(Photo credit: YouTube)
A couple of weeks ago, Weezer surprise-released The Teal Album, an entire album of ‘80s covers in the wake of their take on Toto’s “Africa” becoming their biggest hit in years. The video for “Africa”, starring Weird Al Yankovich took the internet by storm. Now they’ve made a video for “Take On Me,” the early-MTV classic from Norwegian synthpoppers, a-ha, starring Stranger Things star, Finn Wolfhard and his band, Calpurnia.
Finn Wolfhard is the perfect choice for the lead role. Not only is he the contemporary star of all things ‘80s right now, but, in the spirit of the project, his band actually covered Weezer’s song, “Say It Ain’t So” for Spotify’s Under Cover podcast last year.
In the video, Wolfhard plays a young Rivers Cuomo, an ‘80s teen rocker with hair big enough to make Robert Smith jealous, makeup, nail polish and all. He tells his band Calpurnia, who are set up in his parents living room, to turn it up loud before launching into Weezer’s rendition of “Take On Me”.
In a nod to a-ha’s famous music video, the clip alternates crisp digital footage, Camcorder fuzz, and recreates the famous comic book sketches of the original. Check it out below!
And the still-great clip for the a-ha original:
The Teal Album also includes renditions of the Eurythmics, “Sweet Dreams”, Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid,” Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” and more - we can’t wait to see what collaborative gold is yet to come from this project that has spawned such unexpected comradery between generations of musicians.
It would seem the infectious, fun-loving spirit of the '80s is here to stay! Party like it's 1985 with Our Hits Of The 80s playlist, featuring all the nostalgic best from the decade of excess and fashion faux-pas.
