One Man in My Heart

Written by Neil Sutton and Philip Oakey.

Verse 1
When you ask me do i mean it?
You have to know
You are the only one
You ask me if it is forever
How can i show?
There's no comparison

Prechorus 1
Beyond your doubt
Beyond devout
Beyond the stars tonight

Chorus 1
One man in my heart
One man in my head
One man in my home
One man in my bed

Verse 2
My faith is stronger than existence
Longer than time
More fiery than the sun
Within a universe exploding
Though we are mist
Among oblivion

Prechorus 2
Or should i lie?
So you can cry
In your sleep tonight

Repeat Chorus 1

Middle 8
Your clumsy grace
I love your face
And when we meet
Your kiss so sweet

The things we choose
The life we use
The things you say
The need to stay

Chorus 2
One man in my home
One man in my bed
One man in my heart
One man in my head

Repeat Chorus 2

Additional Info:

Wednesday 25th June, 2025
14:30 – Just got back from training (today was Muay Thai). My knee is holding up pretty well. I just bought the latest VST by Cherry Audio, the ODC2800, and wanted to use it on a new song. I remembered a few weeks ago I wanted to do this track but never started it. I thought it would suit Louise perfectly and be a good first song to try out the ODC2800.

I started with the usual – separated the song into stems using SpectraLayers (I just updated to v11.0.70 Build 406) and mapped out the arrangement. As I was listening to the stems, it struck me how emotional and haunting Susanne's vocals are. The girls have gotten flack in the past for not being the best singers, but this song really shows what an amazing voice Susanne has. I think it's one of the most emotional songs The Human League have recorded—especially the post-chorus hooks. They give me goosebumps!

17:32 – Louise just started recording vocals. We’re starting with V2. Even though she’s just rehearsing, her performance is already fantastic. I’ve decided to record each chorus separately. In the past, I’ve just cut and pasted the choruses, which is fine for pop music, but I started doing this a few months ago for my original songs, and it adds a subtle difference to the music. I think I’ll stick with it for the moment.

18:02 – Recording the Middle 8 now. Louise is sounding hot. This song is deceptively complicated—you’d think it was straightforward, but there are so many multi-layered backing vocals. Thankfully I mapped everything out, as it would have taken hours to go through everything and figure out all the different parts and harmonies. I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited recording someone’s vocals (and I’ve recorded Delta Goodrem, Gina G, Dave Sterry, Jane Badler, Paul Lekakis, Noel, and Jane Badler!). Louise has just nailed this track, staying close to the original but putting her own spin on the song. It’s going to take it to the next level.

18:35 – We just finished recording the vocals. Louise had to leave by 19:00 as she’s meeting a friend in Brunswick, so it’s great timing that we finished early. I left the studio with Louise and we both walked off in opposite directions. She took the 96 tram, and I headed to Parliament train station. I caught the train to Brunswick as I have to leave Jack overnight at Sharyn’s.

Thursday 26th June, 2025
18:20 – I finished training at 16:30 and then went to Sharyn’s to pick up Jack. Caught the train back into the city and got off at Flinders Street Station. It had stopped raining, and Jack always loves to walk through the city—especially when it’s full of people (which it was).

We got back to the studio and I made a cup of my favourite tea (Twinings Chamomile, Honey & Vanilla) and watched Babylon 5 S03E17 (“War Without End”). Lyta Alexander (Patricia Tallman) is my favourite character, I think. Hmm... my favourite character in Blake’s 7 is Cally (Jan Chappell). I guess I have a thing for telepaths? But really, I just think both characters are so cool. They have an otherworldly mystery.

I was going to work on Neon Nights (my radio show on JOY 94.9), but I had the urge to work on this song, because I wanted to compile the vocals—and also I realised I hadn’t recorded my BVs in the pre-choruses.

Friday 27th June, 2025
00:26 – I’ve just put the kettle on and made myself a cup of tea. I’m nearly done comping the vocals. I sometimes wonder if I should record myself doing all this studio work, like some people do on YouTube—but the majority of this sort of editing is very tedious, fiddly, and repetitive. I’m not sure how much people would like seeing it. And sometimes I think it’s better not knowing how the sausage is made.

00:54 –I took a break to type these notes, because I’m up to the last chorus, and then I just have all the ad-lib chorus parts to do. The song has been pretty easy to comp, because when I record Louise, I keep her going until I’m happy with the last four takes. Then I colour those, just to be double sure those are the ones I will use. Sometimes I will listen to the other takes, but 99% of the time I use the final four, and just pick the best bits. Mostly I keep the entire take as it is, which is better anyway because you get a true and honest performance. Plus it saves heaps of time. OK, back to Cubase now!

01:18 – I got sidetracked with updating a few of my VSTis (Cherry Audio and Arturia Collection) when I noticed that SpectraLayers has a new module – Unmix Chorus! It splits the lead vocals and backing vocals apart. I just tried it on the original One Man in My Heart, and thankfully I got all the parts right. It’s not very accurate (yet), and Phil’s BVs in the pre-chorus aren’t separated properly. But still, it’s pretty incredible to have this technology at your fingertips.

I remember producing music (or trying to) in 1986 using my Atari 1040ST running Notator, an SH-101, DX100, TR-727, RX11, and a few other bits of gear. Everything ran through my Tascam MM-1 mixer (I still have it!) and was recorded live to my Sony DAT 55ES (I still have that too—plus a hundred-odd DAT tapes of all my music productions). I started archiving them a few years ago, but I should really pull my finger out and get them all copied. Some of the tapes have dropouts and glitches. I guess I’m lucky they still play at all.

It’s going to be a blast for the fans when they hear the music I used to produce back in the ’80s, and how much things have changed. I could never have dreamed of the technology we have now. I always dreamt of having something similar to an SSL with Total Recall, so I wouldn’t have to remember all my channel settings for when it came to mixing. Here I am, 40 years later, and we have DAWs with complete recall of literally everything (assuming you’ve recorded your outboard gear as audio tracks).

Anyway, enough distraction—better get back to the song!