Wayne's Little Online Book of PSB Lists
(Part 2)

My "Lists page" had grown so large that I've decided to split it into three parts so that they will load more quickly for you. The Table of Contents below still displays all of the lists, although the earlier links will take you back to Part 1 and the later ones will take you to Part 3.

I've moved my tables of UK/US chart performance and PSB songs "live" to my new "Extras" section.

Artists with whom PSB have collaborated

I'm limiting this list to major artists with whom both Boys have collaborated on officially released studio recordings. Also, with one or two exceptions, I'm not including producers, remixers, and assorted people with whom they've shared songwriting credits. Why? Because if I didn't impose such a limit, this list would be much longer and much more difficult to manage. So I've made it easy on myself.

Alcazar

It may be questionable to call it a "collaboration" since they merely turned over two of their own "rejected" songs, but Chris and Neil did write (though didn't produce) the Swedish group Alcazar's 2003 hit "Love Life" as well as the track "Baby" on their 2009 album Disco Defenders.

Atomizer

The Pet Shop Boys have done a 2003 production and mix of this British electroclash duo's track "Hooked on Radiation."

Bloodhound Gang

Neil and Chris mixed the sample-laden single and extended versions of this controversial American band's notorious name-dropping song "Mope." (The artists they sampled in the process were Falco, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Metallica.)

Blur

The Boys remixed their hit song "Girls and Boys," which was later incorporated into their own "DiscoVery" tour performance setlist and was released as a b-side.

David Bowie

PSB produced the re-recorded single version of Bowie's "Hallo Spaceboy." Neil provided supporting vocals. Again, the Boys decided to include this song in subsequent performances—in this case, their "Somewhere" stage show.

Boy George

Chris and Neil produced Boy George's hit rendition of "The Crying Game" for the soundtrack of the film of the same name. Neil sang background vocals on the track.

Pete Burns

The Pet Shop Boys wrote and produced "Jack and Jill Party" for Dead or Alive frontman Pete Burns, who contributed additional lyrics to the song. The single was released on the Boys' own label, Olde English Vinyl.

Cicero

The Boys signed this young Scottish singer-songwriter to their own Spaghetti label and produced several of his tracks. Neil also sings backup on some of his songs.

Eighth Wonder

In their first outside collaboration, Neil and Chris wrote and produced the song "I'm Not Scared" (and its French-translation b-side) for this band featuring Patsy Kensit. PSB later recorded it themselves, of course.

Electronic

Electronic consists of New Order singer/guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner and former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, both of them friends of the Boys'. Neil and Chris co-wrote and performed on the track "Patience of a Saint." Also, apparently without Chris's active participation, Neil co-wrote and performed on the songs "Getting Away with It" and "Disappointed." Johnny Marr has in turn assisted the Pet Shop Boys on quite a few tracks—so many, in fact, that I've created a separate list devoted to Marr's work with the Boys.

Fat Les 2000

This somewhat ad-hoc novelty act, consisting primarily of actor/comedian Keith Allen, artist Damien Hirst, and Blur bassist Alex James, scored an unexpected hit in 2000 with their orchestrated football/soccer-anthem rendition of the English hymn "Jerusalem." Although both Boys got credit for the "Pet Shop Boys Mix," Chris alone remixed it, giving it their by then familiar hi-NRG/techno treatment. Neil granted his blessing to the project, but he does not sing backup, as has sometimes been reported.

Girls Aloud

The Boys not only co-wrote "The Loving Kind" for them but also provide keyboards and programming on the track.

Elton John

Although PSB and Elton had collaborated years before on "Believe/Song for Guy," which so far has seen official release only on the video An Audience with Elton John (originally a 1997 U.K. TV special), a more readily available official studio collaboration didn't surface until 2006 with their duet remake of "In Private" on the Fundamentalism bonus disc (and subsequently a bonus track with the "Minimal" single). The Boys and Elton also recorded together a rare cover of "Alone Again, Naturally" in 2005. And Neil co-wrote and performed the 2008 Christmas song "Joseph, Better You Than Me" with Elton and with Brandon Flowers, lead singer of—

The Killers

In addition to Neil's co-writing and providing vocals on the aforementioned "Joseph, Better You Than Me" with this band's lead singer Brandon Flowers and Elton John, both Pet Shop Boys together did a remix of the Killers' song "Read My Mind," released as a single in early 2007.

Lady GaGa

The Boys did a terrific remix of her 2009 single "Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)." She also performed onstage with them (and the aforementioned Brandon Flowers) during their 2009 Brits Awards Show hits medley.

Little Britain

Not only did this British comedy duo appear in the Boys' "I'm with Stupid" video but (more importantly from my perspective) Neil and Chris have remixed their song "I'm Gay." The PSB remix, however, has not yet been released.

Madonna

Chris and Neil remixed her song "Sorry" for single release, and Neil provides additional vocals.

Liza Minnelli

Neil and Chris produced her Results album and also wrote and performed on many of its songs.

Kylie Minogue

The Boys provided her with the song "Falling," though she decided against relying on their services for its production. Later she duetted with Neil on the PSB track "In Denial."

Miyuki Motegi

Chris and Neil supplied this Japanese singer with the music and demo production for the song "All or Nothing" on her 2002 debut album MIU. Neil also sings background vocals on the track. Calling this a "collaboration," however, stretches the term a bit. You see, they haven't actually worked with her; in fact, they didn't even meet her until after the track was recorded and released.

Phil Oakey

The Human League lead singer shares vocal duties with both Neil and Chris on the Yes limited edition (etc.) bonus track "This Used to Be the Future."

Yoko Ono

In what is perhaps one of the most surprising collaborations of their career, Chris and Neil remixed and provided "additional production" for a reissue of Ono's classic "Walking on Thin Ice," which became a major dance club hit all over again in 2003.

Courtney Pine

Although "collaboration" may not quite be the right word, this great British jazz musician—best known as a saxophonist but also adept at other woodwinds as well as keyboards—performed the sax solo on the Boys' production of "Nothing Has Been Proved" for Dusty Springfield. He subsequently toured and performed onstage with PSB on their 1989 tour (reportedly getting some flack from certain quarters of the jazz world for having done so) and can therefore be seen in their Highlights live video. So he has certainly collaborated with them in making music. The crown, incidentally, has awarded both an OBE (Order of the British Empire) and a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) to Pine for his services to British music.

Rammstein

Two remixes by the Boys are included on the 2004 single "Mein Teil" by the notorious German "alternative metal" band. Although the original lyrics are in German, Neil added a few words of English to their remixes.

Torsten Rasch and the Dresdner Sinfoniker

The Pet Shop Boys' original score for The Battleship Potemkin was orchestrated by the German orchestral composer Tosten Rasch, himself having written several film scores. And they performed it with the Dresdner Sinfoniker (Dresden Chamber Orchestra), conducted by Jonathan Stockhammer.

Peter Rauhofer

Rauhofer is the man behind the popular Club 69 dance tracks. Not only did he remix "I Don't Know What You Want…", but he also worked with the Boys (or perhaps just Neil) on the dance-hit remake of "Break 4 Love," which is apparently not an "official" Pet Shop Boys track but rather by "Peter Rauhofer + Pet Shop Boys = The Collaboration."

Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley

Neil and Chris created the notorious "Absolutely Fabulous" charity single with them.

Dusty Springfield

Surely their best-known collaboration by virtue of the huge international hit "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" Subsequently Chris and Neil produced half of her Reputation album, for which they also wrote four songs.

Sam Taylor-Wood

This British photographer/videographer created the "backstage conversation" films from which the Boys seem to step directly onto the stage in their "Somewhere" show and concert video. But more like a true collaboration is their performance together of "Je T'Aime…Moi Non Plus," with Ms. Taylor-Wood supplying a, shall we say, orgasmic vocal. Chris and Neil have also produced a remake of the classic Donna Summer song "Love to Love You, Baby," performed by Ms. Taylor-Wood under the stage name of Kiki Kokova. And under her own name she has recorded the PSB-produced cover "I'm in Love with a German Film Star," originally a 1981 hit by the Passions.

Caroll Thompson

A British singer in diverse styles—including reggae, funk, dance, and ballads—her long and prolific career has enabled her to achieve only middling success. Neil and Chris produced her remake of the classic disco hit "Let the Music Play," which appeared on the soundtrack of The Crying Game.

Tina Turner

Chris and Neil wrote and produced "Confidential" for her; Neil also sings backup on her rendition. Their own version later appeared as a b-side.

Rufus Wainwright

Rufus sang lead on "Casanova in Hell" as a guest vocalist at the Boys' May 2006 show with the BBC Radio Orchestra, documented on the live Concrete album. Neil also served a "consulting producer" role on Wainwright's 2007 album Release the Stars and appears as support performer on several of its tracks, starting with the opening cut, "Do I Disappoint You?"

Robbie Williams

Neil and Chris co-wrote with Robbie and produced the song "She's Madonna" on his 2006 album Rudebox. They also produced his cover of "We're the Pet Shop Boys" for the same album. Other collaborative activities have included Neil singing backup on Robbie's track "No Regrets" and Robbie returning the favor by performing "Jealousy" at the show documented on the live album Concrete.

