Take on Me (partially found instrumental demo take of a-ha song; 1983)

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A-ha - Take On Me (1984 Single).jpg

The 1984 single cover of Take On Me.

Status: Partially Found

A-ha (usually stylised as a-ha) is a Norwegian Synth-pop trio formed in 1982 consisting of lead singer Morten Harket, keyboardist Magne Furuholmen, and guitarist Pål Waaktaar-Savoy. The band saw international success in 1985 following the release of their hit song Take On Me and its innovative music video. It took the band several rewrites and releases of Take On Me for it to become the big hit it's known as today, with the earliest recording of the song dating back to 1981 and being by a different band Pål and Magne were in[1].

Lost Instrumental Demo

Despite how many iterations Take On Me has gone through up until its 1985 release on the album Hunting High And Low, most of these early versions have been included on archival releases or became public in some form. One of the few known exceptions to this is an instrumental take of the song which has never seen an official release outside of a 40 second snippet in a 2005 documentary by NRK[2].

This demo was recorded in 1983, likely at Rendezvous studios where a-ha recorded most of their demos at the time[3]. It's a different take to the one officially released by a-ha in 2004 and 2010, however both versions were likely recorded around the same time. It's unknown whether or not vocals were recorded for this take. As of August 2022, this NRK documentary remains the only source of this unreleased demo.

Availability

An official release of this demo is entirely plausible, with a-ha's manager confirming that a 6 disc deluxe edition of Hunting High And Low is in the works as of March 2022[4]. It is also possible that it has leaked into private traders' circles[5] as many other a-ha demos have in the past (as far back as the mid-80's). Most of these trader exclusive recordings stay unavailable to the general public for many years. It was long believed that a collection of leaked demos known as Most Wanted from 2009 may have contained the demo, however this has since been confirmed false (it only includes an instrumental version of the released 1983 demo).

Gallery

0:10 The only circulating snippet of the instrumental take (Narration from documentary removed with Audacity).

The officially released 1983 demo take with vocals (released on The Demo Tapes in 2004 and Hunting High And Low (Deluxe Edition) in 2010).

The leaked instrumental mix of the released 1983 demo from the Most Wanted compilation.

References