One Step Ahead (Split Enz song)

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One Step Ahead (Split Enz song) - Wikipedia

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"One Step Ahead"

Single by Split Enz

from the album Waiata (aka Coroborree)

B-side

"In the Wars"

Released

November 1980

Recorded

AAV Studios, Melbourne, 1980

Genre

New wave, rock

Length

2:52

Split Enz singles chronology

"Poor Boy"
(1980)

"One Step Ahead"
(1980)

"History Never Repeats"
(1981)

"One Step Ahead" is a 1980 song by New Zealand art rock group Split Enz. It was released November 1980 as the lead single from their seventh studio album Waiata.

After Split Enz's dissolution in 1984, singer Neil Finn continued to perform "One Step Ahead" with his next group Crowded House, in particular, the group performed the song live at their 1987 concert in Daytona known as Spring Break '87.

The single's b-side "In the Wars" was recorded in the Waiata recording sessions, but it was not originally released as a track on the album, though it was later appended as track twelve in the album's 2006 re-release.

Music video

The video clip for the song was one of the first ever videos screened on MTV. In a documentary for Radio New Zealand, Neil Finn expressed surprise at the song's success, stating that it "hasn't got a proper chorus".^{[citation needed]}

The video starts with Neil Finn walking down a blue and red staircase and continuing to walk through a hallway with different coloured walls and shadows of what seems to be other members of the band playing instruments. He then enters a room with the five members.

The video clip for "One Step Ahead" has keyboardist Eddie Rayner performing "Marche sur place", the pantomime illusion walk created by Decroux and Barrault (seen in the 1945 French film Children of Paradise) that is the technique Michael Jackson would base his moonwalk on in 1983.

Track listings

"One Step Ahead" – 2:51
"In the Wars" – 3:32

Personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Weekly chart performance for "One Step Ahead"
Chart (1980–1981)	Peak position
Australia (Kent Music Report)^[1]	5
Canadian Singles Chart^[2]	17
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)^[3]	6
US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles^[4]	104

Year-end charts

Year-end chart performance for "One Step Ahead"
Chart (1981)	Position
Australia (Kent Music Report)^[5]	42
New Zealand (RIANZ)^[6]	45

References

^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. p. 288. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. NOTE: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1970 until ARIA created their own charts in mid-1988.
^ "Hits of the World - Canada" (PDF). Billboard. 8 August 1981. p. 61.
^ "Split Enz – One Step Ahead". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
^ Whitburn, Joel (1998). Bubbling Under Singles & Albums (1998 ed.). Menomonee Falls, Wis., U.S.A.: Record Research. p. 190. ISBN 9780898201284.
^ "National Top 100 Singles for 1981". Kent Music Report. 4 January 1982. p. 7. Retrieved 11 January 2022 – via Imgur.
^ "Top Selling Singles of 1981". RIANZ. Retrieved 11 January 2022.

External resources

"One Step Ahead" Music video on YouTube

v t e Split Enz
Tim Finn Phil Judd Mike Chunn Miles Golding Mike Howard Div Vercoe Wally Wilkinson Geoff Chunn Robert Gillies Eddie Rayner Emlyn Crowther Noel Crombie Malcolm Green Neil Finn Nigel Griggs Paul Hester
Studio albums	Mental Notes Second Thoughts Dizrythmia Frenzy The Beginning of the Enz True Colours Waiata / Corroboree Time and Tide Conflicting Emotions See Ya 'Round
Live albums	The Living Enz Anniversary Extravagenza
Compilations	Beginning of the Enz Enz of an Era History Never Repeats – The Best of Split Enz Oddz and Enz Rear Enz The Best of Split Enz Spellbound Rootin Tootin Luton Tapes
Tribute albums	She Will Have Her Way He Will Have His Way They Will Have Their Way
Singles	"Late Last Night" "My Mistake" "I See Red" "I Got You" "I Hope I Never" "Poor Boy" "One Step Ahead" "History Never Repeats" "I Don't Wanna Dance" "Dirty Creature" "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" "Never Ceases to Amaze Me" "Next Exit" "Strait Old Line" "Message to My Girl" "I Walk Away"
Videos	Split Enz
Related articles	Discography Members ENZSO Forenzics Crowded House Finn Brothers The Makers Rikky and Pete Schnell Fenster The Swingers One Out of the Bag

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