Allee Willis

The Pet Shop Boys co-wrote "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" with this multi-talented woman, who boasts a fascinating résumé. An author, director, singer, songwriter, painter, ceramist (one who works in ceramics), set designer, and performance artist, she has a number of other hit co-writing credits, including the theme for Friends, "I'll Be There for You," as well as Earth, Wind and Fire's "September" and "Boogie Wonderland," and Maxine Nightingale's "Lead Me On." As her alter ego "Bubbles the Artist" she has collaborated with Lily Tomlin and done portraits of assorted luminaries, including Jesse Jackson, Tracey Ullman, and PeeWee Herman. She has directed several short films, designed sets for a variety of TV shows and music videos (receiving several awards in the process), and served as a consultant for Disney, Microsoft, and America Online. And more recently she has co-composed the scores for two Broadway musicals, The Color Purple and Hot Feet. But even if she had done nothing else, she would deserve our eternal gratitude for having discovered and promoted the astonishingly camp Del Rubio Triplets—three elderly, somewhat overweight women (yes, actual identical triplets) sporting blonde wigs, miniskirts, go-go boots, and acoustic guitars. They subsequently guested on PeeWee's Playhouse and even recorded a cover of "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" on their 1988 album Three Gals, Three Guitars. Of such stuff legends are made.

Xenomania

This U.K. production team, led by Brian Higgins, produced the Boys' 2009 album Yes, in the process co-writing several of its tracks. Neil and Chris also collaborated with Xenomania in co-writing and performing on "The Loving Kind" for Girls Aloud (as noted above).

And though it's not really a "PSB collaboration" since apparently only Chris was involved, we shouldn't neglect "Do the Right Thing" by British soccer star Ian Wright. By the same token, other "solo" moments—such as Neil's collabortion with Tom Stephan (Superchumbo) on "Tranquilizer" and his guest vocal on Dan Fresh's "Throw," and such occasions as when Neil performed on stage with Suede—don't really count here.


Johnny Marr's guest work on PSB recordings

The Pet Shop Boys first met Johnny Marr by chance in 1987 in an elevator at the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles. (It was right around the time that Marr left the band that had made him famous, The Smiths, ultimately resulting in their dissolution. I'm not sure, however, whether it was just before or just after Marr's actual departure.) Marr mentioned to Neil and Chris that he really liked the song "Hit Music" from the Boys' most recent album at the time, Actually. That brief encounter planted the seed for many future collaborations.

Not counting the three collaborations ("Getting Away with It," "The Patience of a Saint," and "Disappointed") that Neil alone or together with Chris did with Electronic (Marr's subsequent duo with Bernard Sumner), here's a list of Marr's guest shots on PSB recordings, each song followed by a simple indication of the instrument(s) that he plays and/or other roles that he performs:


Anne Dudley's guest work on PSB recordings

British musician, composer, arranger, and conductor Anne Dudley has an illustrious résumé. Famed in both the classical and pop fields, she has written scores for more than two dozen films and television programs, including The Crying Game, Jeeves and Wooster, Monkeybone, American History X, Buster, and The Full Monty—this last for which she received an Academy Award for "Best Original Musical or Comedy Score." In the world of pop, she is perhaps best known for being, with Trevor Horn, a key member (as keyboardist) for the seminal synthpop ensemble Art of Noise. Since then she has often worked with Horn as one of his "standard" support musicians, though in recent years her busy schedule has prevented her from doing so quite as regularly as before.

Dudley first colloborated with the Boys during the recording of the album they produced for Liza Minnelli, Results. Since then she has worked with them on a number of occasions, particularly when they've needed someone to arrange and conduct orchestral segments. Here's a list of Dudley's guest appearances on PSB (or PSB-produced) recordings, each song followed by her musical role:

Dudley also played support keyboards on the two songs ("Left to My Own Devices" and "It's Alright") that the Pet Shop Boys performed at the famous 2005 Prince's Trust Trevor Horn tribute concert. Although she scored the film 1993 film The Crying Game, for which the Boys produced several tracks (including, most famously, Boy George's rendition of the title song), in that case she didn't take an active role on "their" tracks, and vice-versa.

Notable guest appearances in PSB videos—plus 2 possibilities and 2 notable "nonappearances"

This list, with one exception, includes only those people who also have a substantial number of media credits outside of Pet Shop Boys videos. For that reason I don't include, for instance, Donna Bottman, the lovely young woman featured in the "Domino Dancing" video. My one exception is the special case of Dainton Connell, who makes it into the list by virtue of his repeat appearances—and because I was tempted to create a separate list just for him. But I decided to combine the two lists into this one.

  1. Ron Moody as the "chief executioner" in "It's a Sin"

    British actor Moody has appeared in scores of films and television shows. Among his more memorable roles have been as Fagin in the 1968 film musical Oliver!, as Iago in the 1981 BBC TV production of Othello, and as Merlin in the 1995 film A Kid in King Arthur's Court.

  2. Dusty Springfield in "What Have I Done to Deserve This?"

    It almost goes without saying, but if I hadn't included the legendary British pop diva here, someone would have called me to task for the omission.

  3. Margi Clarke as the "kept woman" in "Rent"

    Known for her starring role in the 1985 film Letter to Breshnev as well as her numerous subsequent appearances on U.K. television, including recurring roles on Making Out and Coronation Street.

  4. Alexander George Thynn, Seventh Marquess of Bath, as the "kept woman's 'keeper'" and dinner party host in "Rent"

    A wealthy British aristocrat, politician (once a member of the House of Lords and an unsuccessful candidate for the European Parliament), and author of several novels, famed for his eccentricity.

  5. Joss Ackland, Barbara Windsor, Gareth Hunt, and Neil Dickson in various roles in "Always on My Mind"

    Featured in the Pet Shop Boys' film It Couldn't Happen Here, these four veterans of British film and television also crop up in this video cobbled from film exceprts.

  6. Ian McKellen as the vampire in "Heart"

    If you don't count Dusty, this is probably the single most famous guest appearance in a PSB video. For more than thirty years a giant of the modern Shakespearean stage, Sir Ian has more recently earned a much wider audience with his many prominent film roles, among them Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings movies, Magneto in the X-Men films, John Profumo in Scandal (for which Neil and Chris wrote the song "Nothing Has Been Proved"), and his Oscar-nominated turn as James Whale in Gods and Monsters.

  7. Jack Bond in "Heart"

    This British television and film producer/director, who directed the Boys' film It Couldn't Happen Here as well as their "Always on My Mind" and "Heart" videos, makes a brief cameo appearance in the latter as a farmer standing on the side of the road as the limousine approaches the castle.

  8. Eagle-Eye Cherry in "Being Boring"

    Son of trumpeter Don Cherry, half-brother of singer Neneh Cherry, and an actor/singer in his own right, Eagle-Eye had a huge 1997 hit with "Save Tonight." He has also appeared in a number of films, among them The Doors and Born on the Fourth of July, and on television, including The Cosby Show and South Beach. On the PopArt DVD, he appears at timing 1:08:06 (and elsewhere).

  9. David Walliams and Matt Lucas in "I'm with Stupid"

    The comic duo, stars of the wildly popular U.K. TV show Little Britain, take center stage both literally and figuratively, with Chris and Neil a captive audience.

  10. Natalia Vodianova, Trent Ford, and Joseph Sayers in "I Get Along"

    Back when she was just an "ordinary" model, Russian now-supermodel Natalia Vodianova appeared in this video, shot by Bruce Weber. Joining her were at least two others also destined for bigger things: American actor Trent Ford and fellow U.S. model Joseph Sayers, the latter rapidly approaching rare "male supermodel" status.

  11. Dainton Connell

    A fan favorite, the Boys' longtime minder/bodyguard, nicknamed "The Bear," appeared in no fewer than five videos before his sudden and untimely death in an October 5, 2007, automobile accident in Moscow:
    • "So Hard" (one of the two large men who hover behind Chris and Neil throughout)
    • "Jealousy" (that's him closing the doors at the end)
    • "Was It Worth It?" (wearing the "Behave" sweatshirt, he even gets to dance!)
    • "A Red Letter Day" (a brief glimpse as one of the many people standing in line)
    • "Somewhere" (in a fleeting backstage scene)

—plus two strong pre-fame possibilities:

1. Is that Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje in "Jealousy"?

A number of online fans have speculated that this Nigerian-British actor, who would later gain fame as recurring characters in the TV series Oz and Lost, appeared in the Pet Shop Boys' "Jealousy" video. The actor portraying the guy who has a quick tryst with a woman in a public restroom could be a young Akinnuoye-Agbaje—there is a resemblance—and it's known for a fact that he appeared in a few music videos by other artists during the late 1980s and early 1990s. So far there's no absolute confirmation that's him in "Jealousy," although there does seem to be a consensus in that direction among his fans.

2. Is that Eva Mendes in "Se A Vida É"?

Similarly, several fans have tentatively identified American actress and "supermodel" Eva Mendes as appearing "pre-fame" in the "Se A Vida É" video. Again, there's a strong resemblance (the lovely dark-haired young woman who is seen for a moment adjusting her top), so it's a distinct possibility. But I've seen no definite confirmation one way or the other.

—and two notable "nonappearances":

  1. Geena Davis not appearing in "It's a Sin"

    A widespread Internet rumor, replicated on various sites, holds that this famous American actress (Tootsie, Beetlejuice, Thelma & Louise, A League of Their Own, etc.), appears in this video. The only female roles are three of the Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony, Lust, and Pride—the latter traditionally considered the most dangerous sin of all. Indeed, some of those Internet citations have placed Davis in the role of Pride. But the actresses credited as portraying those three sins are, respectively, Naomi Gryn, Amanda Metro, and Paola Pieroni. Further confusing the matter is the fact that, in the audio commentary track of the PopArt DVD, Neil identifies "Pride" as Margi Clarke (see #3 above). So either Neil is mistaken or Clarke used "Paola Pieroni" as a pseudonym. If that's the case, is Geena Davis also using a pseudonym, perhaps in the role of one of the "other sins"? Personally, I doubt it; neither "Gluttony" nor "Lust" look anything like her. So unless and until I see convincing evidence to the contrary, I firmly believe that Geena Davis is not in "It's a Sin."

