Per Gessle was a founding member of
Gyllene Tider, in 1976. They quickly became a popular group in Sweden, but after their fourth album,
The Heartland Café (1984), sold poorly compared to their previous albums, the group disbanded. Gessle wrote. "We decided to put Gyllene Tider to rest... until further notice." In 1982, Gessle released his first solo album,
Per Gessle and after Gyllene Tider split-up his second album,
Scener, quickly appeared in 1985. Gessle and
Marie Fredriksson had been friends for a few years before they came together as Roxette in 1986. After the success of their first hit "
Neverending Love", which was written by Gessle, they quickly recorded
Pearls of Passion using material which was originally intended for Per's third solo album. Roxette went on to achieve four U.S. #1's and two #2's, with their albums
Look Sharp! and
Joyride attaining platinum status in a number of countries. After Roxette's early nineties success, Per released a demo compilation album in 1992,
På väg, 1982–86. After the release of
Crash! Boom! Bang! and subsequent world tour, Roxette took a break. In 1996, after a reunion and subsequent tour of Gyllene Tider, Gessle recorded his first English solo album, using
Brainpool and Gyllene Tider as backing musicians.
Christoffer Lundquist from Brainpool would also come to collaborate with Gessle on later releases.
The World According to Gessle, released in 1997, produced three singles, "
Do You Wanna Be My Baby?", "
Kix" and "
I Want You to Know". The videos to all three songs were directed by
Jonas Åkerlund. The album was re-released in 2008, with extra bonus material and demos. In 1997
Hjärtats trakt – en samling was released as a best-of album. during his 2017
En vacker kväll tour of Sweden After Roxette released
Have a Nice Day (1999) and
Room Service (2001) to moderate success, Fredriksson collapsed and was diagnosed with a
brain tumor in 2002. While Fredriksson received treatment for her illness, Gessle continued with his solo work. The subsequent album
Mazarin (2003), was a critical and commercial success in
Sweden and started the beginning of a long-term collaboration with the backing vocalist
Helena Josefsson. Lundquist, now Gessle's producer was looking for a female singer and picked Josefsson. She first came to the attention of Lundquist after she and her band
Sandy Mouche wanted to record at Lundquist's Aerosol Grey Machine (AGM) studio. "I remember driving a car between Lund and
Lomma when Christoffer called and wondered if I was interested in starting singing with Per who wanted a girl for his solo projects.", recalled Josefsson.
Mazarin topped the charts in June 2003, going five times
platinum in 2004. The lead single from the album "
Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)" ("Here comes all the emotions (at the same time)"), is Gessle's most successful song in his home country, spending two months at No. 1 and was certified platinum. Following the success of the album, Gessle won numerous awards; four
Grammis awards: Best Artist, Best Male Pop Performer, Best Composer and Best Song, three
Rockbjörnen awards: Best Swedish Male Artist, Best Swedish Album and Best Swedish Song, and a Guldälgen (The Golden Moose) Award for Best Song. Also in 2004, saw Gessle and
Gyllene Tider reunite for a 25th-anniversary celebration that included the band's first album in 20 years,
Finn 5 fel!, and another very successful tour in Sweden. They beat the
Ullevi stadium attendance record, which was later broken by fellow Swede
Håkan Hellström in 2016 (70,144), and the band played to almost half a million fans. As a result, the group was honoured with four awards in Sweden. The album which was certified platinum, was released in several other European countries in April 2006. In June 2007, he released another solo album in Swedish with the name
En händig man, which shipped three times platinum. A single of the same name was released; "
En händig man". In October 2007, a book of "
Att vara Per Gessle" was published, telling some of the unknown facts about Gessle and his 30-year career.
Party Crasher his seventh solo album and third in English was released in late 2008. The first single "
Silly Really" gave him his fourth No. 1 hit. The albums featured the use of local musicians,
Dan Dugmore,
Stuart Duncan and
Mickey Raphael.
Collaborations In 1983 Gessle wrote the song ”Stjärnhimmel” to
Elisabeth Andreassen. He wrote the song
Kärleken är evig which
Lena Philipsson competed with in
Melodifestivalen 1986, where the song finished in second place with 42 points. The song charted on the 6th place on the Swedish singles chart and became Philipsson's big breakthrough single. In 1990, Gessle wrote a single, "The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye", for
Thomas Anders (of
Modern Talking fame); Roxette would release their version as the B-side of their single "
Spending My Time". The song was also used by
Laura Branigan featuring on her
Over My Heart album. He has also participated with the Swedish singer
Nisse Hellberg in the project
The Lonely Boys. In 1996 he worked with
Belinda Carlisle and wrote two songs for her album,
A Woman and a Man; "
Always Breaking My Heart" and "Love Doesn't Live Here". The former was released as a single, becoming a UK top 10 hit. He sung duet with
Nick Lowe on the title track for the
Small Town Talk album. Gessle was involved in the development of the Roxette
jukebox musical Joyride the Musical which premiered at
Malmö Opera in 2024. ==Personal life==