"Open Your Heart" is a song by the British

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

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' ...

. It was released as a single in the UK in October 1981 and peaked at number six 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 ...

. It 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

Jo Callis John William "Jo" Callis (born 2 May 1951) is an English musician and songwriter who played guitar with the Edinburgh based punk rock band The Rezillos (under the name Luke Warm), and post-punk band Boots for Dancing before joining The Human ...

. The song features a lead vocal by Oakey and 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 ...

, 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 ...

Background

"Open Your Heart" was the third song from the '' Dare'' album. It was chosen by Virgin executive Simon Draper to be ''Dares taster single, deliberately issued just three weeks in advance of the album. It quickly reached number six in the UK singles chart and raised the band's profile to the highest it had been to that point, and acted as a powerful promotional vehicle for the album. The cover artwork and promotional video was deliberately coordinated with its parent album.
It was the first Human League

record sleeve A record sleeve is the outer covering of a vinyl record. Alternative terms are ''dust sleeve'', ''album liner'' and ''liner''. The term is also used to denominate the outermost cardboard covering of a record, i.e. the ''record jacket'' or ''album ...

to feature new band member

, who co-wrote the song with

Phil 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 ...

and who also wrote the B-side "Non-Stop" with Adrian Wright. In an interview in October 2009 Callis said, "I had started to work out both those tunes on guitar, playing along to an early drum machine which had about six preset drum patterns, Open Your Heart did translate better on the keyboard and I think we used the same drum machine with the same preset on the original demo which was done in the League's old 8 track studio in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

Release

At the time, as a short-lived marketing tactic, The Human League were labeling their singles "Red" or "Blue" to help buyers differentiate between the band's musical styles. "Open Your Heart" was the first to be designated "Blue". When they were asked why, Susanne Sulley explained that "Red is for posers, for Spandy (

Spandau Ballet Spandau Ballet () were an English new wave band formed in Islington, London, in 1979. Inspired by the capital's post-punk underground dance scene, they emerged at the start of the 1980s as the house band for the Blitz Kids, playing "European D ...

) types." Oakey added: "Blue is for

ABBA ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group's ...

fans." ''

Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand fo ...

'' magazine wrote at the time:

"You have to give the band their due. From being considered no-hopers, they're now Virgin's biggest (financial) hope. This is a number one. It's got everything - strong chorus, instant appeal and dreamboat topping." Smash Hits October 1981
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The single entered the

UK Singles Charts 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- ...

at no. 21 on 6 October 1981. The band appeared on

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show ...

the same week to perform the song. The following week it reached its no. 6 peak staying there for two consecutive weeks. The promo video rather than a repeat of the studio appearance was shown on

on 22 October by which time the parent album "Dare" had been released, entering the

UK album charts The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

at no. 2.

B-side

"Non-Stop" is an upbeat instrumental track, written

Callis Callis is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Ann Callis (born 1964), American judge * Charles A. Callis (1865–1947), American Mormon leader *Don Callis (born 1963), Canadian wrestler * Henry Arthur Callis (1887–1974), American ...

and

Wright Wright is an occupational surname originating in England. The term 'Wright' comes from the circa 700 AD Old English word 'wryhta' or 'wyrhta', meaning worker or shaper of wood. Later it became any occupational worker (for example, a shipwright i ...

which was also remixed for the 12" release of ''Open Your Heart''. Unlike previous single B-side "Hard Times", it was not included on the remix album ''

Love and Dancing ''Love and Dancing'' is a remix album by English synth-pop band The Human League, released in July 1982 by Virgin Records. Issued under the band name "The League Unlimited Orchestra" as a nod to Barry White's disco-era Love Unlimited Orchestra, ...

''.

Promotional video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

which accompanies the original version of "Open Your Heart" was the first video that the band recorded. Previous Human League (Mk1) releases had been promoted with footage of the band onstage, interspersed with Philip Adrian Wright's slides and visuals. The preceding single "Love Action (I Believe in Love)" had originally been released without a video, but one was later recorded for its U.S. release in 1982. Virgin Records and Oakey were keen to use the video to promote the future album as much as the current single, so video director

Brian Grant Brian Wade Grant (born March 5, 1972) is an American former professional basketball player. He played the power forward and center positions for five teams during 12 seasons in the National Basketball Association. He was known for his tenacious ...

borrowed heavily from the album’s imagery. The opening scene is a video montage of the portraits of the six band members exactly as they appear on the cover of the album. The band are all dressed and made up in the same style as ''Dares photography. The video was shot in a studio on video tape and was mixed and enhanced using then cutting edge analogue video effects. Imagery of Oakey dominated most scenes, cut in with Sulley and Catherall dancing in slow motion and static shots of Wright, Callis, Burden. The video ends with a lingering shot on the actual cover of the then-unreleased ''Dare''.

Track listing

; 7" vinyl (Virgin VS453) # "Open Your Heart" – 3:53 # "Non-Stop" – 4:15 ; 12" vinyl (Virgin VS453-12) # "Open Your Heart/Non-Stop" – 8:15 # "Open Your Heart/Non-Stop (Instrumentals)" – 8:41

Charts

References

External links

Unofficial Human League Archive
{{Authority control The Human League songs 1981 singles Songs written by Philip Oakey Song recordings produced by Martin Rushent Songs written by Jo Callis 1981 songs Virgin Records singles