It Must Have Been Love

"It Must Have Been Love," written by Per Gessle, is a song. It Must Have Been Love is the Swedish pop band Roxette's most commercially successful single and its best-charting and -selling release in the United States. It rivals "The Look" as the song most closely associated with the Swedish duo.

Though not originally part of any Roxette album, that "It Must Have Been Love" was released as a single in 1990 from the soundtrack to the hugely popular film Pretty Woman, which ensured its success. Also, it was a close follow-up to the group's single "Dangerous," which spent two weeks at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in February of that same year.

Christmas single

While the song gained some notice, it seemed to serve mainly as radio filler between 1986's Passion and its follow-up, 1988's Look Sharp!, which would result in Roxette's first international big hits, such as "The Look" and "Listen to Your Heart," both of which reached number one in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989, and the aforementioned "Dangerous".

Movie soundtrack

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. Gessle has claimed that "It Must Have Been Love," by then a two-year-old recording, was chosen because Roxette did not have time to compose and record a new song while touring through Australia and New Zealand. Gessle and producer Clarence Öfwerman took the original 1987 recording with Fredriksson's lead vocal and added guitar and background vocal overlays to enhance the sound, as well as changing and re-recording the lyric about Christmas. Per Gessle claimed the soundtrack producers initially turned down "It Must Have Been Love" but changed course after re-editing the film.

The 1990 song text refers to a lonely winter's day after the break-up of a relationship. It Must Have Been Love became an international hit at May-June 1990 and charted through the middle of the year. It was not the first single released from the Pretty Woman soundtrack -- the film itself was released in U.S. theaters on March 23, 1990 -- but "It Must Have Been Love" became the most successful, spending its first of two weeks at number one on the Hot 100 in the June 16 issue. It was certified gold for issues of 500,000 copies, and Billboard magazine listed "It Must Have Been Love" as the number two Hot 100 single of the year, behind Wilson Phillips' "Hold On." The single peaked at number three on the UK singles chart, Roxette's best showing there.

A revised version of the song was recorded in a Los Angeles studio during Roxette's 1991 worldwide tour in support of the album Joyride. This slower, "countrified" version, featuring a steel guitar solo in place of the original's piano, was included in the 1992 album release from that tour, Tourism: Songs from Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places. A re-issue of the 1990 version of the song entered into the UK singles chart Top 10 in late 1993 as well.

No Se Si Es Amor

On the 1996 album Baladas En Español, Roxette sing the song in a Spanish language version named "No Se Si Es Amor".

När kärleken föds

In 2006, the Swedish singer Shirley Clamp recorded the song "När kärleken föds", which has the same melody as It Must Have Been Love. She released that as a single on April 26 2006. Ingela "Pling" Forsman wrote that text. On June 11 2006, När kärleken föds entered the eight place at Svensktoppen. När kärleken föds has no Christmas-related words in the song text.

Tracklisting: "När kärleken föds", single by Shirley Clamp