Hunting High and Low (A-ha song)

"Hunting High and Low" is a song by Norwegian band a-ha, released in June 1986 as the fifth and final single from the band's debut studio album of the same name (1985). It became the third most successful single from Hunting High and Low on the charts and one of the band's most recognizable and popular songs. The song did not chart in the United States, but reached the top five in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Release
The original album version was produced by Tony Mansfield and is performed on synthesizers. For its single release, the track was remixed, with additional production by Alan Tarney and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. String scores for the 7" remix by Anne Dudley

Music video
This was the last video from the band's debut album which was directed by Steve Barron.

The UK TV show Blue Peter featured a making-of-the-video special on "Hunting High and Low" to demonstrate the morphing effects of Morten into animals. The video starts with a lonely Morten walking across a snowy landscape which then cuts to a silhouette of the band in a studio with Morten on Vocals, Mags on Piano and Pål on Guitar. The film then cuts back to show Morten turn into an Eagle using animation and fly off across the snowscape into a city. With the orchestral part of the song starting the video then goes back to the silhouettes of the band, this time with an orchestra animated like a rotoscope.

With Morten now back again as a human he is seen standing on top of a cliff face about to dive off of it. When he does he turns into a shark and swims off across the ocean. As the film continues, a woman is shown on a beach who sees the shark and steps into the water. All of a sudden two hunters spear the shark and try to drag it onto the beach. As they do so, the shark turns into a lion and runs off into the wilderness. As the film moves toward the end, the silhouettes of Morten, Magne and Pal become full colour ... and a hunter is seen lining up the lion in his sights, about to shoot. The woman from the beach stops the hunter.

The basic idea behind the video is that love brings a man back in various forms to be near the woman he loves. The music video was uploaded on a-ha YouTube Channel on the 5 November 2010, The video as gained more than 54Million (54,730,070) views as at July 2nd.

Critical reception
Jerry Smith of the Music Week magazine was critical of "Hunting High and Low" which he considered "a mawkish ballad with its stultifying Tony Mansfield production", added it was "unlikely to appeal to anyone other than their most ardent fans" and that A-ha "reached a low" with this song". When reviewing the single, Jim Reid of Record Mirror stated: "The angst, the strain, the melodrama, the syrupy background – it can't be serious can it? Wherefore the torture that afflicts those Pepsadenl smiles? In short, leave it out". By contrast, Vici McDonald of Smash Hits praised the song as being "smooth and tunesome" and "the best track" from the album, since a-ha "[ha]ve put a bit more effort into it [than on "Train of Thought"]... adding an orchestra, and getting a trendy producer to tinker around with the mix"; however, she concluded that a-ha need "far better songs than this" if they want to become as popular as the Beatles.

Banned from BBC air for a period
"Hunting High and Low" was banned from airing on BBC Radio during the 1991 Gulf War. A-ha's Hunting High and Low was one of many songs from a various set of artists that was banned during the incident. However, the ban was only for a period.

MTV Unplugged appearance
In 2017, a-ha appeared on the television series MTV Unplugged and played and recorded acoustic versions of many of their popular songs for the album MTV Unplugged – Summer Solstice in Giske, Norway, including "Hunting High and Low".

Track listings

 * 7": Warner Bros. / W 6663 (UK)
 * A. "Hunting High and Low" (remix) - 3:45
 * B. "The Blue Sky" (demo version) - 3:12


 * 12": Warner Bros. / W 6663T (UK)
 * A. "Hunting High and Low" (extended version) - 6:03
 * B1. "Hunting High and Low" (remix) - 3:45
 * B2. "The Blue Sky" (demo version) - 3:12


 * 7": Warner Bros. / 9 28684-7 (US)
 * A. "Hunting High and Low" (remix) - 3:45
 * B. "And You Tell Me" (demo version) - 1:52


 * 12": Warner Bros. / 9 20478-0 (US)
 * A. "Hunting High and Low" (extended remix) - 6:03
 * B1. "Train of Thought" (reflection mix) - 7:00
 * B2. "And You Tell Me" (demo version) - 1:52

The "extended remix", the same version as the "extended version", and the "remix" version, are all produced by Tony Mansfield, additional production by Alan Tarney. "Train of Thought" (reflection mix) is the same version as the "Steve Thompson mix" & "The U.S. mix".