  2. Tiffany not appearing in "Heart"

    The actress who portrays the bride in "Heart" admittedly bears a remarkable resemblance to the 1980s teen pop star Tiffany, thereby engendering a once-common rumor, but it's not her. Rather, her name is Daniella Coli.

A partial list of artists interviewed by Neil when he was with Smash Hits

The following are all that I'm currently aware of, although I'm sure there must have been others. If you know of any and can provide documentation for it (such as by citing the particular issue of Smash Hits in which the interview appears or providing some other evidence, such as an online reference), . Incidentally, this list has nothing to do with the many records that Neil reviewed for Smash Hits during his tenure there. That's fuel for yet another list somewhere down the road.

  • The Alarm
  • Marc Almond (of Soft Cell)
  • Aztec Camera
  • Bananarama
  • The Belle Stars
  • Marc Bolan (apparently Neil's first Smash Hits interview)
  • China Crisis
  • Depeche Mode
  • Divine
  • Dollar (David Van Day and Thereza Bazar)
  • Duran Duran
  • Eurythmics (or perhaps just Annie Lennox—I'm uncertain at this time)
  • Genesis
  • Nick Heyward (Haircut 100)
  • Billy Idol
  • Kajagoogoo
  • Jonathan King
  • Kool and the Gang
  • Madness
  • Malcolm McLaren
  • Madonna
  • Marilyn (reportedly Neil's final Smash Hits interview)
  • Squeeze (Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook)
  • Sting (when he was still with The Police)
  • Bonnie Tyler
  • Village People (or at least VP "cowboy" Randy Jones according to an interview)
  • Paul Weller (formerly of The Jam, having recently formed The Style Council)
  • Wham! (George Michael and Andrew Ridgely)
  • Pete Wylie (of Wah!)
  • Yazoo/Yaz (Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet)

PSB songs that have been used in films and "non-musical" TV shows

This list doesn't include:

  • films or shows primarily concerning the Pet Shop Boys themselves, such as It Couldn't Happen Here, Pet Shop Boys: A Life in Pop, or the episode of The South Bank Show focusing on them;
  • live performances by the Boys appearing as guests, even on shows that aren't primarily known for music;
  • renditions in variety shows or music-related documentaries (both of which I would consider "musical" TV programs);
  • occurrences as "bumper music" (such as when a news show uses a brief segment of a song as a lead-in to or lead-out from a commercial break) or as easily overlooked "ambiance" or "background noise" (such as the song playing faintly on the radio during a scene); and (of course)
  • the Boys' own score for Battleship Potemkin.

1. West End Girls

Not just one but several occurrences, which isn't surprising considering it's the Boys' biggest hit:

  • Its first appearance was very early on—a Christmas Day 1985 episode of the British comedy Only Fools and Horses titled "To Hull and Back." Denzil is playing the song on his boom box while walking to work.
  • Another early use (April 1, 1986) was in "Sleep Talkin' Guy," a second-season episode of the lighthearted U.S. "romantic action show" Moonlighting.
  • Years later, it appeared in the November 18, 2002 episode of tlc, a short-lived U.K. "hospital comedy."
  • It played in an episode of The Simpsons ("Three Gays of the Condo") that originally broadcast on April 3, 2003. It's featured during a sequence in which Homer—temporarily living with a gay couple in the aftermath of a spat with Marge—tries on some new clothes while on a shopping spree with his new friends. (At least they had the good sense not to use "Shopping.")
  • It barely counts considering its extreme brevity, but a fragmentary segment of "West End Girls" can be heard in the April 23, 2006, episode (titled "Roger 'n Me") of another U.S. animated comedy, American Dad. A one-second snippet can be heard during a phone message instructing a character to to go to the "West End" of a shopping mall.
  • The Brazilian telenovela (i.e., soap opera) Selva de Pedra (Forest of Rock) also aired "West End Girls" in 1986.
  • "The Creeper," a 12th-series episode of the U.K. mystery Midsomer Murders (which, interestingly, appears actually to have had its first airing outside the U.K. on September 27, 2009), includes "West End Girls" in several scenes set during a party that proves central to the plot.
  • In Victoria Wood: Seen on TV, a BBC2 retrospective about the career of the British comedian (or, as they used to say, comedienne) that first aired on December 21, 2009, "West End Girls" can be heard during a sequence focusing on her following in gay clubs.
  • The sketch-comedy show Goodness Gracious Me, which ran on BBC from 1998 to 2001 (and before that on radio 1996-1998), had a recurring bit with the "Minx Twins"—a couple of Asian-British teenage girls who hang around "inappropriate" places (such as gay bars and outside men's toilets), complaining about unwanted male attention and making assorted rude comments. "West End Girls" very often served as the background music for these skits.

2. In the Night

The version of this track that appears on the Disco album served as the original theme music for the long-running British fashion program The Clothes Show (1986-2000). As the show moved into the mid-1990s, its producers asked Chris and Neil if they could remix it to make it sound "more contemporary." Instead of a remix, the Boys re-recorded an entirely new version in 1995, which then served as the theme music for the remainder of the show's run. This new version also served as one of the bonus tracks for the single "Before."

3. Left to My Own Devices

The popular U.K. television game show The Krypton Factor ran for almost two decades, from 1977 to 1995 (and reruns are still airing even now), challenging teams of contestants to compete in assorted challenges that tested their mental and physical abilities. The music that regularly played in the 1988 episodes during the scoring at the end of one of the rounds was the Pet Shop Boys' "Left To My Own Devices." It could also be heard about three-quarters of the way through the BBC3 documentary The Truth About Tanning, an exposé of the dangers of tanning beds hosted by Girls Aloud member Nicola Roberts, which first aired on February 4, 2010. (I don't have any information yet about the context in which the song was used, however.) It's worth noting, of course, that Nicola's group Girls Aloud had recorded the PSB co-authored track "The Loving Kind" back in 2008.

4. So Hard

Neil once referred to the fact that this song was used in an episode of the popular nineties U.S. nighttime soap Beverly Hills, 90210. It played during a party scene in the first-season episode titled "BYOB," which originally aired on January 10, 1991.

5. Can You Forgive Her?

Portions of this song, relatively new at the time, were heard during the third season (set in San Francisco) of MTV's pioneering reality show The Real World—more specifically in the episode titled "You Gotta Have Art," which first aired on July 21, 1994.

6. Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)

Surpassing "West End Girls" in frequency of use—almost certainly on account of its salient topicality—this song boasts the following occurrences:

  • The 1987 U.S. two-part NBC TV movie Billionaire Boys Club includes "Opportunities," but it's not the Pet Shop Boys' original. Rather, it's a cover version—but by whom? Incredibly, the film's closing credits don't say. The music and instrumentation are pretty good facsimiles of the original, but the singer is unmistakably not Neil. It plays during a montage sequence that, interestingly, focuses not so much on making money as on spending it. Of course, for most people the point of one is the other.
  • It's featured in a scene set in (wouldn't you know it?) a gay dance club in an episode of the U.S. sitcom Living Single titled "Swing Out Sisters," which first aired on March 20, 1997. (To be fair, the producers probably chose that song not merely for the "gay connection" but also to serve as sly commentary on the surprise revelation of a heterosexual male character working at the club as a bartender, which he explains by the unusually large tips he gets there.)
  • It appears in the American TV drama Joan of Arcadia; in the episode titled "Wealth of Nations," which was originally broadcast on October 29, 2004, Joan and a friend were selling clothes to raise money while "Opportunities" played in the background.
  • In a particularly high-profile usage, "Opportunities" serves as the opening theme music of the U.S. "reality show" Beauty and the Geek, which premiered on June 1, 2005. (It has also served the same function for the Dutch version—as it almost certainly will for any other version that should appear.) The line "I've got the brains, you've got the looks" proved irresistible for this program, in which stereotypically brainy/nerdy guys are teamed with stereotypically attractive/dumb gals in a competition to see which pair can learn and benefit the most from each other and thereby win a big cash prize. "Let's make lots of money"—a perfect match!
  • It appears as background music to a montage depicting "yuppies" on cell phones in the fourth episode (titled "Revolution!") of the BBC 2 documentary Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain (focusing on the years 1979-1990), which first aired on June 12, 2007.
  • Maybe it's a stretch, but on the September 14, 2007 edition of the HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher, there was a discussion of Bill and Hillary Clinton's marriage, during which guest Drew Carey briefly sang the chorus ("I've got the brains, you've got the looks …").
  • Getting back to the Boys' own version, "Opportunities" also plays in the November 18, 2007 episode of The Simpsons, titled "Husbands and Knives," during a montage of Marge appearing on magazine covers in the wake of her success with her own women's fitness center.
  • The February 8, 2008 episode of the U.S. crime drama Psych includes a portion of the song during a segment in which several characters are walking through an alley toward their waiting limousine.
  • The February 20, 2008 edition of the U.S. morning news institution Today (I say "institution" because it was the first U.S. nationally broadcast news show and has been a fixture on NBC for more than fifty years now) played this song during a story about celebrity baby pictures being sold to magazine.
  • On March 9, 2008, BBC Four first aired a documentary titled The Rise and Fall of the Ad Man, which covered the British advertising industry during the 1970s and '80s. "Opportunities" could be heard during a sequence focusing on the firm of Saatchi & Saatchi, which spent much of the early eighties expanding rapidly by buying out competitors.
  • The June 15, 2009 episode of the BBC2 show The Supersizers Eat… (in which the hosts, a restaurant critic and a comedian, discuss and sample the cuisines of different historical periods) deals with "food of the 1980s." A segment that focuses on eating on the floor of the stock exchange (I kid you not!) is accompanied by—what else?—"Opportunities." Is this a case of someone using an ironic song, which they may not actually realize is ironic, in what they regard as an ironic manner because they believe the irony stems from them rather than from the songwriters? That, of course, would be ironic. wink
  • During the second part of the BBC3 comic documentary The Noughties… Was That It?, which first aired on November 11, 2009, "Opportunities" was used during a segment about the ascendancy of "celebrity chefs."
  • The January 25, 2010 episode of the five-part BBC2 series Delia Through the Decades—a career retrospective of popular U.K. cooking show host Delia Smith—focuses on the 1980s. Not surprisingly a PSB tune pops up, and just as unsurprisingly it's "Opportunities." By this point there's can be no doubt that this song has taken on near-totemic significance as a sort of "objective correlative"—or symbolic shorthand, if you will—for the decade of Maggie Thatcher and Ronnie Reagan.

