"They said they had David Bowie on board. They had Go West, Natalie Cole.... and they wanted us to write a song for the soundtrack”: How Roxette repurposed a Christmas song for the Pretty Woman soundtrack and ended up with a US number one

L-R: Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle of Roxette perform on stage at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, Docklands Arena, London, 11th November 1990. (Photo by Phil Dent/Redferns).

There’s less of a link between successful movies and hit singles these days, but back in the glory days of the CD single, getting your song into a box office smash could make your career. Just ask Berlin (Take My Breath Away) or Wet Wet Wet (Love Is All Around) or for that matter Bryan Adams (Everything I Do) whose record-breaking 16-week stay at the top of the UK charts in 1991 has only recently been beaten by Sam Fender and Olivia Dean.

Or indeed Roxette. Their biggest hit, It Must Have Been Love, was another whose placing in a film – the Richard Gere/ Julia Roberts vehicle Pretty Woman – applied turbo boosters to an already successful career. The tear-jerking ballad is probably their signature hit. Indeed, it recently reached the landmark milestone of a billion plays on YouTube.