“Take On Me”
“Take On Me” by A-ha is an iconic hit of the Eighties. It got here out in October 1985 with an equally iconic music video that helped outline the age of MTV. It hit #1 within the US and in international locations all around the world. And it’s nonetheless massively common right this moment. It presently has over two and a half billion streams on Spotify. So, with all of that, it’s straightforward to think about that this was all inevitable. However really, the music took so many steps and missteps earlier than it turned the hit that everyone is aware of. I talked to Paul Waaktaar-Savoy from A-ha, who wrote the unique bones of the music again when he was a teen in Norway, years earlier than it got here out. The music really got here out and flopped TWICE within the UK, earlier than it discovered a foothold within the US. So for this episode, Paul took me by way of the entire historical past of the music, and all of the totally different variations that existed. And he instructed me how he and his bandmates, Magne Furuholmen and Morten Harket, pushed and pushed and persevered. “Take On Me” was their first single as a band, and it made them probably the most profitable Norwegian pop group of all time.
You should purchase or stream “Take On Me” right here.
Illustration by Carlos Lerma.
For a transcript of this episode, click on right here.
“Lesson One” – first demo model of “Take On Me”
Alan Tarney – producer & backing vocals
Gerry Kitchingham – mixer
Steve Barron – music video director
Bridges
“Aladdin Sane” by David Bowie
Joe Cocker
Melody Maker and Music Categorical magazines
John Ratcliff, Terry Slater, Andrew Wickham, Tony Mansfield, and Jeff Ayeroff
Fairlight CMI
PPG Wave synthesizer
Yamaha DX7 synthesizer
“Commuter” – movie
