Album · The Human League
Dare by The Human League
Dare is an album by The Human League, released in 1981. 3 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 46 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Don't You Want Me”, on 41 lists with a best position of #5.
Dare, released in Britain in October 1981 on Virgin (A&M brought it to America the following year), is the sound of the Human League being blown apart and rebuilt as a pop group. Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh had walked out, and Philip Oakey and Adrian Wright answered by drafting singers Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley, bassist and synth player Ian Burden and guitarist Jo Callis.
Martin Rushent produced it between March and September 1981, steering the old avant-garde bleeps straight at the charts: gleaming synth hooks that snap like elastic, Oakey's deadpan croon trading lines with the two new voices. "The Sound of the Crowd", "Love Action (I Believe in Love)" and "Open Your Heart" were hits, and "Don't You Want Me" topped the charts in both the UK and the US and got credited with kicking off the Second British Invasion. The album itself went to number one at home, and Rushent later reworked it into the remix set Love and Dancing.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Dare on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Don't You Want Me | 41 | #5 | – | 1982–2026 | |
| 2 | Seconds | 4 | #51 | – | 1982–1991 | |
| 3 | The Sound Of The Crowd | 1 | #952 | – | 1991 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.