It's funny. For how popular a-ha's Take On Me was, I've never heard anything else from them beyond that respective album, and their James Bond theme, The Living Daylights. I felt it was high time to rectify that.
The group formed in 1982 with founding members, Morten Harket, Paul (Pål) Waaktaar, and Magne Furuholmen. Together, they left their native land of Norway, heading for London to pursue a recording deal. On the way, they considered name's for the group, ultiamtely settling on a-ha from a song title Waaktaar had written.
Upon arriving in London, the trio opted to go with the studio belonging to musician, producer, and soon-to-be-manager John Ratcliff. The reasoning behind the decision; he had a Space Invaders arcade cabinet.
Though a-ha would become the first Norwegian band to have a number one hit in the USA, the road to Take On Me was not paved in gold. The song originally began as Miss Eerie, by The Bridges.
This would turn into Lesson One under the a-ha banner, with vocals from Harket.
The band continued to work on it, ultimately coming up with new lyrics, and changing the song's name to Take On Me. While a music video was created to promote the track, this original version failed to garner much attention.
Seeing the potential in the song, it was once again remixed, and a new video shot. This version would become the breakthrough hit, a legendary 80's song, and iconic music video.
Sales for their album, Hunting High And Low, skyrocketed, sending it platinum certified in Norway, the UK, and USA. It would also go gold in Germany, Australia, and other Dutch speaking countries. The downside to this was that the pressure was now on. a-ha had to return to the studio, and create a worthy successor. The end result of their efforts was Scoundrel Days.
Knowing nothing about this release, I fired it up, eager for what I would hear, but not expecting much. Boy, was I taken by surprise. Things kick off with the title track, and the energy continues through The Swing Of Things, and I've Been Losing You.
While things took a bit of a dive with the ballad, October, things went to a whole new level with the edgy guitar intro to Manhattan Skyline. I'd never would have expected to have a-ha to have such a hard rocking song, but the tone really suites the vocal styles of Harket, honestly making me wish they had done more like this.
It is, however, because of this song that it's follow up, the synth pop Cry Wolf, feels out of place. It's a decent song. It just doesn't follow on the heels of Skyline (at all). The problem that ensued from here was that I had gotten a taste of the edgier side of a-ha, I liked it, and I wanted more. As such, the remainder of the tracks that followed with their bubblegum synth sound stopped resonating. This decline honestly made me lose interest, but I would be remiss to say I still didn't enjoy the album overall.
Scoundrel Days performed well for a-ha, bringing with it further international success, as well as platinum status in Norway, Switzerland, Germany, and the UK. Though their singles performed well in other countries, only Cry Wolf would make it to the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number fifty. This is probably why I didn't know anything from the album. Rick Dee's Weekly Top 40 is where I heard most of my music in 1986.
a-ha would return one more time in the 80's for their final entry, Stay On These Roads (1988). But, we'll have to pick that one up tomorrow.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS August 7, 1982 |
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