1981

491. The Human League – Don’t You Want Me (1981)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

It’s a tale as old as 1981. The tall but true tale of how a bunch of Sheffield synth-based misfits fell apart, causing the remaining singer to hire two dancing teenage girls he saw in a club and release one of the best pop songs ever. This is the story of The Human League and Don’t You Want Me, the Christmas number 1 that year.

Before

The Human League flickered into life in 1977. Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh were computer operators who met at the youth arts project Meatwhistle. Both were lovers of glam rock and Motown, but, perhaps in part because of their occupations, were becoming increasingly interested in avant-garde electronica. Only a few years previous, the idea of working class people delving into the latter was just fantasy. But the cost of electronic components had started to drop, and so Ware and Marsh clubbed together to buy a Korg 700S synthesiser. A mutual friend booked them to perform at his 21st birthday party, and so The Dead Daughters were born.

After a few more informal performances, Ware and Marsh decided to form a proper group. They recruited Adi Newton, bought a Roland System-100 synth and became The Future. They rehearsed in a disused cutlery workshop in the centre of Sheffield and during this brief time they recorded and compiled a demo tape of 10 songs. The Future visited London with this tape but were not signed, resulting in Newton leaving to form the influential Clock DVA with Steven ‘Judd’ Turner. The demos were eventually released by hip producer Richard X in 2002, along with early Human League tracks on compilation album The Golden Hour of the Future. It’s not an easy listen, sounding not unlike Throbbing Gristle or early Cabaret Voltaire, but it’s a curio.

Ware, wisely, decided a singer was needed if they were to hope to find a record deal. First, they asked Glenn Gregory, who had been in a punk band with Marsh, but he had moved to London to become a photographer. Instead, they settled on their old school friend, Philip Oakey. He was working as a porter in a hospital, when they asked him. Despite no musical experience, Oakey was handsome and known on the Sheffield music scene for his outlandish dress sense. Ware went round to his house to ask him to join The Future, but was forced to pin a note to his front door when he didn’t answer.

Oakey accepted, but got off to an awkward start, struggling to sing around the rest of the band, and only possessing one instrument – a saxophone – which he couldn’t really play. But they persisted and Ware decided a change of name could give them a second chance with record companies. In early 1978, he suggested they become The Human League, named after a group from the science fiction board game Star Force: Alpha Centauri. The Human League wanted greater independence from Earth – in the game I mean, not Ware, Marsh and Oakey.

The Human League released a demo tape with Future material thrown in. Ware’s friend Paul Bower from local new wave act 2.3 alerted the Edinburgh-based label Fast Product, who he had recently signed with. Thus, the first Human League single Being Boiled was released (for a long time, I thought Being Boiled (Fast Version) was an incorrect description of the pace of the record). Being Boiled was catchy, but it was not pop. Oakey’s lyrics, combining a protest against silk farming with Eastern religion, were his first contribution to the group.

The Human League’s first live performance came that summer at Sheffield’s Psalter Lane Art College – now known as Sheffield Hallam University. The trio were concerned about live shows beforehand, and more so afterwards, but hope came in the form of Oakey’s friend Philip Adrian Wright, who went from audience member to the band’s Director of Visuals. A session for John Peel followed, as well as dates supporting The Rezillos and Siouxsie and the Banshees. None other than David Bowie saw one of their live shows and declared in the NME that he had witnessed the future of pop music.

Not that you could tell that from their next release. The Dignity of Labour EP contained four experimental instrumentals and didn’t perform well, but this combined with the growing support of their contemporaries helped them get noticed. After supporting Iggy Pop in June 1979, they signed with Virgin Records, taking Fast Records label owner Bob Last as their manager.

The problem was, Virgin insisted they use conventional instruments and vocals. As a compromise, they released the disco-influenced single I Don’t Depend on You, which featured two female backing singers… as The Men. It didn’t chart. They were allowed to continue with their old style and released their debut album Reproduction in August. It was patchy at best, and although the single Empire State Human was promising, it didn’t compare with Tubeway Army’s Are ‘Friends’ Electric?. Gary Numan was taking any momentum The Human League might have initially had.

Nevertheless, 1980 showed promise when Holiday ’80 EP almost cracked the top 40. Produced by John Leckie, who had worked with XTC and Simple Minds, it included an excellent new version of Being Boiled and closed with a medley of Gary Glitter’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Part 2 with Pop’s Nightclubbing. The Human League made their Top of the Pops debut with a performance of the former.

In May 1980 Wright began playing keyboards during live gigs as well as looking after visuals, and they released their second album, Travelogue. It was an improvement on Reproduction – particularly The Black Hit of Space, which sounded ahead of its time. But tensions were growing. Oakey and Ware had often disagreed about their direction, with the former fancying a more commercial sound whereas Ware wanted to continue a more esoteric, totally electronic manifesto. Numan’s success with Cars and Virgin’s refusal to release anything else from Travelogue brought matters to a head, and Ware decided to walk out, taking Marsh with him. With a tour imminent, this was a disaster.