7. Single

Reportedly plays during a bar scene—a singles bar, no doubt—focusing on the character Anna in a Series 2 episode of the popular mid-1990s BBC2 TV show This Life, which concerned a group of young solicitors and barristers (aka "lawyers" and "attorneys" in the States) sharing a house in London. I'm not sure of the precise episode or the original air date, but it would have been sometime from March to August 1997.

8. How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?

Plays over the closing credits of the "Fair Enough" episode of the U.S. "teen angst" cartoon Daria. This episode first aired on July 13, 1998.

9. Se A Vida É (That's the Way Life Is)

In what was likely an intentionally ironic act of foreshadowing, this song was playing in the background just before an unforgettable moment in the December 31, 1998 episoode of the popular, long-running U.K. soap opera Eastenders—unforgettable because it involved the sudden, unexpected death of one of the show's most popular characters, Tiffany Mitchell (portrayed by Martine McCutcheon), struck and killed by an automobile outside the Queen Vic Pub. (As testament to its status, Eastenders fans voted this the single episode they most wanted to watch again, resulting in its being reshown on the show's 15th anniversary in February 2000.) Also, the October 23, 2008 episode (titled "How I Got My Posh") of the U.K. comedy/drama series Beautiful People includes a scene set in a hair salon in which this song is playing on the radio.

10. Too Many People

Again playing over Daria's closing credits, this time the episode titled "Lane Miserables," which was originally broadcast on July 14, 1999. The producers of Daria must have liked the Pet Shop Boys.

11. I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing

Not the Boys' original version but a cover by Robbie Williams, which plays in an episode of Friends ("The One with the Routine") that originally aired on December 16, 1999. It appears during a dance sequence in which Joey pursues his current love interest, Janine. Robbie's version also appears on the Friends Again soundtrack album as well as on his 1998 album Let Me Entertain You. One of my site visitors distinctly remembers, however, the Pet Shop Boys' own single version being used as background music during a go-kart segment that appeared during the 1994 season of MTV's popular The Real World series, set that year in San Francisco. I haven't yet been able to confirm this independently or find the precise date.

12. Shopping

The chorus alone has guaranteed its use on a number of TV shows, most of which have everything to do with the title but nothing to do with what the song is actually about. For one thing, it has proven extremely popular "bumper music" on home shopping shows. No further comment needed about that. These, however, are a little more interesting, if in most cases all too predictable:

  • The earliest use that I'm aware of occurred in 1989 in an episode of the British automotive series Top Gear. Host Jeremy Clarkson is describing a bunch of Japanese "supermini cars." He takes one of them into a Tokyo drive-through shopping mart as "Shopping" plays in the background.
  • It appears in an episode of the U.S. show Lizzie McGuire titled "Last Year's Model," first broadcast on September 28, 2001. In deeply clichéd (and misguided) fashion, it plays while Matt is—what else?—shopping.
  • Much more intelligently, it's used during a sequence about the selling off of publicly owned companies in the aforementioned fourth episode of the BBC 2 documentary Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain, which first aired on June 12, 2007.
  • It could be heard in the second episode (June 22, 2009) of another documentary series, BBC4's The Secret Life of the Airport. Unfortunately, its usage there swung back to a much more facile, superficial context: duty-free airport shopping. I guess a lot of people either don't listen to the verse lyrics, don't understand them, or simply choose to ignore them.
  • The fast-paced U.K. comedy program The Kevin Bishop Show used it (again very superficially) on July 30, 2009 in a sketch focusing on a rather flamboyant American sales clerk who gushes to a British couple about England and the royal family, getting his "facts" badly confused in the process.
  • The first part of the BBC3 comic documentary The Noughties… Was That It?, which originally aired on November 4, 2009, played "Shopping" during a segment about (yawn) Internet shopping.

13. Break 4 Love

This PSB/Peter Rauhofer collaboration plays a prominent role in the tense, overlapping closing scenes (continuing into the closing credits) of Episode 209 of the U.S. version of Queer As Folk, which first aired on March 10, 2002.

14. Music for Boys

Considering the relative obscurity of the song, this is one of the more surprising PSB tracks to be used on a TV show. It can be heard in "The Beast of Royston Valley," the fourth episode (first airing on February 1, 1999) of the BBC comedy series The League of Gentlemen, in which it serves as background music during a segment about a school theatre production on the subject of homosexuality.

15. A Different Point of View

This song was used during the fourth episode (originally airing October 8, 1995) of the relatively short-lived U.S. TV drama Central Park West.

16. Always on My Mind

The Pet Shop Boys' hit version of this song can be heard in these TV shows and films:

  • During the opening scenes of the third-season premier episode of the U.S. crime drama Cold Case, originally broadcast on September 25, 2005.
  • On April 28, 2007 in a BBC special titled The Return of 'Allo 'Allo featuring the original cast of that popular 1980s sitcom. A montage of clips focusing on Lt. Gruber—the recurring gay character (wouldn't you know?) played by Guy Siner—was accompanied by this track.
  • In a scene set in a gay dance club in the 2007 Adam Sandler comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.
  • In a complete 180° twist, as the regular theme music of the Italian agricultural news show Agrisette.
  • In the closing scene of the 2009 Spanish film El cónsul de Sodoma (The Consul of Sodom), a biography of the poet Jaime Gil de Biedma (1929-1990). The scene depicts the elderly poet watching a naked young man dance to the song.

17. Suburbia

First airing on May 28, 2005, the second-season "Witches" episode of the British crime drama Murder in Suburbia featured a scene in which a school choir is singing this PSB classic. The old Pet Shop Boys Club newsletter (the rather primitive predecessor to Literally) stated in its February 1987 edition that "Suburbia" had also been used on at least three different occasions on the popular, long-running U.K. soap opera Eastenders. More recently, it was used in the BBC4 show Electric Dreams, the premise of which involves taking a "typical" suburban British family through a 30-day/30-year journey (1970-1999), in which each day represents a year and each episode represents a decade. Each day the family members can use only the technology that was available in the corresponding year. "Suburbia" played in second episode—which debuted on October 6, 2009, and which, aptly enough, focused on the 1980s—during a sequence in which the father used a Sinclair C5 to run errands around town. (The Sinclair C5 was an electric car—actually more like big electric tricycle—that appeared in 1985 and proved an unmitigated commercial disaster. The company apparently lost a bundle of money on it. Considering the C5's top speed of 15 mph and the serious safety concerns it raised, it's hardly surprising that few people actually wanted to own one.)

18. It Always Comes as a Surprise

On January 2, 2007, BBC2 broadcast This Life + 10, a one-off sequel to This Life (described above in this list's entry for "Single"). This song plays in the background during a scene in which the gay character, Warren, is having a lengthy conversation—which soon turns into a political argument—with several of his heterosexual friends.

19. One More Chance

The instrumental introduction of this song—looped, I believe, in order to extend its length without running into the vocal—is briefly used in a March 18, 1988 episode of the long-running BBC documentary series Arena that focuses on the work of the American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. (The particular scene in which it's heard deals with the New York gay bar scene of the late 1970s, which introduces a segment about some of Mapplethorpe's most controversial photos, often involving blatantly sado-masochistic and/or fetishistic subject matter.) A little less than a year later, "One More Chance" also served as background music during an illusion performed by the famous magician David Copperfield in his March 3, 1989 U.S. (CBS) television special The Magic of David Copperfield XI: The Explosive Encounter.

20. "Comrades!"

Used several times in the fourth episode (titled "Revolution!" and originally broadcast June 12, 2007) of the BBC 2 documentary Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain, most notably during a sequence concerning Margaret Thatcher's fall from power largely as a result of the poll tax controversy. (The site visitor who was kind enough to tell me about this documentary cites the intense irony of the use of this song—the opening track from the PSB score to a film classic associated with Russia's communist revolution—in an program that deals largely with the victory of capitalism over trade unions in Thatcherite Britain.)

