Stay on These Roads (song)

"Stay on These Roads"
Single by A-ha
from the album Stay on These Roads
B-side "Soft Rains of April" (Original Mix)
Released 14 March 1988
Format
Length
  • 4:46 (Single Version)
  • 6:08 (Extended Remix)
Label Warner Bros.
Writer(s)
Producer(s) Alan Tarney
A-ha singles chronology
"The Living Daylights"
(1987)		 "Stay on These Roads"
(1988)		 "The Blood That Moves the Body"
(1988)

"Stay on These Roads" is a song by Norwegian band A-ha. It was their first single from the album of the same name and was released in early 1988. It achieved success in many European countries.

Release and reception

"Stay on These Roads" was released in the spring of 1988 and became the most successful single from the Stay on These Roads album, along with "The Living Daylights" on the UK charts. The song did not hit the national charts in the United States, but was a significant hit across Europe. It went to number seven in Germany, number three in France, and number two in Ireland. In Norway, the song was the band's fourth number one single. "Stay on These Roads" was A-ha's seventh and final top five showing in the United Kingdom, reaching number five on the chart edition of March 27, 1988. It would also prove their last top ten hit in the country for almost two decades, as they did not score another UK top ten hit until eighteen years later in 2006.

A Roland D-50 was used on this song—the sound patch is called "Staccato Heaven"—the wind sound during the instrumental was made on either a Roland Juno 60 or Juno 106 synthesizer.

The versions on the 7" vinyl and the 3" CD single ("7 inch Version") are identical to the album version.

Music video

The official music video was directed by Andy Morahan and was filmed in north of Britain, Scotland.[1]

Formats and track listing

7": Warner Bros. / W 7936 United Kingdom

  1. "Stay on These Roads" - 4:46
  2. "Soft Rains of April" (Original Mix) - 3:18

12": Warner Bros. / W 7936T United Kingdom

  1. "Stay on These Roads" (Extended Remix) - 6:08
  2. "Soft Rains of April" (Original Mix) - 3:18

CD: Warner Bros. / W 7936CD United Kingdom

  1. "Stay on These Roads" (7" version) - 4:46
  2. "Soft Rains of April" (Original Mix) - 3:18
  3. "Take on Me" - 3:50
  4. "Cry Wolf" - 4:05

Album releases

This track was released on six albums by A-ha:

Date Album Track Time
1988-05-01 Stay on These Roads 01 of 10 4:45
1991-11-04 Headlines and Deadlines - The Hits of A-ha 14 of 16 4:46
2005-02-21 The Singles: 1984–2004 09 of 19 4:46
2005-04-11 The Definitive Singles Collection 1984–2004 09 of 18 4:45
2008-07-29 A-ha Live at Vallhall – Sight & Sound series CD & DVD set.
2008 release of the 2001 concert		 10 of 19
(cd 1of2)
2009-07-19 25 12 of 20
(cd 1of2)		 4:45

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1988) Peak
position
Australian Singles Chart[2] 56
Austrian Singles Chart[3] 11
Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart[4] 10
Canadian Singles Chart 15
Dutch Top 40 8
Finnish Singles Chart 9
French SNEP Singles Chart[5] 3
German Singles Chart[6] 7
Irish Singles Chart[7] 2
Italian Singles Chart 4
Japanese Singles Chart 65
Norwegian Singles Chart[8] 1
South African Singles Chart 4
Spanish Singles Chart 20
Swedish Singles Chart[9] 17
Swiss Singles Chart[10] 10
UK Singles Chart[11] 5

Year-end charts

Chart (1988) Peak
position
Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart[12] 78
Netherlands Singles Chart 77
German Singles Chart 47
Italian Singles Chart 8

Certifications

Country Certification Date Sales certified
France[13] Silver 1988 250,000

Chart successions

Preceded by
"Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car" by Billy Ocean		 Norwegian VG-Lista number-one single
13/1988 - 18/1988 (6 weeks) 		Succeeded by
"Alphabet Street" by Prince

References

  1. ↑ Garcia, Alex S. "mvdbase.com - a-ha - "Stay on these roads"". Music Video DataBase. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Response from ARIA re: chart inquiry, received 17 January 2014". imgur.com. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  3. ↑ ""Stay on These Roads", Austrian Singles Chart" (in German). austriancharts.at. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  4. ↑ ""Stay on These Roads", Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart" (in Dutch). ultratop.be. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  5. ↑ ""Stay on These Roads", French Singles Chart" (in French). lescharts.com. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  6. ↑ ""Stay on These Roads", German Singles Chart" (in German). charts.de. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  7. ↑ "Irish Single Chart, database". irishcharts.ie. Retrieved 14 September 2008.
  8. ↑ ""Stay on These Roads", Norwegian Singles Chart" (in Norwegian). norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  9. ↑ ""Stay on These Roads", Swedish Singles Chart" (in Swedish). swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  10. ↑ ""Stay on These Roads", Swiss Singles Chart" (in German). hitparade.ch. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  11. ↑ ""Stay on These Roads", UK Singles Chart". chartarchive.org. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  12. ↑ "1988 Belgian Flanders Singles Chart" (in Dutch). ultratop.be. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  13. ↑ Habib, Elia (2002). Muz hit. tubes (in French). Alinéa Bis. pp. 61–62. ISBN 2-9518832-0-X.
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