A-ha 'Manhattan Skyline'

Chart Peak: 13

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The follow-up to 'Cry Wolf' charted at No. 17 on 24th February. Their first six British hits have all made the Top 10.

It famously took the Norwegian trio a while to score a significant UK hit, but once they broke through they had a decent run of chart smashes - rather a better one than you'd expect from their three Now appearances, in fact. This track, despite its promisingly high entry, proved to be the song that broke their run of Top 10 singles. Perhaps the teenybopper audience they'd gained at this stage were beginning to tire of them, or something.

Perhaps the song wasn't quite what their fans wanted. In truth 'Manhattan Skyline' is a bit of a mixed bag, combining a soft ballad-like verse (written by keyboard player Magne Furuholmen) with a loud rock chorus (by guitarist Paul Waaktaar). The two elements fit lyrically as a tale of forced separation, but producer Alan Tarney seems slightly out of his depth; neither part sounds quite right in itself, and they don't fit together at all, though neither is the jump cut dramatic enough to work as an effect in its own right. Perhaps he should have stuck with Cliff Richard. I'm usually the last person to advocate an acoustic cover version over an original, but I have to say that Kings Of Convenience win this one.

Still, this is notable as the first taste of rock music on the album, tucked at the end of Side 3.

Also appearing on: Now 9, 63
Available on: 25

A-Ha 'Hunting High And Low (re-mix)'

Chart Peak: 5

YouTube

Their 4th consecutive UK Top 10 single following 'Take On Me', 'The Sun Always Shines On TV' and 'Train Of Thought', 'Hunting' made No. 5 in June 1986.

It's easy enough to forget now just how big A-Ha were for a while in the mid-eighties: it's especially easy if you use the Now albums as your main source of knowledge, since they were rarely allowed to appear by the label WEA, which preferred to divert them to their rival Hits series. Anyway, after a slow start they were genuine stars with a teen following in Britain which outlasted their brief American success - I remember seeing a feature on the making of this video on children's TV at the time. Doubtless Morten Harket's chiseled good looks contributed to this somewhat but they notched up hits in a way they found it harder to do later in their career.

Obviously they're still best-known for punchier electro-pop anthems, but for my money they play to their strengths better with haunting ballads like this one. Which isn't to say that this is a perfect record by any means - it never quite seems to go anywhere but at least it starts to sound like you might want it to It's aged surprisingly well too, or at least this version has: I've never heard the original album track, but the sleeve and label consistently mention that this is the "re-mix" so this may have been considered a selling point. And let's face it, nobody needs to hear 'Take On Me' ever again.

Also appearing on: Now 9, 63
Available on: Hunting High And Low (Deluxe Edition)