“Take On Me” can turn a cheerful karaoke night into a serious vocal workout. However, a-ha’s famous high notes did not guarantee success when the song first arrived on October 19, 1984, 42 years ago today.
Initially, the Norwegian trio’s debut single attracted little interest outside their home country. According to the Los Angeles Times, that first release sold about 300 copies, despite the keyboard hook listeners around the world would later recognize.
What makes a-ha’s “Take On Me” so difficult to sing?
Famously, Rolling Stone described the song as having “one of the hardest-to-sing choruses in pop history.” Throughout the recording, singer Morten Harket moves across more than two and a half octaves, reaching into falsetto.
However, the singer has pointed to a different challenge behind the finished performance. Rather than focusing on those soaring notes, he wanted the verses to carry the right rhythm.
“People think the chorus is the hard part in Take on Me, but they’re wrong,” Harket said. “The hard part was making the verses bounce.”
How did “Take On Me” finally become a worldwide hit?
Later, producer Alan Tarney helped a-ha record the better-known 1985 version. Alongside that new recording, director Steve Barron created a video that pulled viewers into a pencil-drawn comic-book romance.
Instead of relying on standard animation alone, the team traced filmed action frame by frame. This process, called rotoscoping, helped connect the real actors with their drawn surroundings.
Meanwhile, the video’s MTV exposure brought the band to a wider audience. Eventually, “Take On Me” topped the Billboard Hot 100 on October 19, 1985, exactly one year after its original release.
Although both milestones share a date, they celebrate different recordings and stages of the song’s journey. Today marks 42 years since the first single and 41 since its American chart triumph.
