It starts with that lonely piano. A few cold, echoey notes that immediately make you feel like you're standing in a drafty hallway at 2 AM. Then Marie Fredriksson’s voice cuts through. It isn’t just singing; it’s a confession. It Must Have Been Love is one of those rare tracks that managed to escape the gravitational pull of the 1980s to become a permanent fixture of the human emotional landscape.
People think they know this song because they’ve seen Pretty Woman. They associate it with Julia Roberts in the back of a limo, looking sad while the Beverly Hills palm trees blur past the window. But the track has a much weirder, more fragmented history than most fans realize. It wasn’t written for the movie. It wasn’t even originally a song about a breakup in the general sense.
Honestly, it started as a Christmas song.
From Christmas Flop to Global Phenomenon
Back in 1987, Roxette was huge in Sweden but basically invisible everywhere else. Their German record label asked them to write a "clever Christmas single" to help break into the market. Per Gessle, the songwriting engine of the duo, came up with "It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted)."
It had all the hallmarks of a holiday hit, including a reference to a "winter’s day" and "empty shadows." But the label in Germany actually hated it. They didn't release it. It sat as a minor hit in Sweden and likely would have stayed a footnote in pop history if EMI hadn't been looking for a soundtrack for a low-budget romantic comedy originally titled $3,000.
That movie, of course, became Pretty Woman.
The producers wanted a song. Gessle didn't have time to write something brand new from scratch because they were busy touring. He took the Christmas track, swapped out the line about "a winter's day" for "a hard winter's day"—which is a subtle but brilliant change—and scrubbed the "Christmas for the Broken Hearted" subtitle.
The rest is history.
Why the Song Actually Works (The Nerd Stuff)
Most power ballads from that era are overproduced messes. They have too much reverb, too many synthesizers, and singers who are trying way too hard to sound like they're in pain. Roxette did something different.
The production on It Must Have Been Love is surprisingly sparse during the verses. You have that steady, heartbeat-like drum machine and a thick, melodic bassline that anchors Marie’s vocals. It gives the song room to breathe. When the chorus hits, it doesn’t just get louder; it gets wider.
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There’s a specific tension in the phrasing. Marie sings "It must have been love" with a sense of resignation, but the music behind her is soaring. It’s that contrast—the lyrical defeat paired with the melodic triumph—that creates the "goosebump factor."
Per Gessle has often spoken about how Marie's voice was the secret weapon. She had this ability to sound incredibly fragile and absolutely invincible at the same time. You hear it in the bridge. When she hits those high notes, it feels like she’s physically pushing the heartbreak away.
The Pretty Woman Effect
Let's talk about the movie. Touchstone Pictures didn't think the film was going to be a massive juggernaut. It was a gritty story about a sex worker and a corporate raider that got polished into a fairy tale.
Director Garry Marshall used the song during the "breakup" montage toward the end. It was a risky move. Usually, you don't play a full four-minute pop song with lyrics that literally describe what’s happening on screen. It can feel cheesy.
But it worked.
The song gave the film an emotional weight it might have lacked otherwise. It transformed a transactional relationship into a "big" love story. By the time the song hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1990, it was inseparable from the image of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.
Interestingly, there are actually four different versions of the song.
- The 1987 original (the Christmas version).
- The 1990 movie edit (the one everyone knows).
- The 1991 country-tinged version recorded in Los Angeles.
- A Spanish version titled "No sé si es amor."
The 1991 version is actually quite fascinating. It features a pedal steel guitar. It shows just how sturdy the songwriting is—you can strip away the 80s synths and turn it into a Nashville ballad, and it still breaks your heart.
The Tragedy Behind the Voice
You can't talk about It Must Have Been Love without talking about Marie Fredriksson’s battle with brain cancer. She was diagnosed in 2002 after collapsing in her bathroom. The doctors gave her a 25% chance of survival.
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She fought for 17 years.
When she passed away in 2019, the song took on a whole new meaning for fans. It wasn't just about a lost lover anymore; it was about the loss of one of the greatest voices in pop music. When Per Gessle performs it now, he often lets the audience sing the lead.
It’s a heavy experience.
Myths and Misconceptions
One thing people get wrong is the "ending." A lot of people think the song is hopeful because the melody is so big. It’s not.
If you actually look at the lyrics, it’s a song about total, crushing finality. "It's over now." "In the deck of cards, I'll have to lay the hand." "It's where the water flows, it's where the wind blows." These are all metaphors for things that are moving away and can’t be brought back.
It is a song about the moment after you’ve realized the relationship is dead, but before you’ve actually started to move on. That weird, static limbo.
Another misconception is that it was written for the movie specifically. As we covered, it wasn't. But the fact that it fit so perfectly is a testament to Gessle’s ability to write universal "sad girl/boy" anthems. He knew that heartbreak feels the same whether it's happening at Christmas or on a sunny day in L.A.
The Global Impact
Did you know this song spent two weeks at #1 in the US but stayed on the charts for months? It was a massive hit in the UK, reaching #3. In Norway, it stayed at #1 for 12 weeks.
In 2005, BMI gave Per Gessle an award because the song had been played over 4 million times on US radio. If you played those broadcasts back-to-back, it would last for about 30 years of continuous music.
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That is an insane amount of airplay.
It’s also been covered by everyone. From Shirley Bassey to the British girl group Steps. Even indie bands have taken a crack at it, usually slowing it down to make it sound even more depressing.
But nobody does it like Marie.
How to Truly Appreciate the Track Today
If you want to experience the song properly, don't listen to it on a tiny phone speaker.
Get a decent pair of headphones. Listen to the 1990 version. Pay attention to the way the drums come in after the first chorus. There’s a "crispness" to the snare hit that is peak 90s audio engineering.
Also, watch the music video. It’s hilariously simple. It’s just Marie and Per in a room with some curtains and some lighting effects. Marie is wearing this oversized white shirt and looks like she’s going through it. It’s not flashy, but it’s incredibly effective because it focuses entirely on her face.
The song survives because it’s honest.
Pop music today is often too cynical or too over-engineered. We have songs about "situationships" and "ghosting." It Must Have Been Love is about something older and more permanent. It’s about the realization that you had something incredible and you lost it, and now you have to figure out how to exist in the silence that follows.
Actionable Takeaways for the Music Obsessed
If this deep dive has put you in a Roxette mood, here is how you should proceed to get the full experience of their catalog beyond the radio hits.
- Listen to the "Join the Joyride!" album. Most people stop at the Look Sharp! era, but Joyride (1991) is where their production reached its peak.
- Track down the Spanish version. Even if you don't speak the language, Marie’s vocal performance on "No sé si es amor" is arguably more emotive than the English original.
- Watch the 2016 live performances. Despite her illness, Marie’s stage presence was magnetic. It’s a masterclass in how to command a stadium while sitting on a chair.
- Analyze the bridge. If you’re a songwriter, study the chord progression during the "Make-believing we're together" section. It shifts the key in a way that creates a sense of rising panic before dropping back into the resigned chorus.
The legacy of the track isn't just in the sales numbers or the movie cameos. It's in the way people still turn the volume up when that piano intro starts. It’s a three-minute and fifty-eight-second reminder that some heartbreaks are so big, they deserve their own symphony.
The song didn't just capture a moment in 1990; it captured a permanent human condition. We’ve all had that moment where we realize it was love, but we lost it anyway. That’s why we’re still listening. That’s why it still matters. Marie is gone, but that "hard winter’s day" lives on every time someone hits play.