Last tried to sort the situation out, suggesting two new bands under a Human League sub-label, but Ware and Marsh wouldn’t return. It was agreed that Oakey could keep the name and they went on to form Heaven 17 with Gregory, based on the reference to a fictional pop band in Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange. Interestingly, before that, they formed British Electric Foundation, and released albums featuring modern acts covering famous songs with their electronics as backing. Heaven 17 was just one BEF act.

Although Oakey got to keep the group name, this was in effect a poisoned chalice at this point. All Human League debts and commitments were his, including ensuring Ware and Marsh got one percent in royalties from the next Human League LP. Not only that, the media were, understandably, laughing at Oakey. How the hell was he going to get anywhere? Wright hadn’t written a song as yet and was new to playing keyboards. The musical talent had gone and the tour was literally days away.

It’s a well-known anecdote, but it bares repeating, that Oakey decided to hire a female backing vocalist and scoured the clubs of Sheffield. He visited the Crazy Daisy Nightclub and chanced upon two 17-year-olds on the dancefloor. A desperate Oakey, in an image that brings to mind Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1980) if his girlfriend wasn’t also there with him, asked Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall to join The Human League as dancers and backing vocalists. Once they agreed to be on board, he had to approach their parents, who agreed, providing Oakey promised to keep them safe. The new line-up was completed by professional musician Ian Burden from local group Graph on keyboards. However, despite Oakey’s moves, the tour was scoffed at by the music press, who slated Sulley and Catherall. The girls returned to sixth form education.

With Virgin still pressuring The Human League for reasons to keep them on the label, Oakey and Wright recorded and released the single Boys and Girls in February 1981. It was similar to the kind of songs recorded by the previous line-up and only reached 46, but Virgin decided what was missing was a decent producer. In a genius move, The Human League were paired with Martin Rushent, who had worked with Buzzcocks, Shirley Bassey and Joy Division. Rushent’s first move was to get the group out of Sheffield, where they still shared a studio with Heaven 17, and offer a fresh start at his Berkshire studio.

The first fruits of this pairing were the call-to-arms single The Sound of the Crowd. Sulley and Catherall were now on board as official members and on backing vocals, and Burden was also offered a full-time job. It was catchy as hell and perfectly timed, capturing the imagination of electronic music fans and New Romantic poseurs alike. The single peaked at 12 that spring. At last, some momentum.

Last reckoned one more professional on board could really guarantee future hits, and so he suggested guitarist Jo Callis, formerly guitarist with The Rezillos, who he had managed. The new line-up recorded one of the most enduring Human League tracks, Love Action (I Believe in Love). Released in July and soaring to three in the charts a month later, The Human League had proven the naysayers wrong and against all odds, were now bona fide pop stars. Sully and Catherall dropped plans to go to university and the group convened to assemble the album that would cement their reputation. As Shaun Ryder would later say, ‘It’s Dare‘.

Dare was released in October and preceded by another great single, Open Your Heart, which was a number six hit. Dare was huge, even causing the Musicians Union to publicly condemn it for potentially putting ‘real’ musicians out of a job. After it went to number 1, Virgin executive Simon Draper insisted the album should be mined for one more single. Oakey wasn’t happy with Draper’s choice. It was a song that the singer considered to be the weakest on Dare, which he had relegated to the last track on the album. Amazingly, the track was Don’t You Want Me.

Dare’s closer had been inspired by a photo story in a teen girl magazine. Originally conceived and recorded as a song solely from the point of view of the male protagonist. But, inspired by the romantic drama A Star Is Born (1976), he veered towards a troubled romantic duet. With two female backing vocalists in the group, he was spoiled for choice. Pure luck of the draw meant Sulley got the gig. ‘Romantic’ is perhaps the wrong word for this bitter power play snapshot between a man who falls for a cocktail waitress and ‘five years later on’ is being left behind. However, he’s not going down without a fight and threatens ‘I can put you back down too’.

Callis and Wright created a synth score to accompany Oakey’s bitter lyrics, which was initially harsher than the finished article. They really struck gold when they hit upon the guitar-synth melody that accompanied the chorus, which came about by happy accident caused by a computer error that played the line a half-beat out of time. Rushent and Callis loved the end result but Oakey thought it was largely shit – which is perhaps why he recorded his vocal in the studio toilets. An experience that went on longer than he’d have liked due to Callis repeatedly flushing a toilet by reaching in through an open window.

Review

You don’t need me to tell you what a totally brilliant song Don’t You Want Me is. But you might want me to explain why it not only endures as the years go by. Why it is never boring. It’s never annoying, no matter how many times you hear it. Were it not for Pet Shop Boys’ Always On My Mind, this would be the best Christmas number 1 of the 80s.

There is something innately brilliant in these early 80s electronic British number 1s, in the same way there was back in 1963 when The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and similar acts pushed the envelope. The technology is primitive (though incredibly futuristic in 1981 – so much so, the Musicians’ Union had felt obliged to show everyone just how threatened they felt). Don’t You Want Me is one of the best of the bunch.

