Vulnerable

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Vulnerable

The fifth and final OFFICIAL single from the epic ‘Crash! Boom! Bang! era, but, it’s not over just yet…there’s still more entries to come from the album!

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“Days like these no one should be alone, no heart should hide away…”

Another beautiful ballad, but this time, Per takes the lead. Written a week too late for the ‘Joyride‘ album, it would have to wait some three years for its chance to shine. It’s a great ballad in its full form, almost mid-way through the album, and as much as we love the song (we really do), we don’t feel it was single material.

Upon release as the fifth and final official single (as well as lead ‘promo‘ single for the compilation ‘Rarities‘), it didn’t really do much. In the UK it missed the Top 40 Chart only reaching #44, and reviews were unfortunately not favourable. I remember being rather p*ssed off reading them too, as the song isn’t bad, far from it in fact, it’s a great ballad, it’s just not single worthy.

The now defunct magazine NME were not gracious or kind in their review at the time, ah that British humour:

“She’s coloured all the secrets of my soul, sings ‘Sven’ or whatever he’s called. ‘Ah, soul’.”
Ian McCann, NME Magazine UK, 1995

Regardless, Roxette pushed ahead. The video was shot in Australia with director Jonas Åkerlund at the helm again. Another great one. Love the video.

Perhaps this was a mis-step single-release-wise. It was for whatever reason included on ‘Don’t Bore Us – Get To The Chorus!‘ in 1995 which was a huge surprise considering both ‘Run To You‘ and ‘Fireworks‘ were much bigger chart and radio hits, and would have suited the compilation much better, well, in our humble view for whatever that is worth.

Not much else to say about ‘Vulnerable‘ other than it was of course translated to Spanish in 1996 for ‘Baladas en Español‘, and was the only lead Per did on the project. No remixes, and no live performance on the ‘CBB Tour‘. It wasn’t performed live with Per and Marie at all, shame.

In 2025, as part of the Roxette Tour together with Lena, ‘Vulnerable‘ was performed live for the first time. See one of the performances below.

‘Vulnerable‘ remains a highlight for me on the ‘Crash! Boom! Bang!‘ album, it just wouldn’t be the same without it.

What do you think?

Currently on Streaming

01 Vulnerable (T&A Demo – December 28, 1990)
02 Vulnerable (Album Version)
03 Vulnerable (Single Version)
04 Timida / ‘Shy‘ (Baladas en Español 1996)

Missing from Streaming

– We do wonder if any other demos for this beautiful song exist? Wonder if Marie attempted a lead vocal?

Obviously not the original Roxette line-up, however we’re celebrating the songs, and the 40th Anniversary, so we include this performance of ‘Vulnerable‘ as it’s special. Making it’s live debut during the Roxette 2025 Tour, it was lovely to hear and a fantastic surprise: