Opportunity Nox

Kicking off ‘The Pop Hits’ we got an absolute belter of a single… ‘Opportunity Nox’

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“For a week I was in love with your hairdo…”

‘Opportunity Nox‘ arrived early 2003 as the lead single for the second compilation ‘The Pop Hits‘, following ‘The Ballad Hits‘, and what a way to kick things off. Loud, punchy, ridiculously catchy and unmistakably Roxette.

“I always considered ‘Opportunity Nox‘ to be one of the best Roxette songs….
It took me almost a lifetime to be able to write a song like that.
It’s such a simple little thing, it’s got that chorus, it just kicks ass!”.
Per Gessle, TPGA, 2014

The song actually started out quite differently as a demo entitled ‘Yellow Bellied Alligator‘. That one has not been released and remains locked away in The Roxette Vault.

Per’s ‘Opportunity Nox‘ T&A Demo was recorded in March 2002, with work on the finished Roxette recording continuing later that year. By then, circumstances had changed dramatically following Marie’s brain tumour diagnosis in September. As a result, this is very much a Per-led recording, with Marie appearing only briefly on backing vocals. Regardless, it’s an absolute belter.

At just under three minutes, ‘Opportunity Nox‘ doesn’t hang around. Guitars, electronics, a monster chorus and one of those Gessle melodies that lodges itself firmly inside your head. More than twenty years later, we still rate this amongst Roxette’s very best pop recordings.

With Marie recovering and conventional promotion impossible, the song was accompanied by a wonderfully bonkers animated video, directed by Jonas Åkerlund and Kristoffer Diös, with animation by Murray John.

The song became the only single released from ‘The Pop Hits‘ and, despite virtually no traditional promotion from Roxette themselves, the song performed particularly well back home in Sweden.

It’s remained a firm live favourite too, returning to the live set over the years. Just like Per said, “It kicks ass!“.

★ Currently on Streaming
01 Opportunity Nox (T&A Demo – Mar 4, 2002)
02 Opportunity Nox (Album Version)
03 Opportunity Nox (Hard Act 2 Follow vs. Sharpshooter Extended Remix)
04 Opportunity Nox (Gessle Over Europe – Live in London 2008)
05 Opportunity Nox (PG Europe Live 2018)

06 Opportunity Nox (T&A Demo – Mar 4, 2002) – In Conversation with Sven Lindström

★ Missing from Streaming
– Opportunity Nox (Hard Act 2 Follow vs. Sharpshooter Radio Mix)*

*Unreleased