LONDON - Roxette's "Ballad Hits" has rocketed to the dizzy heights of number 11 on the UK album charts. It's a massive jump of 12 places from last week's position.

  Most of this success is undoubtedly attributed to the successful Valentine's Day promotion, which has seen love struck Britons flock en masse to their local music stores in search of that special gift for the special someone in their lives. Some credit also has to be awarded to EMI UK who has uncharacteristically re-invested confidence in the band, not to mention a sizeable amount of money on some very expensive prime-time television advertising. Whatever the reasons, it's an impressive result, especially when you consider that Per and Marie understandably weren't able to visit the country in order to assist with the promotion of their release.

  Whether any significant meaning can be drawn from all this is difficult to predict. It will at the very least, however, send all the right signals to the other EMI franchises in other Roxette-deprived countries. Especially coming from a country that is notoriously stubborn in welcoming back what it wrongly perceives to be stars of yesteryear.