# 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-inch remix were composed 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 Harket walking across a snowy landscape which then cuts to a silhouette of the band in a studio with Harket on vocals, Magne Furuholmen on piano and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy on guitar. The film then cuts back to show Harket 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 goes back to the silhouettes of the band, this time with an orchestra animated like a rotoscope.
Harket is seen standing on top of a cliff face about to dive off. 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. Two hunters spear the shark and try to drag it onto the beach. The shark turns into a lion and runs off into the wilderness. As the film moves toward the end, the silhouettes of Harket, Furuholmen and Waaktaar-Savoy 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 music video was uploaded to A-ha's official YouTube channel on 5 November 2010. As of 23 December 2024, it has gained more than 75 million views.

## 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.

## Airing ban

For a brief period, "Hunting High and Low" was banned from airing on BBC Radio during the 1991 Gulf War, being one of the many songs from various artists that were banned during the incident.

## 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-inch: Warner Bros. / W 6663 (UK)
    A. "Hunting High and Low" (remix) – 3:45
    B. "The Blue Sky" (demo version) – 3:12
* 12-inch: 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-inch: Warner Bros. / 9 28684-7 (US)
    A. "Hunting High and Low" (remix) – 3:45
    B. "And You Tell Me" (demo version) – 1:52
* 12-inch: 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" and "The U.S. mix".