Human League

Unofficial releases. Some other well-known tracks included:. Recently, the band have joined of a number of 80s revival tours, Oakey now describing this as being in a Human League tribute band. Billy Barty even appeared in a video by "Weird Al" Yankovic. Four CDs attribute songs by The Human League under different names: on The Golden Hour Of The Future there are songs credited to The Human League when they were still The Future, on the single "I Don't Depend On You" where they call themselves The Men, on the "Dance Like A Star" Ep, there are also songs attributed to The Future and on "Love And Dancing", they pay homage to Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra by calling themselves League Unlimited Orchestra. There is a clear line of influence from the Marx Brothers to Spike Jones and to Stan Freberg, The Goons, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and to "Weird Al" Yankovic. The album Octopus went silver, and the lead-off single "Tell Me When" was the group's first major hit since "Human". His real name was not Harry Joseph Chick Daugherty.

Dropped by Virgin Records after the failure of their album Romantic? (1989), the group were now signed to EastWest and their line-up included producer Ian Stanley, who helped them to achieve a more modern sound. He was not born on 14th May 1916, nor did he die on March 29th 1966. The group made a surprise comeback in 1994. Many compilations from the seventies and eighties contained spurious dates of birth and death for Spike in the liner notes. Unfortunately they have been widely reproduced on the web and in books. number one, "Human", but other singles made little impact. Two members of Spike Jones's band appear in the film - Billy Barty (1924 - 2000) and Paul "Mousie" Garner (1909 - 2004), playing themselves. The Jam & Lewis-produced Crash LP (1985) did provide a U.S. It contains the last appearance of George Burns.

The band also had a number of other hits but their success faded towards the mid-1980s. "Radioland Murders" was poorly reviewed and compared unfavorable with Woody Allen's "Radio Days". Their most famous single "Don't You Want Me" reached number one in the UK charts during the Christmas of 1981 and was one of the biggest selling singles of that year. Set in 1939, it contains fictionalized versions of Spike Jones and Frank Sinatra. The band achieved a brief spell of success in the early 1980s with their style of Synthpop music. In 1994 Mel Smith directed a film based on a script by George Lucas. Re-energized by the addition of new members, the band went on to record their breakthrough album Dare, and have many chart successes. He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

At the time, synthpop was starting to become fashionable due to the success of groups like OMD and Ultravox, but female vocals were rarely heard on synth records, so the addition of Sulley and Catherall gave the group a distinctive sound. Spike Jones died in Beverly Hills on 1st May 1965. However, they recruited bass player Ian Burden, guitarist Jo Callis (formerly of The Rezillos) and, famously, fronted the band with two singers, Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall, whom they had met in a Sheffield nightclub. Also in 1956, Jones released his first LP, Dinner Music For People Who Aren't Very Hungry. By 1959 his act seemed old-fashioned and work dried up. When Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware left to form Heaven 17 it seemed that Phil Oakey and Adrian Wright, the sole remaining group members, would be unable to sustain the band, which, just before the split, was beginning to achieve wider popularity. "The Perry Como Show" had him as a guest in 1956, and Jack Benny in the same year. Their first single to chart was 'Empire State Human', which peaked at number 62 in the charts. Once his fame grew he repaid his debt to Spike by inviting him onto his show in 1958.

Shortly afterwards, they signed up with Virgin Records, and by the early 1980s had become a successful British electropop band. He was glad to have work as a comedy actor. Originally a post punk synthesiser based group from Sheffield, the Human League (previously known as the Future) released their first single, "Being Boiled" c/w "Circus Of Death" on Bob Last's Fast Product record label in 1978. The war years were lean times for Frank Sinatra. A fan site devoted to pictures of the Human League in concert during 2004. (http://www.redpenguin.net/bandphotos/human-league.php). Songs from the soundies were released on a compilation called Not Your Standard Spike Jones Collection. Secrets Online, excellent fan site with indepth Human League coverage both past and present. (http://www.league-online.com/). In 1990 BBC2 screened six compilation shows from these broadcasts.

Blind Youth, a site dedicated to the early post-punk works of Human League. (http://www.blindyouth.co.uk/). The band got their own variety shows on NBC then CBS from 1954 to 1961. A Human League fan site (http://users.bigpond.net.au/human-league/home.htm). One of their instruments was a "latrinophone", a toilet seat with strings. "Rock And Roll Is Dead" (2003) was a single from fellow Sheffield band, Kings Have Long Arms, that paid tribute to Oakey and eventually was re-released with Oakey doing some guest vocals. In them we see Jones dressed in a suit with an enormous check pattern, leaping around playing cowbells, a suite of klaxons, foghorns, then xylophone then shooting a pistol into the air. Today" (2003) was a single from Alex Gold featuring Oakey on vocals. These so-called soundies were put onto juke boxes.

"L.A. A series of short musical films were made by the band. "Together In Electric Dreams" was a solo single for Oakey rather than the whole League, but has been included on Human League albums as if it were by the whole band. Dora Bryan had a hit in 1963 with a variation called "All I want For Christmas is a Beatle". 'The Human League Interview'. It was a number one hit. 'The Human League Promo Mix CD' (not available). In 1948 Spike recorded "(All I want for Christmas is) my two Front Teeth".

'The Golden Hour Of The Future'. It used drinking glasses as musical instruments. 'Dance Like A Star' (EP). Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers cartoon characters, provided the hiccups on "Clink Clink Another Drink". 'The Future Tapes' (unreleased). A collection of 12 of these homicides was released in 1971 as "Spike Jones is Murdering The Classics". 'In Darkness' (a bootleg demo album). In live shows Spike would acknowledge the applause with complete solemnity, saying "Thank you music lovers".

'Taverner Tape' (1978). It was played at a jaunty pace on inappropriate instruments. Rossini's "William Tell Overture" was rendered on kitchen implements. 'Human League Cassette' (1978). One of his earliest recordings was an adaption of Liszt's "Liebestraum". League Live (DVD). He appeared in a dozen films in the late forties and fifties, always playing himself. The Very Best Of (EMI, 2 CDs, CD2 is all remixes, also on DVD). The band grew from 7 to 16 players.

"All I Ever Wanted". Through the late 40s and early 50's the band toured the USA and Canada under the name "The Musical Depreciation Revue". Secrets (The Japanese version has three bonus tracks)