Liner Notes · No. 001
"Take On Me" by a-ha: the B-side
Quick hall pass: the song that flopped twice now has a billion YouTube views, a stadium world record and a Family Guy cameo. Here's the B-side.
📰 FAST FACTS
- “Take On Me” hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1985, on its third try. (Billboard)
- The video won six MTV Video Music Awards in 1986, including Best Direction and Best Special Effects. (MTV)
- Rock in Rio, January 1991: 198,000 paying fans, a world record. (Guinness World Records)
- The official video passed one billion YouTube views on February 17, 2020. (YouTube)
On this record
TRACK 1 · My pick
The version I can't stop replaying
Ellie's acoustic cover from The Last of Us turned a synth-pop dance hit into one voice and one guitar. It shouldn't work. It does.
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The pick: Ellie's, from The Last of Us. In the 2020 game, Ellie finds a guitar in an abandoned Seattle music store. Society collapsed, every grocery store got looted, and nobody took the guitars. Musicians everywhere: not surprised. She plays "Take On Me." HBO put the scene on screen in May 2025, with Bella Ramsey playing it for real (Season 2, Episode 4, "Day One"). The showrunners called it one of the most important scenes of the season. Not the one with the monsters. The a-ha cover.
Why it works: A synth-pop dance hit, stripped down to one voice and one guitar. On paper this is a terrible idea. That falsetto is not campfire material: your uncle tried it once and the dog left the room. It hits harder anyway.
"The talent of these young actors amazes me. If you play guitar, you know it's NOT easy to sing and play at the same time, let alone sound good. Bella's performance is simple, and it brings so much to the scene."
CW · HALLPASS
Pop quiz: how many frames did the animators draw by hand for the video?
No Googling. We'll know.
That's Side A. Flip the tape.
Side B is where it gets weird:
- The night 198,000 people showed up, and the music press acted like it didn't happen.
- A ska band, Weezer and a cartoon family, all helping themselves to a-ha's song.
- The duet Morten Harket just released, 40 years after that falsetto.
Free, every Tuesday. One song, the story you never heard, and a 10-minute hall pass from the doomscroll. Already subscribed? Enter your email to unlock.
▶ SIDE B
TRACK 2 · The live one
198,000 people and the critics were "busy"
January 1991, Rock in Rio: 198,000 paying fans, a Guinness World Record. The music press barely covered it.
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The night: Rock in Rio II, Maracanã Stadium, January 1991. a-ha played to 198,000 paying fans, a Guinness World Record for the biggest paying rock concert crowd. They outdrew Prince, Guns N' Roses and George Michael at the same festival. Read that again. Prince.
The snub: Three of the biggest acts on the planet, outdrawn by the band your cousin called "the cartoon ones." The music press barely covered it. Critics had already filed a-ha under one-hit wonder and didn't feel like redoing the paperwork. Brazil didn't get the memo. Brazil never gets the memo. Brazil just shows up.
TRACK 3 · Cover watch
Everyone wanted a turn (not everyone earned one)
Ska horns, a seated Unplugged ballad and Weezer in a mullet. Play them all below, then vote.
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- 1996 · Reel Big Fish. A ska-punk version with horns, because in 1996 everything had horns. It ended up in the 1998 comedy BASEketball, starring the two guys who make South Park. Of course it did.
- 2017 · a-ha themselves. On MTV Unplugged they slowed it into a ballad, which is what bands do once their knees file a formal complaint. It showed up again in Deadpool 2. Yes, really. The guy in the red suit has taste.
- 2019 · Weezer. Their video casts Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard, in a mullet, as young Rivers Cuomo, and cuts between live footage and pencil animation. Same trick, 34 years later, worse haircut. Weezer have covered so many songs by now that they're basically a jukebox with a guitar tech.
▶ WATCH THE CONTENDERS
Battle of the versions: which "Take On Me" wins?
Cast your vote. Results in the next issue. Choose carefully: we're judging you.
TRACK 4 · The cameo
Family Guy steals the hand
In 2005, Family Guy pulled Chris into the pencil-sketch world with zero setup. Everyone got the joke.
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The gag: Family Guy, 2005. Chris gets pulled out of a supermarket and into the pencil-sketch world. No setup, no explanation. The joke only works because everyone watching knew the video by heart. Which, if you're reading this, you do. Congratulations: your childhood is now a reference.
TRACK 5 · Where are they now
Where a-ha is now
Morten Harket shared his Parkinson's diagnosis in June 2025. He kept singing: a new duet with his daughter, and a solo album.
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The news: In June 2025, Morten Harket shared that he has Parkinson's disease. He'd already had deep brain stimulation surgery, and he said the condition has affected his voice.
The comeback: He kept singing. On September 25 he released "Hold Me," a duet with his daughter Tomine. It's the first single from Human Grace, his first solo album in 12 years, out November 27. Much of it was recorded before the diagnosis and finished after. Forty years after that falsetto, it's worth four minutes of your time.
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