Knowing Them, A-Ha

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Every week, we give away a voucher worth twenty five euros to spend freely wherever you see the Golden Discs sign.

All we ask from you is a tune we can share.

This week’s theme: A-Ha

Norway?

Yes, way.

To celebrate A-Ha’s reunion tour what song – apart from Take on Me – from the underrated chiselled Norwegian trio still gives you the pop chills?

To enter, please complete this sentence.

‘Apart from ‘Take on Me’, I am rather fond of A-Ha’s_____________________owing to its________________’

Lines MUST close at 10.45pm

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42 thoughts on “Knowing Them, A-Ha

  1. les rock

    apart from ahas take on me i am rather fond of Hunting high and low. I got one of my first kisses to that song at a school disco

  2. Bertie Blenkinsop

    Apart from ‘Take on Me’, I am rather fond of A-Ha’s “The Sun Always Shines on TV” although possibly not as much as U2 were when penning “Beautiful Day”. :)

  3. Fairhill

    Apart from Take on me
    I am rather fond of the Soft Rains of April, and how it doesn’t travel well. No Soft rains in Ireland during April

  4. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

    Hunting High and Low. Anybody who has had the honour of listening to me caterwauling my way through that song will understand how thrilling it is. Also, the video was pretty gosh-darned amazing for its time.

      1. Daisy Chainsaw

        MortenHortenForten still has cheekbones you could cut yourself on.

        Poor Pål looks like you’d put coins in his coffee cup.

        1. Andyourpointiswhatexactly?

          Yeah, but I think he’s had work done. He’s got that shiny look. Mags is the real deal.
          Look at me, defending my man. Hear me ROAR!
          You’re exactly right about Pål. He looks like an undernourished Dickensian barrow boy behind the other two.

  5. Bruncvik

    Apart from ‘Take on Me’, I am rather fond of A-Ha’s Crying In The Rain. That’s what I feel like doing whenever Dublin Bus passes me without stopping because it’s too full.

    1. Andrew

      + 1 on Crying in the Rain. It’s such a different take to the Everly Brothers and is quite haunting. I only listend to it the other day. It’s excellent!
      After that, it’s The un Always Shines on TV.

  6. Nigel

    Did they do a James Bond theme? Was it A View To A Kill? Was that the one with Grace Jones? Am I doing this right?

    1. martco

      close Nigel but not scandanavian enough, twas Duran Duran (cool but nowhere as near cool) for View To A Kill
      BUT they did Living Daylights themetune which unfortunately starred that plank Timothy Dalton as Bond who stands out a mile as worst Bond ever ever ever

      anyway regards A-Ha:

      Apart from ‘Take on Me’, I am rather fond of A-Ha’s “The Sun Always Shines On TV” owing to the fact that:
      1) the first time I noticed it atall was when watching a highlights segment (with it as the background music) of a horse called Sean Kelly doing a timetrial & utterly ruining everyone else on the road that day & demonstrating definite proof to me that we should allow cyclists take whatever they want in order to be the best and win at all costs…& I went out & found & bought the 12″ (google it) that weekend which is on de shelf at home here to this day
      2) my future to be Mrs Martco including it on a mixtape (google it) she did up for me when we started going out together, her 2nd favourite song after…you’ve guessed it
      3) because they can still bang out the song good and proper, see here for proof (54:30 ish onwards) unusually A-Ha were actually a competent outfit

      https://youtu.be/6UKZJBqdEnU?t=3274

  7. The Bad Ambassador

    Apart from ‘Take on Me’, I am rather fond of A-Ha’s “The Sun Always Shines On TV” owing to its being the only A-Ha song I know which is not “Take On Me”

  8. Darragh

    Apart from ‘Take on Me’, I am rather fond of A-Ha’s ‘A View to a Kill’ owing to it being ‘just as cheesy as the movie and the only James Bond theme song to have reached Number 1 in the charts, absolute banger’

  9. Fairy Queen

    Deffo ‘The Sun Always Shines on TV’ as once I hear it I am transported back to 1985. In 5th yr in school, crinkly perms and bad haircuts. We were for the first time (in Dublin) getting Superchannel and a SKY TV channel – piped in by Cablelink which meant we were no longer relying on Top of the Pops or Saturday morning TV to see the current chart videos. We had gone from 6 channels to 8. Who remembers Pat Sharpe’s top 40, the Coca Cola top 40 – which was mostly hosted by loud Europeans with dodgy accents. And Morten Harket. Those cheekbones. Yes indeedy, the sun always did shine on TV when you were 16

