Song of the Day 1/27: A-ha, “Take on Me”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona
There’s a scene in the Oscar-winning movie “La La Land” where we see a musician noodling on a synthesizer in a band at a pool party. Played by Ryan Gosling, he’s really a sensitive jazz guy at heart, so we’re supposed to feel sorry for him stuck in this mess.
But as I watched, I began to realize that the “pop schlock” he was playing sounded pretty darned good. It soared. It got the blood flowing.
The 1986 song was ”Take On Me” by the Norwegian synth-pop group A-ha. It had long existed in my guilty-pleasure file, but now I moved it to the front. I’ve since discovered I share my enthusiasm with a lot serious music critics who don’t feel guilty at all.
A-ha is thought of as a one-hit wonder here because, well, they only had one hit in this country. But the group continued to be a big seller throughout Europe and is the best-selling group of all time in Norway.
“Take On Me” got a big boost from MTV. It was the right song and video at the right time and place. The video featured elaborate animation (with motorcycles), a lead singer with carefully constructed hair (not for nothing were these known as haircut bands) and a pretty young actress playing a pretty young girl in a cafe who’s fascinated by drawings of the elusive singer. The New Romantic synth-pop sound was huge at the time. Other practitioners included Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Depeche Mode.
In the movie, the next song from the pool-party band was “I Ran” by A Flock of Seagulls. And I thought, hmm, that doesn’t so bad either.
Did not care for La La Land, found the songs forgettable and uninspired. But there is some red hot jazz piano at times, including one lick were I had no idea how he did it.