Oakey’s decision to keep The Human League going and moving in a pop direction when their split happened has of course proven how wise he was. But his feelings towards this song were definitely wrong. It’s incredible to discover he considered it an afterthought and shoved it at the end of Dare. At the time, he and Rushent often disagreed about their work, but the producer was absolutely right to add a glossy, commercial sound to Don’t You Want Me. It’s that brightness, that colour, and simplicity of sound that made the album so huge.

Oakey didn’t give himself enough credit either. The concept of basing a duet around love is as old as time. But a duet that was possessive, cold and cynical, was new. The word ‘love’ doesn’t even come into the equation until Sulley admits her feelings near the end.

Of course, everything comes together for that total banger of a chorus, which will be drunkenly shouted by men and women on dancefloors for evermore. If The Human League’s story was made into a film, Don’t You Want Me would be the perfect happy ending. Oh, and hats off to Sulley too, who’s vocal is both deadpan and somehow emotional at the same time.

Another element that is definitely worth a mention is the video, directed by Steve Barron, who created some of the most memorable pop videos of the era, including Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing and a-ha’s Take On Me. Shot on 35mm film, Don’t You Want Me really stands out due to its cinematic feel. The storyline, of a director’s struggles to make a film, was inspired by the French film Day for Night. Oakey, Sulley and Callis really stand out and could have perhaps made great actors. It could be argued that Oakey proved his worth in his cameo in Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer’s amazing 1992 pilot The Weekenders…

After

Don’t You Want Me held firm at the top of the pops for five weeks and was the biggest-selling single of 1981. The Human League were in so much demand that the stereo remix of the Fast Product version of Being Boiled was re-released in January 1982 and soared to six. Don’t You Want Me then scored the group a US number 1 that summer. Later that year, an instrumental version of Dare called Love and Dancing and credited to The League Unlimited Orchestra was also a hit. They very nearly achieved two Christmas chart-toppers in a row when the Motown-influenced Mirror Man was kept from the top by Renée and Renato’s Save Your Love. Disgraceful. In 1983 they reached two once more, this time with (Keep Feeling) Fascination. This marked the end of the always fractious working relationship with Rushent, who walked out during initial sessions for their next LP.

Hysteria (1984), produced by Hugh Padgham and Chris Thomas, divided fans and critics alike, and The Human League’s commercial powers waned. The singles – The Lebanon, Life on Your Own and Louise, reached 11, 16 and 13 respectively. Oakey’s collaboration with one of his idols, Giorgio Moroder, was deservedly more successful, as Together in Electric Dreams – from the soundtrack to Electric Dreams (1984), peaked at three.

The Human League, once at the forefront of electronic music, struggled to adapt to rapidly advancing technology as the 80s progressed. Callis, who had helped write some of their biggest hits, quit and was replaced by drummer Jim Russell, closely followed by Last. In 1985 they shelved material for their next album due to disagreements with producer Colin Thurston, so Virgin paired them with hip hitmakers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. At first the signs were good, as the single Human was a number eight hit in 1986, but the other singles released from Crash sank rapidly. Wright left soon after, and Burden departed in 1987.

There were more line-up changes and poor results as the 90s began. Romantic? (1990) featured a line-up bolstered by keyboardist Neil Sutton and guitarist/keyboardist Russell Dennett, and even Callis returned to help. But although Heart Like a Wheel was a minor hit, reaching 29 in 1990, Virgin dropped The Human League two years later.

Oakey’s mental health suffered and he lost confidence in his abilities, but after recording an EP with Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1993, EastWest Records signed The Human League and paired them with producer Ian Stanley, formerly of Tears for Fears. The first fruits, Tell Me When, was released on Boxing Day 1994, and was a well-deserved hit, peaking at six. Sounding very of its time, but reminiscent of material from Dare, The Human League were back in vogue, and the parent album Octopus scored a further hit with One Man in My Heart. A remix of Don’t You Want Me even made it to 16.

A change in management at EastWest saw The Human League without a record deal and although they signed with Papillon Records in 2001 and released the album Secrets, it sank commercially. They joined the nostalgia circuit. However, in 2008 Oakey had a great idea – The Steel City Tour. The Human League teamed up with Heaven 17 and ABC to celebrate the music of the early 80s that came from Sheffield. Oakey and Ware had buried the hatchet – whether it was genuine or for the sake of a moneyspinner, I don’t know, but I’d have loved to seen it.

The Human League’s last album to date is Credo, which was released in 2011. This would suggest there may be no more to come, but if so, that’s fine. Oakey and co. should be more than content with their legacy, and especially this song, which went from an afterthought to a single that made them pop immortals.

The Outro

Don’t You Want Me became a top 20 hit for the third time in 2014, reaching 19 as a result of a social media campaign by fans of Aberdeen FC, who one week earlier had won the Scottish League Cup. They had turned the chorus into a terrace chant of ‘Peter Pawlett baby’ in honour of their midfielder.

