Friday Night Videos: The Human League - Don't You Want Me

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Okay folks here is my first post honoring the late night video program from the 1980s called Friday Night Videos. I had planned to feature the first music video I ever saw on the program in this initial outing, but thanks to my life-long friend Steven Colby, I was forced to change my plans. 

Okay ... forced is a strong way of saying it. 

Let me explain. My original plan was to showcase the music video for Berlin's "No More Words", which is great classic video. However, last night my buddy Steve chose to post a video of the Human League's "Don't You Want Me". This isn't the music video for the song that most of us here in the United States remember ... oh no ... Steve found a rare Dutch clip from a show called Top Pop (not to be confused with the popular UK music program Top of the Pops). 

I loved the clip so much that I've watched it four times. 

Well so much for my plans. Unknowingly Steven just hijacked my post and I'm switching from Berlin to Human League.

Here is a great performance by the Human League performing their groundbreaking hit "Don't You Want Me":

 

History: 

 The lyrics were inspired after lead singer Philip Oakey read a photo-story in a teen-girl's magazine. Though the song had been conceived and recorded in the studio as a male solo, Oakey was inspired by the film A Star Is Born and decided to turn the song into a conflicting duet with one of the band's two teenage female vocalists. Susan Ann Sulley was then asked to take on the role. 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". Musicians Jo Callis and Philip Adrian Wright created a synthesizer score to accompany the lyrics that was much harsher than the version that was actually released. Initial versions of the song were recorded but Virgin Records-appointed producer Martin Rushent was unhappy with them. He and Callis remixed the track, giving it a softer, and in Oakey's opinion, "poppy" sound. Oakey hated the new version and thought it would be the weakest track on Dare, resulting in one of his infamous rows with Rushent. Oakey disliked it so much that it was relegated to the last track on side two of the album.

Here is my favorite song from the Dare album:

Sorry Terri Nunn your homage to Bonnie & Clyde will have to wait another week.