"Don't You Want Me" is a song by British synth-pop group the Human League (credited on the cover as The Human League 100). It was released on 27 November 1981 as the fourth single from their third studio album, Dare (1981). The band's best known and most commercially successful song, it was the biggest selling UK single of 1981, that year's Christmas number one, and has since sold over 1,560,000 copies in the UK, making it the 23rd-most successful single in UK Singles Chart history. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the US on 3 July 1982, where it stayed for three weeks.
In November 1983, Rolling Stone named it the "breakthrough song" of the Second British Invasion of the US. In 2015, the song was voted by the British public as the nation's seventh-favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV. And in 2022, Rolling Stone ranked it one of the 200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time.
This song is about a guy who meets a cocktail waitress and turns her into a star before their love goes bad. It was inspired by an article in a woman's magazine. Lead singer Phil Oakey claims this is not a love song but about power politics between two people.
With help from MTV, which launched on August 1, 1981, this opened a mini-British invasion of the USA. There were a lot of video shows in Europe, so when MTV went on the air, they were forced to play videos by many UK bands because that was most of their library.
Lyrics:
You were workin' as a waitress in a cocktail bar
When I met you
I picked you out, I shook you up and turned you around
Turned you into someone new
Now five years later on, you've got the world at your feet
Success has been so easy for you
But don't forget, it's me who put you where you are now
And I can put you back down too
Don't, don't you want me?
You know I can't believe it when I hear that you won't see me
Don't, don't you want me?
You know I don't believe you when you say that you don't need me
It's much too late to find
You think you've changed your mind
You'd better change it back or we will both be sorry
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar
That much is true
But even then, I knew I'd find a much better place
Either with or without you
The five years we have had have been such good times
I still love you
But now, I think it's time I live my life on my own
I guess it's just what I must do
Don't, don't you want me?
You know I can't believe it when I hear that you won't see me
Don't, don't you want me?
You know I don't believe you when you say that you don't need me
It's much too late to find
You think you've changed your mind
You'd better change it back or we will both be sorry
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
Don't you want me? Oh
Don't you want me, baby?
