Take On Me -Extended Mix- (A-ha) 1985

"Take on Me" is a song by the Norwegian pop band A-ha. Written by the band members, the song was produced by Alan Tarney for the group's first studio album Hunting High and Low, released in 1985. The song combines synthpop with a varied instrumentation that includes acoustic guitars, keyboards, and drums.

The original "Take on Me" was recorded in 1984, and took three releases to chart in the United Kingdom, reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart in November 1985. In the United States the song reached the top position of the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1985, due in no small part to the wide exposure of its memorable and cutting-edge music video on MTV, directed by Steve Barron. The video features the band in a pencil-sketch animation called rotoscoping combined with live-action. The video won six awards, and was nominated for two others at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards.

Pål Waaktaar and Magne Furuholmen began their music careers playing in a band called Bridges, together with Viggo Bondi and Øystein Jevanord. In 1981 the band produced Fakkeltog (Torch-light parade), an LP for which all of the music was composed by the group themselves, most of it being written by Waaktaar. Soon after, Bridges disbanded. Waaktaar and Furuholmen relocated to London to try their hand in the music industry there, but after six months of disappointment they returned to Norway. The duo decided to try to get Morten Harket to join them as lead singer. At the time, Harket was singing in a band called Souldier Blue, but he felt that his band was stagnating, and decided to join Waaktaar and Furuholmen. They stayed together for six months, writing some songs and working on demo tapes, including "Lesson One," the song that eventually became "Take on Me." In January 1983 the trio returned to London in search of recording a contract.

The band moved into a flat in London and began calling on record companies and publishing houses. After a few meetings with various A&R personnel, the band signed with a publishing house called Lionheart. A-ha then returned to Norway to earn some money. When they returned to London, they left Lionheart out of frustration. They decided to record new demos, and chose the studio of musician and producer John Ratcliff, intending to re-record five songs. The band signed with Ratcliff, who in return introduced them to his manager, Terry Slater. With this encouragement, the band managed to complete some songs, including "Take on Me." After a few meetings, Slater signed them with Warner Bros. Records.

The band met with Tony Mansfield, an expert in the use of computerized synthesizers, who mixed the demos with electronic instrumentation. The sound was not what A-ha had hoped to achieve, and the album was remixed again. The band rushed to release "Take on Me" as a single in the United Kingdom but failed to make an impact. After this, Warner Brothers' main office in the United States decided to invest in the band, and gave them the opportunity to re-record the song. Terry Slater convinced Alan Tarney to produce the new version. The song was soon completed and re-released in the United Kingdom, but the record label's office in London gave them little support, and the single flopped for the second time.

In the United States, Warner Brothers put the group on high priority, and made the move to invest serious money in a revolutionary video for "Take on Me" using the version produced by Tarney. The single was released in the United States a month after the music video, and immediately appeared in the Billboard Hot 100.

Magne played the main melody on a Roland Juno-60 "MIDI'd up" to a Yamaha DX7, but it was a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 which the entire melody was played on in the final studio edit, along with a Linn LM-1 drum machine. The drum machine used on the second and third releases (rotoscoped video version) was a Linn drum machine - Paul overdubbed real cymbals and hi-hat using this drum machine. Morten sang "Take on Me" using a Neumann U47 microphone as well as a Neve microphone pre-amp and Neve equaliser.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• take
• on
• me
• extended
• mix
• original
• version
• a-ha
• aha
• 12
• inch
• 1985
• music
• theretroavenger
• electronica
• new
• wave
• dance
• rare
• 80's

[pizzamau88]

i <3 extended songs !!!!!