Have a Nice Day is the sixth studio album by Swedish pop duo Roxette, released worldwide from 22 February 1999 by Roxette Recordings and EMI. Recorded over an 18-month period in studios in Sweden and Spain, the album was produced by Marie Fredriksson, Per Gessle, Clarence Öfwerman and Michael Ilbert, and was their first studio album since Crash! Boom! Bang! in 1994. The album was not released in the US, as the duo were no longer signed to a label there. A deluxe edition was released in Spanish-speaking territories and, in Arabian regions, the naked babies on the cover were digitally removed, due to religious concerns.
Gessle and Fredriksson separately recorded numerous demos for the album. These demos incorporated an elaborate level of production, using live instrumentation such as strings and brass instruments. The record features Fredriksson in a more prominent role than on any other Roxette album. She sings lead vocals on all but four of the album's tracks, and it also contains the first Roxette song to be written and composed solely by her: "Waiting for the Rain". The album's production style and aesthetic were inspired by some of Gessle's favourite childhood recording artists, namely Phil Spector, John Lennon and Keith West.
Four singles were released from the album. "Wish I Could Fly" was the most played song on European radio of 1999, and would also become their final top 40 hit on the UK Singles Chart. Conversely, "Anyone" performed poorly on record charts, mainly because of its controversial, Jonas Åkerlund-directed music video, which was banned from airplay on MTV. In Japan, "Anyone" was issued as a double a-side with album track "Pay the Price". Third single "Stars" became a top twenty hit across Europe, and was the album's best performing single on the German Singles Chart. "Salvation" was issued as the final single.
The record was released to generally positive reviews, with several publications commending Roxette for incorporating a more diverse set of musical styles – namely alternative rock and electronica – into their usual pop rock sound. British magazine NME called it a "clever-clever bastard of an album which defies Doctor Rock". Although not as successful as previous studio albums, it performed well commercially. Roxette won the "Best Selling Scandinavian Artist/Group" accolade at the 2000 World Music Awards. As of 2001, it had sold over 2.2 million copies worldwide. The album was remastered and reissued with bonus tracks in 2009, and was ultimately released on vinyl in 2019.
Background and recording
The album was recorded over an 18-month period in various studios, with sessions beginning in Spain in late 1997 and concluding in Sweden in October 1998. It was produced by Roxette members Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle, their longtime producer Clarence Öfwerman, and mix engineer Michael Ilbert. Gessle worked meticulously on demos for the album at the Tits & Ass recording studio in Halmstad—a studio which he co-founded in 1984 with his then-Gyllene Tider bandmate Mats "MP" Persson. According to Gessle, many of these demos would become "full-fledged" recordings: he would begin by tracking an acoustic guitar in stereo, before laying the foundation for the rest of the song. He and Persson would then incorporate electric guitars, keyboards, programming, live drums and percussion into the mix. Eventually, the quality of the demos progressed to the point where live strings were added. He said: "Some of the songs I sing on the album, like 'Crush on You' and 'You Can't Put Your Arms Around What's Already Gone', are very close to the original demos. I even kept the original vocals, because I feel I'm at my best when I'm doing demos." She was also much more involved in the album's composition than on preceding releases.
Gessle's intention with the album was to create a modern-sounding, contemporary record that was inspired by the compositional style of his favourite childhood recording artists. He described "Anyone" as a "big, old-fashioned ballad that is very much in the Phil Spector mode." He also said: "I loved John Lennon's 'Instant Karma!' era, because it was sort of stark sounding, with dry tom-toms. On ['Salvation'], we tried to copy the piano sound from 'Mother' [a track on 1970's John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band]. I think it's great to be able to go back into pop history like that." "Stars" juxtaposes techno beats with a children's choir; "I Was So Lucky" was written by Gessle in dedication to his son. The duo also entered into negotiations with several record labels – namely RCA, Capitol and Epic – with respect to releasing both Have a Nice Day and their 1995 compilation Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! Roxette's Greatest Hits in the United States. It peaked within the top twenty of Billboards European Hot 100 Singles. The poor performance of the song on European charts resulted in EMI UK refusing to release it as a commercial single there, despite already sending out promo CDs to radio DJs. A techno-driven dance song,
Critical reception
The album received generally positive reviews upon release. Jason Damas of AllMusic commented on how the landscape of pop changed since the release of Crash! Boom! Bang!, saying: "[Over those] five years, Britpop brought alternative rock back towards pop, electronica made dance music cool once more, and bubblegum like the Spice Girls made unabashed pop fun again. ... What resulted, then, was really rather ambitious: Have a Nice Day is an effort to encapsulate Roxette's trademark sound with Britpop and electronica and, by gosh, it works. It's easily as good as any other Roxette album – save maybe only the stellar Joyride – and it shows that, artistically, the band is still on top." However, Damas also noted the "presence of filler, mostly in the form of pace-destroying ballads", but said that was "a small price to pay for the return of one of the best mainstream pop bands of the past decade." Fred Bronson from Billboard rated it the 20th best album of the year.
