It Must Have Been Love - From the Film "Pretty Woman"

"It Must Have Been Love" is a poignant power ballad that explores the aftermath of a breakup, focusing on the feelings of loneliness, nostalgia, and regret. The lyrics convey a deep sense of loss for a relationship that was once beautiful and all-encompassing. The narrator is caught in a state between cherishing the memory of the love and grieving its painful end. The recurring phrase, "It must have been love, but it's over now," serves as the song's core message. It's an affirmation that the powerful feelings were real and significant, not just a fantasy, but it's paired with the sad acceptance that the relationship is irrevocably over. The song captures the universal experience of looking back on a ended romance, questioning what went wrong ("but I lost it somehow") and grappling with the void left behind. The imagery of a "hard winter's day" and the feeling of being cold and lonely amplify the emotional desolation. Ultimately, the song is a bittersweet tribute to a lost love, acknowledging its past perfection while mourning its present absence.

The song unfolds as a quiet and intimate plea, a whisper set against the cold backdrop of a lonely bedroom. The narrator begins by asking for a gentle memory, a soft whisper on their pillow, contrasting with the harshness of the winter outside. There's a profound sense of isolation and silence that permeates the room, a void left by a departed lover. This quietness is so overwhelming that the narrator escapes into dreams, the only place where the feeling of togetherness can be momentarily recaptured.

The central theme emerges as a reflection on a past relationship, a love that was once vibrant and real but has now ended. The chorus is a recurring acknowledgment of this fact: "It must have been love, but it's over now." This isn't a statement of doubt about the love's existence, but rather a confirmation of its past reality and a lament for its current absence. There's a sense of personal responsibility and regret, a feeling that this precious thing was somehow lost or mishandled. The love is described as having existed from the very first touch until its final moments, implying a complete and all-encompassing connection that has now vanished, leaving a void.

The second verse delves deeper into the coping mechanisms of the heartbroken narrator. They engage in make-believe, pretending they are still together and sheltered by their lover's heart. This fantasy provides a fleeting sense of security and warmth. However, the reality of the situation is starkly different. The narrator feels vulnerable and exposed, turning to water both inside and out, a powerful metaphor for crying and feeling emotionally dissolved. The image of melting like a teardrop in the lover's palm illustrates a profound sense of fragility and helplessness.

A key line, "It's a hard winter's day," anchors the song's melancholic mood. This line was famously changed from the original Christmas version, but it retains the feeling of a bleak, cold, and difficult time, both literally and emotionally. The narrator confesses that during this hard time, they dream away, seeking solace in memories. The repetition of the chorus reinforces the central conflict: the beauty of what was and the pain of what is. The song concludes with the hauntingly beautiful and metaphorical lines, "It's where the water flows, it's where the wind blows," suggesting that the remnants of this love are now part of the natural, unchangeable course of things—present everywhere in the environment, yet intangible and out of reach. It's a final, poetic sigh of resignation to the end of a great love.

The history of "It Must Have Been Love" is unique, as its most famous version is a re-release of an earlier song. In 1987, EMI Germany asked Roxette to create an "intelligent Christmas single". In response, Per Gessle wrote and the duo recorded "It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted)". This version was a holiday-themed ballad that became a top-five hit in their native Sweden but wasn't released internationally.

A few years later, following Roxette's international breakthrough with the album Look Sharp!, Touchstone Pictures approached them to contribute a song to the soundtrack of the upcoming film Pretty Woman. As the band was busy touring and promoting, they didn't have time to write a new song. Instead, Per Gessle suggested they update their 1987 Christmas track. For the 1990 film version, the duo, along with producer Clarence Öfwerman, made subtle but crucial changes. They removed the Christmas-themed synthesized bells in the intro, and Gessle updated a key lyric, changing "It's a hard Christmas day" to the more universal "It's a hard winter's day". A new intro was added, some guitar parts were overdubbed, and the final mix was handled by engineer Humberto Gatica, who used his renowned 'lucky snare' sound. This edited version, featured prominently in a key emotional scene in Pretty Woman, became a massive international hit, propelling both the soundtrack and the band to new heights of fame.

