Take On Me (Redux): Rhino Returns a-ha’s “Hunting High and Low” Deluxe Edition to Print

If you set your Wayback Machine to February 1, 2010, you’ll find one of The Second Disc’s earliest posts – the inaugural Reissue Theory column, dedicated to imagining a 25th anniversary multi-disc edition of a-ha’s 1985 debut studio album Hunting High and Low. Well, good things do come to those who wait, because Warner Bros. and Rhino are revisiting the album – for a second time – on November 22.  A 4-CD/1-DVD edition of the album arrived in 2015, handily besting the 2010 double-CD edition.  That box quickly went out of print, and fetches top dollar on the secondhand market – if you can find it at all.  Now, Rhino is repackaging that set as a 4-CD edition, dropping its DVD of music videos but keeping all of the audio content.

Hunting High and Low: 30th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition celebrates the Norwegian trio’s most beloved LP features a remastered version of the platinum-certified original album on its first disc. That’s followed on Disc Two by a 25-track collection of demos recorded between 1982 and 1984. The third disc boasts 15 singles, extended versions and B-sides, while the fourth and final audio disc includes ten previously unreleased (as of 2015) alternate mixes.

The Super Deluxe Hunting High and Low is housed in a 10-panel digipak and will include an edited version of the book included in the 2015 box, including Kieron Tyler’s essay.  Look for it on November 22 at the links below from Rhino!  [It’s erroneously listed as “Vinyl” by Amazon; this iteration is only available on CD.]

a-ha, Hunting High and Low: 30th Anniversary Edition (Rhino, 2015 – reissued 2019) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K./ Amazon Canada)

CD 1: The Original Album (Warner Bros. 25300, 1985)

1. Take on Me
2. Train of Thought
3. Hunting High and Low
4. The Blue Sky
5. Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale
6. The Sun Always Shines on T.V.
7. And You Tell Me
8. Love is Reason
9. I Dream Myself Alive
10. Here I Stand and Face the Rain

CD 2: The Demos 1982-1984

1. Lesson One (Autumn 1982 “Take on Me” Demo)
2. Presenting Lily Mars (Naersnes Demo)
3. Na Blaser Det Pa Jorden (Naersnes Demo)
4. The Sphinx (Naersnes Demo)
5. Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale (Naersnes Demo)
6. Dot the I
7. The Love Goodbye
8. Nothing to It
9. Go to Sleep
10. Train of Thought (Demo)
11. Monday Mourning
12. All the Planes That Come In on the Quiet
13. The Blue Sky (Demo)
14. You Have Grown Thoughtful Again
15. What’s That You’re Doing to Yourself in the Pouring Rain
16. Take on Me (Demo)
17. I Dream Myself Alive (Demo)
18. Hunting High and Low (Demo)
19. And You Tell Me (Demo)
20. Here I Stand and Face the Rain (Demo)
21. Love is Reason (Demo)
22. The Blue Sky (Second Demo)
23. Never, Never
24. The Sun Always Shines on T.V. (Demo)
25. Presenting Lily Mars (Rendezvous Demo)

CD 3 – Singles, Extended Versions and B-Sides

1. Take on Me (Original 7-Inch Version, 1984)
2. Take on Me (12-Inch Mix, 1984)
3. Stop! And Make Your Mind Up
4. Take on Me (12-Inch Version, 1985)
5. Take on Me (Instrumental Mix)
6. The Sun Always Shines on T.V. (7-Inch Mix)
7. The Sun Always Shines on T.V. (Extended Version)
8. Driftwood
9. The Sun Always Shines on T.V. (Extended Version No. 2)
10. The Sun Always Shines on T.V. (Instrumental)
11. Train of Thought (7-Inch Mix)
12. Train of Thought (U.S. Remix)
13. Train of Thought (Dub Version)
14. Hunting High and Low (7-Inch Remix)
15. Hunting High and Low (Extended Remix)

CD 4: The Alternate Mixes (previously unreleased)

1. Take on Me (Video Version)
2. Train of Thought (Early Mix)
3. Hunting High and Low (Early Mix)
4. The Blue Sky (Alternate Long Mix)
5. Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale (Early Mix)
6. The Sun Always Shines on T.V. (Alternate Early Mix)
7. And You Tell Me (Early Mix)
8. Love is Reason (Early Mix)
9. Dream Myself Alive (Early “N.Y.C.” Mix)
10. Here I Stand and Face the Rain (Early Mix)

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Joe Marchese
Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.

Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

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