The Info

Written by

Jo Callis, Philip Oakey & Philip Adrian Wright

Producers

Martin Rushent & The Human League

Weeks at number 1

5 (12 December 1981-15 January 1982) *BEST-SELLING SINGLE OF THE YEAR*

Trivia

Births

15 December 1981: Actresses Michelle Dockery/Victoria Summer
21 December: Cricketer Sajid Mahmood
28 December: Singer-songwriter Frank Turner
29 December: Actress Charlotte Riley
1 January 1982: Footballer Luke Rodgers/Television host Gemma Hunt
4 January: Footballer Richard Logan
6 January: Actor Eddie Redmayne
9 January: Catherine, Princess of Wales/Conservative MP Robert Jenrick

Deaths

15 December 1981: Journalist Claud Cockburn
16 December: Engineering manager Rose Winslade
17 December: Opera singer Sybil Gordon
1 January 1982: Actress Margot Grahame
2 January: Conservative MP Sir Tam Galbraith
4 January: Wykeham Cornwallis, 2nd Baron Cornwallis
11 January: Actor Ronald Lewis/Army major-general Sir Kenneth Strong
12 January: Army major-general Frank Crowther Roberts

Meanwhile…

19 December 1981: An opinion poll showed Margaret Thatcher had become the most unpopular postwar British prime minister, and that the SDP-Liberal Alliance had the support of up to 50% of the electorate.

20 December: The Penlee lifeboat disaster occurred off the coast of Cornwall. The mini-bulk carrier MV Union Star‘s engines had failed in heavy seas, so the lifeboat Solomon Browne went to the rescue. But sometime after the lifeboat had rescued four people, both vessels were lost with all hands. 16 people died, including eight volunteer liefeboatmen.

1 January 1982: The new year began with three new regional TV stations on ITV – Central, TVS (Television South) and TSW (Television South West), replacing ATV Midlands, the incredibly bitter Southern Television and Westward Television respectively.

2 January: The Welsh Army of Workers claimed responsibility for a bomb explosion at the Birmingham headquarters of Severn Trent Water.

10-15 January: The extremely cold winter that began in December 1981 continued with the lowest-ever UK temperature of -27.2C recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire.

485. Soft Cell – Tainted Love (1981)

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The Intro

It’s rare for a cover version to be better than the original. But by slowing down the tempo, stripping the elements back to sparse synthesisers, and adding a big dollop of sleaze, Soft Cell’s Tainted Love became one of the best number 1s of the early 80s.

Before

Tainted Love had been written back in 1964 by Ed Cobb, a former member of US folk-pop act The Four Preps, for Gloria Jones, the young soul singer he had discovered while she was still a teenager. With lead guitar by the then-unknown Glen Campbell, it became the B-side of her flop single, My Bad Boy’s Comin’ Home.

Despite great lyrics detailing a toxic relationship (Cobb later said he wrote it from the point of view of his girlfriend), a driving riff and catchy horns, this original version was mid-level 60s soul at best, missing that Motown magic, and would have most likely been forgotten about.

However, in 1973, UK club DJ Richard Searling bought a copy of the single while in the US, and thought Tainted Love had all the ingredients needed to become a Northern Soul stomper back home. He was right, and Jones’s original became one of the most popular songs played at Wigan Casino.

In the meantime, Jones had joined the writing team at Motown, before become a backing singer in T Rex, and subsequently, Marc Bolan’s girlfriend. In 1976 they co-produced her third LP, Vixen, and among the tracks was a new version of Tainted Love. Jones and Bolan sped the song up, hoping to ramp up the coked-up feel that had helped it become so popular in clubs. But despite this – and the addition of the classic hook that comes in before ‘run away’ in the first line – Northern Soul was on the wane by then, and the remake also failed to chart. A year later, Jones was driving the car that crashed into a tree, killing Bolan. She survived, after fighting for her life.

That same year, students and occasional DJs Marc Almond and Dave Ball met at Leeds Polytechnic University. In 1978 they became the synth duo Soft Cell, combining Ball’s mix of industrial, new wave, electro and pop on cheap synths, with the camp shock aesthetics of Almond. They gained local notoriety for their shocking, surreal shows, in which Almond could be seen smearing his body with cat food, simulating sex with himself in a full-length mirror, or dragging up. A very Yorkshire mix of Suicide, Throbbing Gristle and David Bowie.

Using a £2,000 loan from Ball’s mother, they recorded debut EP Mutant Moments on a two-track recorder for Big Frock Records in 1980. The following year, they gave the track The Girl with the Patent Leather Face to Some Bizzare Records (backed by Phonogram Records). It featured on their compilation Some Bizzare Album, which also featured other tracks by unsigned artists including Blancmange, Depeche Mode and The The.

Soft Cell signed to the label and released debut single Memorabilia, produced by Daniel Miller, the founder of Mute Records. It was popular in clubs, but when it failed to chart, Phonogram let the duo know that, should the follow-up do the same, Soft Cell would be dumped.

Ball was a Northern Soul fan, and had introduced Almond to the 1976 version of Tainted Love. Almond was a big T Rex fan (hence ‘Marc’ Almond), and fell in love with it too. They decided to rework it with a view to using it as an encore track for their live shows. When performed live, Ball used a tape recorder for backing, while he played a keyboard and bass synth, while Almond performed in a padded cell.

Phonogram decided Soft Cell should add bass, guitar and drums to a recorded version, as they found the demo too odd. However, producer Mike Thorne had been working on a number of unusual singles at the time, and the trio decided to keep it faithful to the live version.

