Take On Me

Jukebox Heroes

Take On Me by a-ha

Recommended (loosely) by the police officer at Waffle House the other night

"Do y'all know the history of this song? It was actually kind of a flub until the music video came out."

I believed him, but I decided to look deeper into this claim. According to Rolling Stone, this is quite true: "I have no doubt that the video made the song a hit...The song has a super catchy riff, but it is a song that you have to hear a few times. And I don't think it would've been given the time of day without the enormous impact of the video."

Plus, you can see for yourself that it's a cool music video. Wikipedia calls it "rotoscoping" (plus live action).

It's honestly a miracle that it ended up as popular as it did. When the song was first released, it couldn't get higher than 137 UK charts, which was the lowest of any a-ha song to chart previously. Yet - for some reason - Warner Brothers chose to give them a chance to re-record it.

Surprise: it flopped again.

Then - and Wikipedia really doesn't explain this - Warner Brothers decided to pump "significant money" into a killer music video. That sounds to me like the start of a plan to deliberately run their company into the ground.

It's fortunate that I am not in charge of business over at WB...because the video worked. Immediately after its release, Take On Me broke into the Billboard Hot 100, where it stayed for twenty-three weeks, reaching #10 for a solid amount of time.

Unbelievable.

Anyway, a-ha remained popular internationally, but this was the height of their fame in the U.S.

(That said, the popularity of this one track never really faded. It's a widely known song, and just last year, Kygo produced a remix that he calls "tropical house.")

Overview:

Genre:
synthpop

Favorite Lyrics:
It's no better to be safe than sorry.

Verdict:
wouldn't want to sing this in karaoke