"Love Action (I Believe in Love)" is a song by the British synthpop group The Human League, released as a single in the UK in July 1981. It peaked at number three in the UK Singles Chart, the band's first Top 10 success.
The song was written jointly by lead singer Philip Oakey and keyboard player Ian Burden and features 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. One of the most notable synth sounds on the recording makes use of the pitch-to-voltage converter and envelope shaper on the Roland System 700 modular synth. Jo Callis' guitar strumming was fed into the synth and used to shape and trigger the sounds, producing an unusual choppy, strumming synth patch.
"Love Action (I Believe in Love)" was the second of three songs from the Dare album to be released in advance of the album itself in 1981. It was released as a double A-side single with the non-album track "Hard Times". Some copies of the single were mispressed, with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's "Souvenir" as the A-side. In the US, both "Love Action (I Believe in Love)"/"Hard Times" made the dance charts twice, in 1981, the tracks first peaked at number thirty-seven, and one year later, re-entered the dance chart and peaked at number fifty-seven
The song is a semi-autobiographical account of Oakey’s relationships. Oakey often refers to himself and at one point uses the lyric "this is Phil talking." The line was inspired by Iggy Pop's line "Jesus, this is Iggy". The Human League had previously supported Iggy Pop live. Oakey borrows from another of his influences and the title "Love action (I Believe in Love)" is named after the Lou Reed song "I Believe in Love". The song contains another cryptic reference to Lou Reed in the lyric, "I believe what the old man said". Oakey, speaking in 1982 said, "no one ever asks me who the old man is... it's Lou (Reed)."
The single was designated 'Red' on the Human League’s short lived, self imposed labeling system of 'Blue' for pop songs and 'Red' for dance tracks.
The single made number 3 in the UK charts and placed The Human League in the forefront of media attention. It also renewed Virgin Records' faith in the band and guaranteed the release of the album that was to become Dare, just four months later.
The song was sampled in the UK hit single from dance duo Utah Saints in the mid-1990s and by George Michael for his politically charged 2002 hit "Shoot the Dog."
It was featured in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.
The song was used for an episode of Skins in 2009.
Originally the song was released without a promotional video; at the time promotional videos were still rare, very expensive and only very high-profile bands received them. At this point the Human League were not sufficiently marketable to warrant the expense of a video.
In 1982, for the U.S. release of "Love Action", a video was shot retrospectively. The storyline is loosely based on the 1968 film The Graduate. The opening scene is an exact copy of the church scene from the film with Oakey taking Dustin Hoffman's role. The majority of the video was filmed on a derelict South London council estate. Most of the female camera time goes to Joanne Catherall, in a wedding dress for the first half. Susan Ann Sulley threw a temper tantrum in her main scene throwing objects around a flat. She accidentally managed to score a direct hit on the camera and a production crew member with a flying lamp. She momentarily broke character and cringed as she realizes she had just hit one of the crew.
"Love Action (I Believe in Love)" is a song by the British synthpop group The Human League, released as a single in the UK in July 1981. It peaked at number three in the UK Singles Chart, the band's first Top 10 success. The song was written jointly by lead singer Philip Oakey and keyboard player Ian Burden and features 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. One of the most notable synth sounds on the recording makes use of the pitch-to-voltage converter and envelope shaper on the Roland System 700 modular synth. Jo Callis' guitar strumming was fed into the synth and used to shape and trigger the sounds, producing an unusual choppy, strumming synth patch.
"Love Action (I Believe in Love)" was the second of three songs from the Dare album to be released in advance of the album itself in 1981. It was released as a double A-side single with the non-album track "Hard Times". Some copies of the single were mispressed, with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's "Souvenir" as the A-side. In the US, both "Love Action (I Believe in Love)"/"Hard Times" made the dance charts twice, in 1981, the tracks first peaked at number thirty-seven, and one year later, re-entered the dance chart and peaked at number fifty-seven The song is a semi-autobiographical account of Oakey’s relationships. Oakey often refers to himself and at one point uses the lyric "this is Phil talking." The line was inspired by Iggy Pop's line "Jesus, this is Iggy". The Human League had previously supported Iggy Pop live. Oakey borrows from another of his influences and the title "Love action (I Believe in Love)" is named after the Lou Reed song "I Believe in Love". The song contains another cryptic reference to Lou Reed in the lyric, "I believe what the old man said". Oakey, speaking in 1982 said, "no one ever asks me who the old man is... it's Lou (Reed)." The single was designated 'Red' on the Human League’s short lived, self imposed labeling system of 'Blue' for pop songs and 'Red' for dance tracks. The single made number 3 in the UK charts and placed The Human League in the forefront of media attention. It also renewed Virgin Records' faith in the band and guaranteed the release of the album that was to become Dare, just four months later. The song was sampled in the UK hit single from dance duo Utah Saints in the mid-1990s and by George Michael for his politically charged 2002 hit "Shoot the Dog." It was featured in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. The song was used for an episode of Skins in 2009.
Originally the song was released without a promotional video; at the time promotional videos were still rare, very expensive and only very high-profile bands received them. At this point the Human League were not sufficiently marketable to warrant the expense of a video. In 1982, for the U.S. release of "Love Action", a video was shot retrospectively. The storyline is loosely based on the 1968 film The Graduate. The opening scene is an exact copy of the church scene from the film with Oakey taking Dustin Hoffman's role. The majority of the video was filmed on a derelict South London council estate. Most of the female camera time goes to Joanne Catherall, in a wedding dress for the first half. Susan Ann Sulley threw a temper tantrum in her main scene throwing objects around a flat. She accidentally managed to score a direct hit on the camera and a production crew member with a flying lamp. She momentarily broke character and cringed as she realizes she had just hit one of the crew.