Soft Cell joined Thorne at London’s Advision studio, where they decided to incorporate another cover into the 12-inch version – The Supremes’ 1964 hit Where Did Our Love Go. As DJs, Almond and Ball were well versed in mixing appropriate songs together, which was more than obvious here – with the Where Did Our Love Go section sounding like Almond questioning the end of his torrid relationship.

For the Thorne borrowed a drum machine from singer Kit Hain as the duo’s own had broken, and Thorne added Synclavier sounds to Ball’s keyboard. It was Almond’s idea to add the immortal ‘Beep-beep’ ringing sound that makes the intro so memorable.

Almond’s performance is incredible. He sounds angry on Tainted Love – he’s had all he can take and is determined to get out. But by the second half of the 12-inch, he’s had time to reflect. Despite five vocal takes, they decided to keep the very first take, even if Almond was occasionally off-key. It didn’t matter that he was, because he adds humanity to the cold precision of the backing.

Review

Soft Cell’s Tainted Love is both very much a product of its time, and yet timeless. It’s aged incredibly well, despite the primitive electronica on display, much like their beloved Kraftwerk. Like Hutter and co, it’s a brilliant example of how the melding of man and machine can make for truly magical pop. In fact, Ball’s atmospheric backing actually creates more humanity than either of Jones’ versions.

It’s not just the change of key and pace that makes this version better than the original. It’s the added dimension of the fact it’s being sung by an overtly gay man. It was nearly 10 years since David Bowie made his iconic appearance on Top of the Pops where he placed his arm around guitarist Mick Ronson. Since then, glam rock continued to be camp, but more often than not, it was simply a case of laddish rock band members dressing up.

Almond was real, and caused a stir himself when Soft Cell debuted on the BBC’s flagship music show. Compared to his shocking behaviour on stage, the sight of Almond in eyeliner and wearing bangles doesn’t seem that surprising in 2024. But in 1981, it was still shocking, and the BBC asked him to wear neither. Almond refused to budge, and sales of mascara and bangles went through the roof as Tainted Love climbed the charts. Culture Club were just around the corner.

Tainted Love‘s lyrics have added poignancy when sung by a gay man in a world in which homosexuality was still considered dirty and seedy by the mainstream. That this version was released four months after the first newspaper article about AIDS adds even more meaning.

After

Tainted Love was mixed to just over two-and-a-half minutes for the single version that everyone knows and loves, but hearing the 12-inch back in my uni days really blew my mind. I love the way the switch from one song to the other takes place and Almond’s breathless, yearning vocal is just glorious. What a voice.

The single was huge, becoming the second-biggest-selling 7-inch of 1981. It became one of the flagship songs of the Second British Invasion, spending a record-breaking 43 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.

Despite the success of Tainted Love, Soft Cell’s debut album, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, was also recorded on a shoestring budget. Which suited the music perfectly. The LP was a very Soft Cell combination of sleaze, melodrama and innovative synth-pop. Two further singles, Bedsitter and the beautiful Say Hello, Wave Goodbye, were also hits, the former reaching four and the latter peaking at three the following year.

1982 also saw Soft Cell release a video version of their first album. Soft Cell’s Non-Stop Exotic Video Show featured a bizarre promo for Tainted Love, in which Almond, dressed as a Roman emperor, angrily shouts the lyrics at a smiling little girl, watched on by Ball in cricket whites.

Also that year, the duo released the single Torch, which stalled at two, and the mini-album Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing, which featured number-three hit What, which was another Northern Soul cover.

It was highly appropriate that their third album was called The Art of Falling Apart, as by that point, Almond and Ball were weary of Soft Cell, and it seemed the audience were feeling similar, as sales dwindled. The singer, who was struggling with drugs, formed the offshoot Marc and the Mambas.

In 1983 their single Soul Inside made it to 16, but Soft Cell announced they were to split after the release of final LP, This Last Night in Sodom.

Almond started a solo career, and unexpectedly scored a number 1 in 1989 with his duet cover of Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart with Gene Pitney. A new version of Soft Cell’s biggest hit, Tainted Love ’91, peaked at five that year.

Ball became part of experimental group Psychic TV, where he met Richard Norris. Together they became dance duo The Grid in 1988, and are best known for their 1994 hit Swamp Thing.

Soft Cell reformed in 2000 for live dates, and released a new album, Cruelty Without Beauty, two years later. Over the next few years came compilations of demo tracks and a remix album, Heat, in 2005.

Despite an announcement they would play one final gig in 2018, another album followed in 2022. Happiness Not Included featured a collaboration with one of the other most important electronic pop duos of the 80s – Pet Shop Boys.

The Outro

Marilyn Manson’s rock version of Tainted Love from 2001 was a decent stab, but the title has proved sadly ironic following allegations made against the controversial star.

