Songoftheday 4/22/18 - Can't we leave the world outside just for a while? and spend some time you and I under this bright glorious sky...
from the album Joyride (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #36 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 4
Today's song of the day comes from the Swedish pop duo Roxette, whose Joyride album had already spun off three big hits in America with "Spending My Time", "Fading Like A Flower", and the #1 "Joyride". The fourth and final single released from the record in America would be "Church Of Your Heart", a breezy jangle-pop nugget written by the pair's Per Gessle...
"Church Of Your Heart" became Roxette's ninth and so far last top-40 hit on the American Hot 100 in April of 1992. The song also climbed to #24 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio format chart. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in Canada (#11), the UK (#21), Sweden (#21), Ireland (#24), Austria (#24), Germany (#28), Belgium (#35), and Spain (#40).
After touring behind the Joyride album, in 1992 the pair released the odds and sods collection Tourism, a mixture of unreleased material and redos of previous hits like "It Must Have Been Love". While the lead single "How Do You Do?" was a huge hit worldwide, reaching #2 in most of continental Europe, as well as #12 in Canada, and #13 in Australia and the UK, the single stalled down at #58 in the U.S. The following year, they contributed a song to the live-action Super Mario Brothers soundtrack. The result, "Almost Unreal", only popped on to the American pop chart at #94, but in Britain it climbed all the way to #7. They returned in 1994 with their "harder" Crash! Boom! Bang! album, which again was much more successful internationally than in the U.S. In fact, the lead single, "Sleeping In My Car", became only their second single to reach #1 in their homeland of Sweden, as well as getting into the top 40 everywhere else, but in the States, it almost made the top-40, stopping at #50 on the pop Hot 100. After that set, Per and Marie released solo albums in Sweden, with Per topping the local chart with "Do You Wanna Be My Baby?" and Marie reaching the top ten with her native-language ballad "Tro". Reuniting in 1998, they recorded their sixth studio album Have a Nice Day, which wasn't even released in America, but nevertheless was an international success, with first single "Wish I Could Fly" just missing the top ten in Britain at #11. Two years later, songs from that record were included on an American re-release of their greatest hits set, and "Wish I Could Fly" got to #27 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. (It was a personal fave of mine at the time.)
The pair began the new millenium with their Room Service album, which again didn't see an American release, but did land them a third #1 hit in Sweden with "The Centre Of The Heart". However, a year later, Marie suffered a fall that led to the diagnosis of a brain tumor, which she has taken an amazing amount of strength to recover from, though it had left her partially blind. During the "naughties", again they both released solo material, with each reaching the Swedish chart with English-language singles; Gessle with the #1 bop "Silly Really", and Fredriksson with "2nd Chance".
Per and Marie got back together in 2009, not only performing live, but recording yet another album, Charm School. A song from the record, "She's Got Nothing On (But The Radio)", scored the duo their most recent American chart success, going to #30 on the Adult Contemporary format chart. Although since then Marie has had to retire from touring, the two put out their most recent album, Good Karma, in 2016, and the record made the top ten in Sweden and did quite well in Europe.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
First up, a concert from the tour behind Joyride in 1991...
Here's Per and Marie on their MTV Unplugged appearance, turning "Church Of The Heart" into a more reflective ballad...
Back to the duo on tour in 2001...
And finally, from their reunion in 2014...
Up tomorrow: A rock classic gets a return to the chart thanks to Wayne and Garth.
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