Haircut 100 — Love Plus One

JUL 01 1982 · 12:00

Haircut 100 — Love Plus One (1982) Director: David Mallet Era: British New Wave / MTV Launch Era (1982) - Peak of UK post-punk pop crossover into American mainstream, coinciding with MTV's first full year of operation and the Second British Invasion's early vanguard. High. This video is a triple-confirmed, director-attributed primary document of the early MTV era, capturing a unique convergence of British new wave pop, exotic theatrical staging, and the emergent music video format. Its quantitative profile — fast editing, high saturation, warm temperature — is textbook early-1980s studio pop video. As a culturally and commercially significant artefact that helped define MTV's early identity, it merits Tier 1 preservation status. Context: Released in January 1982, 'Love Plus One' arrived at the precise moment MTV was transforming American pop culture. British new wave acts benefited disproportionately from the channel's launch, as they already produced polished promotional videos for European markets. David Mallet's tropical-exotica visual treatment gave the song a vivid, sun-soaked identity that translated powerfully to American screens at a time when MTV's content library was still lean. The single reached No. 3 in the UK and peaked at No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 — the band's only US chart entry — cementing its status as a signature early-MTV crossover artifact. The video's preppy styling, warm palette, and theatrical staging encapsulate the breezy, escapist aesthetic that defined the Second British Invasion's opening wave. Director notes: Confirmed via IMDB (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8461640/), IMVDb (https://imvdb.com/video/haircut-100/love-plus-one), and Songfacts (https://www.songfacts.com/facts/haircut-100/love-plus-one). Per Songfacts, Mallet employed a tribal motif set on an island of savages, with the lead vocalist appearing in a loincloth swinging from a rope amid bikini-clad performers. The video opened with band members performing in front of a painted volcano backdrop surrounded by jungle and surfing imagery, per IMDB. Mallet's visual approach for this clip drew on the exotic, striking-imagery style he also deployed on contemporaneous Bowie videos. The video aired heavily on MTV and is credited by Songfacts as a key driver of the song's US chart success.