Only After Dark

"Only After Dark"
Single by The Human League
from the album Travelogue
B-side "Toyota City"
Released May 1980
Format 7" Vinyl Single
Recorded Monumental Studios, Sheffield, UK
Genre Synthpop
Length 3:51
Label Virgin Records
Writer(s) Ronson/Richardson
Producer Colin Thurston
The Human League singles chronology
"Empire State Human"
(1980)
"Only After Dark"
(1980)
"Boys and Girls"
(1981)

"Only After Dark" is a song by the British Synthpop group The Human League. Taken from the band's second album, Travelogue, in 1980, it is a cover version of the Mick Ronson song originally found on his 1974 debut album Slaughter On 10th Avenue. The Human League's version was produced by Colin Thurston.[1]

The song was pressed as a single by Virgin Records following the release of the Travelogue album, but it was then decided to re-release the song "Empire State Human" (from the band's first album) instead and include "Only After Dark" as a free single to be given away with the first 15,000 copies of "Empire State Human". This was perceived by the band as a total lack of faith in their newer material, causing great resentment and anger, [2] and would be one of the issues that contributed to the split of this line-up of The Human League some months later. As a free single it wasn't included in the UK chart mechanism, though the re-release of "Empire State Human" to which it belonged peaked at #62.[3] [4]

References

  1. ^ Kolling, Niels [1]
  2. ^ [Philip Oakey: Which is why we had a very big argument with Virgin Records over Only After Dark, which they pressed without telling us." quoted in the "only after Dark" page of [2]
  3. ^ Turner, Sean [3]
  4. ^ Windle, Rob [4]

External links