The Info

Written by

Ed Cobb

Producer

Mike Thorne

Weeks at number 1

2 (5-18 September)

Trivia

Births

7 September: SNP MP Natalie McGarry
11 September: Singer Mark Rhodes
15 September: Field hockey defender Richard Alexander
16 September: Field hockey defender David Mitchell

Deaths

5 September: Writer Emery Reves
8 September: Football manager Bill Shankly
14 September: Painter Mary Potter

Meanwhile…

8 September: Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp is set up by protesters of the plans to site US nuclear missiles there.
Also on this day, 16 Labour councillors in Islington join the SDP, and a sitcom called Only Fools and Horses starts on BBC One.

14 September: Cecil Parkinson is appointed the chairman of the Conservative Party.

16 September: Children’s TV series Postman Pat is first broadcast on BBC One.

18 September: Liberal Party leader David Steel overoptimistically tells delegates at conference to ‘go back to your constituencies and prepare for government.’

477. Shakin’ Stevens – This Ole House (1981)

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The Intro

The UK’s bestselling artist of the 80s was Welsh singer Shakin’ Stevens. Hard to believe, several decades later. But with Elvis Presley gone, there was a gap in the market for old-school, good-time 50s rock’n’roll with an 80s sheen. The first of Shaky’s three chart-toppers had been a number 1 for Rosemary Clooney back in 1954.

Before

Stevens was born Michael Barratt in Ely, Cardiff on 4 March 1948. The youngest of 11 children, Barratt was a teenager in the mid-60s when he formed his first band The Olympics, who soon changed their name to The Cossacks, and quickly changed again to The Denims.

Barratt became associated with the Young Communist League – although he later said this was only because the person who booked their gigs was also in the YCL, who held a lot of sway back then through association with leading stars such as Pete Townshend.

By 1968, Barratt was an upholsterer and milkman during the week, and a would-be pop star at the weekend, performing in clubs and pubs around South Wales. He had long admired retro Penarth-based band The Backbeats, occasionally featuring as their guest vocalist. That year he became their full-time singer. When local impresario Paul ‘Legs’ Barrett saw them perform, he suggested a repackage of the group. With his old school friend Steven Vanderwalker in mind, Barratt and co became Shakin’ Stevens and the Sunsets.

The future looked bright, at first. Shakin’ Stevens and the Sunsets signed to Parlophone Records in 1970 and released their first album, A Legend, produced by Dave Edmunds. However, the group spent the vast majority of the 70s touring Europe to minor success, and achieved next to nothing in the UK.

In 1977, producer Jack Good (the man behind early TV music series Six-Five Special) was working on Elvis!, a musical based on the life and recent death of ‘the King’. Good wanted three men to play Presley in different stages of his life, and he chose Tim Whitnall as young Elvis, Stevens as prime Presley, and PJ Proby for the Las Vegas era.

Elvis! was only planned to run for six months, so The Sunsets waited for Stevens to return. But the musical was a hit and ran for a further two years. Stevens released an eponymous LP in 1978 with Track Records, and appeared on Good’s revival of his TV show Oh Boy! and Let’s Rock.

In late-1979, Freya Miller became his new manager, and she told him to ditch The Sunsets. She was right, as he signed with Epic Records and released Take One!. The first single to be released was a cover of Buck Owens’ Hot Dog, and it became his first hit, reaching 24. Stevens, together with new producer Stuart Colman, never looked back. Which is ironic as his music was constantly doing just that.

His second album Marie, Marie, was released in October 1980. The title track, an old song by The Blasters, broke the top 20, peaking at 19. But the next single, Shooting Gallery, couldn’t crack the top 40. It took Stevens’ take on NRBQ’s 1979 arrangement of a former UK number 1 to really catapult Stevens to the big time.

This Ole House is – I believe – the first instance of a number 1 by two different artists in two different decades. In Every UK Number 1: The 50s, I wrote about its creation:

‘Stuart Hamblen was an alcoholic, gambling-addicted singer-songwriter and radio personality. He was constantly getting into scrapes and being bailed out, thanks to his charm. In 1949, he decided to take a different path, converting to Christianity after attending one of Billy Graham’s rallies. He was fired from his radio show for refusing to do beer commercials, and then he gave up his vices.

While out hunting with a friend one day, he came across an abandoned shack on a mountain. Upon inspection, they found a dog guarding a dead body. Allegedly, he came up with the lyrics while riding back down the mountain. So the “ole house” in question is in fact the body you leave behind when you die.’

Actress and singer Rosemary Clooney took This Ole House for a week on 26 November 1954, around the time of the release of White Christmas, in which she starred alongside Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.

Review

I gave Clooney’s recording of this song – featuring Thurl Ravenscroft, voice of Tony the Tiger, a thumbs up, and I stand by it. It’s one of the best pre-rock’n’roll chart-toppers, and one of the rare number 1s of those first few years you can genuinely enjoy.

I also commented on my thoughts on Shaky in that review:

‘It never occurred to me that This Ole House could be about anything other than house renovation. To me, and probably most children of the late-70s and early 80s, it conjures up happy memories of Shakin’ Stevens hanging around an old building in the video of his 1981 cover version. What with this, his cover of Green Door, and his love of denim, I think I assumed “Shaky” was some sort of singing builder as a child’.

