BillboardBoy
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Post by BillboardBoy on Nov 11, 2004 21:05:57 GMT -5
This ranks in my Top 5 songs of 1985. The big draw-back is that it was over 5 minutes long. But it had a great medley.
"Touch me. The sun always shines on TV..."
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620 Soul Train
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Love, Peace, and Sooooul!!!
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Post by 620 Soul Train on Nov 11, 2004 22:03:31 GMT -5
You mean there wasn't a radio edit? Is that you may be telling me? :o I can't find it to save my soul! Anyway I thought that it was an awesome song! Well at least it hit number one in the UK.
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mst3k
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Peese shut mouf.
Back from a 12 year hiatus.
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Post by mst3k on Nov 11, 2004 22:34:59 GMT -5
The single version was "only" 4:30 (still on the longish side).
I like it. Very theatrical sounding.
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Post by Whi$tlin' Pete on Nov 12, 2004 1:26:14 GMT -5
I didn't care much for this song.
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Jeff
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Post by Jeff on Nov 12, 2004 2:46:33 GMT -5
I love the song.I heard it one Sunday afternoon in 2002 (via Absolutely '80s) on a very short-lived '80s station: 105.9 The Maxx (WYJS [now WOAD-FM]; May 27, 2002-January 12, 2003).
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Post by ƒony (Les taches faibles™) on Nov 12, 2004 8:58:22 GMT -5
This peaked at #17 on the BB Hot 100, didn't it? I think it's a-ha's only UK #1. Lovely song
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stevie nice
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Post by stevie nice on Nov 12, 2004 11:45:03 GMT -5
really great song imo, i like it more tham "take on me." the 8 minute plus dance mix is also a great (but dated) sounding hi-nrg remix.
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Post by ƒony (Les taches faibles™) on Nov 12, 2004 11:48:49 GMT -5
Yeah it's great. It's almost up there with my favourite a-ha single "Lifelines"
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Post by reception on Nov 12, 2004 15:03:38 GMT -5
I like it. This is probably one of those songs that gets airplay on one of those syndicated 80's shows.
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620 Soul Train
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Post by 620 Soul Train on Nov 13, 2004 17:29:18 GMT -5
This peaked at #17 on the BB Hot 100, didn't it? I think it's a-ha's only UK #1. Lovely song No, as a matter of fact the song barely even made the top 20 reaching #20 on the Hot 100. However the good news is that it charted even higher on the R&R CHR charts at ...you guessed it #17.
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jdcfan
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Post by jdcfan on Mar 1, 2006 0:28:14 GMT -5
After listening to this song a few more times, I'm liking it more.
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Hervard
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Post by Hervard on Mar 1, 2006 9:40:32 GMT -5
I'm surprised that this song got as high as it did on the R&R chart, especially with the way it climbed the chart slowly in its first few weeks. Of course, that was around the time that R&R seemed to have its own recurrent rule. Every single week back in 1985, #40 was a debut song and near the end, it looked like they were eliminating all declining action below #30. One week, three songs, all of them #25 or above, were dropped from the chart and the songs that debuted in their place took awhile to wind up (reminiscent of the charts from 1981 or so). For instance, "Life In A Northern Town" by the Dream Academy - the run was 40-37-32-24, etc. By the songs initial chart numbers, one would think "Top 15 at best" while the song, in fact, made it into the Top Five. The beginning of A-ha's chart climb: 39-36-34-31... I expected the song to barely touch the Top 30, but it picked up steam the next week and moved up five spots.
Oh yeah, my opinion of the song - pretty good. As Aaron remarked, it was very theatrical sounding. Almost sounds like something that Jim Steinman would write.
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stevie nice
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Post by stevie nice on Mar 1, 2006 12:02:59 GMT -5
great chart analysis snippage I really love ready your chart analysis' Uli. :)
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jdcfan
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Post by jdcfan on Mar 1, 2006 13:56:46 GMT -5
I really love ready your chart analysis' Uli. :) I agree. Thanks for that info. Not surprisingly, this song very rarely gets played on radio these days. Someone posted the music video on YouTube recently. Here is the link: youtube.com/watch?v=6C1fjfSysaI
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BillboardBoy
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Post by BillboardBoy on Mar 3, 2006 11:02:25 GMT -5
Did this song ever get played on AT40 Flashback?
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Hervard
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Post by Hervard on Mar 3, 2006 11:40:05 GMT -5
Did this song ever get played on AT40 Flashback? Yes it did, on one of the first AT40 Flashback shows; the January 18, 1986 show, and it wasn't in the Top 30 yet. Had they eliminated the first hour during the whole run, that song wouldn't have been heard on the Flashback show, since they never did anything from February, 1986, when the song was charting (though there was a show from that month on the XM radio list, which used mostly Flashback shows (as well as planned Flashback shows; if you've seen the list, you might have noticed a few of the "early years" shows on the list).
