Ten For... A-HA (Pt. 1)

A look into ten tracks by an artist whose work you may only know from their hits

It’s been awhile since I did one of these, but when I originally introduced this feature, it was because I wanted to try something a little bit different for the newsletter, and I thought, “Why not try some sort of playlist?” But rather than go through the traditional Spotify playlist format, I decided to put together a collection of ten videos by an artist whose work you probably only know from their singles.

But here’s the thing: when it comes to a-ha, there’s been an unfortunate tendency here in America for radio to treat the band as if they only had one album - 1985’s Hunting High and Low - when, in reality, they’ve actually had TEN albums. And when it comes to their singles, well, yes, you can often find folks who’ll happily remind you that they weren’t just a one-hit wonder here in the U.S., because they also had a top-40 hit with “The Sun Always Shines on TV,” but if you look at their success on the U.K. singles chart, they’ve had 18 top-40 hits, nine of which made their way into the top 10.

As such, I’m going to offer up not just one list but, yes, two lists of 10 great a-ha songs, because I’ve been a fan of the band since “Take on Me” and an obsessive fan since their third album (1988’s Stay on These Roads). Also, even though I’ve tried to avoid including singles in the past, I decided that, in this instance, because of the fact that they’ve had such a low profile here in the States beyond those two aforementioned top-40 hits, I’m going to include songs that were hits elsewhere, because in most cases they’ll still be new to American ears.

Ready? Then here comes Pt. 1…

1. “Here I Stand and Face the Rain” (Hunting High and Low - 1985)

2. “Cry Wolf” (Scoundrel Days - 1986)

3. “Maybe Maybe” (Scoundrel Days - 1986)

4. “Touchy!” (Stay on These Roads - 1988)

5. “You Are the One” (Stay on These Roads - 1988)

6. “Early Morning” (East of the Sun, West of the Moon - 1990)

7. “Seemingly Non-Stop July” (East of the Sun, West of the Moon - 1990)

8. “Dark is the Night for All” (Memorial Beach - 1993)

9. “Cold as Stone” (Memorial Beach - 1993)

10. “Lie Down in Darkness” (Memorial Beach - 1993)

Well, there’s your first 10 tracks. Stay tuned for the second 10 tracks, which’ll be heading your way tomorrow. Until then, however, here’s a bonus video that may also serve as a slight education: it’s a song from a-ha frontman Morten Harket’s 1995 solo album, Wild Seed…and lemme tell ya, trying to get ahold of a copy of this thing in the pre-internet days was a bitch and a half, but it was absolutely worth the trouble.

Morten Harket, “A Kind of Christmas Card”