Returning to this song, and video, all these years later, nothing has changed. Stevens’ version is serviceable enough, and sums up his appeal. It’s nostalgic but removes the grit and grime of earlier versions, making it swing more but in a very early 80s way that adds nothing exciting or original.

Although it’s hard to be overly critical of Stevens for nostalgic reasons (something that’s going to be a potential problem with lots of 80s chart-toppers for me), one listen to the NRBQ version (This Old House) lowers my opinion more. They’re almost exactly the same, apart from the lead vocal by their singer Terry Adams –which is arguably better than Stevens’ rendition. It’s music for grandparents and children, not a 45-year-old music snob.

After

Such was the success of Stevens’ This Ole House, his LP Marie, Marie was retitled to share its name. Many more hits followed, and his second number 1, Green Door, wasn’t far away.

The Outro

In 2005, Stevens, fresh off the back of an appearance on ITV’s Hit Me Baby One More Time, re-released This Ole House along with a cover of P!nk’s Trouble. The double A-side reached 20.

The Info

Written by

Stuart Hamblen

Producer

Rock Masters Productions

Weeks at number 1

3 (28 March-17 April)

Trivia

Births

1 April: S Club 7 singer Hannah Spearritt
10 April: Atomic Kitten singer Liz McClarnon

Deaths

28 March: Cartoonist Bernard Hollowood/Artist Helen Adelaide Lamb
29 March: Racing driver David Prophet
30 March: Olympian athlete Douglas Lowe
31 March: Playwright Enid Bagnold
1 April: Writer Dennis Feltham Jones
3 April: Labour Party MP Will Owen
4 April: Journalist Donald Tyerman
7 April: Ice hockey player Lorne Carr-Harris/Music producer Kit Lambert
8 April: Film composer Eric Rogers
13 April: Actor Albert Burdon/Novelist Gwyn Thomas
14 April: Composer Christian Darnton
15 April: Actor Blake Butler
16 April: Political activist Peggy Duff/Cricketer Eric Hollies
17 April: Palaeontologist Francis Rex Parrington

Meanwhile…

28 March: Controversial Ulster Unionist Enoch Powell warned of racial civil war.

29 March: The first London Marathon was held.

30 March: The Academy Award-winning historical sporting drama Chariots of Fire was released.

4 April: Bucks Fizz became the fourth UK act to win the Eurovision Song Contest, with future number 1 Making Your Mind Up.
Also on this day, Oxford University student Susan Brown became the first female cox in a winning Boat Race team. And cancer survivor Bob Champion won the Grand National with his horse Aldaniti.

5 April: The UK Census was conducted.

10 April: IRA member Bobby Sands, on hunger strike in Northern Ireland’s Maze prison, was elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone in a by election.

11 April: Rioting in Bristol resulted in more than 300 injured people (mostly police officers).

13 April: Home Secretary William Whitelaw announced a public inquiry into the Brixton riot.

474. John Lennon – Woman (1981)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

John Lennon’s tender ballad Woman was the first single released after his murder, and his third and final solo number 1. This touching tribute to his wife Yoko Ono served as a sequel of sorts to Girl, from The Beatles’ Rubber Soul. Ironically, it was the first time an artist had replaced themselves at number 1 since I Want to Hold Your Hand replaced She Loves You in 1963.

Before

Only three days before he was shot dead, Lennon told Rolling Stone that he was inspired to write Woman ‘one sunny afternoon in Bermuda’. It suddenly hit him how much women are taken for granted, and Lennon – whose relationships with women were certainly complex, right back to his feelings for his mother – decided to pay tribute to Ono. Ironically, considering the blame Ono wrongly got for breaking up his old band, he considered Woman the most Beatles-sounding track on his final album, Double Fantasy. This track is also the only example of a song title used by both Lennon and Paul McCartney for their own separate songs. McCartney’s Woman, written in 1966 under the pseudonym Bernard Webb, was recorded by folk duo Peter and Gordon.

Lennon’s Woman was recorded at sessions on 5 and 27 August, and 8 and 22 September 1980. In addition to lead vocal, he also played an acoustic guitar. Joining him were Earl Slick and Hugh McCracken on guitar, Tony Levin on bass, George Small on piano and synthesiser, Andy Newmark on drums, Arthur Jenkins on percussion, and Michelle Simpson, Ritchie Family members Cassandra Wooten and Cheryl Mason Jacks, and Eric Troyer on backing vocals.

Review

Woman was the highlight of Double Fantasy. The LP is often guilty of being too slick, but the glossy production works in favour of this track, rather than against it. Although Lennon considered it a sequel to Girl, it’s lyrically similar to Jealous Guy. He’s directly apologising to Ono again for past behaviour (perhaps the ‘Lost Weekend’?), but also paying tribute to all women. It would be nice to think, after the stories of his sometimes violent history with women, that this was Lennon at his most honest and contrite.

Opening with a barely audible ‘For the other half of the sky’, there’s sterling synth work from Small, and warm Beatles-like guitar from Slick and McCracken. Somehow, despite the sheen, the swooning backing vocals, and the lack of decent lyrics in the chorus, it’s lovely and really charming. And inevitably, this single gained huge added poignancy following Lennon’s death. A fitting Valentine’s Day number 1, indeed.