The song's structure is built around a standard verse-chorus form. The rhyme scheme is generally simple and effective, often following an ABCB pattern in the verses (e.g., pillow/ground/silence/around), which gives it a natural, flowing quality. The chorus employs a more structured rhyme with "now" and "somehow," creating a memorable and cohesive hook. The rhythm is slow and deliberate, set at a classic ballad tempo. The song starts with a very sparse rhythmic feel, dominated by sustained keyboard chords, allowing the vocals to establish the melancholic mood. The entrance of the drums marks a shift, introducing a steady, powerful 4/4 beat that drives the song forward and builds its emotional weight. The interplay between the lyrical rhythm and the musical rhythm is seamless; Marie Fredriksson's phrasing often lingers beautifully across the beat, enhancing the song's reflective and emotive quality. This deliberate pacing allows the listener to absorb the emotional weight of each line, making the build-up to the powerful chorus and the final, soaring ad-libs all the more effective.

Musically, "It Must Have Been Love" is a quintessential power ballad of its era. The arrangement begins sparsely with a distinctive keyboard melody and builds progressively, adding drums, bass, and electric guitars to create a powerful, emotionally charged crescendo. Marie Fredriksson's vocal performance is central; she begins with a soft, melancholic tone and builds to a soaring, powerful delivery in the choruses, showcasing her impressive vocal range and emotional expression. A notable musical technique is the dramatic key change before the final choruses, modulating up a fourth from C major to F major. This elevates the song's intensity and allows Fredriksson's vocals to reach a new peak, enhancing the feeling of catharsis and desperation. The production features the era's characteristic gated reverb on the drums and a clean, atmospheric guitar sound, creating a grand, cinematic feel that was perfect for its inclusion in Pretty Woman. Lyrically, the song uses a direct, first-person narrative voice, creating an intimate connection with the listener. The use of sensory details ("air of silence," "hard winter's day") and poetic metaphors grounds the abstract feeling of heartbreak in tangible images.

The cultural influence of "It Must Have Been Love" is immense and intrinsically linked to the blockbuster 1990 film Pretty Woman. While it was a minor hit in Sweden in 1987 as a Christmas song, its 1990 rework for the film's soundtrack turned it into a global phenomenon. The song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, spending two weeks at the top, and became one of Roxette's signature songs and biggest sellers worldwide. It topped the charts in numerous other countries, including Norway and Australia, and peaked at #3 in the UK. The song's placement in a key, dialogue-free scene in Pretty Woman created an iconic cinematic moment that cemented its place in popular culture. It has received numerous awards for its radio airplay, with BMI recognizing it for over 6 million plays on US radio by 2021. The song is considered one of the definitive power ballads of the late 80s and early 90s, and it remains a staple on adult contemporary radio stations. Its enduring popularity has led to numerous covers by other artists and appearances in various TV shows and films over the years.

The lyrics of "It Must Have Been Love" are rich with poetic imagery and metaphors that convey deep emotional states.

• Whisper on my pillow: This opening line symbolizes a longing for intimacy and comfort. A whisper is gentle and personal, and its placement on a pillow suggests a desire for closeness in a very private and vulnerable space—the bed, now empty.
• Winter: The recurring motif of winter ("Leave the winter on the ground," "a hard winter's day") serves as a powerful metaphor for the coldness, emptiness, and emotional desolation following the breakup. It contrasts sharply with the warmth that the past love provided.
• Turning to water: The line "I turn to water like a teardrop in your palm" is a striking metaphor for emotional dissolution and vulnerability. It visualizes the narrator's feeling of losing their form and strength, becoming as fragile and ephemeral as a tear, completely at the mercy of the person they lost.
• Where the water flows, where the wind blows: These closing lines are deeply symbolic. They suggest that the love, though over, has become a part of the natural fabric of the world. It is as elemental and inescapable as water and wind—a constant, haunting presence that is felt everywhere but can no longer be held.

The most significant recurring element in the song is its title phrase, which forms the heart of the chorus: "It must have been love, but it's over now." This lyrical motif is repeated multiple times, acting as the song's central thesis. Its repetition drills home the narrator's emotional state—a mix of validating the past love's authenticity while simultaneously accepting its painful conclusion. The phrase is slightly varied with "It must have been good, but I lost it somehow," which adds a layer of regret and self-blame. Musically, the song is defined by its simple yet unforgettable piano/keyboard intro melody. This motif appears at the beginning and end, and its gentle, slightly melancholic tone immediately sets the song's atmosphere. Its return at the end brings the song to a close, creating a sense of cyclical thought, as if the narrator is left with the same lingering memories they started with. The powerful, wailing guitar solo after the second chorus also serves as a non-lyrical motif, translating the song's heartache into a purely musical cry of pain and longing.