Nope, Not a 1-hit Wonder: a-ha

Sometimes it’s very difficult to imagine that the reality you and everyone around you live inside can be extraordinarily different from that of so many other people. Here in the United States, when it is said that an artist or actor is “big in Japan,” it is almost said derisively, with the suggestion being that, yes that’s nice, but I guess they can’t make it here where it really matters. The American market is indeed huge for artists, but the idea that only success here is valid is not an accurate idea. The U.S. dollar’s value has really taken a plunge over the last fifteen years, and well, our lives here are just as foreign to folks in Norway as theirs are to us.

One great example of this is Norway’s own favorite sons, A-ha. Say the group’s name here and only one image will pop into our minds: the award-winning video for “Take on Me” featured above. In fact, most Americans are not just unaware of the band’s big success in other parts of the globe, but falsely identify A-ha as a 1-hit wonder on our own shores. Not even this is true…

A-ha was formed back in 1982 in their native Norway when vocalist Morten Harket joined keyboardist Magne Furuholmen and guitarist Pål Waaktaar and immediately decamped for Britain to pursue life as a pop band. They chose their band name from a song called “A-ha,” reasoning that it was an exclamation that would be familiar to both Norwegian and English-speaking audiences. While lead singer Harket admits that the source song was terrible, they all agreed that it would be a great name for their band.

He had heard his band mates play an early version of their eventual smash “Take on Me” when they were still back in Norway and performing as a group called Bridges. The song was known at the time as “The Juicy Fruit Song” maybe because it had a peppy melody that reminded them of a bubble gum commercial?

With their new lead singer’s input, the song first morphed into a recording called “Lesson One,” and then became the international smash hit we now know as “Take on Me.” While the group’s long-term success would prove to be mostly in Europe and South America, their first two releases of “Take on Me” on London-based labels received little support and flopped until Warner Brothers in the U.S. invested in the band by paying for the revolutionary and memorable video, which was released in America a full month prior to the 45 single hitting shelves (remember 45s?) Director Steve Barron used an approach called rotoscoping, resulting in a pencil sketch comic book version of live-action footage, which was used to suggest Harket as a comic book hero who is struggling to escape in to live-action world.

The video was a huge success in the United States and helped push “Take on Me” up the Billboard singles chart to #1 in late August of 1985. I remember seeing it for the first time on the late night music video program “Night Flight,” which I had been given the impression was somehow inappropriate. This being the case, and me being a 15 year-old boy, I decided I should investigate. I remember also seeing videos for Laura Branigan’s “Self Control,” Sheila E’s “The Glamorous Life,” Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love,” and a version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Relax” that was set at a bacchanalian S&M party featuring a fat guy in a toga getting a shave, a tiger, people in cages, and lots of men dressed like the biker from the Village People. Okay, so maybe the folks at Night Flight were kind of up to something.

“Take on Me” was nominated for eight MTV Video Music Awards, winning six, and remains one of the most iconic videos of the early MTV years. In retrospect, the video “Take on Me” lost to for video of the year, Dire Straits’ “Money For Nothing,” does not hold up nearly as well. You can only guess that the baby boomers in charge were more comfortable with a familiar band and that song’s rejection of new romantic styles which A-ha could have reminded them of.

Early in 1986, A-ha released its third single from their album Hunting High and Low (“Love is Reason” had not charted at all), resulting in another international smash. The song was “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.,” which went to #1 in the UK and Ireland and top 10 in eight other countries.

The beginning of the video for “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.” provides a wholly unnecessary and disappointing “ending” to the story of the star-crossed lovers from “Take on Me,” in which dreamy comic book escapee guy suddenly starts to do the pee-pee dance, changes back into a drawing, and runs off to find a bathroom, leaving that cute girl standing on the side of the road. Aaaaand UP comes the “The End” card, because that was definitely the most satisfying way to end that story. The rest of the video has nothing to do with the story. Maybe this is why U.S. audiences refused to go along with making “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.” into a top 10 hit. It only reached #20 here. Perhaps a “to be continued” title would have suited American viewers better?

This chart pattern continued for the boys in A-ha as the years went on. Between 1986-88, they had six more top 10 hits in the UK, which was pretty consistent with their success in some other European countries, while the highest they would chart again after hitting #1 with “Take on Me,” and #20 with “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.” in the U.S. was when “Cry Wolf” hit #50 late in 1986. Not even their theme song for the new Timothy Dalton-led James Bond flick “The Living Daylights” could land them another hit stateside.

A-ha did have the distinction of being the very first artists to release a Bond theme song who were not either from England or the U.S. The working relationship between the band and famous Bond composer John Barry was strained, and became even worse when the Oscar winner received a songwriting credit when the song was released. The members of A-ha objected, claiming that Barry had not contributed at all. For his part, Barry found the experience exhausting and is said to have compared the members of the band to “Hitler Youth.” Despite this difficulty and the song’s failure to hit the top 100 in America, it did chart in the top 10 in ten other countries.

A consistent pattern of good performance overseas, but utter disinterest in the U.S. persisted, with A-ha scoring eight more top 10 hits worldwide over the years, but none in these parts. Media support for the band in the U.S. was outright dismissive. In 1991, A-ha was booked, along with superstars Prince, George Michael, and Guns ‘n’ Roses, to play the Rock in Rio II music festival in the huge Maracanã stadium. Surprisingly, A-ha drew 198,000 fans for their performance (a world record at the time), while the other artists attracted less than 1/3 that number, failing to top 60,000 revelers. The members of the band claimed later that members of the American media were on the phone with their superiors, begging to cover A-ha, but were shut down and required only to interview the artists who had been expected to draw fans. This was a devastating blow to the band, indicating that they may never again break through in the lucrative U.S. market.

