Peak
1
Weeks
28
Score
5,668
Chart Year
1982
In 1981, record company Virgin were becoming aware that the promotional music video was evolving into an important marketing tool, with MTV being launched that year. Because it was agreed[by whom?] that the video for "Open Your Heart" had looked "cheap and nasty",[citation needed] Virgin commissioned a much more elaborate and expensive promotional video for "Don't You Want Me". The video for the song was filmed near Slough, Berkshire, during November 1981 and has the theme of the filming and editing of a murder-mystery film, featuring the band members as characters and production staff. Because it is a "making-of" video, both crew and camera apparatus appear throughout. The video was conceived and directed by the Irish filmmaker Steve Barron, and has at its core the interaction between a successful actress (also a second negative cutter) played by Susan Ann Sulley walking out on "film director" Philip Oakey on a film set. It is loosely based on the film A Star Is Born. Near the end of the video, Wright, who also plays a film editor, has an expression on his face while the camera pulls back to reveal that the negative room where Oakey, Wright and Sulley were working is yet another set (the camera can be seen in the mirror's reflection). Filmed on a cold, wet winter night, the video was shot on 35mm film instead of the cheaper videotape prevalent at the time. Sulley claims that Barron was heavily influenced by the cinematography in Ultravox's video for "Vienna" (directed by Russell Mulcahy earlier that year). Barron was also influenced by François Truffaut and his film Day for Night, and, because of that, the clapperboard seen in the video bears the inscription "Le League Humaine" as a tribute to Truffaut. The video is credited[by whom?] for making Oakey, Sulley and Catherall visual icons of the early 1980s, but it became controversial later for a scene involving the murder-mystery film subplot in which Jo Callis appears to shoot Catherall (and later in the video repeated with Oakey shooting Sulley) with a pistol from a car window (a Saab 99 turbo). The scene is cut out of the DVD version and usually when shown on music television, replaced with[citation needed] a montage of other shots from the video edited in slow motion. The other car used in the video is a gold W-reg (1981–82) Rover SD1 carrying the registration plate "GCK 68W". DVLA records show that this car's last period of Vehicle Excise Duty expired on 24 April 1992. In a 1995 interview, Catherall mentioned that the car Callis was driving had to be pushed into shot as he could not drive at the time, to which Sulley added "he still can't!"[24] The video was released in December 1981.
This song is about a guy who meets a cocktail waitress and turns her into a star before their love goes bad. It was inspired by an article in a woman's magazine. Lead singer Phil Oakey claims this is not a love song but about power politics between two people. With help from MTV, which launched on August 1, 1981, this opened a mini-British invasion of the USA. There were a lot of video shows in Europe, so when MTV went on the air, they were forced to play videos by many UK bands because that was most of their library. "Don't You Want Me" was the first US single released by The Human League; it was issued in January 1982, entered the Top 40 in April, and thanks to the MTV exposure, hit #1 on July 3, 1982, where it stayed for three weeks. The song's rise mirrored that of MTV, gradually gaining attention and making a huge cultural impact by the summer of 1982. In the UK, this was a monster hit, and the first #1 for Richard Branson's Virgin label. The song was released in the UK in November 1981 and hit #1 on December 12, where it stayed for five weeks; the group had three previous UK hits that year: "The Sound Of The Crowd" (#12), "Love Action (I Believe In Love)" (#3), and "Open Your Heart" (#6). When the Official Charts company compiled a 2012 list of the all-time top-selling singles in the UK, "Don't You Want Me" landed at #24, with sales of 1.54 million. The Human League was formed in 1978 by Philip Oakey, Adrian Wright, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh. Wright - a non-musician - was in charge of the visuals and created elaborate slide shows that were projected on stage during their songs. In 1980, Ware and Marsh left to form Heaven 17, leaving Oakey and Wright in charge of the group. The female backup singer/dancers Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall were added that year, and various musicians were hired to work on the Dare album. Wright learned to play some synthesizer and contributed to the songwriting, but Oakey fronted the group. "Don't You Want Me" was was written by Oakey and Wright along with keyboard player Jo Callis, and was unusual in that one of the female backing singers took a lead role, as the song was structured as a duet. It was Sulley who got the call, and to many American listeners who only knew the group for this song, she appeared to be much more than a hired backup singer. At the time, Philip Oakey was dating the other singer, Joanne Catherall. According to its creator, Roger Linn, this was the first hit song to use the LM-1 drum machine. Introduced in 1980, the LM-1 was the first programable unit that sampled real drums rather than creating them synthetically. It became the basis for many hits of the era, with acts like Culture Club, Peter Gabriel and Gary Numan using it to make backing tracks. Its most prolific proponent was Prince, who used it on songs like "Little Red Corvette" and "When Doves Cry." The Human League considered themselves very cutting-edge. They relied on electronic sounds and considered guitars "archaic and antique." At first, they didn't want "Don't You Want Me" released as a single because they thought it was too