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Every day, I get dozens of e-mail press releases about music. Being such a music lover, this is by no means a hardship. Many of them, though, are pretty useless since a lot of them are about bands on tours that won’t hit NEPA.

One e-mail caught my eye last week. It was entitled “a-ha’s Farewell Tour: First US Shows in Over 20 Years.”

My first thought: Why would a band that hasn't been heard from in decades and only had one hit do a farewell tour? It’s a valid question, yes? My second thought was more of a memory because I really, really loved that one hit, “Take On Me.”

It was a great song, and remember the video? It was so innovative for its time that it really changed the way music videos were made.

According to the press release, the Norwegian band — Morten Harket, Magne Furuholmen and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy — sold more than 35 million albums in the course of its 25-year career. “Take On Me” went No. 1 in 27 countries, was played 3 million times on American Radio — “the equivalent of 375 times a day for 22 years” — and earned a Guinness World Record for the largest audience ever at a paid concert: 196,000 at Maracana Stadium in Rio De Janeiro in 1991.

And my bad, a-ha’s latest CD, “Foot of the Mountain,” put the band back in the U.K. Top 5 last year, so I guess it had been heard from after all.

More than all those accolades I just informed you of, a-ha holds another distinct honor that wasn’t in the press release. It’s a glaring omission and one that, quite frankly, upsets me greatly.

In 1985, at the height of a-ha’s popularity, my papa took me to the Gallery of Sound in the Dallas Shopping Center to buy the band’s debut album “Hunting High and Low.” I was 8 years old, and “Take On Me” was my favorite song. But even more monumental than me buying the album is this little tidbit: It was my very first music purchase.

I’ll say it again. a-ha’s “Hunting High and Low” was the very first bit of music this music lover bought. It was a white cassette tape, and I made my parents put it in the tape player in our big, brown “living-room-on-wheels” Ford van on the way from the record store to our dinner at Yester-Days. Talk about a trip down memory lane.

The U.S. leg of a-ha’s worldwide tour begins today, Thursday, May 6, at the Nokia Theater in New York City and ends Sunday, May 16 at Club Nokia Live in Los Angeles. The trio will perform together for the last time in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 4. Find more info at www.a-ha.com.

Do yourself a favor and watch the “Take On Me” video I’ve so kindly given a link for here. Do you still know all the words like I do?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EXxMlIExpo

About the Author

Nikki M. Mascali began her career at the Weekender as an intern in 2005 - and holds the honor of being the oldest intern the paper ever had. She received her degree in journalism from Luzerne County Community College in 2007 and joined the Weekender staff full-time in 2006 as staff writer/designer before becoming associate editor in 2010. In March 2011, she was named editor.

Nikki has interviewed everyone from Gene Simmons to Richard Simmons, and her articles have run the gamut from local and national theater to music and in-depth reports on the radio industry and negativity in NEPA.

Nikki enjoys writing, quoting movies, traveling and being a diehard foodie - which is why she pens our weekly food and drink column, "Dish."

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