Roxette’s “XXX World Tour” might have come to an end, but the 30 Year Anniversary festivities continue across the globe and today, the celebrations reach a special milestone as the 8th of July 2016 commemorates thirty years since Roxette’s first ever single; “Neverending Love” was released.

Signed July 7!

We all know the origins of this song; it originally began as a Swedish song titled “Svarta glas” (“Black Glasses”) but the song was initially intended for Swedish singer, Pernilla Wahlgren of Eurovision fame. As legend would have it, Pernilla wasn’t too keen on the song and instead passed it on to her brother, Niclas, who ended up recording it in Swedish but head of EMI Sweden at the time, Rolf Nygren stepped in and suggested to Per Gessle to try recording “Svarta glas” in English with Marie Fredriksson. The pair did so, Niclas’ version never saw the light of day and the rest, as they say, is history.

“Neverending Love” debuted on the Swedish charts at #19 before reaching its peak position of #3. To help propel interest in the song, Per encouraged all of his friends to send in postcards to the radio show “Sommartoppen”, seems Per was the original “Roxattaq” guru for those who remember the intense late 90s internet days of the “Have A Nice Day” era. How many fake Yahoo! emails did you create at the time? Also, fun fact, for those keen to know (and to make you feel really old), when “Neverending Love” reached its peak of #3 on the Swedish Charts in September 1986, the two spots above it were filled by Samantha Fox’s “Do Ya Do Ya (Wanna Please Me)” at #2 and Peter Cetera’s mega ballad “Glory of Love” was #1. The single was also released in Germany, remixed by Frank Mono, and in France – both sporting different sleeves than the Swedish release.

French

German

Anyway, back to 1986 and the decision to omit a picture of Marie and Per on the cover of the single was a deliberate one; should the song flop, no one will remember, and both Marie and Per could carry on with their solo pursuits and other musical projects without having caused much damage to their careers…

but fate had other plans. Speaking of the sleeve, upon closer inspection, the very first typo popped up on this one, the lyric “You’re one in a 1,000,000” was incorrectly printed as “You’re in a 1,000,000“. Also, as per the sleeve details, this song saw the debut of mystery guitarist “King Kong Passion” – which of course was a pseudonym for long-time partner in crime, Mats MP Persson.

Unfortunately, this pop gem seems to have fallen by the wayside during the band’s illustrious thirty year career, ask most casual listeners what was Roxette’s debut song and most will answer “The Look”. The moment Look Sharp! broke the band internationally in March 1989, all remnants of “Neverending Love” and debut record Pearls of Passion all but disappeared outside of Sweden. The song did pop up during Roxette’s early national and European tours during the late eighties, although, the song was performed in a stripped back, acoustic “organic” version – ironic considering Per was adamant with the song’s producer, Clarence Öfwerman, that he wanted the sound of “Neverending Love” to be created using synthesizers and computers.