a ha ~ Take On Me 1985 Extended Meow Mix

a-ha is the first Norwegian band to top the Hot100, but the first Norwegian to do that in a group was Anni-Frid Lyngstad, known as Frida of ABBA. Magne “Mags“ Furuholem, Pal Waaktaar and Morten Harket are the principal members with Mags and Pal having history together as they played together in several bands before they met and asked Morten to join the band. Moving to the UK in 1983, they finally found their groove and began making demos to shop around to the labels. Take On Me“ was created in this fallow period, Morten says that it was the first song he heard Mags and Pal play and convinced him to join the band. He believed that the song was going to be a big hit someday. Not having much success, they were regrouping to earn money to pay for more recording sessions when the studio manager John Ratcliff played their music for Terry Slater, a former A&R man for EMI records. He decided to have them play a live gig for the labels and Warner Brothers Andy Wickham signed the band. They then had to come up with a band name, something Norwegian that would also be a word in English. Pal had been writing songs and one was named “aha“, a “terrible song“ but the band realized that aha was common vernacular in many languages and the name stuck. Their first producer, Tony Mansfield did not come up with a hit sound for them, so they went back in to the studio with Alan Tarney who had produced Cliff Richard and Leo Sayer. The finished song still did not gain any attention until Warner executives decided to create an innovative video that was part animation and part live with Steve Barron directing. The result was astounding, the nascent MTV culture was rapidly developing as a force to promote new music. The movie star good looks of Morten and his vocal talents combined to create a monster that became a #1 pop hit and was heard around the world. The iconic video received heavy rotation and went on to win many well deserved awards. The follow up of “The Sun Always Shines On TV“ became a #20 Hot100 hit and became their first disco hit, peaking at #6. a-ha covered “Crying In The Rain“ a #6 pop hit originally recorded by the Everly Brothers in 1962. They followed Duran Duran’s lead to record a James Bond theme and released “The Living Daylights“ in 1987. a-ha continued to release albums until 2009s “Foot Of The Mountain“ and then decided to disband, but got back together for 2015’s “Cast In Steel“. They have sold over 100 million records worldwide of their ten released studio albums.