Songfacts®:

• Per Gessle (the male member of the duo) wrote this song for his girlfriend. He came home late and she had left a note on his piano that read, "Hej din tok, jag alskar dig," which means, "Hello, you fool, I love you," in Swedish. Gessle used the line in the song. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Philip - Ahus, Sweden
• Gessle decided to add whistling to the tune after watching Monty Python's Life of Brian, which features the whistle-heavy song "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life." He told Billboard magazine: "I did the whistling myself. It's overdubbed 12 times, but I did it."
• Gessle and Marie Fredriksson, the other half of Roxette, knew they wanted this to be the lead single, but their record label, EMI, disagreed. Thinking the uptempo track would be too risky, the label recommended the ballad "Spending My Time" as the first single for the US. Luckily, the duo refused to relent and "Joyride" became the duo's fourth consecutive #1 hit. As for "Spending My Time," it was their first chart single to miss the Top 30.
• The album title was inspired by a magazine interview with Paul McCartney, in which he described writing songs with John Lennon as "a long joyride." Gessle recalled: "At the time, we were in the middle of recording, and I was looking for a fun, positive title for the album. 'Joyride' seemed like a perfect word."
• This also hit #1 in several other countries, including Canada, Australia, Germany, Japan, Norway, and their native Sweden.
• This was used on Beverly Hills, 90210 in the 1991 episode "Pass, Not Pass."