Weezer – “Take On Me” (a-ha Cover) Video (Feat. Finn Wolfhard)
A couple of weeks ago, Weezer surprise-dropped The Teal Album on us. Building on the success of their cover of Weezer’s “Africa,” Weezer covered a whole bunch of pop classics that everyone knows. And now they’ve made a video for another one of those. They’ve given the cinematic treatment to “Take On Me,” the early-MTV classic from Norwegian synthpoppers a-ha. And they’ve got a star on board.
When they made the “Africa” video, Weezer cast “Weird Al” Yankovic as frontman Rivers Cuomo. This time around, they’ve got another famous person playing Cuomo. This time, it’s Finn Wolfhard, star of Stranger Things and It and various PUP videos. And the video also stars all the members of Wolfhard’s indie band Calpurnia, playing the ’80s teenage version of Cuomo’s living-room band. (Fun fact: Calpurnia covered Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” for their Spotify Single.)
Director Carrick Moore Gerety has put Wolfhard in ’80s metalhead garb and a teased-up wig. He’s a dead ringer for the version of the teenage Cuomo that we saw on the cover of the solo album Alone II: The Home Recordings Of Rivers Cuomo. The clip alternates crisp digital footage, ’80s Camcorder fuzz, and the animated pencil drawings of the classic “Take On Me” video. Below, check out Weezer’s video, as well as the still-great clip for the a-ha original.
The Teal Album is out now on Crush Music/Atlantic. Check out our conversation between Wolfhard and Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste.