Don't You Want Me

This song is about a guy who meets a cocktail waitress and turns her into a star before their love goes bad. It was inspired by an article in a woman's magazine. Lead singer Phil Oakey claims this is not a love song but about power politics between two people.

With help from MTV, which launched on August 1, 1981, this opened a mini-British invasion of the USA. There were a lot of video shows in Europe, so when MTV went on the air, they were forced to play videos by many UK bands because that was most of their library. "Don't You Want Me" was the first US single released by The Human League; it was issued in January 1982, entered the Top 40 in April, and thanks to the MTV exposure, hit #1 on July 3, 1982, where it stayed for three weeks. The song's rise mirrored that of MTV, gradually gaining attention and making a huge cultural impact by the summer of 1982.

In the UK, this was a monster hit, and the first #1 for Richard Branson's Virgin label. The song was released in the UK in November 1981 and hit #1 on December 12, where it stayed for five weeks; the group had three previous UK hits that year: "The Sound Of The Crowd" (#12), "Love Action (I Believe In Love)" (#3), and "Open Your Heart" (#6). When the Official Charts company compiled a 2012 list of the all-time top-selling singles in the UK, "Don't You Want Me" landed at #24, with sales of 1.54 million.