Phil Oakey might have hated it, but his hook-laden hit about sexual power politics brought synth-pop in from the cold
Sometimes you can’t quite trust artists to tell the truth about their best work. Speaking to Smash Hits around the time of Don’t You Want Me’s release and subsequent rise to the top of the charts in 1981, Human League singer Phil Oakey enthused: “It’s the best song I’ve ever written. It’s a proper song like the kind that Earth, Wind and Fire or Abba would write.” Producer Martin Rushent claimed that Oakey actually hated the eventual hit so much that he tried to stop it being released. Whatever the truth of the matter, Oakey’s public pronouncements were correct – this is aspirational music that chimed with the times yet had none of the ruthless, cynical avarice of the decade, and pop, to come.
Don’t You Want Me was to crown the breakout year for electronic pop music – Soft Cell had hit the top of the charts in the same year as the Human League, but Tainted Love had the sneaky advantage of being a cover. Depeche Mode were bubbling up in Basildon, OMD had released the arch yet sumptuous Architecture and Morality, but with 2m record sales, the 1981 Christmas No 1 under its belt, and a US No 1 to boot, Don’t You Want Me is arguably the first synth-pop smash hit.
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