But what was going on with that chorus? ‘Ooooh, well well, do-do-do-do-do’ was surely a placeholder that Lennon and Ono decided to leave in? And they say McCartney missed Lennon’s quality control…

Speaking of quality control, I have to mention the official video to Woman. I’m in genuine shock. Ono edited the video in January, and understandably, she will have been in pieces. However, the video veers from touching, with footage of the couple in Central Park two months previous, to poor taste, including the pic of Lennon and his killer, lifted from a newspaper. But what’s really shocking is the image of Lennon’s side profile from the back of the Imagine album, made to morph into the last ever photo of Lennon – in the morgue. Unbelievably, this remains in the official video on YouTube.

After

Woman was the last solo number 1 for John Lennon. However, the outpouring of emotion after his death resulted in Roxy Music’s cover of Jealous Guy knocking Joe Dolce Music Theatre from the top spot. Inevitably, people moved on from their grief, and the next single, Watching the Wheels, only peaked at 30.

Three years later, Ono was finally able to work on Milk and Honey, which was the couple’s next projected LP. Lennon’s work was inevitably a little rough and ready as it had been tragically left unfinished, but Nobody Told Me – originally meant for Ringo Starr – was a number six hit. The follow-up, Borrowed Time, was his last original charting single, making it to 32.

Reissues of Jealous Guy and Imagine failed to reach the top 40 in the 80s, but in the 90s the legend of The Beatles grew in stature once more, thanks in part to Britpop and a newfound appreciation of 60s guitar groups. This coincided with the Anthology project, where Lennon’s 1977 demo of Free as a Bird, and 1979 home recording of Real Love, were transformed into ‘new’ Beatles recordings, courtesy of the surviving members and producer Jeff Lynne. Amazingly, neither went to number 1.

In 2010 a new ‘Stripped Down’ version of Double Fantasy was released. The aim was to remove some of the studio gloss of the original album, and sometimes this worked well. Not with Woman. Part of this song’s appeal was in the production. The 2010 version, shorn of sheen, simply sounded like a demo, not a remix. However, it’s noteworthy that you can hear Lennon drawing his breath in at the close, seemingly a deliberate nod to Girl.

Thanks to AI sound-limiting technology used in Peter Jackson’s excellent Get Back project, McCartney finally felt he could finish Now and Then, the Lennon demo from around 1977 that had been started for Anthology 3 before Harrison refused to continue. Hearing Lennon’s voice, shorn of rough-and-ready ghostly tape echo a la those Anthology 1 and 2 songs, was a beautiful, spine-chilling moment. In 2023, 54 years after The Ballad of John and Yoko, The Beatles were back at number 1.

The Outro

For many years, Lennon’s many flaws (and to be fair, he was very vocal about his failings in his lifetime) were forgotten and because his life was cut tragically short, he became a bona fide icon. A Godlike figure, who age did not dull. The cool, edgy Beatle – which understandably irked McCartney to a degree.

But Lennon’s stature has fallen somewhat in today’s cancel culture. McCartney is often now considered the cool one, his family focused lifestyle now attracting plaudits where he was once laughed at. Lennon may very well have been a nightmare in the age of social media, and his musical comeback may have soon resulted in bland MOR pop (the signs were certainly there in some of Double Fantasy).

However, the truth is more complex than that. Lennon was a troubled man and also one of the greatest singer-songwriters there has ever been – anyone arguing he is the greatest would have a very good argument. The extent to which he was mourned when he passed, and his influence on the era’s number 1s, is more than justified.

The Info

Written by

John Lennon

Producers

John Lennon, Yoko Ono & Jack Douglas

Weeks at number 1

2 (7-20 February)

Trivia

Births

8 February: Actor Ralf Little
9 February: Actor Tom Hiddleston
10 February: TV presenter Holly Willoughby
17 February: Conservative MP Andrew Stephenson

Deaths

10 February: Civil engineer Sir Hubert Shirley-Smith
12 February: Tennis player Murray Deloford
13 February: Writer Eric Whelpton
17 February: David Garnett
18 February: Comic impressionist Peter Cavanagh
19 February: Actress Olive Gilbert/Conservative MP Leonard Plugge
20 February: Cricketer Brian Sellers

Meanwhile…

9 February: Shirley Williams resigns from Labour’s national executive committee. 

12 February: The purchase of The Times and Sunday Times newspapers by Rupert Murdoch from The Thomson Corporation is confirmed.
Also on this day, Ian Paisley is suspended from the House of Commons for four days after he calls the Northern Ireland Secretary a liar.

13 February: The National Coal Board announces widespread pit closures.

15 February: For the first time, Football League matches take place on a Sunday.

16 February: Two are jailed in connection with the death of industrialist Thomas Niedermayer who had been kidnapped by the Provisional IRA in 1973.

18 February: The Conservative government withdraws plans to close 23 mines following negotiations with the National Union of Mineworkers.
Also on this day, Harold Evans is appointed editor of The Times.

20 February: Peter Sutcliffe is charged with the murder of 13 women.