"A-ha" - "Take On Me" (1985) - history of the Norwegians' debut single, music video, awards, covers

"A-ha." - team of Norwayformed Morten Harkett (vocalist), Palom Vaaktaarom (guitarist) and Mags Furuholmen (keyboardist). In 1983 the musicians moved to Londonand later signed a contract with "Warner Bros." В 1985. they burst into the world of showbiz with an incredibly catchy tune "Take On Me"and she's still one of the only ones greatest pop songs ever made. But what inspired the musicians to create the song and who directed the iconic partially animated video for it?

History of Creation

"A-ha." started working on this composition in 1982. The song had a different feel back then title ("Lesson One.") и textbut the sound already included keyboard riffs. The musicians felt that such music would be too . pop for their creativity, and so they changed the tune to something more "punky". Norwegians released track, and it caught the attention of industry veteran Terry Slater. He became manager of the group and facilitated the awarding of the contract "A-ha." with one of the largest film and TV series production companies. "Warner Bros. Records.".

After the performance for the "Warner Bros." in the UK, the Norwegian band met a British composer Tony Mansfield. He's the one in 1984 they recorded new a version of the song and named it "Take On Me". The single was only released in Europe and came third in the Norwaybut nowhere else in particular unremembered. The musicians were this disgruntledbecause they felt that the song should. "shoot".

Slater suggested they work on a song with a British producer. by Alan Tarney.who added more to it instrumental и energetic of sound. The song was re-recorded a third time. At about the same time, the recording supervisor Jeff Ayeroffwho worked at "Virgin USA.", "Work Group.", "Apple." и "Shangri-La Music"and he's gone to "Warner Bros.". He talked about his emotions after listening "Take On Me":

"This song. loved to me as soon as I heard it. Then I saw picture of the band members and I thought, "This is really real people?", because Morten Harket looked like goddescended from Olympus."

Ayeroff organised the filming of the music video. He hired Steve Barronwhose work included "Don't You Want Me" for "The Human League." и "Billie Jean." Michael Jackson. An Irish film-maker was invited to come in Steve Barron in order to make a revolutionary animated a commercial that took six months. Professional artists worked on the video Michael Patterson и Candice Reckinger. Shortly after the release of the music video "Take On Me" became worldwide a hit, taking first place in the U.S.A. and second place in UK. The song ended up at number one in the 27 countriesincluding Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Germany. The composition remained at the top "Eurochart Hot 100" for nine weeks.

Working on a music video

Animation was used in the clip pencil sketch and "live" an action called rotoscoping. Rotoscopyor photolayoutit's a multiplication techniqueIn this case, an animated or combined film segment is created by frame-by-frame animation. redraws The technology was invented in the early 20th century. Although the technology was invented at the beginning of the 20th century, it was not used in the production of music videos until 1985.
Rotoscoped about three thousand frameswhich took 16 weeks. The idea for the video comes from a Warner Bros. executive. Jeff Ayeroff. The fantasy video tells the story of loves between a girl from the real world (played by a Bunty BaileyHarkett's lover) and bloke from the comics (Morten Harket). A young man calls a girl to his place, and she falls into a cartoon a world where they both have to run away from villainsand one of them is played by an actor Philip Jackson. Every scene was filmed livethen projected onto paper and traced.

That song became hit in the United States because of his pioneering A video in which a cartoon character beckons the reader to join him in a comic strip. It was created by Michael Patterson and his wife Candice Reckingerwho later worked on the video for "Opposites Attract.", "Luka." и "Impulsive.". Patterson he told me:

"I supervised. animation and drew everything on it clip. While working on this video, I had no idea that soon. experimental animation become mainstream".

"Warner Bros." forced cinemas to show the video before the films and promoted it to the music channels. When the clip started airing on MTV, radio stations started playing the song, too, and by August it was going into the top 40 U.S.A.. The composition continued to rise in chartsuntil, on 19 October, it reached first placewhere she remained for the duration one week. The video received six awards at the award ceremony MTV Video Music Awards 1986 and is widely recognised as one of the greatest of music videos of all time.

"Take On Me" won six out of eight nominations at the awards ceremony. "MTV Video Music Awards." 1986, including Best New Artist in Video and Viewer's Choice. It was record number of victories in the three-year history of the ceremony (e.g, Michael Jackson won half as many awards in 1983).

covers

Many covers of this composition have been released. "Reel Big Fish" have released their version in 1996that was used in the 1998 film "BAYSketball.". It was the most popular song at their concerts.

"Pentatonix." released their cover of "Take On Me" in an a cappella version. The single was released as part of the album "Ptx Vol. IV - Classics".
Group "Strangers With Candy"later known as "Lifer.", won MTV contest "Ultimate Cover Band Contest." with his version of this song in 2000.

Car brand "Volkswagen." used this song in a commercial called "Feeling Carefree.". More recently. "Take On Me" appeared in a scene from a video game "The Last of Us Part II"when the character of Ellie, played by Ashley Johnson, sings. acoustic version.