NEW YORK – It was 14 years ago this week that Roxette’s rise to international stardom became official — that was the week that “The Look” hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

  Already household names in their native Sweden, Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson were unknown in much of the rest of the world. In February 1989, an exchange student asked radio station KDWB in Minneapolis to play a CD he’d bought in Sweden. One of the tracks, “The Look,” scored big with listeners and, to make a long story short, about two months later the song was the top song in America.

  Nearly a decade and a half later, Roxette has enough hit material for two greatest hits packages — “The Ballad Hits” and “The Pop Hits”.