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 has sold over 2.2 million copies worldwide. The album was remastered and reissued with bonus tracks in 2009, and was finally 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."
Have a Nice Day features Fredriksson in a more prominent role – both vocally and compositionally – than on any other Roxette album. Gessle sings lead vocals on four songs: the aforementioned two, as well as "7Twenty7" and "Cooper", and sings the bridges of another two songs: "Salvation" and "Pay the Price". All other tracks are sung entirely by Fredriksson. She was also much more involved in the album's composition than on preceding releases. During the making of their 1991 album Joyride, Fredriksson indicated that her limited involvement in the writing of Roxette material stemmed from her difficulty in writing lyrics in English, saying that it "feels very strange to write in another language." To combat this, Gessle gave Fredriksson several sets of lyrics to which she could compose music, with her version of "Beautiful Things" eventually being selected as the album closer. The record also contains the first Roxette song to be written and composed solely by Fredriksson: "Waiting for the Rain".