in the UK in June 1990 and peaked at #3, Roxette's best showing there, and stayed in the UK Singles Chart for 14 weeks. The song was re-released in September 1993 and peaked at #10. It was due to the success of this song that "Listen to Your Heart" and "Dressed for Success" were re-issued in the UK later that year. It later became Roxette's second of three #1 singles in Australia, spending two weeks at the top spot in July 1990, while it also peaked at #1 in Norway, for 12 weeks, and in Switzerland. It also reached the Top 5 in Sweden, Austria and Germany, where the single spent 9 months in the Top 75, while it reached the Top 20 in Italy.
In the CD liner notes for Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!, Fredriksson remarked, "Our third #1 in the U.S. ...not bad for a song that was lying around, gathering dust."
The soundtrack went on to be certified three times platinum by the RIAA, with total Worldwide sales of nine million. While the song went on to receive gold certification in the Austria, Germany, United States, Sweden and New Zealand.
Music video
The video was shot in a warehouse, with Fredriksson singing and Gessle playing the guitar between various prop changes. It included scenes from the Pretty Woman movie (Marie Fredriksson wearing a white dress in this movie version). There is also an alternate version of the video without the movie scenes, available solely on the VHS The Videos. According to Fredriksson, shooting the video was a surreal experience: “... the video was a weird experience. The director wanted all movements in slow motion so I had to lip sync the vocals in double speed. My first lesson in how to sing an emotional ballad Mickey Mouse style. A strange way to make a living” -Marie Fredriksson.
The lyrics:
Lay a whisper on my pillow
Leave the winter on the ground
I wake up lonely, there's air of silence
In the bedroom and all around
Touch me now, I close my eyes and dream away
1st Chorus:
It must have been love, but it's over now
It must have been good, but I lost it somehow
It must have been love, but it's over now
From the moment we touched till the time had run out
Make believing, we're together
That I'm sheltered by your heart
But in and outside I've turned to water
Like a teardrop in your palm
And it's a hard winter's day, I dream away
2nd Chorus:
It must have been love, but it's over now
It was all that I wanted, now I'm living without
It must have been love but it's over now
It's where the water flows, it's where the wind blows
3rd. Chorus:
It must have been love but it's over now
It must have been good, but I lost it somehow
It must have been love, but it's over now
From the moment we touched till the time had run out
Yeah.. It must have been love, but it's over now
It was all that I wanted, now I'm living without
It must have been love but it's over now
