A-ha hit #1 with “Take on Me”

Take on Me A-ha

Writer(s): Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket, Pål Waaktaar (see lyrics here) Released: October 19, 1984 First Charted: July 13, 1985 Peak: 11 US, 12 BA, 12 CB, 13 RR, 4 AC, 2 UK, 2 CN, 12 AU, 2 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.46 US, 0.5 UK, 7.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 4.0 radio, 1066.3 video, 1469.22 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Magne “Mags” Furuholmen and Pål Waaktaar became friends at 12 years old in the Oslo, Norway suburb where they grew up. They met singer Morten Harket while playing school dances and club dates in a band called Britches. The trio eventually went to London where, in 1983, they started shopping demo tapes to record companies. They eventually caught the attention of John Ratcliff, the studio manager where a-ha worked. Ratcliff and Terry Slater, formerly of EMI, offered to manage the band and arranged a showcase which included executies from RCA, CBS, EMI, and Warner Brothers – the latter of whom signed the band. FB Originally the trio wanted a Norwegian name which people could say in English. However, when Mags saw a song in Pål’s notebook called “A-ha” it seemed like a great name. FB The band first recorded “Take on Me” in 1984. It reached #3 in Norway, but didn’t gain an international audience. The group went back to the studio to re-record the song at Slater’s suggestion. Producer Alan Tarney “beefed it up with more instrumentation and energy.” SF The resulting synthpop tune combined keyboards, a drum machine, and acoustic guitars with Harket’s voices reaching higher notes throughout the song. WK In the United States, Jeff Ayeroff championed the song at Warner Bros. and commissioned a new video for it. He hired Steve Barron, who did the Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” to direct. SF He crafted a revolutionary video which combined live action and pencil-sketch animation. The roughly 3000 rotoscaped frames took 16 weeks to complete. WK It caught fire, garnering heavy rotation on MTV and eventually winning six awards at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards. As of September 2019, the video still gets about a half million views a day. WK It ranks as one of the top three videos of all-time according to Dave’s Music Database, behind only Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer.” The video helped the song achieve international success. It finally charted in the UK, hitting #2. It went to #1 on the Eurochart for 9 weeks and topped the singles charts in 36 countries, including Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Swden, and Switzerland. WK The song has been described by All Music Guide’s Tim DiGravina as “a new wave classic.” WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for A-ha FB Fred Bronson (2007). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (4th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 619. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/2/2019; last updated 7/23/2023.

Dire Straits hit #1 with “Money for Nothing”

Money for Nothing Dire Straits

Writer(s): Mark Knopfler, Sting (see lyrics here) Released: June 24, 1985 First Charted: June 1, 1985 Peak: 13 US, 14 CB, 13 GR, 13 RR, 13 AR, 4 UK, 11 CN, 4 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.6 UK, 3.13 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 5.0 radio, 417.61 video, 496.49 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Money for Nothing” was significant in reframing how Dire Straits were viewed as a band. Through four albums, they’d established themselves as a critics’ favorite, but they’d slipped a bit commercially since their debut album reached #2 in the U.S. and sold two million copies. With their fifth album, Brothers in Arms, the band became a commercial juggernaut. The #1 album sold 32 million copies worldwide on the strength of songs like “Walk of Life” – “a delightful, jaunty single with a touch of rockabilly” – TC and “Money for Nothing,” “the knockout punch” which “satirized MTV and rock stardom while getting high rotation MTV exposure.” TC The song “is proof that inspiration can strike anywhere.” SJ It owes its existence to an appliance store. Dire Straits’ frontman Mark Knopfler and his wife Lourdes were shopping for kitchen supplies. They overheard a delivery man commenting on the wall of television sets tuned to MTV. As Knopfler said, “I managed to eavesdrop for a couple of minutes, then I got a piece of paper and started writing down the lines.” TB He wrote down lines like, “That ain’t workin’” and that these artists got “money for nothing and chicks for free.” WK Knopfler sat down at a table in the store to write down some of the actual comments. As he said, “I wanted to use a lot of the language that the real guy actually used…It just went better with the song. It was more muscular.” FB One line about “that little faggot with the earring and the make-up” generated controversy. Knopfler commented on the attacks that the song was homophobic. “An editor of Gay News attacked the song. What surprises me is that an intelligent journalist can misunderstand it.” Knopfler also said, “The same thing happened when Randy Newman recorded ‘Short People,’ a song that was clearly about the stupidity of prejudice.” FB The video played up that idea, featuring computer-animated versions of two working-class guys commenting on music videos. It was considered groundbreaking for its early use of computer animation and won MTV’s Video of the Year award. The director, Steve Barron, also helmed A-ha’s “Take on Me,” another widely celebrated video for its innovative use of animation. “Money for Nothing” was the first video played on MTV Europe when the network launched on August 1, 1987. WK Sting got a reluctant credit on the song. The band were recording in Montserrat. The bassist, John Illsley, said Sting was there windsurfing “and he came up for supper at the studio. We played him ‘Money for Nothing’” and Mark suggested Sting add something to it. WK Sting contributed the classic “I want my MTV” lines, sung to the melody of “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” by his band The Police. For that, Sting’s publishing company insisted he get a share of the profits from the song. Illsley relayed that “Sting said that it was completely ridiculous, but you know what record companies are like.” FB Resources: FB Fred Bronson (2007). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (4th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 617. BC Brad Carl (2015). 50 Songs from the 70s and 80s That Still Hold Up. Pages 38-39. RC Rod Couch (2015). The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era: 1955-2015. Page 201. TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Page 645. SJ Bob Shannon and John Javna (1986). Behind the Hits: Inside Stories of Classic Pop and Rock and Roll. Warner Brothers, Inc.: New York, NY. Page 153. SF Songfacts TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 218. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/15/2019; last updated 4/29/2024.