Listen To Your Heart

Album

Hey World

Label

EMI Records

Genre

Alternative rock

Composer(s)

Per Gessle;Mats Persson

Entered Chart

Aug 26, 1989

Peak Date

Nov 4, 1989

Released

27 September 1988

Recorded

August 1988[1] Studio EMI (Stockholm, Sweden)

Catalog #

EMI 50223

B-Side

Half A Woman, Half A Shadow

The male half of the Swedish duo Roxette, Per Gessle said of this track: "The Big Bad Ballad. This is us trying to recreate that overblown American FM-Rock sound to the point where it almost becomes absurd. We really wanted to see how far we could take it." His music partner Marie Fredriksson added: "It sounds a bit dusty today, but it was our second #1 in the US." Per Gessle: "Which of course we couldn't ever dream about since it was more or less made for Sweden. When it hit big in the States we suddenly found ourselves lumped together with bands like Heart and Starship, which wasn't the intention behind Roxette at all. But we got out of that one... I hope." Marie Fredriksson: "The video was great. Shot with an American crew at the Borgholm Castle. The director thought we had built the ruin just for the video." Per Gessle: "It took some time to convince them that the place actually was for real." According to Sweden TV4's vote in October 2006, Roxette's Best Video Ever was the one for this song, with over 30% of the votes. The video was recorded at Borgholm castle ruins on the Swedish Baltic Sea island of Oland. Marie Fredriksson is barefoot in the video, so some fans sent her shoes. In 2005 Belgian group D.H.T. featuring Emdee had a UK and US top 10 hit with a trance cover of this. It was one of the few times a trance song reached the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. D.H.T. originally stood for Danger Hardcore Team; it was later changed to Dance. House. Trance. In 1998 Roxette received an award from BMI for this song being played over 2 million times on American radio. Phil Graham of BMI said it was very unusual for a song to get over the 2 million mark in such a short space of time. In October 2006, helped by D.H.T's trance cover, Roxette were awarded again by BMI for the song's 3 millionth broadcast on American radio. This was the first Hot 100 #1 hit not available on vinyl. It was sold only as a cassette single. Report this ad In a March 2011 interview with the London commuter freesheet Metro, Per Gessle was asked, "Have you heard your songs in any unlikely places?" to which he replied: "I was in an airport in New York last year, showing my passport at customs. The official asked what I did, I said I was a songwriter and he said, 'Oh yeah, have you done anything I might have heard of?' I said: 'I've done this one,' because 'Listen To Your Heart' was playing over the speakers at the same time." >> The duo's longtime producer Clarence Ofwerman came up with the keyboard intro, which he plays on the track. Gessle told Billboard magazine how his friend's love life inspired the lyrics: "That's one of the rare occasions when I wrote the story about a very good friend of mine who went through a difficult divorce. We sat up all night discussing his problem. When it went to number one in the States, I got this fax from him telling me, 'Hey it's great - you and me and Marie are number one in America!'" This was used on several TV shows, including Cold Case ("Maternal Instincts," 2004), Reunion ("1989," 2005), Scream Queens ("Dorkus," 2015), Mr. Robot ("eps3.1_undo.gz," 2017), and Killing Eve ("The Hungry Caterpillar," 2019). This was featured in the 2015 horror movie Curve, starring Julianne Hough.

I know there's something in the wake of your smile.
I get a notion from the look in your eyes, yea.
You've built a love but that love falls apart.
Your little piece of heaven turns too dark.

Listen to your heart when he's calling for you.
Listen to your heart there's nothing else you can do.

I don't know where you're going and I don't know why,
But listen to your heart before you tell him goodbye.
Sometimes you wonder if this fight is worthwhile.
The precious moments are all lost in the tide, yea.
They're swept away and nothing is what is seems,
The feeling of belonging to your dreams.

Listen to your heart when he's calling for you.
Listen to your heart there's nothing else you can do.

I don't know where you're going and I don't know why,
But listen to your heart before you tell him goodbye.
And there are voices that want to be heard.
So much to mention but you can't find the words.
The sense of magic, the beauty that's been
When love was wilder than the wind.

Listen to your heart when he's calling for you.
Listen to your heart there's nothing else you can do.

I don't know where you're going and I don't know why,
But listen to your heart before you tell him goodbye.

Listen to your heart when he's calling for you.
Listen to your heart there's nothing else you can do.

I don't know where you're going and I don't know why,
But listen to your heart before you tell him goodbye.