Take the Human League. Everybody knows "Don't You Want Me." Everybody loves this song. Nobody would remember it except for the girl who sings the second verse. It's some of the clumsiest singing ever smuggled into the top 40, a common voice, a girl who has to be free and has no special reason to give, nothing clever to say. She's just speaking her piece, and not even taking any pleasure in that. Part of the joy of the Human League is Phil Oakey indulging his vocal melodrama-"dooon't! don't you waaant me!"-versus the dippy flatness of the girls in the band. They sing "(Keep Feeling) Fascination" and they can't keep a straight face. In the video, Phil is preening, seducing the camera, while the girls swing their hands back and forth, lock eyes, and know that teenage boys in America are watching closely to see their tongues flicker out when they pronounce the "l" in "love so strong." I know I waited for that moment every time.
*The other two, of course (not counting my review of Secrets) were in these books:
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