This song became a hit in the US because of its innovative video where a cartoon figure beckons the reader to join him in comic. A week later, the song also reached its UK chart peak, coming in at #2 behind ' The Power Of Love' by Jennifer Rush. The song continued to climb the charts until it hit #1 on October 19, where it stayed for one week. When MTV picked it up, radio stations also played the song, and by August it was in the US Top 40. promoted the song through the video, getting movie theaters to show it before films and eventually getting it on MTV. A promotional single was released at the same time with stills from the video in the sleeve art. The video was released in May 1985, and used the new version of the song produced by Alan Tarney. Then I saw a picture of the band, and it was like, Do people actually look like this? Morten Harket was one of the best-looking men in the world.'Īyeroff commissioned a new video, hiring Steve Barron, whose work included ' Don't You Want Me' by The Human League and ' Billie Jean' by Michael Jackson, to direct. In the book I Want My MTV, he said: 'I fell in love with the song. Around this time, a record company executive named Jeff Ayeroff moved from A&M to Warner Bros., and championed the song. A video was made for this version that was remarkably undistinguished compared with the one that came after.Īt Slater's suggestion, they re-recorded the song with producer Alan Tarney, who beefed it up with more instrumentation and energy. Released as a single only in Europe, it went to #3 in their native Norway, but didn't chart anywhere else, flopping particularly hard in the UK. In early 1984, they re-wrote the song as 'Take On Me' and recorded it with producer Tony Mansfield. In 1983, the song got the attention of industry veteran Terry Slater, who became their manager and helped them secure a contract with Warner Bros. A-ha wrote and recorded the first version of this song in 1982 with the title 'Lesson One' - it had different lyrics but contained the basic keyboard riff.

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