In the UK, however, the story was very different: "The Sun Always Shines on TV" was an even bigger hit among British fans than "Take on Me", peaking at number 1. As such, the band is frequently considered a one-hit wonder there, despite their two Top 40 hits. "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." turned out to be A-ha's last Hot 100 Top 40 single, and to this day in the United States, A-ha is remembered by the general public almost entirely because of the singularly number one hit single, "Take on Me". In successive years, even as the award categories have expanded, only a few artsts have approached-and none has surpassed-the single-year award totals of A-ha and Gabriel.Ī-ha's American success culminated in their 1986 Grammy nomination in the coveted Best New Artist category, which was eventually won by Sade. The following year, Peter Gabriel would earn thirteen nominations and win nine awards, also for two videos. The music video for the song was another popular and critical success, nominated in three categories at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards and winning two awards, for Best Cinematography and Best Editing, bringing A-ha's total to eleven nominations and eight wins. A remix version was a club hit, rising to number 5 on the Hot Dance Singles Sales chart. In the U.S., the song peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number 17 on Radio & Records airplay chart.
The band's second single was " The Sun Always Shines on T.V.". Their six MTV Award wins for that video gave them twice as many wins as Michael Jackson's " Thriller" and more than any artist in the three years of the awards combined.īut those were not A-ha's only MTV awards that year.
"Take on Me" was also nominated for Best Video of the Year at the 1986 American Music Awards. It became one of the most instantly recognizable and most enduringly popular music videos in the U.S., where it was nominated for eight awards at the third annual MTV Video Awards in 1986, winning six, including Best New Artist in a Video, Best Concept Video, Best Direction, Best Special Effects, and Viewer's Choice. The video used a pencil-sketch animation / live-action combination called rotoscoping, in which individual frames of live video are drawn over or colored. by heavy rotation on MTV of the new music video, which may have been inspired not only by the truck-chase scene from Terry Gilliam's film Brazil but also by the climactic scene from Ken Russell's film Altered States.
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The song's popularity earned the band a spot on the American television series Soul Train in 1985, making them one of the few white artists to appear on the black music-oriented show. A-ha became the first Norwegian band to have a number 1 song in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart. It was then re-released with a new, groundbreaking video which peaked at number 1 on the U.S. The song was then re-recorded with production by Alan Tarney, but both of these released failed to chart. The first version of the song, released in 1984, was promoted by a now-rare video of the band performing the song in front of a blue background. After some rewriting, multiple re-recordings, and three releases, "Take on Me" became a hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1985 and was the second-best-selling single of 1985. It was named "Lesson One" when it was first recorded by A-ha. At that time, the song was called "The Juicy Fruit Song", and the two men were still known as Bridges. Hunting High and Low (1984–1985)Īn early version of " Take on Me" was the first song that Morten Harket heard Magne Furuholmen and Pål Waaktaar play in Asker. Ratcliff dealt with technical and musical aspects, and Slater acted as the group's international business manager and as liaison to Warner Brothers's head office in Los Angeles. John Ratcliff introduced them to his manager, Terry Slater, and after a few meetings, A-ha enlisted Ratcliff as manager too. They chose the studio of musician, producer, and soon-to-be-manager John Ratcliff because it had a Space Invaders machine. The trio-composed of lead vocalist Morten Harket guitarist Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (previously known as Pål Waaktaar until 1994) and keyboardist Magne Furuholmen (informally known as "Mags"), formed in 1982 and left Norway for London in order to make a career in the music business.