21. It's a Sin

Considering that it's one of the three or four most popular PSB songs, it's astounding that (as far as I know) it took until the new millennium for this song to be used in a substantial manner in a film or non-musical TV show. But it seems to be making up for lost time:

  • In the 2003 film Party Monster, it's reportedly playing in the background during a hullucination scene when James (Seth Green) overdoses after Michael (Macaulay Culkin) tells him about killing Angel (Wilson Cruz).
  • It's one of two PSB songs appearing in the 2005 Italian film Melissa P.
  • The July 4, 2007 episode of the hit show Big Brother (U.K. edition) featured "It's a Sin" being played in its entirety during the housemates' "Sinful Party." The cast seemed to be having a great time dancing to it.
  • The March 13, 2008 edition of the BBC1 political news show This Week used "It's a Sin" during a segment about the Vatican having recently announced a list of "modern sins," including such things as damaging the environment, experimenting on humans, and excessive wealth.
  • The 2009 film Bronson includes a scene in a mental institution set to "It's a Sin." In the words of the film's protagonist, the "loonies" dance to the song. In light of the fact that the film is based on the true story of Charlie Bronson, notoriously known as "Britain’s most violent prisoner," that particular choice of music seems entirely appropriate.
  • An orchestral cover of "It's a Sin"—possibly the 1987 rendition by the London Symphony Orchestra, although I'm not at all sure about that—was used as background music during a sequence of the September 29, 2009 BBC4 show Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe during which the host is describing (and the screen is depicting) some extremely violent video games.

22. Being Boring

This is the other Pet Shop Boys song used in the 2005 erotic Italian film drama Melissa P. It was also heard at one point in the Brazilian teledrama Meu Bem Meu Mal (My Good, My Bad) at some point in the early 1990s.

23. It Coudn't Happen Here

Hurricanes are by no means unheard of in Britain, but they're certainly a rarity. So it's perhaps not surprising that in 1997, when the BBC ran The Great Storm—a tenth-anniversary documentary on what was technically not a hurricane but a hurricane-like system that struck southern England and northern France on October 15-16, 1987, doing massive damage and claiming at least 19 lives—they included this song at one point as background music.

24. I'm with Stupid

The TV movie Clapham Junction, which first aired on U.K. Channel 4 on July 22, 2007 as one of a series of special programs in its 40 Years Out series (commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexual acts in Britain), includes a disturbing segment that makes use of this song. One of the main characters, portrayed by Paul Nicholls, is picked up by a guy at a London gay club and goes back to his apartment. His host puts on some music and they start talking. The man starts to make a pass at Nicholls's character, who says he that likes the track playing ("I'm with Stupid") and asks him to turn it up. As he does so, Nicholls approaches from behind and strikes him with a glass ashtray. The dazed, bloodied man pleads with Nicholls, asking why he did that, to which Nicholls replies, "'Cause I hate the fucking Pet Shop Boys!" (or words to that effect; I've read differing reports). He then proceeds to beat the guy up, forces the contents of the ashtray down his throat, and urinates on him. Not a pretty scene. Neil and Chris were absolutely livid when they learned that their music had been used in this way—and who can blame them? After they made their intense displeasure clear to the appropriate authorities, both "I'm with Stupid" and the reference to the Pet Shop Boys themselves were deleted from subsequent reruns of the program.

25. Birthday Boy

The August 26, 2007 episode of the ongoing BBC documentary project Child of Our Time, which follows the lives of 25 children from all over the United Kingdom born in the year 2000, included a brief portion of this song.

26. Integral

The same episode of Child of Our Time noted just above for "Birthday Boy" featured this PSB track as well, playing during a segment in which children were asked whether various "cartoon stereotypes" (such as person with green hair, a very slow runner, and so on) should be included or excluded from the group.

27. I Want a Dog

The February 11, 2008 broadcast of the NBC morning news show Today included a bit of the Introspective mix of this song during a report on employers reading their employees' email. (It obviously wasn't chosen for its theme but probably for its sound.) Considering that less than two weeks later the same program used "Opportunities" (see above), it makes you suspect that someone who makes decisions about their on-air music must be a PSB fan.

28. I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More

Part of this song plays near the conclusion of the 1999 Italian film comedy Vacanze Di Natale 2000.

29. Flamboyant

The June 9, 2008 episode of the BBC2 show Mary Queen of Shops—a sort of "fashion store makeover" program starring fashionista Mary Portas—included this song. I haven't seen the show myself, but I imagine it was incredibly appropriate.

30. What Have I Done to Deserve This?

Heard in the second episode (February 18, 2005) of the short-lived U.K. Channel 4 sitcom Nathan Barley. I'm afraid I don't know anything more at this time about the context in which it was used.

31. Somewhere

The Pet Shop Boys' hit rendition of this standard can be heard almost in its entirety in the final episode (titled "How I Got My Globe") of the aforementioned U.K. series Beautiful People, which aired on November 6, 2008. It plays as the two young central characters, Simon and Kylie, are exploring London for the first time.

32. London

A brief excerpt from one of the "Felix da Housecat" mixes of this PSB song could be heard in the original version of the documentary-style telefilm about parkour Jump London, which first aired on U.K. television in 2003. The excerpt is so brief, in fact, that if you sneezed a couple times in a row at the wrong moment, you'd probably miss it. So it's perhaps no great loss that it was deleted from the film's DVD release. "London" could also reportedly be heard playing in the background on the radio during a scene in a 2003 episode of the U.K. soap Eastenders.

33. Euroboy

In 2003, the publisher of the U.K. gay soft-porn magazine Euroboy released a direct-to-video film titled Euroboy Tender Young Lust. Like the parent magazine (so to speak), the film was softcore, but adults-only nevertheless. Quite surprisingly—or not, depending on your perspective—this Pet Shop Boys song was used in the film. The video cover even states "Music by Pet Shop Boys," and the Boys are thanked in the credits.

34. The Noise

Although it can be considered a "song" in only the loosest sense, Chris and Neil created this somewhat experimental instrumental piece in 1996 for a short-lived Saturday morning U.K. television music magazine with the same title.

35. Domino Dancing

Perhaps surprisingly, the only use of this song in TV or film that I'm so far aware of was in the Brazilian teledrama O Salvador da Pátria (Saviour of the Native Land?) during its run in 1989.

36. Love etc.

The British soap opera Eastenders has long used PSB as incidental background music, often playing on a jukebox. (Several examples are listed above.) The tradition continued when "Love etc." could be heard on the June 9, 2009 episode and again on September 28, 2009. (It was the opening scene of the latter episode, which featured two gay characters. As one of my site visitors has observed, it "seems that in a scene with two gay characters there has to be a song featuring a gay singer.") It has also reportedly been played on more than one occasion (June 15 and 16, 2009, at least—perhaps others as well) on the popular German soap Verbotene Liebe ("Forbidden Love"). And it was used in the British TV special When Diets Go Wrong, an at times disturbing look at the horrible personal disasters that can occasionally occur as a result of attempts to lose weight, which originally aired on BBC3 on June 11, 2009. I don't yet know, however, the context in which it was used. Meanwhile, the "Beautiful Dub" mix of the song served as sporadic background music for the September 26, 2009 ITV1 special When Piers Met Sir Cliff, in which host Piers Morgan interviews Cliff Richard at the latter's palatial mansion in Barbados. (Considering the song's subject matter, could there be some subtle commentary there?)

37. New York City Boy

Episode 36 of the popular Colombian show Yo soy Betty, la fea ("I'm Betty, the Ugly One"), a telenovela that ran from 1999 to 2001—and which was subsequently spun off into more than a dozen versions in other languages, such as the U.S. hit Ugly Betty—featured a flamboyantly gay character singing a very brief excerpt (the title line) of this PSB hit. Not being fluent in Spanish, however, I'm not quite sure of the context.

38. Numb

Famously used as the background music for a montage run on a BBC Match of the Day broadcast in early July 2006 dealing with England's elimination from the World Cup competition (soccer to my fellow Americans, but football to much of the rest of the world). Although "Numb" was already under consideration by the Boys and their record company as a potential single, this montage proved so popular that it may well have provided the final nudge, resulting in it becoming the third single from Fundamental.

39. Did You See Me Coming?

Served as background music during a "montage-ish" sequence on an early June 2009 episode of the Brazilian "reality show" A Fazenda ("The Farm").

40. Rent

Surprisingly, the only use of this song that I know of so far in a non-musical film or television show is in the 2009 Romanian film Cea mai fericita fata din lume ("The Happiest Girl in the World"), in which it can be heard in one scene playing on a car radio.

41. You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk

Used in the second episode (titled "Zellers letzter Auftrag," meaning "Zeller's Last Order") of the eighth season of the popular German police drama Siska, which originally aired on March 4, 2005. It's playing in the background on a radio or stereo in a scene in which the title character, Siska, and another police officer visit a computer shop to interrogate a worker there suspected of murder.

42. King of Rome

A telenovela from Brazil, Viver a Vida ("To Live the Life"), makes recurring use of this PSB track as something akin to the "romantic theme music" of one of the couples who are at the heart of the story. One (but not the only) example occurs in Part 4, which first aired on September 23, 2009. I can't help but wonder whether the song's own theme and mood suggests a possible tragic outcome to their story.

43. Liberation

The "Liberation" music video—specially recreated to emphasize its three-dimensional quality—was featured in the 2000 film CyberWorld, a compilation of 3D animation that also includes the famous 1995 "Homer³" segment from The Simpsons, an excerpt from the movie Antz, and various other examples of three-dimensional animated rendering on the computer. By virtue of that same video, a short excerpt of "Liberation" was also used in the TV special The Greatest Ever 3D Moments, which first aired on U.K. Channel 4 on November 21, 2009, and during which the onscreen commentators talked about it briefly.

