There’s her mane of red hair and feathers, ribbons and jewels her bell-bottom jeans and round glasses. Their career will wrap for good with three concerts in Oslo, Norway.The mythology that surrounds Janis Joplin is one of the headiest in rock history. We sold out these concert halls faster than we expected to.” A-ha, who decided to call it quits after nearly 25 years with a farewell tour called Ending on a High Note, will perform their final two American concerts this weekend before returning to Europe for a trek that stretches from June to December. “We had a lot more trust in our audience than the record companies did, and I think our audience has stayed with us because of our musical qualities,” Furuholmen says, adding that although the band never repeated their “Take on Me” success here, “Even in America we have die-hard fans. While a-ha vanished from the American pop landscape, in Europe the group scored a long run of critical and commercial success including their newest - and final - album Foot of the Mountain, which debuted at Number Five in the U.K. “We never expected to become teenage idols, so for us it was like, ‘Let’s move on.’ But for the record company this was a successful formula, and anything we did to break with that was seen as a disease.” “We were three headstrong Norwegians saying, ‘No we don’t want to record another “Take on Me,” we’re doing our own thing,’ ” Furuholmen says. Looking back, Furuholmen blames a-ha’s reluctance to play the pop star game in America for their limited success here. It also marked the last time a-ha ever charted a Top 20 single in the U.S., despite a run of Top 10 hits in Europe in the decades that followed. and abroad, and its follow-up single “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.” seemed primed to be a hit in the States… until it only peaked at Number 20 on the Hot 100. “Take on Me” was a Number One smash in the U.S. And I don’t think it would’ve been given the time of day without the enormous impact of the video.” The legendary clip, directed by Steve Barron, took two months to create due to the backbreaking rotoscoping process, but it was worth the effort: At the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards, “Take on Me” took home six trophies and put a-ha on the fast track to fame in the U.S. “The song has a super catchy riff, but it is a song that you have to hear a few times. “I have no doubt that the video made the song a hit,” Furuholmen says. arm had faith in the tune and invested in a cutting-edge second video - a video that would become one of the most iconic clips of the era. The second version faltered again, but the label’s U.S.
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The group fought hard for another crack in the studio, and recruited producer Alan Tarney to rerecord the song. in London and recording the first real version of “Take on Me,” a-ha deemed the track sub par and the single quickly bombed. “We started thinking, ‘How can we showcase this incredible voice?’ So we were kind of doing this spiraling thing up, and Morten came up with an inflection of the melody that turned it much more interesting,” Furuholmen says.Īfter signing to Warner Bros. And I think a lot of the strength of a-ha comes from absorbing things like that and adding our own Scandinavian flavor to it.” The other major ingredient was singer Morten Harket’s distinct vocals. “Manzarek’s almost mathematical but very melodic, structured way of playing the keyboard was a huge influence in how I approached my instrument. “Ray Manzarek was hugely influential he brought classical music into pop,” Furuholmen says. The first take of the song was actually inspired by the Doors. “It started out being called ‘Lesson One,’ then we renamed the song ‘All’s Well That Ends Well and Moves With the Sun.’ A very catchy, short title.” “To me it still sounds fresh on the radio,” keyboardist Magne Furuholmen tells Rolling Stone, revealing that “Take on Me” was born from inauspicious beginnings. But the band’s new wave shimmer will quiet for good this month, when the Norwegian act wraps its farewell tour.
Despite having one of the hardest-to-sing choruses in pop history - a fact easily confirmed by a trip to any karaoke bar - a-ha’s “Take on Me” is one of the most beloved singles of the Eighties.
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