The Joyride 30th anniversary box with the whole story, demos and unreleased material will be released on November 26. But already tomorrow, October 8, the single “Small Talk” will be released with two previously unreleased versions of “Small Talk” and “Hotblooded”

This year marks 30 years since Roxette released their third album Joyride, which followed up the band’s record global breakthrough with the album Look Sharp! in 1989.

Roxette had in record time turned into a global hit phenomenon thanks to the three US hits “The Look”, “Listen to Your Heart”, “It Must Have Been Love” and other big hits such as “Dressed for Success” and “Dangerous”.

Joyride was the album that would cement the unlikely successes of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle. Which it certainly did. The album not only became Roxette’s bestseller, the title track swung on May 1, 1991 to the top of the US charts – giving Roxette their fourth US number one. Thus, the group set a record that no Scandinavian group or artist has managed to surpass.

 

Massive box with unique material.

The Joyride anniversary is celebrated with a vinyl box consisting of four LPs and a 3-CD box, which in addition to the original edition contains lots of unreleased or hard to find material that paints a larger picture of a piece of Swedish music history: demos, alternative versions and leftover material.

In addition, a richly illustrated 32-page booklet is included, which in text and with unique images from Roxette’s archive tells the story of how a classic Swedish pop album came to be.

Twelve previously unreleased songs.

Twelve of the songs are previously unreleased, including the first recording of “Hotblooded”, which for a while was intended as the album’s opening song before “Joyride” pushed it to second place. Interestingly enough, there are also two Gyllene Tider songs here, which in January 1990 were candidates to end up on the upcoming Roxette record.

– We’re talking about “Run Run Run” and “Another Place, Another Time”, which Gyllene released on our English album  The Heartland Café in 1984. And when I was looking for material for the new album in the autumn of 1989, I got hooked on these two. We made new and more “Roxified” demo versions of them – and especially “Run Run Run” I think could have been a strong contender, Per Gessle remembers.

However, the recordings were shelved – in the Rox HQ there was a tiny but strong taboo against Roxette and Gyllene Tider being mixed together, so therefore they have been collecting dust in the archive. Until now.

Candy for all Roxette fans.

Other 1990 demos that can now be heard for the first time are “Small Talk”, “Church of Your Heart”, “Physical Fascination”, “Things Will Never be the Same”, “I Remember You” and not to mention the upcoming single B-side “The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye ”- one of the strongest songs that never managed to take a place on the album, later a big favorite among many Roxette fans and recorded by several other artists, including American singer Laura Branigan.

“Sweet Thing” is also one of many candidates which never managed to elbow its way onto the “Joyride” album, but who now sees the light of day for the first time.

In addition to the LP box with four vinyl albums, the original album is also released for the first time with a gatefold cover and pressed in marbled or black vinyl.

LP #1
A
1 Joyride
2 Hotblooded
3 Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)
4 Knockin’ On Every Door
5 Spending My Time
6 Watercolours in the Rain

B
1 The Big L.
2 (Do You Get) Excited?
3 Small Talk
4 Physical Fascination
5 Things Will Never be the Same
6 Perfect Day

LP #2
A
1 Soul Deep
2 I Remember You
3 Church of Your Heart
4 The Sweet Hello, the Sad Goodbye
5 Fading Like A Flower (US single version, Humberto Gatica mix)*

B
1 Joyride (US single version, Brain Malouf mix)
2 Soul Deep (Tom Lord-Alge mix)
3 Church of Your Heart (US AC mix)*
4 Hotblooded (Live Sydney Dec 1991)
5 Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave) (Live Sydney Dec 1991)

LP #3
A
1 Joyride (T&A Demo – May 23, 1990)
2 Hotblooded (T&A Demo – Jan 23, 1990)*
3 Fading like a flower (T&A Demo – Aug 31, 1990)
4 Knockin’ on Every Door (T&A Demo – Aug 15, 1989)
5 Spending My Time (T&A Demo – May 24, 1990)
6 I Remember You (T&A Demo – Apr 1, 1990)
7 Watercolours in the Rain (T&A Demo – Jan 24, 1990)

B
1The Big L. (T&A Demo – Apr 1, 1990)
2 (Do You Get) Excited? (T&A Demo – Aug 19, 1989)
3 Small Talk (T&A Demo – aug 30, 1990)*
4 Church of Your Heart (T&A Demo – Jan 8, 1990) *
5 Physical Fascination (T&A Demo – Jan 3, 1990)*
6 Things Will Never be the Same (T&A Demo – Jun 17, 1989)
7 Perfect Day (T&A Demo – Aug 23, 1990)

LP #4
A
1 Sweet Thing (T&A Demo – Oct 28, 1990)*
2 Seduce Me (T&A Demo – Aug 22, 1990)
3 Run Run Run (T&A Demo – Jan 10, 1990)*
4 Things Will Never be the Same (T&A Demo – Sep 17, 1989)*
5 Love Spins (T&A Demo – Jan 3, 1990)
6 Come Back (Before You Leave) (T&A Demo – Apr 8, 1990)
7 The Sweet Hello, the Sad Goodbye (T&A Demo – Mar 16, 1990)*

B
1 Hotblooded (T&A Demo – Dec 13, 1990)
2 Things Will Never be the Same (T&A Demo – Dec 13, 1990)
3 Another Place, Another Time (T&A Demo – Jan 11, 1990)*
4 I Remember You (T&A Demo – Mar 15, 1990)*
5 Queen of Rain (T&A Demo – Jan 2, 1990
6 The Big L. (T&A Demo – Mar 29, 1990)
7 Joyrider (T&A Demo – May 22, 1990)

* Previously unreleased