A-ha "Take On Me"

"The record is doing really well in Europe" is an old, rock music joke. It's a kind of vague, not easily verifiable, seems-plausible-but-could-be-b.s. claim.

By 1990 enough time had passed since the success of A-ha's "Take On Me" to officially dismiss the band as a one hit wonder.

Unless you were from Norway.

In 1990 Ken was our college roommate, on exchange from Oslo. A-ha was from his hometown.

And if the subject of A-ha ever came up (and if it DID come up, it was filed under the heading: Mockery), Ken would insist, in pleading, near-perfect English:

"They are a very big band! They have many, many hits!"

He generally had an unreceptive audience to his "Big In Europe" claim. In fact, it was a generally sarcastic audience. And the conversation would generally devolve into us singing the final chorus howl (at 3:25 on the Youtube Video).

"I'll beeee gooooodd!!! FfruurrrEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"



And lest you think Ken was wrong, here is there other hit---an International #1 Hit, that they reprised, by request at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 1998.