"Love Action (I Believe in Love)" is a song by the British
synthpop group
The Human League
The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their third album ''Dare' ...
, released as a single in the UK in July 1981. It became the band's first Top 10 success, peaking at number three in the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
.
The song was written jointly by lead singer
Philip Oakey
Philip Oakey (born 2 October 1955) is a British singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the lead singer, songwriter, and cofounder of British synth-pop band the Human League. Aside from the Human League, Oakey has enjoyed an e ...
and keyboard player
Ian Burden. It features lead vocal by Oakey, female backing vocals by
Susanne Sulley and
Joanne Catherall
Joanne Catherall (born 18 September 1962) is an English singer who is one of two female vocalists in the English synth-pop band The Human League.
In 1980, Catherall was a 17-year-old school girl when she and her best friend Susan Ann Sulley ...
, and analogue synthesizers by
Jo Callis, Philip Adrian Wright and
Ian Burden. Drum machines, sequencing and programming were provided by producer
Martin Rushent
Martin Charles Rushent (11 July 1948 – 4 June 2011) was an English record producer, best known for his work with The Human League, The Stranglers and Buzzcocks.
Early life
Rushent was born on 11 July 1948 in Enfield, Middlesex. His father ...
and his then engineer and programmer
David M. Allen. One of the most notable synth sounds on the recording makes use of the pitch-to-voltage converter and envelope shaper on the
Roland System 700
The Roland System 700 was a professional monophonic modular synthesizer for electronic music manufactured by the Roland Corporation and released in 1976 and was followed by the Roland System-100M in 1978.
Modules
The System 700 range included ...
modular synth. Jo Callis' guitar strumming was fed into the synth and used to shape and trigger the sounds, producing an unusual choppy, strumming synth patch.
Charts
Background
"Love Action (I Believe in Love)" was the second of three songs from the ''
Dare'' album to be released in advance of the album itself in 1981. It was released as a double A-side single with the non-album track "Hard Times". In the US, "Love Action (I Believe in Love)"/"Hard Times" made the dance charts twice: in 1981, the tracks first peaked at number thirty-seven, and one year later, re-entered the dance chart and peaked at number fifty-seven.
The song is a semi-autobiographical account of Oakey’s relationships. Oakey often refers to himself and at one point uses the lyric "this is Phil talking." The line was inspired by
Iggy Pop's line "Jesus, this is Iggy". The Human League had previously supported Iggy Pop live. Oakey borrows from another of his influences and the title "Love Action (I Believe in Love)" is named after the
Lou Reed song "I Believe in Love". The song contains another cryptic reference to Lou Reed in the lyric, "I believe what the old man said". Oakey, speaking in 1982 said, "no one ever asks me who the old man is... it's Lou (Reed)."
Release
The release of the single was widely advertised in music press in early August 1981 with prominence given also to the B-side "Hard Times" as well as the A-side, and to the fact that a "limited" 12" single would also be made available as "Hard Times/Love Action" in "Disco Mix and Odd Mix" although these names were not used for the actual release.
The single was designated 'Red' on the Human League’s short-lived self-imposed labelling system of 'Blue' for pop songs and 'Red' for dance tracks.
The single made number 3 in the UK charts and placed The Human League in the forefront of media attention. It also renewed Virgin Records' faith in the band and guaranteed the release of the album that was to become ''Dare'', just four months later.
"Love Action" was the 34th best-selling single in the UK in 1981. The song was ranked at number 5 among the top ten "Tracks of the Year" for 1981 by ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
''.
Legacy
The song was sampled in the UK hit single from dance duo
Utah Saints
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its we ...
in the mid-1990s and by
George Michael for his politically charged 2002 hit "
Shoot the Dog."
It was sampled once again in 2022 by
Betty Boo
Alison Moira Clarkson (born 6 March 1970 in Kensington, London), better known as Betty Boo, is an English singer, songwriter and rapper. She first came to mainstream prominence in the late 1980s following a collaboration with the Beatmasters ...
for her come back track "Get Me To The Weekend"
The song is featured on the video game ''
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories'' and in the series 1, episode 4 of ''
Ashes to Ashes''. The song was also used for an episode of ''
Skins'' in 2009. The song was used in the 1982 teen film ''
The Last American Virgin
''The Last American Virgin'' is a 1982 American sex comedy film written and directed by Boaz Davidson. It is a remake of Davidson's 1978 Israeli film '' Eskimo Limon (Lemon Popsicle)''.
After the success of the original film and its sequels in ...
'' but has been excised from the DVD release. The song was covered by
Mark Thwaite
Mark Gemini Thwaite (born 15 June 1965) also known as MGT, is an English musician, and has been the guitarist for a number of rock bands and artists over the last two decades, including The Mission, Trip-Hop pioneer Tricky, Peter Murphy of Bau ...
and
Ashton Nyte on the album MGT: Gemini Nyte, released in 2018 (
).
Promotional video
Originally the song was released without a promotional video; at the time promotional videos were still rare, very expensive and only very high-profile bands received them. At this point the Human League were not sufficiently marketable to warrant the expense of a video. Instead, video from the band's television appearances to promote the song (mainly an appearance on ''Top of the Pops'') was used.
Following the huge success of "Don't You Want Me", a video for "Love Action" was shot retrospectively for the single's release in America in 1982. The storyline is loosely based on the 1967 film ''
The Graduate
''The Graduate'' is a 1967 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from W ...
''. The opening scene is an exact copy of the church scene from the film with Oakey taking
Dustin Hoffman's role. The majority of the video was filmed on a derelict South
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
council estate while the church scenes were filmed at St Saviour's,
Warwick Avenue. Most of the female camera time went to Joanne Catherall, in a wedding dress for the first half. Susan Ann Sulley's scenes mainly involved her having a tantrum and throwing objects around a flat. At one point in the scene, she accidentally managed to score a direct hit on the camera and a production crew member with a flying lamp. She
momentarily broke character and cringed as she realizes she had just hit one of the crew.
Formats and track listings
; 7" vinyl (Virgin VS435)
# "Love Action (I Believe in Love)" - 3:50
# "Hard Times" - 4:53
; 12" vinyl (Virgin VS435-12)
# "Hard Times/Love Action (I Believe in Love)" - 10:09
# "Hard Times/Love Action (I Believe in Love) (Instrumentals)" - 11:10
;3" CD (Virgin CDT6)
# "Hard Times" - 4:53
# "Love Action (I Believe in Love)" - 5:06
# "Hard Times" (Instrumental) - 5:44
# "Love Action" (Instrumental) - 5:23
*CD released in 1988.
References
External links
THE HUMAN LEAGUE
{{authority control
The Human League songs
1981 singles
Songs written by Philip Oakey
Song recordings produced by Martin Rushent
Songs written by Ian Burden
1981 songs
Virgin Records singles