"The Look" | ||||||||
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Single by Roxette | ||||||||
from the album Look Sharp! | ||||||||
B-side | "Silver Blue" (Demo) | |||||||
Released | 12 January 1989 | |||||||
Format | ||||||||
Recorded | 1988 at EMI Studios, , Sweden | |||||||
Genre | Pop rock | |||||||
Length | 3:57 | |||||||
Label | EMI | |||||||
Writer(s) | Per Gessle | |||||||
Producer(s) | Clarence Öfwerman | |||||||
Roxette singles chronology | ||||||||
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"The Look '95" | ||||
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Single by Roxette | ||||
from the album Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! - Roxette's Greatest Hits | ||||
B-side | "Crazy About You" | |||
Released | 13 November 1995 | |||
Length | 5:08 | |||
Writer(s) | Per Gessle | |||
Roxette singles chronology | ||||
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"The Look" is a song by the Swedish pop duo Roxette. It was released in early 1989 as the fourth single from their second studio album, Look Sharp! (1988). It became an international hit, and was one of the most successful singles of 1989. It topped the charts in 25 countries, and was the first of their four number ones on the Billboard Hot 100.
The duo released their second album Look Sharp! in October 1988. It was an immediate commercial success in their home country, spending seven weeks at number one on the Swedish Albums Chart. The album's first two Swedish singles, "Dressed for Success" and "Listen to Your Heart", both became top three hits there; while another song, "Chances", was released in Germany, Italy and France.
When "The Look" was about to be released in Sweden as the fourth single, an American exchange student named Dean Cushman returned from Sweden and urged his local Top 40 radio station KDWB in Minneapolis to play the song. It quickly became popular, and the station began distributing the track to their sister radio operations. EMI America had previously rejected the duo as unsuitable for the American market, and Roxette did not have a recording contract there. "The Look" had already entered the top fifty of the Billboard Hot 100 before the duo began official promotion. It would go on to peak at number one eight weeks later.
According to Gessle, the lyrics of the first two verses were guide lyrics.
"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...