mainstream. The Dare! album was recorded without traditional instruments. Its success prompted a call at the Musicians Union's Central London chapter to ban synthesizers and drum machines from recording dates and live work. The union feared that musicians were being put out of work. The proposed ban was defeated. The Human League turned down an appearance on the American music show Solid Gold because they were asked to perform this song with the famous Solid Gold Dancers, and the band refused, since they had their own dancers - Sulley and Catherall. Solid Gold was a very influential pop music show, but "Don't You Want Me" still managed to continue up the charts and hit #1 without that exposure. Phil Oakey recorded his vocals for this song in the studio lavatories. According to Q magazine August 2012, the recording was disrupted by Jo Callis reaching through an open window from outside to repeatedly flush one of the toilets. The video was directed by Steve Barron, who did many of the most memorable early MTV clips, including "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits and "Take On Me" by a-ha. He shot it on 35mm film, which was expensive, but gave the video a very cinematic look. The video was inspired by a 1973 French film called Day for Night, which is about a director struggling to make a film. Jacqueline Bisset starred in the movie. Phil Oakey (From NME December 29, 2012): "The key to that song is that we didn't spoil it, I think. With most songs you think of a couple of nice tunes and some words and then you start working and you work until they're not very good. We happened to stop before, stop while it was still all right. So in a strange way, it sounds complicated but it's a pretty simple sort of song." The guitar-synth melody that accompanied the chorus was the result of a studio accident. Producer Martin Rushent recalled to NME: "That came about because the computer screwed up and played the line a half-beat out of time. The moment we heard it, Jo (Callis, guitarist) and I went, 'Wow, that's amazing!'" Virgin Records owned the rights to the material that Human League recorded over the period they were signed to them. When a parody version of this tune was used in 2001 for a Fiat Punto TV advert, the band fought a bitter legal battle. They ultimately lost the case to Virgin and Susan Sulley later complained: "Now even if we wanted to use the song for a more worthy company, we can't because it will always be associated with a particular brand." Supporters of Aberdeen FC changed the lyrics to "Peter Pawlett Baby," referencing their midfielder. After winning the 2014 Scottish League Cup, the Scottish team's fans launched campaigns on Facebook and Twitter to get the song to #1 for a second time in the UK and though they didn't achieve that goal, it did return to the Top 20. Phil Oakey appreciates what this song did for the group, but doesn't think very highly of it. He told Classic Pop magazine in 2014: "'Don't You Want Me' might have shifted gazillions, but either I've heard it too many times or the rest of Dare! is just so far ahead that it puts it in the shade. Still, it made the band." The Human League borrowed the concept for the Dare sleeve artwork from German Vogue. Phil Oakey recalled to Q magazine: "That concept they'd done 18 months before and I use to collect old fashion magazines. I thought we'll probably get away with it and we did. They never came after us. There was probably contemptuous of a crummy pop band."
You were workin' as a waitress in a cocktail bar When I met you I picked you out, I shook you up and turned you around Turned you into someone new Now five years later on, you've got the world at your feet Success has been so easy for you But don't forget, it's me who put you where you are now And I can put you back down too Don't, don't you want me? You know I can't believe it when I hear that you won't see me Don't, don't you want me? You know I don't believe you when you say that you don't need me It's much too late to find You think you've changed your mind You'd better change it back or we will both be sorry Don't you want me, baby? Don't you want me? Oh Don't you want me, baby? Don't you want me? Oh I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar That much is true But even then, I knew I'd find a much better place Either with or without you The five years we have had have been such good times I still love you But now, I think it's time I live my life on my own I guess it's just what I must do Don't, don't you want me? You know I can't believe it when I hear that you won't see me Don't, don't you want me? You know I don't believe you when you say that you don't need me It's much too late to find You think you've changed your mind You'd better change it back or we will both be sorry Don't you want me, baby? Don't you want me? Oh Don't you want me, baby? Don't you want me? Oh Don't you want me, baby? Don't you want me? Oh Don't you want me, baby? Don't you want me? Oh Don't you want me, baby? Don't you want me? Oh Don't you want me, baby? Don't you want me? Oh Don't you want me, baby? Don't you want me? Oh Don't you want me, baby? Don't you want me? Oh Don't you want me, baby?
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mar 6, 1982 | 86 | 40 |
| 2 | Mar 13, 1982 | 77 | 49 |
| 3 | Mar 20, 1982 | 67 | 59 |
| 4 | Mar 27, 1982 | 59 | 67 |
| 5 | Apr 3, 1982 | 46 | 80 |
| 6 | Apr 10, 1982 | 39 | 87 |
| 7 | Apr 17, 1982 | 32 | 94 |
| 8 | Apr 24, 1982 | 27 | 99 |
| 9 | May 1, 1982 | 21 | 105 |
| 10 | May 8, 1982 | 16 | 110 |
| 11 | May 15, 1982 | 16 | 110 |
| 12 | May 22, 1982 | 8 | 118 |
| 13 | May 29, 1982 | 7 | 119 |
| 14 | Jun 5, 1982 | 6 | 120 |
| 15 | Jun 12, 1982 | 3 | 123 |
| 16 | Jun 19, 1982 | 2 | 124 |
| 17 | Jun 26, 1982 | 2 | 124 |
| 18 | Jul 3, 1982 | 1 | 125 |
| 19 | Jul 10, 1982 | 1 | 125 |
| 20 | Jul 17, 1982 | 1 | 125 |