44. Beautiful People

This song was used in the December 23, 2009 episode of the BBC1 "school drama" Waterloo Road. It played in the background during a scene set in a hallway involving two separate conversations between pairs of teachers. There didn't seem to be any "thematic connection," so to speak, unless it was simply to suggest that these particular teachers are "beautiful." (Or is that they, like the narrator of the song, merely want to be "beautiful"?) Then again, I've always regarded teaching as quite a lovely profession—though as a former teacher I may be a bit biased. wink

45. Absolutely Fabulous

Maybe it doesn't really count, but a modified version of the Pet Shop Boys' "Absolutely Fabulous" video was featured in an "Ab Fab" TV special titled Absolutely Fabulous Moments, which was originally broadcast on July 24, 1994. (I'm not sure on which network it first ran, although I believe it has been shown on both BBC America and Comedy Central.) If, however, you don't wish to count that, then another far more recent television occurrence surely does qualify: the premier episode of the seventh series/season of the U.K. edition of Celebrity Big Brother, which aired on January 3, 2010, used "Absolutely Fabulous" for background music as the celebrity contestants were first being introduced.

In addition:

I also distinctly remember a Pet Shop Boys song being played over the closing credits of an episode of the U.S. public television "gay features" show In the Life sometime around 2003-2004, give or take a year. But, for the life of me, I can't remember which song it was or find any information as to when precisely it aired. (Something tells me that it may have been "New York City Boy," but I wouldn't bet the mortgage on it.)

Finally, falling into a somewhat more obscure category is the fact that "Paninaro" was used for several years as the theme music of a Portuguese educational television program titled Universidade Aberta (Open University). Since he didn't own a copy of the recording at the time, one of my site visitors in Portugal used to get out of bed early every Saturday morning just to hear it! Now that's dedication!

4 feature films that mention the Pet Shop Boys by name

This brief list deals only with non-documentary feature films created for theatrical release (as opposed to films for television).

1. Fuochi d'Artificio [Fireworks] (1997)

The Pet Shop Boys are mentioned in this popular Italian film directed by Leonard Pieraccioni. The plot centers on a man who has fallen in love with a girl who works in a pet shop, and the Pet Shop Boys are invoked in a joking reference.

2. Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss (1998)

This mildly comic film's lovelorn title character, portrayed by Sean Hayes (who would shortly go on to much greater fame in the role of Jack on TV's Will & Grace) is speculatively described in terms of his musical tastes as being a "Pet Shop Boys kind of guy"—shorthand, as if any were needed, for his being gay.

3. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)

A good-natured "racecar comedy," this movie includes a scene in a racing-themed bar in which one of the characters is wondering about some of the selections offered in the jukebox. Among them are Pet Shop Boys and Seal, which the bartender says are there "for profiiling purposes." The implication is that only gay men would pick music by the Pet Shop Boys—or at least that's what the bartender thinks. It's difficult to say what's being satirized more: PSB fandom or the attitudes of racing-themed bar habitués. I'm still trying to figure out just whom Seal is supposed to help them profile.

4. The Bubble (2006)

This somewhat tragic tale set mainly in Tel Aviv focuses on the love between two gay men—which isn't unusual in itself except that one is Israeli and the other Palestinian. When Noam, one of the two central characters, is asked whom he fantasized about when he was 15 years old, he cites River Phoenix, Morrissey, and "Chris Lowe from the Pet Shop Boys."

7 perhaps surprising influences on the Pet Shop Boys

1. "California Love" by 2 Pac

This major rap hit was released while Chris and Neil were in the late stages of recording Bilingual. They've stated that it influenced the sound and style of the track "Electricity."

2. Coal Miner's Daughter

Neil saw this 1980 film biography of country music star Loretta Lynn shortly before he began to write the song "Betrayed." Hence he had originally envisioned it recorded in a country-western style, but it obviously came out quite differently in the final wash.

3. "Legs" and "Sharp-Dressed Man" by ZZ Top

Who would have thought that this blues-based, hard-rockin' trio would prove an influence on the Pet Shop Boys? Yet Neil has confessed that these two techno-boogie classics, in which the self-described "little band from Texas" successfully experimented with a synthesized rhythm track punctuated with guitar counterpoint, greatly influenced their rendition of "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)."

4. Sonic the Hedgehog and other video games

Chris has noted this influence on the overall sound and mood of the Very album—a fact given more or less direct attribution in the song "Young Offender."

5. Roger Scruton

In his 1998 possibly mistitled book An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture, this British philosopher/academician ignorantly stated:

Sometimes, as with the Spice Girls or the Pet Shop Boys, serious doubts arise as to whether the performers made more than a minimal contribution to the recording, which owes its trade mark to subsequent sound engineering, designed precisely to make it unrepeatable.

The Boys promptly sued him for libel. Within a few months they had won their case, with Scruton agreeing to pay them reported damages of £10,000 along with their court costs. Nevertheless, it seems highly likely that Scruton's statement influenced Chris and Neil to present themselves more obviously than ever before as musicians for their album Release and its accompanying tour. That is, if Scruton could think such a blatantly untrue thing about them, then others could as well—so why not set about demonstrating just how very wrong they are?

6. Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady

In the book Pet Shop Boys, Literally, Neil tells author Chris Heath that his occasional "speaking-singing" style (as heard in such songs as "West End Girls" and "Opportunities," among others) was influenced by the late, great British actor Rex Harrison's performance as Professor Henry Higgins in the musical My Fair Lady. Harrison was by no means a great singer, but the musical's songwriting team of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe knew that he was nevertheless perfect for the part, so they wrote "his" songs to accommodate a special style of blended speaking and singing that they worked with him in developing. At one time Neil lacked confidence in his own singing, so in many of their songs (particularly the early ones) he adopted a similar "speaking-singing" style.

7. The Mamas & the Papas

More than once Chris and Neil have cited this classic 1960s vocal group, virtual icons of pop/folk hippiedom, as major influences on the song "Beautiful People" from their 2009 album Yes. I guess it's the strumming guitar and the sunny/sweet layered vocals, which one reviewer has described as a "California sound." To suggest a degree of parody is much too strong, but the lyric's indirect, backhanded critique of celebrity culture—few PSB songs have a more callow narrator—makes me suspect that something akin to cynicism is enmeshed with a genuine fondness for the music of Cass, Denny, John, and Michelle. Then again, it's hard to think of anything more callow than hippiedom.

8 perhaps surprising influences by the Pet Shop Boys on others

It's not at all surprising that the Pet Shop Boys have influenced many other artists. In addition to a host of synthpop bands, they have provided varying degrees of inspiration to such artists as Robbie Williams (who once referred to "Nervously" as his all-time favorite song), Madonna, George Michael, the Magnetic Fields, St. Etienne, and Belle & Sebastian. But I'm more interested in the cases that really do surprise me, such as the following.

1. Guns n' Roses' "November Rain"

In what is probably the most surprising influence of the Pet Shop Boys on another artist, Axl Rose—lead singer of this notorious hard-rock group of the late eighties and early nineties—is an avowed PSB fan who has affirmed that his band's big 1991 hit "November Rain" (from the album Use Your Illusion I) was influenced by the Boys' "My October Symphony" and "Being Boring."

2. Post-Joshua Tree U2

As reluctant as many U2 fans are to admit it, there can be little doubt that Bono and company were somewhat perversely inspired by the double-edged deflation/inflation they received at the hands of the Pet Shop Boys, whose 1991 treatment of their "Where the Streets Have No Name" both deconstructed the burgeoning U2 mythology and emphasized its dance-rock potential. On their subsequent albums Achtung Baby and especially Zooropa and Pop, U2 set about deconstructing themselves and delving more overtly into dance rock.

3. The Bee Gees' "Fallen Angel"

While the Pet Shop Boys have acknowledged the Bee Gees' influence on them, Maurice and Robin Gibb readily acknowledged the "return influence" of PSB on this song from their 1993 album Size Isn't Everything. As Maurice stated simply, "I like the Pet Shop Boys," to which Robin added, "Although they are traditional dance grooves, there's something about Pet Shop Boys that American groups don't use in their grooves." Groovy!

4. Keane

One might think that a hot young "quasi-alternative" band like Keane (whose 2004 debut album Hopes and Fears, incidentally, is terrific) would eschew comparative geezers like the Pet Shop Boys—who are quite literally old enough to be their fathers. On the contrary! "We grew up listening to great eighties bands like the Pet Shop Boys," drummer Richard Hughes told interviewer Emma Swann, specifically citing our heroes as among their favorite recording acts and a major source of inspiration. "I guess it's classic songwriting that is the main influence…." In fact, in a separate interview he designated PSB as their "most favorite" band. Still elsewhere Hughes has stated how excited he is by each new PSB single release, noting that he finds their b-sides "superb." And Hughes isn't the only fan in the band. Keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley feels strongly enough about it to have appeared in the documentary Pet Shop Boys: A Life in Pop discussing his great appreciation for them and their music.

5. Coldplay

Lead singer Chris Martin has said that when he was growing up he wanted to be "a cross between Bono and Neil Tennant." I can't quite visualize that, but I can hear it in their music.

6. The Killers

Among younger bands, it's not just the British on whom the Boys have left their mark. As noted in the October 12, 2004 issue of The Advocate, singer-keyboardist Brandon Flowers of the young American band the Killers cites both Morrissey and the Pet Shop Boys as particular influences. He also appears as a commentator in Pet Shop Boys: A Life in Pop. And it's not just Flowers; guitarist David Kueing placed "Home and Dry" in his iTunes playlist. I wouldn't have thought it of a band who call themselves the Killers. Nor would I have expected it in light of the apparent fact that Flowers is a practicing Mormon. Just goes to show how risky it is to ascribe to stereotypes.

