Number One Songs—Take On Me

The Oslo, Norway trio a-ha hit #1 on the Billboard Charts in August of 1985 with "Take On Me" (from Hunting High and Low).

The fledgling but hit-making MTV helped propel the group and the song, thanks to their seemingly endless playing of the fun and animated "Take On Me" music video.

Says Brent Mann in his 99 Red Balloons And 100 Other All-Time Great One-Hit Wonders "...it's no exaggeration to call this song a true 80s touchstone, a musical icon of the MTV Generation."

The famous "Take On Me" is rendered by a dog playing keyboard and a screeching bird on vocals. Don't know if the bird even gets to the highest note in the song (it's high!) because I switch it. But it is memorable...just as the song was and is!

"Take On Me" went #1 around the world and thus with one song (in fairness they did have another Top 40 song but can you name it?) a-ha created a career that has lasted and thrived for 30 years...and well over 30 million records sold.

The power of MTV in the eighties...a great video...and a really good pop (cool synth, very eighties) sound...a testament to the fact that one song can still make you a star!

Take On Me Lyrics
(Words and Music by Magne Furuholmen, Morton Harket, and Phil Waaktaar)

We're talking away
I don't know what
I'm to say I'll say it anyway
Today's another day to find you
Shying away
I'll be coming for your love, OK?

Take on me, take me on
I'll be gone
In a day or two

So needless to say
I'm odds and ends
But that's me stumbling away
Slowly learning that life is OK.
Say after me
It's no better to be safe than sorry

Take on me, take me on
I'll be gone
In a day or two

Oh the things that you say
Is it life or
Just a play my worries away
You're all the things I've got to
remember

You're shying away
I'll be coming for you anyway

Take on me, take me on
I'll be gone
In a day or two

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