#1 Alert!
Song#: 4014
Date: 08/26/1989
Debut: 64
Peak: 1 (1 week)
Weeks: 22
Genre: Pop
Pop Bits: The second single from the Swedish duo's album Look Sharp!, "Dressed for Success," did fairly well making the Pop Top 20 (#14). Therefore, a third single was called for and the label took a chance on this power ballad. It was the exact right choice with the tune making it all the way to #1. It was the duo's second chart topper following their US debut single "The Look." The song would also get to #2 at AC. The hit would help sell more albums and at the turn of the new year, it would reach the platinum mark.
ReduxReview: I've always found this tune to be a cousin to Heart's chart topping "Alone." It may not have been quite as powerful as Heart's song, but Roxette certainly did their best to try and reach that same level. The results were solid and it was the perfect choice for a single. There were hooks and drama galore and it reeled you in on just one listen. There was little doubt that this would become another hit for the duo.
ReduxRating: 8/10
Trivia: This was the first single to reach #1 on the Pop chart to be only available for purchase as a cassette single. The standard vinyl 45 was not printed for the release. With the advent of the CD and the popularity of cassette players like Sony's Walkman, sales of vinyl product was quickly decreasing. The same week this song hit #1, the album Touch Me Tonight - The Best of Shooting Star by the US rock band Shooting Star debuted on the Album chart. It was the first charting album that was only commercially available on cassette or CD. No vinyl LPs were printed for the release. The trend would continue with CDs eventually taking over the market share leaving both vinyl and cassettes in the dust. It seems the worst time for vinyl was round 2005-2006 when it seems like the format was basically done and dead. However, as things do, vinyl started to gain favor again just a few years later. The trend would catch on with artists and labels putting more of their work back on vinyl. Each years sales increased and in 2020, vinyl records outsold CDs for the first time since 1986. While digital product and streaming still lead the marketplace, the resurgence of vinyl has created a nice revenue stream for artists and labels.
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I thought I had read somewhere that Gessle and Fredriksson were deliberately making things as over the top as possible and that the song was meant as a tongue-in-cheek Jim Steinman style parody. It worked out if true. I see the "Alone" comparison, but I actually do perceive a closer kinship to Steinman songs like "It's All Coming Back to Me" (whose first version by Pandora's Box was pretty recent) or even "Making Love Out of Nothing at All."
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