7. Joy Electric

Speaking of stereotypes—in one sense, it's hardly surprising that the Pet Shop Boys are an influence on the one-man synthpop act Joy Electric, aka Ronnie Martin, formerly of the duo Dance House Children. But considering that Joy Electric makes overtly Christian music, the forthrightness with which Ronnie speaks of the Boys' influence on him may indeed be surprising. (Of course, just because an artist is outspokenly Christian certainly doesn't mean he or she is automatically a right-wing fundamentalist.) On his online forum he has cited them—along with New Order, the Smiths, After the Fire, Kraftwerk, and "old Christian/Gospel bands"—as among his primary influences. To quote him speaking specifically of the Pet Shop Boys on November 3, 2005:

I think they've been amazingly consistent over the years…. The early albums were obviously classics, but you'd be hard pressed not to find some absolutely great songwriting on Very and Nightlife. In my opinion, albums like Bilingual and Release showcased their weakest material overall, but even those albums have unarguable gems on them, like "Red Letter Day," for instance, off of Bilingual…. I bought PopArt on import when it came out and "Flamboyant" proves that they know how to write a perfect, no frills pop single when they feel like it.

He has also cited Neil Tennant as one of his favorite vocalists. To sum it up, he writes, "I've always been a massive Pet Shop Boys fan."

8. Bollywood

Several scores from Indian film industry (aka "Bollywood") betray profound PSB influences. For instance, the soundtrack of the 1989 Indian film Love Love Love, written by veteran Bollywood composer Bappi Lahiri, includes two songs, "We Are in Love" and "Hum to Hain Dil Ke Diwane," with musical passages essentially lifted outright from "It's a Sin." (One might say that, although the lyrics and primary melodies of those songs are original, they're more or less built around "re-recorded samples" of instrumental themes from that particular PSB song.) Another 1989 Indian film, Tridev, boasts an opening theme (composed by brothers Kalyanji Virji Shah and Anandji Virji Shah, working under the collective name Kalyanji Anandji) that borrows rhythmically and stylistically from the Boys' "One More Chance." And the 1992 film Vishwatma features a song titled "Saat Samundar," written by Viju Shah (who happens to be the son of the aforementioned Kalyanji Virji Shah), with an opening that bears a striking similarity to "Heart." It's interesting that all three of these PSB songs are from the same album, 1987's Actually. I wonder whether that album was especially popular in India.

Real people mentioned by name or title in PSB lyrics

The Pet Shop Boys mention a surprisingly large number of real people by name or title in their lyrics. These people are listed in alphabetical order below, followed in parentheses by the name of the song in which they're mentioned. In many cases only their first or last names or titles are mentioned in the song, but I've included their full names here.

Note that this list doesn't include people who are merely alluded to but whose names aren't mentioned. For example, I don't include Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, both of whom are alluded to but not named in "Being Boring." If I were to include such allusions, this list would surely be more than twice as long. I've also left out fictional characters, such as Don Juan and the Phantom of the Opera.

Real places mentioned by name in PSB songs

Much like the preceding list, this list includes only places that are actually mentioned by name in PSB songs. Those many places merely alluded to without their names being mentioned aren't included here. I also don't include the earth itself and celestial bodies: the sun, the moon, planets, stars, etc.

Neil's 13 most memorable lyrical personae

During the Pet Shop Boys' long career, Neil has assumed literally dozens of different lyrical personae—in essence, "characters"—in their songs. Some are particularly memorable for their cleverness, vividness, and/or poignancy. The following baker's dozen are, at least in my opinion, his greatest, presented in chronological order:

1. The crass aspiring hitmaker in "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)"

A character so effectively drawn that many listeners failed—and still fail—to grasp the irony and to distinguish between the singer and the song.

2. The kept woman (or rent boy, depending on your perspective) in "Rent"

In some ways an absolutely shocking narrative, one that invites endless speculation, yet piquant enough to make this one of the Pet Shop Boys' most covered songs.

3. Himself in "Being Boring"

It's always risky to identify a lyrical persona as truly being the singer-songwriter himself, but in this case there's no doubt about it. And it's quite possibly the Pet Shop Boys' single most touching, unforgettable lyric.

4. The bewildered Russian composer in "My October Symphony"

How would it feel if your world were suddenly to change so radically that everything you've ever believed and done is called into question? It's not a situation in which we'd like to find ourselves, but Neil forces us to confront it.

5. The AIDS-haunted surviving partner in "Dreaming of the Queen"

The Boys do a magnificent job of conveying the horror of waking up from a merely unpleasant dream to an utter nightmare. Is there a more anguished line in the entire PSB canon than "There are no more lovers left alive"?

6. The glib, hapless Euro-businessman in "Single"

One of the Pet Shop Boys' greatest comic creations, yet not without a poignant edge.

7. The bitter lip-synching drag queen in "Electricity"

Another shocker, almost painful to listen to. But you can still hear the character's stubborn, begrudgingly admirable pride beneath the unpleasant exterior.

8. The AWOL Russian soldier longing for a better life in "London"

As great a lyric as it is, one line pretty much sums it up: "I want to live before I die."

9. The naive (but not too naive) teenage fan in "The Night I Fell in Love"

An especially clever lyrical persona that enables the Pet Shop Boys to make multi-layered commentary about homophobia—both actual and alleged—in the music of Eminem, rap in general, and, even more generally, popular culture overall.

10. The rejected lover in "I Made My Excuses and Left"

Drawing inspiration from the story of Cynthia Lennon discovering her husband John's love for Yoko, Neil delivers one of his most heartbreaking narratives (given no small assist by Chris's equally heartbreaking melody), particularly in the last verse's distant retrospection.

11. Tony Blair—or not—in "I'm with Stupid"

An ingeniously ambiguous persona, which can be interpreted either as an ordinary guy rationalizing his romantic relationship with an apparent dim bulb or as U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair talking about his international political relationship with U.S. President George W. Bush. (Honorable mention goes to "I Get Along," which also features a Tony Blair-inspired narrator.)

12. The sardonic Victorian graverobber in "The Resurrectionist"

Neil's protagonist exhibits every bit of the macabre graveyard humor that we would expect from such a character.

13. The middle-aged Internet hookup in "Gin and Jag"

A portrait of almost frightening intensity. We're not at all sure how much of what he says we can actually believe, but one thing is as clear as the crystal of that expensive decanter: he can barely conceal his basic contempt for his would-be lover and, possibly, himself.

My all-time favorite Chris Lowe sartorial statements

Clothing is more than just something you wear. It's also a form of communication. You say things to others in the clothes you wear. And one of the most distinctive elements of the Pet Shop Boys' visual image—part of the overall message they convey to the public—is Chris Lowe's sense of fashion. In putting together the following highly subjective list of my favorite "sartorial statements" by Chris, I'm not counting those cases where both he and Neil wore unusual matching costumes, such as in their Performance stage show and the videos for most of the singles from Very and Nightlife. Rather, I'm considering only those instances in which Chris alone dressed in a way that strikes me as especially memorable for one reason or another.

1. His "angler look"…

… as seen in the Boys' appearance at the 1988 Brit Awards performing "What Have I Done to Deserve This"?" with Dusty Springfield. He dressed almost identically for the packaging of the "Heart" single and the cover of the book Pet Shop Boys, Annually. I often wonder whether it was inspired by his song "One of the Crowd," written around the same time (which begins, "When I go fishing with my rod…"), or vice-versa. Whatever the case, it's a visual non sequitur (Why is he dressed that way? What does it mean?) suggesting a type of calculated nonchalance that's both deeply mysterious and unspeakably cool.

2. His Issey Miyake inflatable jacket…

… as seen in their 1987 performance of "Rent" on the Live from the London Palladium TV show, among other places. Chris has been unusually forthright in discussing this particular fashion choice, having described it in an early 1990s episode of The South Bank Show as a "manic" look intentionally designed to shock. He succeeded admirably, eliciting a reaction from show host Jimmy Tarbuck—a veteran comic not easily lost for words—that can only be characterized as dumbfounded bemusement.

3. His striped t-shirt and matching glasses…

… as seen on the 12" outer sleeve of their 1986 "Suburbia" single and in various publicity shots taken around the same time. This image has proven so visually striking—not to mention so plain damn inscrutable—that it would be used once again, exactly two decades later, as the front cover for their book Pet Shop Boys Catalogue. A marvelous blend of punkish attitude and haute couture, it might be described as "skateboarder as fashion icon," only most skateboarders probably couldn't afford those glasses. Speaking of which, they're again by Issey Miyake—an avowed Chris Lowe favorite.

4. His "BOY" cap…

… as seen on the cover of their 1986 "Love Comes Quickly" single. Actually, it might more accurately be called "their BOY cap" since Neil could at times back then be seen wearing one as well. Still, it seems indelibly stamped as part of the "Chris Lowe image." Though it apparently originated with the popular eighties London clothing shop Boy, it serves even more of a branding function for its wearer, identifying himself (as if any such identification were truly necessary) as a "boy"—or, specifically in this case, as a Pet Shop Boy. But what does that "boy branding" say, in an existential sense, about the wearer? Is being a "boy" more than a matter of biology? Is it more a matter of culture and attitude? It begs all sorts of questions, which is precisely why it works.

5. His big red hat…

… as seen in the 1991 "Was It Worth It?" video. It was originally designed to be worn by a woman, but Chris wasn't going to let a little thing like that stop him from wearing something that he liked. Besides, what better way to stand out amidst the surrounding frenetic activity? Sitting stock-still, again inscrutable, looking for all the world as though he simply doesn't give a damn about the clamor around him, he manages to call attention to himself by not calling attention to himself. Except via that hat, which does all the work for him. There's no getting around it: the man's got style to spare.

