“Penthouse and Pavement” by Heaven 17

"Penthouse and Pavement" is the title track of Heaven 17's debut album, out on Virgin in September 1981, and it's where Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh lay out what came after the Human League. They cut the record in a Sheffield studio on shifts with their old band, who were making Dare there at the same time, and the difference is in the blood: session player John Wilson came in on bass and guitar, pulling the English synth-pop outfit past the sparse electronics they'd been hemmed into, and Josie James lays R&B-style backing vocals under Glenn Gregory's lead.

Gregory wrote the words and shares the music credit with Ware and Marsh, who handle synthesizers and percussion between them, Ware adding piano and backing vocals, Marsh saxophone. B.E.F. produced it with Peter Walsh.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.