The Hidden History Behind “Don’t You Want Me” by The Human League

“Don’t You Want Me” by The Human League remains one of the defining synth-pop hits of the 1980s. But the Sheffield band never planned to release it as a single, let alone for it to become their defining track.

Teen Drama

An article in a teen girls’ magazine inspired front man Philip Oakey to begin writing the song. He planned to sing it alone but later decided on a duet with further inspiration from Kris Kristofferson’s and Barbra Streisand’s performances in A Star Is Born.

The band’s teenage backing vocalist, Susan Ann Sulley, joins Oakey on the track. Together, they detail a romance that ends bitterly. It begins with Oakey’s perspective.

You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar,
When I met you.
I picked you out, I shook you up, and turned you around,
Turned you into someone new.
Now five years later on, you’ve got the world at your feet,
Success has been so easy for you.
But don’t forget, it’s me who put you where you are now,
And I can put you back down too.

Don’t, don’t you want me?
You know I can’t believe it when I hear that you won’t see me.
Don’t, don’t you want me?
You know I don’t believe you when you say that you don’t need me.

In the following verse, Sulley offers her perspective. She fell in love too. But he’s taking too much credit for her success. And now she’s more interested in independence than codependence on a resentful partner.

I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar,
That much is true.
But even then, I knew I’d find a much better place,
Either with or without you.
The five years we have had have been such good times,
I still love you.
But now I think it’s time I live my life on my own,
I guess it’s just what I must do.

Accidental Hit

Though “Don’t You Want Me” became The Human League’s biggest hit, Oakey didn’t plan on releasing it as a single. However, with pressure from the band’s record label, the song, co-written by Oakey, Jo Callis, and Philip Adrian Wright, was released as the fourth single from their 1981 LP, Dare. It topped the charts in multiple countries, including in the United States.

Not bad for a song tacked onto the end of an album.

Don’t you want me, baby?
Don’t you want me, oh?

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