Before we kick-off with ‘The Ballad Hits’ and ‘The Pop Hits’ era we must stop to talk about the hilarious almost title…
When Thomas1 and I were writing up the #ROX40 Countdown entries for ‘The Ballad + Pop Hits‘ singles, we suddenly recalled the what might have been, cue the giggles…
Back in August 2002, Roxette announced their forthcoming collection of ballads and, for one brief and wonderfully strange moment in history, it had a name: ‘LovePeas – The Ballad Hits‘. No, we haven’t made that up.
On August 15th, EMI announced the new compilation under the ‘Love Peas‘ title, with its uptempo companion originally planned as ‘PopPeas – The Beat Hits‘. Just four days later, even that had mutated into ‘PowerPeas – The Pop Hits‘. Apparently, once you’ve committed to peas, you really commit to peas. Reaction from fans was… mixed, mushy?
By September, the entire concept had been quietly abandoned. ‘LovePeas‘ became the considerably safer ‘The Ballad Hits‘, with TDR reporting that Roxette and EMI had dropped the peas concept altogether. Raspberries floating in milk eventually took their place.
But ‘LovePeas‘ got surprisingly close to becoming reality. Numbered promotional CDs carrying the full ‘Love Peas – The Ballad Hits‘ title were actually produced before the name was changed, meaning physical evidence of the alternate Roxette vegetable universe really does exist.
Twenty-four years later, we think enough time has passed to admit something. ‘LovePeas‘ was hilarious and absolutely ridiculous.
Thomas1 interviewed Per back in 2002 where they spoke about where the strange title originated…
“I wanted to put ‘LOVE, PEACE and UNDERSTANDING‘ on this suitcase once
with the enclosed self-adhesive letters, but there weren’t enough letters…
the best I could do was ‘LOVE PEAS‘.”
Per Gessle, The Daily Roxette Interview by Thomas1, Oct 2002
[Full Interview Below]
You can view the actual Promo CD and details HERE.
Thankfully, someone bright spark at the Record Company stepped in and it was scrapped. That is, until now…may we present to you (drum roll please…):
Created for fun, especially for the 40th Anniversary. Think of it as a bonus Monthly Mock-Up entry. #ROX40
Lots of nods to the original compilation album designs, but themed around, well, PEAS! Enjoy!
And then there’s ‘Being With You’, if you’d not already spotted it on the tracklisting…
YES, we’ve included a song on our mock-up that you can’t actually listen to, but this one isn’t a myth.
Per wrote the song for Roxette in 1997 during the ‘Have A Nice Day‘ era, and later revealed that he’d found a demo from June 2000 with Marie on lead vocals.
By then Roxette were already moving into the sessions that would become ‘Room Service‘, so clearly the song hadn’t been forgotten. Per returned to the song properly for 2018’s ‘Small Town Talk‘, leaving Marie’s version tucked away in The Roxette Vault. And that’s exactly why it belongs here.
Per described the ‘Small Town Talk‘ recording as the “only proper version” made, which rather tantalisingly tells us that Marie’s June 2000 recording was presumably a demo or working version.
Why it didn’t emerge amongst the treasures on ‘Bag of Trix‘, or elsewhere, we simply don’t know. But we do know it exists. An unheard Roxette ballad, sung by Marie, sitting in The Roxette Vault for more than 25 years, wow.
If we’re creating an entirely imaginary collection of forgotten ballads called ‘Love Peas‘, there was absolutely no way we were leaving ‘Being With You’ off it. It’s a great song and we’d love to hear Marie’s version one day, if we’re lucky.
Monday we kick off ‘The Ballad + Pop Hits‘ era with ‘A Thing About You‘.
In the meantime, enjoy the Playlists… (obviously without the unreleased Marie version of ‘Being With You‘)…
★ Currently on Streaming
01 Being With You (T&A Demo – Sept 11, 1997)
02 Being With You (T&A Demo – Oct 22, 2004)
03 Being With You (Small Town Talk Version 2018)
04 Being With You (T&A Demo – Sept 11, 1997) – In Conversation with Sven Lindström
05 Being With You (T&A Demo – Oct 22, 2004) – In Conversation with Sven Lindström
★ Missing from Streaming
– Being With You (Marie’s Vocal Version / Demo – June, 2000)
Per Gessle,
The Daily Roxette Interview
by Thomas Evensson:
___________________________
★ Sources ★
(or should that be “Sauces” with Peas, haha)
The Daily Roxette, August 15th 2002 –
“Like peas in a pod, Roxette songs lined up for public consumption”
EMI Sweden and Roxette’s management announced: “LovePeas – The Ballad Hits”.
The Daily Roxette, August 19th 2002 –
“More peas please”
TDR reported the second collection had changed from “PopPeas – The Beat Hits” to “PowerPeas – The Pop Hits”.
The Daily Roxette, September 24th 2002 –
“Peas vanish from album titles and cover art”
TDR reported that Roxette and EMI had “dropped the ‘peas’ concept”.
The Daily Roxette, September 26th 2002 –
“Raspberry heart shape fills in on album cover”
The revised artwork was described as “raspberries floating in milk”.
Gessle.com – Official Roxette Discography,
“Love Peas – The Ballad Hits (promo)”
The official discography confirms a “Numbered, water marked CDR promo” existed before the title was changed.
|
|
