The Sun Always Shines on T.V.

Origin and recording

The band's Paul Waaktaar-Savoy said,

… we wrote "The Sun Always Shines On T.V.," that Andrew Wickham's secretary felt was a hit. She convinced him to make room for it. When we recorded it, we were really sick with influenza. Magne and Morten were lying in the studio on camping beds with high fevers.

Waaktaar-Savoy wrote and composed the complete drum track for this song.

The bass line for the song was performed using a Yamaha DX7. Other synthesizers include PPG Wave, Roland Juno-60 and sampled instruments such as the oboe during the introduction.

Portions of the song's main lyrics were first used on the unreleased track "Never Never".

Release and reception

"The Sun Always Shines on T.V." was released in autumn 1985, becoming the second successful single from Hunting High and Low and one of the band's most recognizable and popular songs. The song peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also went Top 5 in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, as well as in the band's home country of Norway. The single reached number one in Ireland and on the British Singles Chart which was a higher chart position there than for "Take On Me".

Tim DeGravine of Allmusic later wrote of the song,

"The Sun Always Shines on T.V." is just as thrilling [as "Take on Me"]. Starting as a sad ballad, it explodes into something much more, as chugging guitars and operatic synths keep pace with Harket's evocative vocal stylings. If ever a 1980s song qualified as Wall of Sound, "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." would be it.

None of the versions released on the single were available on the band's album. The single mix was shortened down to 4:30, while the 12" featured an extended mix and instrumental version mixed by Steve Thompson. The b-side, "Driftwood" is a non-album track produced by the band.

There are two versions of the extended mix. The first UK release is 7:09, it starts with a slow piano intro, while the second one is the commonly known remix by Steve Thompson.

Music video

In early October 1985 A-ha recorded the video for The Sun Always Shines On TV at Saint Alban the Martyr Church and Udney Hall Gardens at Teddington, Middlesex, in England over three days with the Director Steve Barron.

The video opens with an epilogue scene to the highly successful Take on Me video, continuing with the use of rotoscoped animation. The romantic young lovers (played by Morten Harket and Bunty Bailey) having survived the ordeal of the first video's story now face one another in a night wood. Suddenly the male youth begins physically reverting to his original animated condition from the Take on Me video's story-line. The female youth in distress realizes that he cannot remain in her world. In pain, he flees the scene into the distance back to his comic book world, she being left behind, sundered from him. At this point the camera rises vertically away from her alone and closing credits roll in the style of the end of a Hollywood classic film bearing the legend: The End, A Warner Bros. First Picture, followed by an animation of a television graphic with the text: you are watching channel 3, followed by the A-ha stylized brand logo.

The next scene opens on A-ha performing The Sun Always Shines on TV (with a session drummer (Lindsay Elliot) and a bass player also being present) within the dramatic setting of the interior of an English Victorian Gothic church. The performance is filmed mainly in black-and-white footage, with splashes of pastel coloring; spectating at the performance is a dense crowd throughout the church of bare mannequins, some being clothed in formal concert dress holding musical instruments to represent the song's classical instrumentation arrangement. The video ends with A-ha being cut out from the background and becoming a still frame. The music video for the band's next single, Train of Thought, would pick up from this cue shot, making a visual & story trilogy of Take On Me, The Sun Always Shines on TV and Train of Thought.

Awards

At the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards the video won in the category Best Editing in a Video (Editor: David Yardley) and "Best Cinematography in a Video" (Director of Photography: Oliver Stapleton). It also received a nomination for "Best Art Direction in a Video" (Art Director: Stefan Roman).

7": Warner Bros. / W 8846 United Kingdom

1. "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." – 4:30
2. "Driftwood" – 3:04

12": Warner Bros. / W 8846T United Kingdom

1. "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." (U.S. Steve Thompson Dance Mix) – 8:25
2. "Driftwood" – 3:04

12": Warner Bros. / W 8846(T) United Kingdom

1. "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." (Extended Version) – 7:09
2. "Driftwood" – 3:04

7": Warner Bros. / 9 28846-7 United States

1. "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." – 4:40
2. "Driftwood" – 3:04

12": Warner Bros. / 20410-0 United States

1. "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." (U.S. Steve Thompson Dance Mix) – 8:25
2. "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." (Instrumental) – 6:38
3. "Driftwood" – 3:04

Notable live performances

A-ha performed this song at the Nobel Peace Prize concert in 1998 alongside the new song "Summer Moved On."

A live version of "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." was the only single released from the 2003 A-ha album How Can I Sleep With Your Voice In My Head, the music video for it being directed by Pal Waaktaar's wife Lauren Savoy.

Influences

U2 stated that "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." heavily influenced the composition of their 2000 single release, "Beautiful Day." Bono paid tribute to it by combining the two songs together a concert in Oslo, Norway in 2005.

Diva version

A cover version of "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." was released 1994 single by Norwegian Eurodance group Diva, consisting of the singers Helene Sommer and Elene Nyborg. It is a cover of the 1985 single by Norwegian band A-ha. The song reached number 9 on the charts in Norway. In 1995 it reached number 53 on the charts in UK. A music video was made to promote the song, directed by Lauren Waaktaar-Savoy. The video was banned by Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK; they found the video too controversial.

Maxi-single

1. "The Sun Always Shines On TV" (Radio Edit) - 4:58
2. "The Sun Always Shines On TV" (Long Version) - 6:15

Maxi-single (remix)

1. "The Sun Always Shines On TV" (Remix) - 4:58
2. "The Sun Always Shines On TV" (Club Mix) - 6:15
3. "The Sun Always Shines On TV" (Original Mix) - 4:58

Other cover versions