Song · The Human League
“The Lebanon” by The Human League
From the album Hysteria (1984)
“The Lebanon” by The Human League appears on 2 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1984 and 1989. It was first released in 1984 on the album Hysteria. Its best result is #28 on the KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1984. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #66 alternative song of 1984 and #6,126 alternative song of all time.
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"The Lebanon" was the Human League's opening shot from Hysteria in the spring of 1984, and it carried the weight of Dare (1981) on its back. Virgin wanted a follow-up to match that album's worldwide triumph, so the band holed up at AIR Studios in London at £1,000 a day for a full year, bickering all the way. Chris Thomas and Hugh Padgham shared production with the group, and Padgham mixed it.
What came out was a synth-pop band trying to look the headlines in the eye. Philip Oakey's words, set to music by keyboardist and guitarist Jo Callis, take on the civil war in Lebanon, and Philip Adrian Wright later said they were aimed squarely at the Sabra and Shatila massacre of September 1982. Sulley, singing behind Oakey with Joanne Catherall, said the point was to stand up for the ordinary people caught in the middle.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | 28 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1984 | 106 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 355 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1989) | 500 |
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