Three years later, after playing the winter Olympics in Lillehammer in 1994, the band decided to go on hiatus and recharge themselves with solo projects. When they reconvened in 1998 they were welcomed with continued success in a variety of countries. In 2000 A-ha caused a bit of a stir with their new video for the lovely song “Velvet.” Some commenters felt that the film was advocating necrophilia, obviously a relatively controversial topic. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Yeah, that’s pretty interesting, guys. But since the members of the band are not, in fact, dead, I’m going to give them a pass on this one. This is not a snuff film. It’s art. Nice try though, scandalmongers.

There’s honestly not much more of significance to say about A-ha from an American perspective or from the perspective of this series. After all, we identified A-ha’s second U.S. top 40 hit way back in 1986, didn’t we? The band announced their retirement for 2010 and got a sort of farewell tour everywhere they went, kind of like Derek Jeter and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did when they played their final seasons. I wonder if Harket received any rocking chairs or kayaks along the way?

In appreciation of this most successful of all Norwegian recording artists, I will offer up a tribute of sorts to their beautiful Scandanavian homeland by presenting a video of the soon-to-close Maelstrom, from the Norway pavilion at Epcot. Maybe one more show scene of Harket turning into a pencil drawing while throwing himself against the walls of the pavilion could have saved it?

More Nope, Not a One Hit Wonder

 10,000 Maniacs a-ha The Big Bopper Berlin EMF Falco Kris Kross Lisa Loeb Madness Marky Mark And The Funky Bunch Men Without Hats The Motels Radiohead  The Rembrandts Rockwell Patty Smyth Snow Survivor ‘Til Tuesday Vanilla Ice

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Carl
Carl
9 years ago

Nice writeup. I knew they were huge internationally for years after people in the US lost interest, but I didn’t know the details. I do have to question you on one thing though. From an international perspective I fully agree they absolutely were not one hit wonders, but you go on to claim they weren’t even one hit wonders in the US “Not even this is true…”. Yet I don’t see anything in the article that challenges the idea that in the US they really were one hit wonders.

lebeau
Admin
9 years ago
Reply to  daffystardust

It was easy to overlook. I kept waiting for a bigger hit that never came – much like the band itself. When I finished the article, I was still a bit on the fence about their US one-hit wonder status myself.

Most importantly, you covered the band’s feud with John Barry which is what I was looking forward to. The minute I read that they were from Norway, I wondered if we would get a Maelstrom tribute. You didn’t disappoint there.

lebeau
Admin
9 years ago
Reply to  daffystardust

I have exactly the same problem with WTHH. The actual second hit is less interesting than the stories. No complaints here.

Carl
Carl
9 years ago
Reply to  daffystardust

Ok, I understand. I did see where you said it reached #20, but the way you wrote it: “Maybe this is why U.S. audiences refused to go along with making “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.” into a top 10 hit. It only reached #20 here.” certainly didn’t make it sound like a second hit in the US and led to my confusion. That being said, their international fame certainly justifies their being in this article. I was just nitpicking about the US part. I think the idea of picking bands with an interesting story to tell is a good… Read more »

RB
RB
9 years ago

Agreed, the opening to “The Sun Always Shines on TV” is a bit of a downer but it’s still a beautiful song. The vocals and instrumentation from this band are downright hypnotic to me. Thanks for including them in your series, I’m going to have to search out some of their international chart hits.

gluserty
9 years ago

It’s true that there are bands that were extremely popular in other areas of the world, but by the time the U.S. was introduced to them they got labeled as a one hit wonder. For example, I think Big Country was a good band, but all they are known for in the U.S. is “In a Big Country”. Another example is XTC, who were wildly popular in England, but the only song that stuck for U.S. listeners was “Senses Working Overtime” (A song I really like).

HHGeek
HHGeek
9 years ago
Reply to  gluserty

XTC wildly popular in England? Are you sure? I would have said popular at a pinch. The music press got them, but the mainstream not so much.

Must put in a plug here for The Dukes of Stratosphear, if anyone’s not familiar with them. XTC gone to the bad (and sometimes very funny) side.

Matt Rouge
Matt Rouge
9 years ago

Hey, love your NAOHW columns, great job! A-ha is a Top 10 fave band of mine. They are not just big in places that are “not here,” they really deserve that status. They have pulled off the amazing trick of 1. Making great music for over 20 years, 2. Keep evolving over time, 3. Keep some level of consistency over time as well. Their latest albums use keyboards like their 80s work but sound very modern. Thanks for the Velvet video into. I had never seen it, and I was impressed! So why is Maelstrom being closed? I watched a… Read more »

Matt Rouge
Matt Rouge
9 years ago
Reply to  daffystardust

Close enough for Disney!

Craig Hansen
Craig Hansen
9 years ago

I’ve always considered the music video for Take On Me to be one of the most inventive, greatest music videos of all time. The song itself was great too and well deserving of hitting #1. What’s funny is even back then I was aware that A-HA had a follow up top 20 hit with “The Sun Always Shines On T.V.” because I would pay attention to the Billboard charts, but for some reason not a single radio station in Chicago played the song, despite the song making it into the Top 20 on the national singles charts. I had always… Read more »

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