a-ha (1984)
Take On Me is a song by Norwegian synth-pop band A-ha, first released in 1984. The original version was produced by Tony Mansfield and remixed by John Ratcliff. A new version was released in 1985 and produced by Alan Tarney for the group’s debut studio album Hunting High and Low (1985). The song combines synthpop with a varied instrumentation that includes acoustic guitars, keyboards, and drums. It is considered to be the band’s signature song.
A-ha released a less slick version of the song in 1984, but redid the tune after it proved to be a commercial flop. And despite releasing a revised rendition in 1985, Waaktaar-Savoy says, âit took, like, four months to reach number one in America. And it felt like years. Every week it would go up a spot, up three spotsâŚ. It would pick up, then slow down. [It] was a whole process.â
They teamed up with director Steve Barron, who directed Michael Jacksonâs Billie Jean, for a short-form piece that mixed live action with rotoscope animation â never before used in a music video. âIt was a dream to work with talent like that,â Waaktaar-Savoy says of Barron. âNormally, videos took a week of shooting in a hangar. But for this, we did a whole day that was only to make the comic magazine. Then four months spent doing hand-drawn drawings. It was very thorough stuff.â Illustrator Mike Patterson drew more than 3,000 sketches for the final clip.
Weezer (2019)
Weezer had teamed with Calpurnia â the indie rock band led by Stranger Thingsâ Finn Wolfhard â for a nostalgic new video for their cover of a-haâs Take On Me. The track appears on Weezerâs self-titled covers record, also known as The Teal Album.
