"Crash! Boom! Bang!" is a song by Swedish 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 in May 1994 by

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a British multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company EMI in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succes ...

as the second single from the duo's fifth studio album, '' Crash! Boom! Bang!'' (1994). The song, written by Per Gessle and produced by Clarence Öfwerman, became a moderate hit in several European countries, peaking in the top 20 in Austria, Belgium, Finland and Sweden. It spent over five months on the

German Singles Chart The GfK Entertainment charts are the official charts for music, home video, and video games in Germany and are gathered and published by GfK Entertainment (formerly Media Control and Media Control GfK International), a subsidiary of GfK, on be ...

, peaking at number 31. The accompanying music video for the song, directed by Michael Geoghegan, featured

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 ...

ascending a never-ending circular staircase. It had to be filmed twice before release, due to technical issues.

Critical reception

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editor Bryan Buss described the song as "tender", complimenting it as "one of the best

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

s they've recorded".

Larry Flick Larry Flick is an American journalist, former dance music columnist, single reviewer, and Senior Talent Editor for ''Billboard'' magazine, where he worked for 14 years. Now he produces and hosts Sirius XM radio shows. Flick started in the musi ...

from ''

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'' magazine wrote that "given the song's title, you might expect a pop/rocker. However, Swedish duo goes in the opposite musical direction, opting for a twangy, quasi-psychedelic ballad." He also felt that frontwoman

"has developed into an impressive singer, rising above a buzzing stew of sitars and strings with ease." Chuck Campbell from ''

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'' commented, "Despite its name, "Crash! Boom! Bang!" is an easy listen (though an overlong one) as Gessle's fine pop sensibilites guide the twosome over the smooth terrain of catchy hooks and polished ballads. Fredriksson's sweet vocals are the fuel." In his weekly UK chart commentary,

James Masterton James Masterton (born 2 September 1973) is a British music critic and columnist, his work focusing on the UK Singles Chart having been an online fixture on various sites since the 1990s. Masterton is also a producer for talkSPORT, and has worke ...

said, "Roxette have made some gorgeous ballads in the past but this one drifts by without ever grabbing the attention and so seems destined to become one of their smaller hits." Pan-European magazine ''

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'' wrote, "Sometimes the vocabulary used is a bit confusing. Despite the

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-esque words, the title track of the new CD is everything but an earth-shattering rocker. Forget it, it's a classy ballad!" Alan Jones from ''

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'' gave it a score of four out of five, naming it as "one of Roxette's gentler songs, a slowly building ballad similar to some of

Heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...

's hits. A grower rather than an instant hit, but likely to prove bigger than ' Sleeping in My Car'." ''

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'' complimented Fredriksson's vocals on the song as "subtle and graceful". Mark Sutherland from ''

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'' called it a "soppy" ballad and "a lovely title track for the weeds."

Music video

Irish filmmaker Michael Geoghegan, who would go on to direct a total of four music videos for the duo, directed the song's accompanying video, which was inspired by the work of Polish director

Zbigniew Rybczyński Zbigniew Rybczyński (; born 27 January 1949) is a Polish filmmaker, director, cinematographer, screenwriter, creator of experimental animated films, and multimedia artist who has won numerous prestigious industry awards both in the United Stat ...

, and consists of one continuous shot of

ascending a never-ending circular staircase. Per Gessle commented that the video had to be recorded twice due to technical issues: "The first version turned out to have technical problems with the audio sync. We had to re-shoot the entire video! The director, Michael, and the insurance company almost had heart attacks. We had to start all over again. No big deal. We regarded he first versionas a £250,000 rehearsal. Ah, the music biz in those days." The music video was A-listed on Germany's VIVA in July 1994.

Formats and track listings

All songs were written by Per Gessle. * 7-inch single and cassette (Australia 8650847 · Europe 8650844 · UK TCEM324 · US 4KM-58240) # "Crash! Boom! Bang!" (Radio Edit) – 4:25 # " Joyride" (

Unplugged Unplugged may refer to: *Acoustic music, music not produced through electronic means * "Unplugged" (B.A.P song), 2014 * "Unplugged" (''Modern Family''), a 2010 episode of ''Modern Family'' Albums and EPs * ''Unplugged'' (5'nizza album), 2002 * '' ...

Version) – 5:35 * CD single (Australia · Europe 8650852) # "Crash! Boom! Bang!" – 4:25 # "Joyride" (Unplugged Version) – 5:35 # " Run to You" (Demo, December 1992)– 3:45 * UK CD1 (CDEMS324) # "Crash! Boom! Bang!" – 5:02 # "Joyride" (7" Version) – 3:59 # " The Look" – 3:56 * UK CD2 (CDEM324) # "Crash! Boom! Bang!" – 4:25 # "Joyride" (Unplugged Version) – 5:35 # "Run to You" (Demo) – 3:45 # " It Must Have Been Love" – 4:18

Personnel

Personnel are adapted from the liner notes of ''

Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! ''Don't Bore Us – Get to the Chorus! Roxette's Greatest Hits'' is the first greatest hits compilation album by Swedish pop duo Roxette, released on 30 October 1995 by EMI. The record contains the duo's four number ones from the US ''Billboar ...

'' * Marie Fredriksson –

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 ...

* Per Gessle – mixing * Per "Pelle" Alsing –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

* Christer Jansson –

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 ...

* Jonas Isacsson – 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 * Anders Herrlin –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

, programming and

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 ...

* Mats Holmquist –

string arrangement The string section of an orchestra is composed of bowed instruments belonging to the violin family. It normally consists of first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses. It is the most numerous group in the standard orchestra. In ...

and

conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or Choir, choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary d ...

* Clarence Öfwerman – keyboards, programming, string arrangement, production and mixing * Alar Suurna – engineering and mixing * Stockholms Nya Kammarorkester (credited as SNYKO) –

orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crash! Boom! Bang! (Song) 1994 singles 1994 songs EMI Records singles Music videos directed by Michael Geoghegan Roxette songs Songs written by Per Gessle Song recordings produced by Clarence Öfwerman