"It Must Have Been Love", originally "It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted)", is a song written byPer Gessle and performed by the Swedish pop duoRoxette. Thepower ballad[2][3] became the duo's third number one hit in the United States,[4] and is one of their best selling releases, being certified gold or platinum in a number of countries. It remains their most well-known andsignature song.[5]
Five different versions of the song have been officially released. The original song was released in 1987, which was followed by the most successful incarnation, a slightly edited and overdubbed version, omitting the Christmas references, created for thesoundtrack to the 1990 filmPretty Woman. During the "Join the Joyride! World Tour" in 1991, the band recorded acountry music version inLos Angeles, included on their 1992 albumTourism. A Spanish-language version of thePretty Woman recording was released on their 1996 compilationBaladas en Español. Finally, an orchestral live performance from the band's 2009 concert atNight of the Proms was included on their 2012 studio album,Travelling.
The song was first released as "It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted)" in December 1987. It was composed afterEMI Germany asked the duo to "come up with an intelligent Christmas single".[6] It became a top five hit in Sweden,[7] but was not released internationally.[6] This version of the song was never included on any Roxette studio album until the 1997 re-release of their debutPearls of Passion (1986).[8]
A performance from a Swedish TV chart show in 1987 acted as the song's first music video. It features Fredriksson and Gessle sitting on a couch on a stage, lip-syncing to the song.[9]
During a run of increasingly successful singles from the duo's 1988 albumLook Sharp!,Touchstone Pictures approached Roxette and their label about contributing a song to the soundtrack of the upcoming romantic comedy releasePretty Woman, starringRichard Gere andJulia Roberts.[10] The film was released in March 1990 and went on to make more than US$460 million at the worldwide box office.[11] The correspondingsoundtrack album was also a commercial success,[10] which was certified triple-platinum in the US.[12] The soundtrack went on to sell more than nine million copies worldwide.[13]
Bill Coleman fromBillboard described the song as a "rhythmicballad".[14] Dave Sholin from theGavin Report wrote: "Per andMarie are on target again. Per Gessle continues to demonstrate his uncanny ability to compose exceptional pop melodies and Marie Fredriksson makes the words and music jump through the speakers. Though timed to coincide with the release of theJulia Roberts/Richard Gere filmPretty Woman, this tune from the soundtrack could easily stand on its own. Interest in the movie only gives it that much more of a boost".[15] Dave Simpson fromThe Guardian said the song is a "masterpiece of pain". He added that "Fredriksson's genius is in delivering the title line clean and stoic, rather than with tortured vibrato, to show that she's resigned to her fate. But with the jarringly urgent upward key change in the middle eight, the pain floods in again, and she's back to square one".[16]
A reviewer fromLiverpool Echo wrote: "It's a ballad, it's big in America, but it's not as heavy-handed as the usual US success. Funnily enough, there even seems to be a bit of anABBA influence in there".[17]Refinery29 included it at number 39 on their list ofThe Saddest Breakup Songs of All Time, saying the track "represents the perfect ratio of schlock to sentiment. In someone likeCeline Dion's hands, this would have been a complete disaster, but the Swedish duo gaze off to 'where the water flows' and 'where the wind blows' without sounding like '90sDisney characters".[18] Brendon Veevers fromRenowned for Sound noted the song as a "timelesspower ballad that has aged like a fine wine".[19]
A re-written and edited version of the track – the lyric "It's a hard Christmas day" was changed to "It's a hard winter's day" and 24 seconds were removed from the outro[13] – became an international hit during the summer of 1990. It was not the first single released from thePretty Woman soundtrack, but it became the most successful, spending two weeks at the top spot of the USBillboard Hot 100 in June.[10] The song was certified Gold by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales in excess of 500,000 copies in the US.[20] At the end of the year,Billboard listed it as the second most successful single of 1990, behindWilson Phillips' "Hold On".[21]
The single peaked at number three in the UK—their highest-peaking single there. It stayed on theUK Singles Chart for 14 weeks,[22] and was certified gold by theBritish Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales and streams in excess of 400,000.[23] The song was re-released in the UK and Ireland in September 1993 to tie in with the TV premiere ofPretty Woman,[24] peaking at number ten in both countries.[22][25] It became Roxette's second of three number one singles in Australia, spending two weeks at the top spot in July 1990.[26] The song was a massive hit in Norway, where it spent twelve weeks at number one.[27] In Switzerland, the song spent three non-consecutive weeks at number one.[28] It also reached number one in Canada, Poland and Spain, and the top five in Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and West Germany, where it spent nine months in the top 75.[29]
In 2005, Gessle received an award fromBMI after the song's four millionth radio play in the US.[30] He received updated awards from the same organization after its five millionth radio play in 2014,[31] and its six millionth play in 2021.[32]
The second video was directed by Doug Freel and was shot in a warehouse. It included clips fromPretty Woman, with Fredriksson singing and playing piano and Gessle playing guitar between various prop changes.[9] There is also an alternate version of the video, without the movie scenes, which was available solely on the VHSThe Videos. According to Fredriksson, shooting this video was a surreal experience, as Freel "wanted all movements in slow motion, so I had to lip-sync the vocals at double speed. My first lesson in how to sing an emotional ballad Mickey Mouse style".[6]
As of January 2025, this video has more than 854 million views onYouTube.[33]
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
Roxette released a Spanish-language compilation album,Baladas en Español, in 1996. It consisted of twelve of their down-tempo singles and album tracks, which were translated by Spanish songwriter Luis Gomez-Escolar, who would later co-write theRicky Martin hit "Livin' la Vida Loca". The album was only released in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking territories. An adapted version of "It Must Have Been Love", titled "No Sé Si Es Amor", was released in early 1997 as the album's second and final single. The song wasn't translated, its lyrics are new, with a slight different meaning from the original lyrics.
On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the song's release on thePretty Woman soundtrack,[84]Parlophone released a limited editionred-coloured vinyl on 19 May 2015.[85] This single included thePretty Woman version of the song, backed with the original 1987 release and theLos Angeles-studio performance (minus the live intro recorded inSantiago,Chile) from their 1992 albumTourism. The latter featurespedal steel guitar performed byGreg Leisz, who is best known for his work withk.d. lang. The single was released ondigital download stores from 23 March.[86]
In 1989, the late Ugandan musicianPhilly Lutaaya, who was then based in Sweden used the song to record his hit "Alone and Frightened" on his album "Alone", in which he came out as an HIV/AIDS patient, becoming the first public figure to be identified with the virus/disease during an HIV/AIDS epidemic in Uganda.[88][89]
The song was recorded twice in Portuguese, by the duo Gilberto e Gilmar asOutro dia nasceu[90] in 1992, and by theforró band Moleca 100 Vergonha ‘’não sou feliz mais‘’ in 2012.[91]
In 2006, Swedish pop singerShirley Clamp recorded a cover version of the song called "När kärleken föds" ("When Love is Born"), it peaked at number 6 at the Swedish singles chart.[93]
In 2019, English singerMegan McKenna covered "It Must Have Been Love" as the first winner ofThe X Factor: Celebrity. Following the announcement that she had won, her version of the song was released on 30 November.[94][95]
