Pet Shop Boys - listening, 2012

"Chris and Neil wrote and demoed this song during the early 2012 sessions for their album Elysium, but then decided to offer it to Morten Harket, the former lead singer of the Norwegian synthpop band A-ha, best known outside their native land for their big 1985 hit singles "Take on Me" and "The Sun Always Shines on TV." Harket himself is famed for what's described (quite accurately) in Wikipedia as his "extraordinary" vocal range, so powerfully exemplified in the falsetto notes he hits at the end of each chorus in "Take on Me." (Incidentally, A-ha subsequently reformed, allowing Harket once again to assume his role as lead singer of the band.) Harket included this rich, evocative midtempo ballad on his fifth solo album, Out of My Hands, released in April 2012. He apparently initiated the contact with the Boys, approaching them with a request for a new song. According to the Boys' official website, they offered "Listening" to him because they felt it "would suit his voice." Considering that Neil has said, "Morten Harket has a fantastic voice and A-ha has been one of our favorite bands for many years," it's not surprising that they would respond favorably to his request. But, as they have done so often in the past, the Boys subsequently released their own version of the song, offering it as one of the bonus tracks on their single "Memory of the Future."