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Roxette earns mention, no placement on Billboard chart

Written by DanJKroll on September 23, 2008 to .

Despite having more #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 than any other Swedish artists, Roxette failed to place a single song on the magazine’s top 100 hits of all-time. Per and Marie were in good company, though, as ABBA was also left off the best of the best tally. Meanwhile, Swedish compatriots Ace of Base earned one song on the listing and Roxette scored four #1 hits in Billboard between 1989 and 1991. The hits include, as any fan can easily tell you, “The Look,” “Listen To Your Heart,” “It Must Have Been Love,” and “Joyride.” The four singles spent a combined five weeks at the top of the Hot 100. “It Must Have Been Love” stayed at the top for two weeks, the duo’s only multi-week stay at #1.
“The Sign” tallied six weeks at #1 in 1994 and earned a spot as the #51 song of all-time, according to Billboard.
According to Billboard, “Swede success was prevalent on the Hot 100 in the early '90s. Roxette ruled with ‘It Must Have Been Love’ and ‘Joyride,’ while fellow Swedish act Ace of Base picked up the baton with ‘The Sign.’”

In case you’re wondering, “The Twist” by Chubby Checker was named the biggest Hot 100 hit of all-time. Read the FAQ to see how the charts were tallied.

33 comments

Junkie said on :

These americans can say whatever they want, who cares?
Roxette didn’t have and contract with US recording company for at leat 10 years.....

But WE do know, who’s the best band in the world, huh? =^___^=

pwbbounce (moderator) said on :

I’m not surprised! To be honest, I’ve never really been ones for those sorts of list. It’s always nice when they appear in them, but it’s not the be all and end all of life

ettexor said on :

it is not right!
roxette in america have had much more success the ace of base, and deserved to be in chart.
..... but is not important.
Roxette THE BEST!

Sascha said on :

It’s simply a list of all-time positions in the billboard charts. The Sign was a bigger hit over there. Roxette’s songs just didn’t qualify for top100, nothing to do with sympathy.

tevensso (moderator) said on :

Longest time at #1. Rox: 5 weeks divided by 4 songs, Waste of Space 6 weeks divided by 1 song.

unreal said on :

it is not fair...but who cares billoboard charts, anyway....? who cares any charts? the sign ! LOL , it was a good catchy song (but, what about the lyrics, ande everything else) .. i must confess i like Ase of Base (some old songs)..but fr good sake! what have they done after that!...if you liten to the album “flowers” its all almost covers , and their lastest “da capo”..please it sounds almost the same! (it is a big endless track)

who cares about a charT!, i tell this to roxette! , if there is no good music taking into account! .possitions, sells, and everything else is shit!. There could have been left a lot of good songs left out, or bands...

by the way TDR should but a pictures or sth where we can appresiate the whole list, ´cos this seems like a cut news for me, i cannot take it too seriously..if there is not a quote or link.

pwbbounce (moderator) said on :

a quick google search brought this up

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/specials/hot100/charts/top100-titles-00.s...

tevensso (moderator) said on :

So don’t take it seriously.

coyboyusa said on :

the sign wasn’t even written by ace of base so in my eyes it doesn’t count as a hit for the group. Per and marie are in the same tradition as abba, write -record- prodouce their own quality material. And lets be blunt, roxette were sandwiched between the death of pop the emergence of grunge, the death of grunge and the emergence of boybands. Personally I think they faired alot better than anyone could have ever expected. And frankly, ace of bases last album da-capo was their most floppy effort since the original european version of the sign aka happy nation. In all they’ve had more sucess, would u rather sell 20 million copies of one album or 58 million copies of 5? And have you ever heard ace of base live? My cats sing better. The simple fact is even with a lopsided record company and absolutuley no experience in the international market roxette have become one of the quitessential 80’s bands that survived, not many bands can say that.

so say we all

Robbie said on :

And check out Roxette in this one: Best Selling Music Artists Ever

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_selling_music_artists

rox-kuryliw said on :

No surprise

tevensso (moderator) said on :

The Sign is for sure an original Waste of Space song, written by Jonas Berggren=Buddha (or was it Joker...)

7-Twenty-7 said on :

If “The Sign” is one of the best songs of all-time, something must me - up in America. Just let’s check the water, it must be poisoned!

Seriously, there’s no way to compare “The Sign” with “LTYH” or “IMHBL”, for God’s sake! Even “Joyride” is better!!! TS is just an absurd text (no lyrics at all) with some cheap synth tune. I don’t want to sound biased, but I hate the fact AoB always get more recognition than Roxette when they were absolutely inferior. Musically, that’s it. I never had the guts to play an AoB album in its entirety (made of 2 or 3 average songs + loads of fillers). “Da Capo” sucks big time, one of the worst albums I ever played.

tevensso (moderator) said on :

I agree that WoS are way inferior to Roxette, but this chart isn’t based on taste, but on facts. And these facts say that WoS had more chart success than Rox in the US. The FAQ also says that these charts became more trustworthy after 1991 when the new Nielsen rating system took over, giving songs a longer chart life. This has been compensated though.

cslaci said on :

ROXETTE IS THE BEST, better than AoB. And ABBA, too. “Roxette scored four #1 hits in Billboard between 1989 and 1991”. That wasn’t enough????? I don’t understand, really! And Roxette sold more albums and singles...

But I don’t think that “Da Capo” is worth, but it’s true that the other albums of AoB were better. The song “Beautiful morning” is great! The song “The Sign” is not so good - in my opinion.

And the biggest question is: When comes the next Roxette album?

Robbie said on :

As long as Tevensso encourages us for a new Gyllene Tider anniversary realese for 2009, I see no answer to your “biggest question” in the very next, optimistic future.

We can still put our hope for a 2010 new Roxette material. But nothing earlier than that.

I think I should start to look for a new band to be a fan of :-(

cslaci said on :

2010? Yes, maybe, I hope and WE hope)!

I’ve seen the page (List of best-selling music artists) and where is AoB? ...
I’m listening to music, what a beautiful ballads: The Rain, I Do Believe, Beautiful Things, It Must Have Been Love ... ...

Robbie said on :

According to Wikipedia:

Top 5 biggest selling Swedish acts of all time: (the sales figures are estimated and count together album and single sales)

1. ABBA: 370 Million (1972 - 1982)
2. Roxette: 75 Million (1986 - Present)
3. Ace of Base: 45 Million (1990 - Present)
4. Europe: 20 Million (1979 - 1992; 1999 - Present)
5. The Cardigans: 15 Million (1992 - Present)

Roxlander said on :

These charts are made based in statistics, it doesn’t mean that any of those songs are better than Roxsongs, they just were more popular in the US. I’m sure that if a chart of the entire world could be made things were differente for Roxette. Besides, those Billboard charts are divided in decades, that’s why Roxette doesn’t appear in some charts were they qualified, for example artist with more number one songs, because they have two songs in the 80’s and two in the 90’s.

Anyway I think IMHBL should be part of the main chart, because it was a big hit and a song that is already part of history of music, even in the US. But well, what can we expect of charts in that country.

Kathrin said on :

That’s true!
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Have Fun!!!

Captainmoon said on :

I love Roxette and Ace Of Base but I think is not fair that you start critizicing Ace Of Base just because someone did not remember Roxette in that silly chart. We know how charts are made of.....

stormen said on :

Ace of Base has just made crap dance-pop songs full of junk synth , I cannot listen to their music for more than 1 minute.

cslaci said on :

I love Roxette and AoB, too, but I think that Roxette is musically bigger. AoB had only 3 (?) very big songs. Roxette had much more!
And everybody knows, the statistics aren’t always true :)
But yes, Roxlander you are right.

davidc4 said on :

i think you will find that The Sign was written by Ace Of Base all their records apart from Dont Turn Around Cruel Summer and Everytime It Rains have been writen by the group

davidc4 said on :

On the Flowers album only Cruel Summer was a cover version the rest are original songs all written by Ace Of Bse apart from on some editions when Everytime It Rains was included which was written by Billy Steinberg,Rick Knowles and some woman i cant recall

7-Twenty-7 said on :

And “Cruel Summer” was the biggest hit from that album. It says it all... The rest of the album is dire.

arnie said on :

You can’t take this chart seriously!!!
Macarena is on the top 5!!!
Real Mc Coy who never picked up the top 1 made into the chart!!

he he who listed those songs? There is no a serious criteria, Ok, let’s face it, Macarena spent 12 weeks at the top but... why Real Mc Coy?

Anyway, it’s just a stupid chart, I don’t mind if Roxette couldn’t make into every billboard chart, it’s pointless

abysmo said on :

AoB sounded very special back in 1993-1995, they were very modern, newsounded but also very short-term case, they never reach to be real evergreen makers. I had the first album Happy Nation, I know their singles. Best one for me is Life Is A Flower, this one is really great song. The Sign, Living In Danger, Never Gonna Say I am Sorry and especially Don’t Turn Around had some strange, dark taste and feeling to me, I still like them.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

RoxRoom.wz.cz

cslaci said on :

Hm yes, why Real McCoy...?
AND: I’m nervous, too, if I see Usher with three songs. Who is he...???
But that’s the USA... ...

whateveriam said on :

@Robbie - First of all, Wikipedia is wrong. The 75 million figure for Rox is albums and singles combined. AOB’s on Wikipedia is albums alone. Rox managed 10 million copies of their biggest selling album, AOB around 24 million.

Skew facts all you want to get the ideas you want - that’s all stats is, isn’t it?

AOB=WOS? Harsh man, funny but harsh.

Anyway, whoever said it earlier was right - AOB were more successful overall, they deserve to be there whereas Rox weren’t quite good enough. 4 Number 1’s that in total sold less than The Sign did in the States? (that’s single, not album - this gets confusing after a while) That’s why they ain’t there!

Green_Wagon said on :

So.
And who really gives a rat’s fat ass about #1 hits anyway. Why should you judge a band’s success on how many #1 hits they get? It’s sickening they way this all works... That’s what killed Roxette in the contemporary music market. I reckon their better music came after ’Joyride’ anyway.
Sah!!!
PS: And how many hours did Ace Of Base actually last for?

whateveriam said on :

Well, they’re still playing live and doing stuff (corporate mainly, but hey money is money)...unlike Roxette, you notice. OK, so it’s without Linn, but a band with 3 members is better then a band who doesn’t even seem to want to work at all

7-Twenty-7 said on :

Rox managed 10 million copies of their biggest selling album, AOB around 24 million...

I can’t believe that nice “compilation of fillers” sold so much. No need to mention the creative/astonishing artwork of Happy Nation/The Sing (yuck).

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