Manhattan skyline - A-ha

A day at the record company's office

'So we're going to release a third single from A-ha's album 'Scoundrel days''.

- 'Oh? Which one?'

'I think we should take 'Manhattan skyline.'

- 'Really? You do know it's almost five minutes long, don't you?'

'I know. We should make an edit.'

- 'An edit? How in God's name would you do that?'

'Well, you start by cutting the intro'.

- 'Okay, done. Now what?'

'There's bound to be some repetitive bits in that song. Aren't there?'

- 'Well, there are. But should we really edit them all out?'

'Yeah, no problem. No-one's paying attention to that stuff, it fills up the album nicely but on the single you need to keep up the pace.'

- 'Well if you say so... it's a waste, but okay... done. Now what?'

'What's the running time now?'

- 'We're down to 4 minutes 15 seconds.'

'Okay, good enough. We don't have to spend too much time on this.'

- 'B-side? What do we stick on the B-side?'

'Oh, just take a live track or something.'

- 'A live track? I do have a few, but they all sound horrible.'

'Doesn't matter, no-one ever plays the B-side anyway. Are we done?'

- 'Well, I guess so...'

My collection: 7" single no. 510

Found: Free Record Shop, Den Haag, 1987

Cost: 6 guilders

Tracks: 'Manhattan skyline [edit]' / 'We're looking for the whales (live version)'