Iconic hit “Take On Me” has become only the second ’80s music video to notch more than one billion views on YouTube.
The song was released by A-ha, a Norwegian pop trio, in 1985, and was added to YouTube in January 2010 and has been averaging about 480,000 views a day!
To celebrate the newest member of the Billion-Views Club there is a special offer for a-ha fans available exclusively from the Rhino Store .
Items includes:
- VHS tape of “Take On Me”
- Exclusive print signed by all three members of a-ha
- T-shirt designed by the video’s original animators Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger
- Exclusive three print set from the “Take On Me” era sketched by Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger
🔓JUST UNLOCKED🔓 – The #TakeOnMe1BN Capsule Collection
➡️ Limited Edition 12”x12” art print, hand-signed by Morten, Magne and Paul
➡️ VHS tape of the official music video
➡️ T-Shirt, newly designed by the original music video animators
➡️ Exclusive A3 sketch print set pic.twitter.com/9k8ZD97JBR— a-ha (@aha_com) February 18, 2020
Originally released in 1985, the official music video for “Take On Me” was recently restored and upgraded to 4K resolution to improve its visual quality. Directed by Steve Barron, the video captured audiences’ imaginations around the world with its groundbreaking mix of pencil-sketch animation and live action. This illustration technique – known as rotoscoping – required live-action footage to be hand traced frame by frame. To complete the video, artists Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger spent 16 weeks rotoscoping thousands of frames.
‘’I remember seeing the video after a long, long time. First, we saw it just with the live action edited and then it took another 3-6 months of drawing, hand drawing…it’s like more than 10,000 drawings for the animated parts. When you saw everything together, it was just like wow! This is just better than expectations, this is just amazing! The artistry of the animator, combined with the clear narrative idea of a love affair across dimensions,’’ notes Magne Furuholmen.
Revisit the ‘Making Of’ both the song and its video by watching the three-part documentary on YouTube here:
The video for “Take On Me” helped fuel a global phenomenon in 1985 as the song went to #1 in 36 different countries and became one of the best-selling singles of all time. In 1986, the video received six MTV Music Awards and was nominated for favorite pop/rock video at the American Music Awards.