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johnnywest
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Post by johnnywest on Sept 4, 2006 21:17:06 GMT -5
I like this song a lot.
Looking at the previous posts in this thread, I was surprised to learn that R&R had a recurrent rule back in the 80s. I thought that was something Billboard had come up with in the 90s.
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COW COW COW COW COW COW COW
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Post by COW COW COW COW COW COW COW on Sept 4, 2006 22:10:19 GMT -5
What was the name of their big hit again? LOL, I never have even heard the song that made #1. They only had two big hits in the U.S. - this song and the other one... Nonetheless, Milk Inc. did a cover of it...
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Disco🌶️📖
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Post by Disco🌶️📖 on Sept 4, 2006 23:27:04 GMT -5
What was the name of their big hit again? LOL, I never have even heard the song that made #1. They only had two big hits in the U.S. - this song and the other one... Nonetheless, Milk Inc. did a cover of it... "Take on Me" was that other song.
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Pet Shop Boy
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Post by Pet Shop Boy on Sept 5, 2006 4:53:17 GMT -5
Brilliant song. I like it much better than Take On Me. U2 sampled this heavily on their hit 'Beautiful Day'.
A-Ha's best song though is 'Summer Moved On'. Morten Harket's vocal on that is flat out AMAZING. It holds the record for longest note held by a male singer on a top 40 single I believe.
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Hervard
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Post by Hervard on Sept 5, 2006 11:02:27 GMT -5
I like this song a lot. Looking at the previous posts in this thread, I was surprised to learn that R&R had a recurrent rule back in the 80s. I thought that was something Billboard had come up with in the 90s. Well, I don't know if there actually was a recurrent rule, but it just seemed that way in late 1985 with the way so many songs dropped off from high positions, plus every week that year, number 40 was a debut song whereas every other year (that the chart was Top 40, that is), there were several weeks with a non-debut at number 40, an unlikely situation. Moreover, in 1983, the charts during the latter half of the year, shortly after they expanded to 40, looked suspicious, like there was some type of recurrent rule. If there was, it was obviously an arbitrary one.
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Post by areyoureadytojump on Apr 5, 2007 12:01:41 GMT -5
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WotUNeed
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Post by WotUNeed on Apr 17, 2009 14:43:00 GMT -5
Don't think I'll ever get tired of this one. Awesome song.
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shadster
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Post by shadster on Apr 19, 2009 22:35:05 GMT -5
You know Rick Dees would very often make the joke that Aha's entire chart career was "Take On me". ANd yet I'm sure he counted down "The sun always shines on TV" in 1986! It is a great song. I have only 1 recording of it that I know of, recorded off-air in Feb '86. I'll hafta check to see if its a 'radio edit'.
BUT, I just recently aquired the AT40 Flashback show from 1/18/86. Perhaps I'll try an post the mp3 cut from THAT recording, if anyones interested. It appears the song was at #36 that week
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620 Soul Train
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Post by 620 Soul Train on Apr 22, 2009 0:49:08 GMT -5
You know Rick Dees would very often make the joke that Aha's entire chart career was "Take On me". ANd yet I'm sure he counted down "The sun always shines on TV" in 1986! It is a great song. I have only 1 recording of it that I know of, recorded off-air in Feb '86. I'll hafta check to see if its a 'radio edit'. BUT, I just recently aquired the AT40 Flashback show from 1/18/86. Perhaps I'll try an post the mp3 cut from THAT recording, if anyones interested. It appears the song was at #36 that week AT40 was up and down with this one. One week they'd play the full LP version and then the next week they'd play the single version. As a matter of fact they did that with several songs just to lengthen the "show time" as most realize.
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Post by busyboy on Sept 16, 2010 15:22:47 GMT -5
I only really got into this a couple months ago. I love it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2010 6:36:35 GMT -5
This is my favourite by them. They made some great 80s pop, but actually they're still going and occasionally put out a great single here and there.
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johnnywest
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Post by johnnywest on Dec 25, 2014 11:49:11 GMT -5
My favorite from them as well. I prefer it to "Take On Me" although I love both.
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gonecountry
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Post by gonecountry on Feb 20, 2015 22:44:38 GMT -5
5 times better than Take on Me, which is also not a bad song.
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Post by roadrunner on Aug 12, 2022 14:12:01 GMT -5
I don’t know why but I rediscovered this song and have been listening to it every day. I even bought the song. And there is an “unplugged” (mtv) version on YouTube. There are some piano covers on YT that are so good. I’ve heard “Take on Me” 500 million times and like it, but I ❤️ this one even more. I don’t understand the lyrics much but the music is genius.
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