    1. martco

      Pat Sharpe’s top 40…that’s something I haven’t heard spoken of in a long time!
      and Dutch? SKY TV

      if the cheekbones is your thing check out my link above, plenty of closeups for u there, has aged well the man has…I actually thought that the keyboard fella Magnus? was cooler tho

  10. artfoley

    Apart from ‘Take on Me’, I am rather fond of A-Ha’s hunting high and low owing to its errr haunting highs and low

  11. 3Cees

    ‘Apart from ‘Take on Me’, I am rather fond of A-Ha’s The Sun Always Shines on TV owing to the fact that this song opened the gig I went to in the Point and I almost wet myself with excitement – still sometimes feel a surge of adrenalin when the song comes on.

  12. Halla

    Apart from ‘Take on Me’, I am rather fond of A-Ha’s ‘Manhattan Skyline’ owing to its utter fabness as a song and the fact it kids on all the way through it’s a dramatic New York story only to reveal right in the last line it’s a picture in a paper and they’re probably hanging playing out this heartbreaking story back in Norway somewhere, which just isn’t quite as romantic somehow.

  13. RandomNoise

    Got to be Hunting High and Low. Beautiful, melancholic tune with casual minor key changes dappled here and there. Also love the slightly second language feel of the lyrics – the “I guess” sounds slightly studied, but scans perfectly in the line. Timeless, whether heard on the cassette copy of their album I robbed from my older brother when I was a nipper, or on the YouTube video of their Royal Albert Hall gig in 2010 – https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XIoNCUDGZSY. Legends.

  14. Johnny Keenan

    Apart from ‘Take On Me’, I am rather fond of A-Ha’s
    ‘Living A Boy’s Adventure Tale’. Because this was written for me. I was 11 and a boy-scout. In 1986 I was gettin ready for a week in Curracloe. So my adventures were massive. As I listened to this song on loop in my tent all summer long. When I wasn’t out and about adventuring by swinging a stick and kicking turnips.
    I loved ‘Hunting High and Low’. It was the first cassette I bought. I saw ‘Take On Me’ on MT-USA. It was a great video but it wasn’t until I heard ‘Hunting High And Low’ the single that I decided to buy the album.
    The single had such a free spirit about it. The eagle sample was other worldly. When I Found out they were from Norway I became captivated. They were my favorite band. Made all the more favorite when half the family went to collect my sister in a Sunny Datsun from the Gaeltacht in Conamara. We hadn’t seen her for weeks, it seemed like years. Anyway she bought me an A-Ha flat cap in Clifden.
    They boys were cool then and still cool now.

  15. digs

    This is too easy. Most of you are just naming songs…

    The most beautiful AHA song, and indeed one of the finest Scandinavian pop perfect songs written by a band other than ABBA is, “Stay on These Roads”.
    It soars like a cheesetastic zeplin!
    I spent a year or two playing it on repeat at 3am every morning with my infant son’s head burrowed into my shoulder when he woke up crying! Never failed to soothe him…
    I wouldn’t be a popular winner, but if you got an independent body to actually adjudicate, it’d be a no brainer.
    here ya go…the live version!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDbRmAx76rM

  16. Paddy at the Howth Summit

    ‘Apart from ‘Take on Me’, I am rather fond of A-Ha’s The Sun Always Shines on TV owing to its suitability for the Irish political patriarchal jobs for the boys’ mentality of the Sun Always Shines on CV.

  17. Rugbyfan

    ‘Apart from ‘Take on Me’, I am rather fond of A-Ha’s Take on Me on the MTV unplugged Summer Soltice album released last year owing to its haunting brilliant lyrics in a different setting, a voice that melts it audience, and it’s ability to bring us back to being a kid again. Google it, listen to it….. enjoy.

  18. Penfold

    Apart from ‘Take on Me’, I am rather fond of A-Ha’s “Scoundrel Days” owing to its intro and Harket’s soaring vocals. Not released as a single from the self titled album, which is a shame (nor the second track “The swing of things”, as they were probably my favourite from the album.

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