The Human League ~ Don’t You Want Me 1981 New Wave Xtension

I dedicate this song to Suzanne P, I remember the instant where you turned the radio up and told me to listen. The first time I heard the Human League was through their song “Hard Times“ on Ultra Weekend out of Montreal with Alain Montpetit. I worked a sous chef at a restaurant a stone’s throw away from Quebec City’s magnificent Chateau Frontenac Hotel. It was either Friday or Saturday night at the resto pub in the 1981 winter into spring of 1982. It was as funky as electronic music could be, and the vocals were kept to a minumum like Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love“. This new wave funk tune had me hungering for more from them and soon after I heard “Don’t You Want Me“ on the radio and my friend Suzanne excitedly told me it was the new wave group The Human League. The group formed in Sheffield, England in 1977 with Ian Craig-Marsh, Martyn Ware and Phil Oakey. The band split with Craig-Marsh & Ware forming Heaven 17 (Let Me Go) leaving Oakey to add Philip Adrian Wright, Ian Burden, Jo Callis, Joanne Catherall and Susanne Sulley to the Human League roster. Admittedly, the band was quite amateurish and it took a while to get the music recorded. Virgin Records signed them and they released their first LP “Dare“, which gave them two UK Top 10 hits, “Love Action(I Believe In Love) and “Open Your Heart“. The third single, “Don’t You Want Me“ went straight to #1 in the UK for five weeks in December of 1981. “Don’t You Want Me“ was inspired by the film “A Star Is Born“ and the band tried hard to suppress the release of the song as a single, citing it was too commercial. Undaunted, Virgin released the song and its popularity kickstarted the New Romantic movement that allowed other bands like Culture Club, Eurythmics and Dexy’s Midnight Runners who all had #1 hits in the US, creating a mini British Invasion.