The Human League - Open Your Heart

'Open Your Heart' is a song by the British synthpop group The Human League. It was released as a single in the UK in October 1981 and peaked at number six in the UK Singles Chart. It was written jointly by lead singer Philip Oakey and keyboard player Jo Callis. The song features a lead vocal by Oakey and female backing vocals by Susanne Sulley (now Susan Ann Sulley) and Joanne Catherall, analogue synthesizers by Jo Callis, Philip Adrian Wright and Ian Burden. Drum machines, sequencing and programming were provided by producer Martin Rushent.

'Open Your Heart' was the last of three songs from the Dare album to be released in advance of the album itself. Unlike previous singles 'Sound of the Crowd' and 'Love Action (I Believe in Love)', 'Open Your Heart' was written specifically for the album Dare. It was chosen by Virgin executive Simon Draper to be the Dare's taster single, deliberately issued just in advance of the album. It quickly reached number six in the UK singes chart and raised the band's profile to the highest it had been to that point. Issued only three weeks before Dare, the single acted as a powerful promotional vehicle for the album.

The cover artwork and promotional video was deliberately coordinated with its parent album.

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".

Smash Hits 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."

The music video 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 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 Dare's 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 final shot of the video lingers on an actual cover of (then) unreleased Dare.

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The Human League - Open Your Heart - Video