One Step Ahead (Split Enz song)

"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.

"One Step Ahead"
Single by Split Enz
from the album Waiata (aka Coroborree)
B-side
  • "In the Wars"
ReleasedNovember 1980
RecordedAAV Studios, Melbourne, 1980
GenreNew wave, rock
Length2:52
LabelMushroom Records
Songwriter(s)Neil Finn
Producer(s)David Tickle
Split Enz singles chronology
"Poor Boy"
(1980)		 "One Step Ahead"
(1980)		 "History Never Repeats"
(1981)

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, however was not originally released as a track on the album, though 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".

The video starts with Neil Finn walking down a blue and red staircase, and continues 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
  1. "One Step Ahead" – 2:51
  2. "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
  1. 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.
  2. "Hits of the World - Canada" (PDF). Billboard. 8 August 1981. p. 61.
  3. "Split Enz – One Step Ahead". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  4. Whitburn, Joel (1998). Bubbling Under Singles & Albums (1998 ed.). Menomonee Falls, Wis., U.S.A.: Record Research. p. 190. ISBN 9780898201284.
  5. "National Top 100 Singles for 1981". Kent Music Report. 4 January 1982. p. 7. Retrieved 11 January 2022 – via Imgur.
  6. "Top Selling Singles of 1981". RIANZ. Retrieved 11 January 2022.

External resources
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