Tuesday, 18 April 2023

UK Number 40s: Human League - Stay With Me Tonight (1996)

 


The Human League are now the 52nd act featured so far to have both a number 1 and number 40 to their name. The number 1 was "Don't You Want Me" which was Christmas number 1 in 1981 having made their Top 40 debut earlier on in that year with "The Sound Of The Crowd".

The reality for most synth pop actsof the early 80s was that they were falling out of favour from a chart perspective by the mid to late 80s. The history books initially suggest the Human League were early victims of this with their run of hits coming to an end by the end of 1984.

Just under 2 years later they re-emerged with the Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis penned soul record "Human" which gave them a Top 10 hit in the UK and topped the American charts. This looked to be a one off though with no further Top 40 hits for the rest of the decade.

The 90s started in typical fashion for an early 80s synth pop act trying to stretch out their career with "Heart Like A Wheel" just about scraping into the Top 30.

1995 was a different story though. With near enough all the early 80s synth pop acts either finished Top 40 wise or changed musical direction, Human League were back in a big way. They got to number 6 with "Tell Me When", their biggest hit since 1983. They also had Top 20 hits with "One Man In My Heart" and a remix of "Don't You Want Me" and a further Top 40 hit with "Filling Up With Heaven".

Then in January 1996 came this, their final Top 40 hit to date. The nostalgia of an 80s act in the 90s had possibly worn off by this point. It had to be said though that few if any early 80s synth pop acts can claim to have had a 90s revival as big as the Human League did so they were probably happy with this.

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