Commercial performance
Although not as successful as previous studio albums, Have a Nice Day performed well commercially upon release. As of 2001, it has sold over 2.2 million copies worldwide. The record was particularly successful in Scandinavia. It spent three weeks at number one on the Swedish Albums Chart,
- Roxette are Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson
- Recorded at Tits & Ass Studio in Halmstad; Atlantis Studios, Cosmos Studios and Polar Studios in Stockholm; Studio Vinden in Djursholm, Sweden; El Cortijo Studios in Marbella, Spain between January and October 1998.
- Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound Studios, New York City
- Remastered by Alar Suurna at Polar Studios, Stockholm (2009 reissue)
Musicians
- Marie Fredriksson – lead and background vocals, piano, keyboards, production, mixing, sleeve design
- Per Gessle – lead and background vocals, acoustic, electric and wah-wah guitars, harmonica, percussion, programming, engineering, production, mixing, string arrangements, sleeve design
- Micke "Nord" Andersson – acoustic and Rickenbacker guitars
- Michael Ilbert – synthesizers, percussion, programming, engineering, production, mixing, string arrangements
- Jonas Isacsson – acoustic, electric and additional bass guitars
- Christer Jansson – drums and percussion <small>(tom-tom, cymbal, maracas, tambourine, zill and handclaps)</small>
- Christoffer Lundquist – backing vocals, bass guitar, extended-range bass, zither, percussion, tambourine
- Clarence Öfwerman – backing vocals, wah-wah guitar, piano, Hammond and Vox Jaguar organs, glockenspiel, Clavinet, Mellotron, tubular bells, synthesizers, percussion, programming, production, mixing, string arrangements
- Mats "MP" Persson – electric, acoustic and twelve-string guitars, synthesizer, string arrangements
- Stockholms Nya Kammarorkester – strings
Additional musicians and technical personnel
- Sven Andersson – tenor saxophone
- Staffan Astner – acoustic guitar ; electric guitar
- Magnus Blom – alto saxophone
- Mikael Bolyos – engineering and horn arrangements
- Karl-Magnus Boske – sleeve design
- Karla Collantes – choir
- Marie Dimberg – management
- Hasse Dyvik – trumpet and flugelhorn
- Anders Evaldsson – trombone
- Malin Gille – choir
- Cecilia Grothén – choir
- Lennart Haglund – engineering assistant
- Mats Holmquist – conducting
- Jonas Knutsson – soprano saxophone
- Jens Lindgård – trombone
- Petter Lindgård – trumpet and flugelhorn
- George Marino – mastering
- Robert Nettarp – photography
- Paulina Nilsson – choir
- Jackie Öfwerman – choir
- Staffan Öfwerman – choir director
- Darina Rönn-Brolin – choir
- DJ Shortcut – scratches
- Charlie Storm – programming
Charts
Weekly charts
{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|-
!scope="col"|Chart (1999)
!scope="col"|Peak<br />position
|-
! scope="row"|Australian Albums (ARIA)
| 62
|-
|-
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Canadian Singles (SoundScan)
| 2
|-
!scope="row"|Danish Albums (Hitlisten)
| 6
|-
|-
! scope="row"|European Albums (Billboard)
| 2
|-
|-
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Italian Albums (FIMI)
| 19
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Scottish Albums (OCC)
| 36
|-
!scope="row"|Spanish Albums (Promúsicae)
| 2
|-
|-
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|-
!scope="col"|Chart (1999)
!scope="col"|Position
|-
!scope="row"|Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)
|44
|-
!scope="row"|Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)
|51
|-
!scope="row"|German Albums (GfK)
|29
|-
!scope="row"|Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)
|18
|-
!scope="row"|Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)
|43
|}