Louise (The Human League song)
"Louise" is a song by the British synthpop group The Human League. It was released as a single in the UK on 5 November 1984 and peaked at number thirteen in the UK Singles Chart. It was written jointly by lead singer Philip Oakey with fellow band members Jo Callis and Philip Adrian Wright. The song features a lead vocal by Oakey and female vocals by Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall, analogue synthesizers by Philip Oakey, Jo Callis, Philip Adrian Wright and Ian Burden. The producers were Chris Thomas and Hugh Padgham. Although enjoying modest success when released as a single, it appeared on Melody Maker’s list of 50 top singles of 1984. Background "Louise" was the third single released from Hysteria, the Human League's follow up album to the international multi-platinum Dare. Like the rest of Hysteria, it was recorded during the hugely expensive and turbulent sessions by the band at AIR Studios during 1983/4. Dare producer Martin Rushent had quit earlier, after repeatedly falling out with Oakey and production had been handed to Chris Thomas and Hugh Padgham, with final finishing taking place at Town House Studios. "Louise" is essentially a male song with female backing; and was expected to be Hysteria's answer to "Don't You Want Me". The near spoken vocal is accompanied by electric piano-style chords (another similarity to "Don't You Want Me"), all underpinned by a catchy lolloping bassline, and adorned by a prominent brass solo (also played on a synthesiser). Despite the fact that many reviews of Hysteria identified Louise as a stand out track with Melody Maker'''s Colin Irwin speculating that it could be a potential number one single for the Human League, the song was not Virgin Records' first choice as a single release from the album. That went to "The Lebanon". The lyrical story telling of "Louise" superficially seems to be a story about a chance encounter between a man and a woman on a bus who seem to be on the verge of a lover's reconciliation. But like much of Oakey's song writing, what seems ‘sugary sweet’ on the surface actually has a much darker subtext. Oakey points out that the story is actually about the original protagonists from "Don’t You Want Me" meeting up 4 years later. In "Louise" the man sees his lost love again and still cannot deal with reality. The anger that drove the earlier song has dissipated, and is replaced with a hopeful fantasy that his ex-lover is drawn to him all over again. So Louise is really about self-deception, delusion and eternal sadness. Oakey says about "Louise" in interview: However, like the less savoury premise of "Don’t You Want Me", the darker side of the "Louise" story went over the heads of the record buying public, who misinterpreted the lyrics as "sweet and upbeat". Because the second single from Hysteria, "Life on Your Own", did not do as well in the charts as expected, Virgin Records held back on the follow-up release of