Nostalgic

There are only two things I remember from Jessica Ketteridge's 10th birthday party:

1) I gave her a "My Little Pony" figurine that she could paint. Everyone else gave her more "tween" type items, although I doubt that the "tween" market was as big then as it is now. Nonetheless Tiger Beat did exist and I imagine that was the inspiration for her other, more trendy gifts. Looking back, I am not surprised she ended our friendship soon thereafter.

2) Instead of watching any movies, we watched the Grammy's award show that her parents had recorded earlier in the week. This was the mid-80's, and we were all excited to catch the performance of one band in particular, A-ha. Thanks to the fully-functioning "stop," "rewind" and "play" buttons, we watched the "Take on Me" performance innumerable times, swooning and giggling as only 9 and 10 year-olds can.

I was fortunate to have an older sister who had in her possession a copy of the tape from which the aforementioned song came. It was the first track on side "A" and pretty much the only song that I remember listening to. Maybe once in a while we got tired of hitting the rewind button and actually listened to the whole cassette. I think there was a song on the other side that was pretty decent; it was just too much work to look for it when we got tired of "Take on Me." Soon other bands entered the American airwaves, and we (my sister and I), and pretty much the general American population forgot to look for other songs that this hit 80's band from Norway might have recorded.

Fast forward to 2009, and now I live in Dubai, and I listen to a radio station that likes to insert a few obscure songs/groups into their typical line-up of hits. I appreciate that this station will forgo playing the same obnoxiously ubiquitous Lady Gaga for something better, although not exactly Top-40. One day they played a song that I really, really liked, and to my surprise it was a new song from A-ha. Since I don't know if this song has reached the North American continent, I thought I'd share it. Just in case you, like me, forgot to look for new A-ha songs post-"Take on Me."



Of course I am a little miffed that now I have 20 years of A-ha music that I need to catch up on.