Human League - "Don't You Want Me" ..Baby?

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murphicus
January 31, 2007

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... The Merchants of Cool: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pag... The history: http://www.drownedinsound.c... Youtube Insight Stats as of Nov 1, 2008: The "Hottest" spot in t...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_...

The Merchants of Cool:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontli...

The history: http://www.drownedinsound.com/directo...

Youtube Insight Stats as of Nov 1, 2008:

The "Hottest" spot in the video is at 2:56 (The Rover SD1 and the Sabb 99 seem to be the most interesting part of the video for many - the average viewer is a 40 year old makle living in the UK); the most frequently looked at parts of the video are the cars.

37% of the viewers are Female & 63% Male. 13-17 year olds are @12%, 18-24 @8%, 25-34 @11%, 35-44 @35%, 45-54 @28%. 55-64 @5%, 65+ @1%

Nations with the highest percentage of total views:

1. United Kingdom 30.35% 2. United States 28.83% 3. Canada 13.35% 4. Ireland 12.14%
5. Germany 10.92% 6. Spain 10.32%
7. Chile 10.32% 8. Belgium 9.71%
9. Italy 9.10% 10. Sweden 8.80%

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_...

The Human League - Don't You Want Me. 1981
With a hit album and three hit singles in a row Virgin's Simon Draper decided to pull one more single from the album before the end of 1981. Their choice of "Don't You Want Me" instantly caused a row with Oakey who did not want another single released because he was convinced that "the public were now sick of hearing The Human League" and the choice of the "poor quality filler track" would almost certainly be a disaster, wrecking the group's new found popularity Virgin were adamant that a fourth single was going to be released and Oakey finally agreed, on the condition that a large colour poster was given away with the single because he felt fans would "feel ripped off" by the 'substandard' single alone.

"Don't You Want Me" was released in the UK on 5 December 1981 and to everyone in the band (and especially Oakeys) amazement it went almost immediately to number one and remained in the UK charts for 13 weeks. The success was repeated six months later with the release of Dare in the U.S., with "Don't You Want Me" hitting number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Billboard magazine ranked it as the United States' sixth-biggest hit of 1982.

The lyrics were originally inspired after lead singer and front man Philip Oakey read a story in a "trashy tabloid". Originally conceived as a male solo, Oakey was inspired by the film A Star Is Born and decided to turn the song in to a conflicting duet with one of the bands two teenage female vocalists. Susan Ann Sulley was asked to take on the role. Up until then she and the other female vocalist Joanne Catherall had only been assigned backing vocals; Sulley says she was chosen only through luck of the draw.[1] There are two more realistic reasons for her choice, that Sulley was the better singer and/or that Catherall, a very introverted character at the time, shied away from the role.

"Don't You Want Me"
In 1981 record company Virgin were becoming aware that promotional music video was evolving into an important marketing tool, with MTV being launched that year. Because it was agreed that the video for Open Your Heart had looked "cheap and nasty", for "Don't You Want Me" they commissioned a much more elaborate and expensive promotional video than for any of their previous releases.

The music video for the song was filmed in Slough, UK in November 1981 and has the theme of the shooting and editing of a murder-mystery film, featuring the band members as characters and production staff. Due to it being a "making of" video, the crew and camera apparatus used within appear throughout. It was conceived and directed by filmmaker Steve Barron, and has at its core the interaction between a successful actress played by Susan Ann Sulley walking out on 'film director' Philip Oakey on a film set. It is based on the theme of the film A Star Is Born. Shot on a cold, wet, winter night it was shot on 35mm film instead of the cheaper video tape prevalent at the time. Susan Sulley states now that Steve Baron was heavily influenced by the cinematography of the promo video for the Ultravox single "Vienna" and used it as a benchmark when shooting "Don't You Want Me". Steve Baron was also influenced by François Truffaut and his film Day for Night and because of that the clapper board seen in the video bears the inscription "Le League Humaine" as a tribute to Truffaut. The video is credited for making Oakey, Sulley and Catherall universally known visual icons of the early 1980s; but became controversial later for a scene where Jo Callis appears to shoot Joanne Catherall with a pistol from a car window (a Saab 99 turbo). The scene is edited out of the DVD version and when shown on MTV. The other car that was used in the video, was a gold W-Reg Rover SD1. The video was released in December 1981, just as the music video culture was becoming a standard in music.

Category: Music

Tags:

Billboard top 100 of 1982 MTV Chips Ahoy Human League Don't You Want Me Baby Electronic 80's 1981 Philip Oakey Joanne Catherall Susan Ann Sulley you were working as waitress in cocktail bar UK New Wave Techno Synth Emo SAAB 99 rover SD1 Car eighties best Star Is Born Virgin Records Sheffield England Britain swiffer self-reflective film making A Star is Born 35mm

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birdie399 (1 day ago) Show Hide

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My favourite song from Human League. Brings back a few sad memories.
Thanks for sharing.

philecops (2 days ago) Show Hide

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i have at past time same rover matchbox xD

zane581 (4 days ago) Show Hide

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Whitch one is the girl? XD

kmichelle001 (4 days ago) Show Hide

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stalker....get over it. She's doesn't want ya.

SuperLaffytaffy123 (4 days ago) Show Hide

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omg 80s music i sick!!!!! go 80s!!

murphicus (6 days ago) Show Hide

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Some favorites - ( & quirky) of the golden era of videos:

Buggles "Video Killed The Radio Star"
TOTAL COELO "I Eat Cannibals" Art of Noise - "Close (To The Edit)" Joe Jackson "Stepping Out" Devo "Whip It" "She Blinded Me With Science" Joan Jett "I love Rock and Roll" Cyndi Lauper "Girls Just Wana Have Fun" Dexy's "Come on Eileen" "In a Big Country" "Our House" - Huey Lewis "Heart And Soul"...

beyondthisrealm (6 days ago) Show Hide

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woooooo!!!

Mut8edseabass (1 week ago) Show Hide

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DAMN RIGHT!

dickmjavil (1 week ago) Show Hide

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cute girls!

MusicalTalent1234 (1 week ago) Show Hide

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♠ EPIC ♠

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Human League - "Don't You Want Me" ..Baby?

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