“Dare” by The Human League is an Album I Want To Be Buried With

Back in November 2011, I added Heaven 17’s “Penthouse and Pavement” (UK vinyl version) to my musical afterlife playlist.

Today, I want to add another classic 80’s synth-pop band to the coffin collection.

That, of course, is the album “Dare” by The Human League.

I first discovered The Human League back in 1981, when I was a freshman at Hamilton College.  A fellow classmate named Gretchen was from England, and when she went home to visit her family, I asked her to bring back some 45’s from the UK.  Not sure of what to ask for, I looked at Billboard’s “Hits of the World” countdown and asked for whatever was in the Top 10 at the time.  Let’s see.  Some group called Haircut 100.  Another group called Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.  And this song that was at #1 for a few weeks now by a group called The Human League.

And when I received the import 45’s from Gretchen, I started listening to them.  Okay, I was digging the OMD 45, and Haircut 100 – I could take or leave.  But when I played The Human League’s 45…

Instant love.  Sing it with me, people… Don’t you want me baby… don’t you want me Oooo-ho-ho…

Yeah, that’s gonna be stuck in your brain all day.

The whole “Dare” album is fantastic.  It’s really the melding of synthesizer music to Top 40 radio, where the synth isn’t a cold, frozen electronic device of bleeps and blurps.  The melodies are great, and man oh man I dug this band in college.  And six months later, when “Don’t You Want Me” hit #1 in America… I had this feeling of “dang, I predicted a #1 hit.  Let me brush the dust off my shoulders.”

And man, I dug the Dare album.  Songs like “The Sound of the Crowd” and “Open Your Heart” and “Love Action” and “Seconds” – I played that album until the record wore out, then I had to go to Sangertown Square and get another LP from the Camelot Records store.

Of course, after that, I had to purchase all The Human League’s catalog.  That included their earlier recordings when The Human League contained members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh (who later became Heaven 17), and all the other post-Dare singles and albums.  I cheered when the band hit #1 again with “Human” in the late 80’s, and I grumbled when I found out recently that the group – now down to Phil Oakey, Joanna Catherall and Susanne Sulley – are not touring the United States this year as part of one of those 80’s retro package tours.  Bummer.

But back to “Don’t You Want Me” – this song has popped up in several television commercials, including this track for Chips Ahoy cookies…

And this goofy ad for Fiat…

How about this version for a Doritos commercial?

And finally, Benjamin Franklin channels his inner Phil Oakey…

When it comes to 1980’s synth-pop bands, The Human League were tops in their field – at least part of a holy synth trinity that includes New Order and Depeche Mode. And the Dare album, from first track to last, is a great LP and definitely one for the afterlife playlist.