Song Exploder

“Take On Me”

“Take On Me” by A-ha is an iconic hit of the 1980s. It came out in October 1985 with an equally iconic music video that helped define the age of MTV. It hit #1 in the US and in countries all over the world. And it’s still massively popular today. It currently has over two and a half billion streams on Spotify. So, with all of that, it’s easy to imagine that this was all inevitable. But actually, the song took so many steps and missteps before it became the hit that everybody knows. I talked to Paul Waaktaar-Savoy from A-ha, who wrote the original bones of the song back when he was a teenager in Norway, years before it came out. The song actually came out and flopped TWICE in the UK, before it found a foothold in the US. So for this episode, Paul took me through the whole history of the song, and all the different versions that existed. And he told me how he and his bandmates, Magne Furuholmen and Morten Harket, pushed and pushed and persevered. “Take On Me” was their first single as a band, and it made them the most successful Norwegian pop group of all time.

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You can buy or stream “Take On Me” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

“Lesson One” – first demo version of “Take On Me”
Alan Tarney – producer & backing vocals
Gerry Kitchingham – mixer
Steve Barron – music video director
Bridges
“Aladdin Sane” by David Bowie
Joe Cocker
Melody Maker and Music Express magazines
John Ratcliff, Terry Slater, Andrew Wickham, Tony Mansfield, and Jeff Ayeroff
Fairlight CMI
PPG Wave synthesizer
Yamaha DX7 synthesizer
“Commuter” – film

“Abracadabra”

Lady Gaga is a singer, songwriter, producer, and actress from New York. She’s one of the biggest artists in the world. She’s also won 14 Grammys, 2 Golden Globes, and an Oscar. And in March 2025, she released her sixth album, Mayhem. For this episode, I talked to her about a song from that album called “Abracadabra.” She co-wrote it and co-produced it with Andrew Watt and Cirkut, and they recorded it in Rick Rubin’s studio, Shangri-La. That’s also where we recorded the interview for this episode.

You can buy or stream “Abracadabra” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Paul LaMalfa – engineer
Iron Maiden

“I See a Darkness” by Bonnie “Prince” Billy

My guest today is Chef David Chang. He founded Momofuku Noodle Bar in 2004. That was just the start of his incredible career – he’s opened several restaurants, winning awards and Michelin stars along the way, and becoming a fixture in the upper echelon of food. He’s the host of the Netflix shows Ugly Delicious and Dinner Time Live, as well as his own podcast, The Dave Chang Show. For this episode, I talked to Dave about the song “I See a Darkness.” It’s the title track on the album by Bonnie “Prince” Billy, aka Will Oldham, which came out in 1999. Later, Johnny Cash would cover “I See a Darkness” in 2000, as a duet with Will Oldham, as part of Johnny Cash’s acclaimed American series.

You can get Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s “I See a Darkness” on vinyl or digital here.

Anthony Bourdain
The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon
Darkness Visible by Will Styron
Eat a Peach by David Chang
I See a Darkness – the album by Bonnie “Prince” Billy