Take On Me
| Take On Me | |
|---|---|
| Aha | |
| publication | 1st release: October 19, 1984 2nd release: April 5, 1985 3rd release: September 16, 1985 |
| length | 3:48 |
| Genre (s) | Synth pop |
| Author (s) | Pål Waaktaar, Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket |
| album | Hunting high and low |
Take On Me is a pop song by the Norwegian band a-ha from their first album Hunting High and Low from 1984. It was the group's debut single.
History of origin
The piece was first published in the version produced by Tony Mansfield in the fall of 1984. In the summer of 1985, the song produced by Alan Tarney and with a new video took third place. In Europe, about 300 copies of the first release were sold. That makes the single a coveted collector's item.
The second music video for this song, directed by Steve Barron , was broadcast in mid-1985 by a local station in Boston and then on MTV in the heavy rotation , which made the song known worldwide. The video, which was innovative at the time, is a mixture of rotoscopy and real film . It won six awards at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1986 and was nominated for two more.
Music video
The video was shot under the direction of Steve Barron . It shows a young blonde woman (played by Bunty Bailey ) sitting in a London cafe reading a comic book about motorcycle racing. The winner of this race, played by Morten Harket , the band's lead singer , winks at the girl from the booklet. He then gives her his black and white cartoon hand and pulls the girl into his animated world. Through a film effect that mixes comic and real world, they see each other through a comic frame, which also shows the band members.
The waitress thinks the girl left without paying. Annoyed, she crumples the notebook and throws it in the wastebasket. Shortly thereafter, two of the motorcyclist's rivals return. They want revenge and one of them destroys the comic frame with a wrench . Harket beats one of the men and retreats with the girl into a maze created by crumpled paper. Harket opens a hole so the girl can escape. In the cafeteria you can see the girl dyed with ink lying next to the wastebasket. Startled, it grabs the crumpled comic book and runs out of the cafeteria into its room, where it tries to smooth out the wrinkles.
One of the panels shows Harket lying on the floor, unconscious, and the girl starts crying. When he comes to, he appears in the girl's room and tosses himself back and forth in the door frame while the video switches between reality and comic. At some point he becomes real and the two embrace. Finally, you can see the comic book entitled a-ha . At the beginning of the follow-up video, The Sun Always Shines on TV , the story continues briefly and ends before the main part of the video begins.
The video for the song was a big winner at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1986 and brought a-ha awards in the categories Best New Artist in a Video , Best Concept Video , Most Experimental Video , Best Direction in a Video (for Steve Barron), Best Special Effects in a Video (to Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger) and the Viewer's Choice Award .
On February 17, 2020, the video exceeded one billion views on Youtube .
Charts
On September 16, 1985 the single was released across Europe. The title reached number 1 in the charts in 36 countries and was sold more than eight million times. It was number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA and climbed to number 2 in England and number 1 in a-ha's home country of Norway. Take On Me has been sold over seven million times worldwide.
| Charts | Top ranking | Weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Chart placements | ||
 Germany (GfK)
|
1 (20 weeks) | 20th |
 Austria (Ö3)
|
1 (12 weeks) | 12 |
 Switzerland (IFPI)
|
1 (13 weeks) | 13 |
 United Kingdom (OCC)
|
2 (19 weeks) | 19th |
 United States (Billboard)
|
1 (27 weeks) | 27 |
 Norway (Nielsen)
|
1 (27 weeks) | 27 |
Awards
The video won six awards at the MTV Video Music Awards on September 5, 1986.
In 2006 the song was number 24 of the “Greatest Songs of the 1980s” on VH1 .
Aha
| Country / Region | Award | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales) |
||
 Belgium (BEA)
|
 gold
|
100,000 |
 Denmark (IFPI)
|
 platinum
|
90,000 |
|
Germany (BVMI)
|
gold
|
250,000 |
 France (SNEP)
|
gold
|
500,000 |
 Italy (FIMI)
|
Gold (physical) + platinum (digital)
|
350,000 |
 Japan (RIAJ)
|
gold
|
100,000 |
|
United Kingdom (BPI)
|
gold
|
500,000 |
| All in all |
6 × gold, 2 × platinum |
1,890,000 |
A1
| Country / Region | Award | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales) |
||
|
Norway (IFPI)
|
gold
|
5,000 |
 Sweden (IFPI)
|
gold
|
15,000 |
|
United Kingdom (BPI)
|
 silver
|
200,000 |
| All in all |
1 × silver 2 × gold |
220,000 |
Others
- Musicians or music students who want to memorize intervals with the help of song beginnings in the subject of ear training can use Take On Me as an example for the major seventh upwards.
Cover versions
The single Feel This Moment by Pitbull feat. Christina Aguilera uses parts of the melody of the song.
- 1998: The Wealthy Children
- 1998: Reel Big Fish
- 2000: A1 (band)
- 2001: Emil Bulls
- 2012: L'uke
- 2013: The Blanks
- 2016: Ninja Sex Party
- 2019: Weezer
- 2020: In The Last of Us Part II , the title heroine Ellie sings the song with the guitar.
Web links
- Take On Me (official video)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Morten Harket: My Take on Me , pages 123 ff.
- ↑ Take On Me. Austriancharts.at (as of July 16, 2008)
- ↑ Bunty Bailey (female lead in the video Take On Me ) Query at myspace.com (as of July 19, 2008)
- ^ VMA 1986 - MTV Video Music Awards. In: MTV.vom. Retrieved July 5, 2019 .
- ↑ accessed on February 17, 2020
- ↑ Stars of the 80s make a comeback ... with the same tunes but without the bizarre haircuts , Daily Mail
- ↑ Take On Me in the German charts
- ↑ Take On Me in the Austrian charts
- ↑ Take On Me in the Swiss charts
- ↑ Take On Me in the UK charts
- ↑ Take On Me in the US charts
- ↑ Take On Me in the Norwegian charts
- ↑ 80s Music Lyrics: Best Music from the 1980s. ( Memento of the original from April 9, 2002 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Press Release <. VH1 Press
- ↑ a b Awards in Belgium and Italy
- ^ Award in Denmark
- ↑ Award in Germany
- ^ Award in France
- ↑ Award in Italy
- ↑ Award in Japan
- ↑ a b Award in the United Kingdom
- ^ Award in Norway
- ↑ Award in Sweden
