Heaven 17 - Let Me Go (12" Extended Version)

Heaven 17 - Let Me Go (Extended Mix) / 12 Inch Extended Remix (HQ Audio)

Upon its release in 1982, Let Me Go stalled just one place short of the UK Top 40.

It has since grown to be regarded as a pioneering early electronic pop track, and Heaven 17 co-founder Martyn Ware cites it as his favourite record from his very extensive production back catalogue.

Whilst Heaven 17 had yet to break into the UK charts when Let Me Go was released, Ware had already enjoyed a Top 10 hit in 1978 with his first band, The Human League, who reached number 6 with Being Boiled.

The Human League had also had two UK Top 40 albums, before Ware and fellow Human League founder Ian Craig Marsh left in 1980, as their record company sought to reposition the group as a pop act built around vocalist — and Ware’s former school friend — Phil Oakey.

The enforced repositioning resulted in great success for the new-look incarnation of The Human League who scored a run of ten UK Top 20 hits, including the worldwide smash Don’t You Want Me, and accompanying album Dare, which sold 1.5 million copies.

Ware and Marsh meanwhile formed a production company called British Electric Foundation and began recording electronic versions of classic tracks with guest singers including Tina Turner, Sandie Shaw, Paula Yates, and their friend Glenn Gregory.

They also began a new project as a trio with Glenn Gregory as frontman, called Heaven 17 — named after the fictional band Heaven Seventeen, who appear in a chart listing (at number 4 with a track called Inside) in Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange.

Despite not generating a major hit single, Heaven 17's debut album Penthouse and Pavement reached number 14 and spent 77 weeks on the UK album chart, leaving the new band and their label feeling very ambitious for the follow-up.

Ware speaks of the stark contrast between his modest upbringing in Sheffield and representations in TV and films of the American Dream, which seemed so distant and unachievable as to be a preposterous thing to aim for.

Heaven 17’s first two album titles — Penthouse and Pavement and The Luxury Gap — refer to this idea, the latter being the new and more grandiose album that included Let Me Go and Heaven 17’s most famous hit, Temptation.

Both tracks feature complex layering of vocals, created by meticulously copying tapes over one another using multiple reel-to-reel machines and lengths of tape stretched right around the studio.

The band were also demanding of their record company during these productions, requesting brass sections and a full orchestra, which were promptly arranged.

Funnily enough, it was this approach that led to the band enjoying some success in America, where Let Me Go was well received for its lush production and electro-soul sound. “I’d go as far as to say that The Luxury Gap, in particular, was almost designed for the American market,” says Ware. “It had a kind of American shine to it.”

Let Me Go was recorded at the expansive AIR Studios in central London, while Paul McCartney and Elton John were recording in other parts of the building.

The opening chord of the song consists of 118 multi-tracked voices singing in fourteen-part harmony. The bassline is played on a Roland TB-303 — a new machine at the time — which later gained fame for providing the signature squelchy bass sound of the acid house movement in the late 1980s.

Featured here is the extended mix of Let Me Go. The B-side is an extended instrumental version. It’s a 12-inch single with a particularly rich sound, thanks to the combination of analogue synths and drum machines, real instruments, soulful vocals (including lush female backing vocals by The Hereafter), recording to tape, and a brilliant pressing to vinyl — the wide grooves bringing out the depth and warmth of the bass sounds in particular.

More recently, Martyn Ware began sharing stories of his career as a producer through his podcast Electronically Yours, featuring many of the artists he has worked with over the years. He speaks of his love for this track and for another of his early 1980s productions: Tina Turner’s version of Let’s Stay Together.

His biggest commercial success, however, came as producer of Terence Trent D’Arby’s debut album in 1987, which went to number one around the world — resulting in an extraordinary moment when a royalty cheque for £324,000 arrived.

For somebody with obvious talent, curiosity and tenacity, from a modest background, who was kicked out of the first band he formed by the record company, and who speaks of signing a relatively poor deal for Heaven 17 — it’s quite a story.

Year: 1982 Label: Virgin Cat no: VS 532-12