"Real Sugar" is a song by

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

pop music duo

Roxette Roxette is a Swedish pop rock duo originally consisting of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle, both of whom were already established musicians in Sweden prior to the band's formation. Fredriksson had released a number of successful solo albums, ...

, released on 18 June 2001 as the second single from their seventh studio album, ''

Room Service Room service or in-room dining is a hotel service enabling guests to choose items of food and drink for delivery to their hotel room for consumption. Room service is organized as a subdivision within the food and beverage department of high-end ...

''. The single was not released in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Music video

The music video for "Real Sugar" was directed by Jesper Hiro. It begins with the music video for preceding single " The Centre of the Heart" being briefly shown on a small TV, before the channel is abruptly changed to a fictional

late-night talk show A late-night talk show is a genre of talk show, originating in the American Media, United States. It is generally structured around humorous monologues about the day's news, guest interviews, comedy sketches and music performances. It is charact ...

hosted by a puppet. Roxette are seen performing the song while backed by the show's regular

house band A house band is a group of musicians, often centrally organized by a band leader, who regularly play at an establishment. It is widely used to refer both to the bands who work on entertainment programs on television or radio, and to bands which ...

, puppets designed to resemble the

Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band formed in the New York City neighborhood Forest Hills, Queens in 1974. Known for helping establish the punk movement in the United States and elsewhere, the Ramones are often recognized as one of th ...

. At the end of the video, the TV is turned off by two puppets, who are passionately kissing on a bed.

Commercial performance

The song was not as successful as Roxette's preceding singles. It performed well in Sweden, where it peaked at number 23 and spent almost three months on the chart. It became a hit in Argentina, where it peaked within the top three, and also in Spain, charting within the top five of the Spanish Airplay Chart and at number 12 on their national sales chart. Conversely, it remains their worst-performing single to date in both Germany and Switzerland, spending a sole week on each chart and peaking at numbers 96 and 72, respectively.

Formats and track listings

All songs written by Per Gessle. * CD Single (8793650) # "Real Sugar" – 3:17 # "It Will Take a Long Long Time" – 4:06 # "Real Sugar" – 4:22 # "The Centre of the Heart" – 3:27

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''

The Pop Hits ''The Pop Hits'' is the third greatest hits album, greatest hits compilation album by Swedish Pop music, pop duo Roxette, released on 24 March 2003 by Roxette Recordings and Capitol Records. It was the second in a two-part series of "best of" albu ...

''. * Recorded at Atlantis and

Polar Studios Polar Studios was a recording studio in Stockholm, Sweden, which operated from 1978 through 2004. The studio was formed by ABBA musicians Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson and the band's manager Stig Anderson, owner of the Polar Music recording l ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

in November 2000. * Mixed by Ronny Lahti,

Clarence Öfwerman Clarence Öfwerman (born 22 November 1957) is a Swedish record producer and musician, best known as the longtime producer of Roxette, having been with the band from their debut album, ''Pearls of Passion'', in 1986, through to 2016's '' Good Ka ...

and Per Gessle at Polar Studios, Stockholm. Musicians *

Marie Fredriksson Gun-Marie Fredriksson (; 30 May 1958 – 9 December 2019) was a Swedish singer, songwriter, pianist, and lead vocalist of pop-rock duo Roxette, which she formed in 1986 with Per Gessle. The duo achieved international success in the late 1980s an ...

–

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

and

background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are u ...

and

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

* Per Gessle – background vocals, acoustic and

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

s and production * Jonas Isacsson – electric guitar * Christer Jansson – live drums and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

* Ronny Lahti –

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

Christoffer Lundquist Carl Christoffer Lundquist (born 16 January 1970) is a Sweden, Swedish musician and producer. He was once in the band Brainpool (band), Brainpool, where he started as a bass player and backing vocalist, but moved to play both the bass and the g ...

– backing vocals,

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

and electric guitars * Clarence Öfwerman – keyboards,

programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

and production * Mats "MP" Persson – keyboards and

tremolo In music, ''tremolo'' (), or ''tremolando'' (), is a trembling effect. There are multiple types of tremolo: a rapid repetition of a note, an alternation between two different notes, or a variation in volume. Tremolos may be either ''measured'' ...

guitar * Shooting Star – programming

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2001 singles 2001 songs Roxette songs Songs written by Per Gessle Song recordings produced by Clarence Öfwerman EMI Records singles