Song of the Day 7/2: The Human League, “Don’t You Want Me”

They can play this one at the Democratic National Convention, no matter who the nominee turns out to be.

I like to bust on record executives who don’t recognize a hit when they hear one, but this is an example of the artist himself lacking a clue.

The Human League formed in the late ’70s, when advances in electronics made synthesizers cheap and electronic music was born. Originally called The Future, the project started out as a Kraftwerk-influenced experimental band. Oakey was asked to join because, founders Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware said, the androgynous singer already looked like a rock star.

Their first two albums were moderately successful in England, but the group broke up over musical differences. Ware and Marsh wanted to stay true to their experimental roots, so they left and founded Heaven 17. Oakey, who wanted to go in a pop direction, was left holding the bag – all the band’s debts were now his alone – and he had just days to assemble a new group to fulfill a contracted tour. Susan Sulley and Joanne Catherall weren’t even singers – Oakey saw the 17-year-old best friends dancing together at a club and asked them to join his band.

“Dare,” the Human League’s third LP but first with its more commercial sound, sold well on the strength of three singles that made the UK charts in 1981. Virgin wanted to release a fourth to capitalize on the Christmas market, but Oakey balked at their choice of “Don’t You Want Me.” Ironically, he hated the production because he thought it was too pop, and thought it would kill the momentum they had built up.

He was spectacularly wrong. The single sold more than 1.5 million copies in Britain alone, where it ranks among the top 25 selling singles all-time. The song didn’t just top the UK charts for Christmas, it went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in the U.S., where a slick video received lots of airplay in the early days of MTV. Though it prompted critics to lump them in with the New Romantic movement, they never fit that mold. Years later, Sulley drew the distinction: “Duran Duran had shot their Rio video on a yacht in the Indian Ocean. We got a damp evening in Slough.” The band had many more hits in England and is still active.