6. His "casual elegance"…

… as seen in the "Suburbia" video from 1986. When you get right down to it, there's nothing particularly special about how he's dressed here—except that it simply looks so good. There are those Miyake sunglasses again, but this time they're not essential to the overall look; ordinary Ray-Bans would work just as well. Rather, it's the casual elegance that Chris exhibits, especially with the windbreaker-style jacket slung slightly back on his shoulders. It's a blue-collar aesthetic (literally considering that he's wearing a light blue shirt) translated into high male fashion. Besides, Chris has never looked sexier. Am I allowed to say that? Yeah, I'm allowed to say that.

7. His "patchwork" jacket…

… as seen in some photos taken as possible cover art for the "Left to My Own Devices" single but never actually used in that capacity. My mama always taught me to avoid breaking the Tenth Commandment—the one against coveting—by saying "I wish I had something like that," not "I wish I had that." So I hereby say that I wish I had a jacket like that. Just like that. With the matching cap, too. Eye-catching, to be sure, yet also more muted than a first glance would suggest (note the absence of any hues on the blue-green end of the spectrum, relying more or less strictly on earth tones), it flirts with being outlandish. But it only flirts, and that makes all the difference.

8. His mirror jacket…

… as seen onstage during portions of their 2009 Pandemonium Tour show and certain associated television appearances. Yep!—he's still got the knack. Consisting of hundreds of bits of reflective material, this jacket is apparently quite uncomfortable to wear: hot and heavy, and sometimes it cuts into his neck! But Chris apparently feels that it's more important to look good than to feel good, perhaps because looking good can help one to feel good. Even more importantly, it helps the people looking at you to feel good, too. Hey, it's show business!

Plus, just to be even-handed about it, here's my all-time least favorite sartorial statement by Chris—

  That pink wig and fuzzy coat…

… as seen at the 2009 Brits Awards ceremony when they received their "Outstanding Contribution to Music" Award and performed their 10-minute hits medley. I can't help but think it may have been inspired by Lady GaGa, who performed part of the medley with them. She might have pulled it off, but it looks simply ghastly on him.

Hey, nobody's perfect. Give him this: the man's got cojones walking out on stage before a live audience and on nationwide television in front of millions of people in a get-up like that.

Pop songs mentioned by title in the lyrics of PSB songs

I don't include in this list words or phrases that simply happen also to be pop song titles. For example, although the line "Only love can break your heart" appears in the PSB song "Footsteps," I don't think for one moment that the Boys are actually referring to the 1970 Neil Young hit "Only Love Can Break Your Heart." Rather, the two songs are simply drawing upon the same already-familiar turn of phrase. Nor do I include instances where part of an older song has been "interpolated" into the PSB song, such as the quoting of Marvin Gaye's "I Want You" in "Between Two Islands" and of KC and the Sunshine Band's "That's the Way (I Like It)" in "Party Song." Instead, I'm only listing those cases in which a PSB lyric mentions the title of a song because it's indisputably referring to that particular song without actually interpolating any significant portion of the song itself. I hope that makes sense. wink

1. "Tainted Love" by Gloria Jones (and later by Soft Cell)

2. "Love Is Strange" by Mickey & Sylvia (and later by Peaches & Herb)

These two classics were mentioned as poignant signifiers of mood (T.S. Eliot might have called them "objective correlatives") in "I Want to Wake Up."

3. "Please Please Me" by the Beatles

Mentioned for its ironic historical context in "Nothing Has Been Proved."

4. "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" from Evita (specifically as sung by Madonna)

5. "Into the Groove" by Madonna

These two are mentioned as aesthetic contrasts (the former as "bad Madonna" as opposed to the latter as "good Madonna") in the officially unreleased song "Tall Thin Men."

6. "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square"

This romantic standard, written way back in 1915, has been performed by numerous artists. Its biggest hit rendition was in 1940 by the Glenn Miller Band; in more recent times it has been covered by the Manhattan Transfer (1981), among others. It's mentioned as a bit of "period setting" in the Pet Shop Boys' "Bright Young Things."

7. "Lay Lady Lay" by Bob Dylan

Dylan's 1969 classic, one of his biggest hit singles, is mentioned in the Pet Shop Boys' "Girls Don't Cry" as a song favored by its female protagonist—chosen probably because it underscores her sexual orientation.

8. "Supersonic" by Oasis

Although one-word song titles will coincidentally crop up in the lyrics of virtually any song by any artist, this is a case where there can be no doubt that a specific song with a single-word title is being referenced. In "Gin and Jag" the narrator says, as he's being poured a gin and tonic, that he's "going supersonic." The 1994 Oasis song that surely inspired that line includes the words "I'm feeling supersonic, give me gin and tonic." That's no accident.

9. "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby

Mentioned in "It Doesn't Often Snow at Christmas." Yes, the Boys might be referring to the film rather than the song, but those two perennials are equally likely, and it could just as easily be both. Besides, the film is named after the song, which preceded it by more than a decade.

… plus the special cases in "Absolutely Fabulous":

Since they're merely samples spoken in a somewhat mocking manner by Jennifer Saunders or Joanna Lumley, I'm not at all sure they truly qualify as "lyrics." But there's no doubt that this unique PSB track refers to the titles of the following dance songs:

  • "Pump Up the Volume" by M/A/R/R/S (1987)
  • "Ride on Time" by Black Box (1989)
  • "Let the Music (Lift You Up)" by Loveland (1994)

Several other dance tracks are also alluded to, albeit not by title—although a few come very close, such as "Put the needle on the record" nearly echoing the title of the 1987 song "Put the Needle to the Record" by the Criminal Element Orchestra (and exactly replicating a line from the aforementioned "Pump Up the Volume"). And then there's "Are you ready for this?" from 2 Unlimited's 1991 hit "Get Ready for This," and "Techno, techno, bloody techno," which mocks the "Techno, techno, techno" refrain from another 2 Unlimited track, "No Limit" (1993).

9 PSB songs based on classical compositions (and a few others with "classical connections")

1. Delusions of Grandeur

The chord progression is derived from the first movement Ludwig van Beethoven's 1802 work Piano Sonata Opus 27 No. 2, better known as the Moonlight Sonata. In fact, the Boys' pre-lyric working title for the track was "Moonlight."

2. Go West

Courtesy of the Village People, the chord progression and melody of this song are derived from the well-known Canon in D by the 17th-century German composer Johann Pachelbel.

3. Happiness Is an Option

The music playing behind the spoken verses is from Russian composer Sergey Rachmaninoff's 1915 work Vocalise.

4. Jack the Lad

Neil describes the opening piano motif as "a pastiche of Erik Satie," and indeed that as well as the song's overall chord progression are highly reminiscent of Gymnopedie Number 1—one of the Trois Gymnopedies written in 1887 by French composer Satie. In addition, the melody bears a passing similarity to that work, but closer comparison reveals that the melodies are not at all the same.

5. A Red Letter Day

The chord structure comes from the choral "Ode to Joy" in the fourth movement of Beethoven's Symphony Number 9 in D Minor (1824).

6. Liberation

This one stretches it, but Neil has noted that the first two notes of this song—"just the first two notes"—were taken from the theme for Friar Lawrence in the ballet Romeo and Juliet by the twentieth-century Ukrainian/Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. Neil was listening to it while taking a bath at home, when those two notes "triggered" in his mind the melody for "Liberation." This caused him to leap from the tub and rush downstairs to his piano. Must've been an interesting scene.

7. Time on My Hands

Neil has said that the strings heard in the background of this track are based on Gustav Mahler—as he put it, "a few bars from the adagio of one of his symphonies." Although Neil stated that he's unsure which one because he chose it "at random," one of my site visitors has positively identified it as Mahler's Fifth Symphony, familiar to many as the evocative music used extensively in the 1971 film Death in Venice starring Dirk Bogarde.

8. All Over the World

The Pet Shop Boys have noted that this song on their 2009 album Yes was written by them "with a little help from Tchaikovsky." They specifically borrowed the fanfare (slightly slowed down) from the March from The Nutcracker (Op. 71:II), which opens the song and pops up again from time to time. They also make use of the March's chord progression. The "new version" of the track released on the Boys' Christmas EP incorporates a few additional melodic themes from The Nutcracker as well.

9. King of Rome

It comes only at the very end, but I guess that's enough to earn a place in this list. Neil has noted that the concluding chord changes of this song are taken from a portion of Metamorphosen by the German composer Richard Strauss.

… and a few others that, while not based on classical compositions, nevertheless have distinct "classical connections"

  • Birthday Boy

    At its very end, this track includes a sample from a recording of the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, performing a setting of the Christmas hymn "In the Bleak Midwinter" by English composer Harold Edwin Darke.

  • Heart

    According to Neil, the famous "uh-uh-oh-oh-uh" refrain contains a sample of Luciano Pavarotti's voice (as well as the voice of Prefab Sprout's Wendy Smith). You certainly wouldn't know it just from listening. But if the great Pavarotti isn't a "classical connection," I don't know what is.

  • Indefinite Leave to Remain

    Neil has said that this song was based at least partly on "a Bach chord change" that Chris modified slightly. The introductory brass chorale serves to heighten its rather "hymnal" feel.

  • It Doesn't Often Snow at Christmas

    The Boys' 2009 Christmas EP offers a new version of their "official Christmas song" that, unlike the original track, incorporates brief instrumental segments of the carols "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and "Once in Royal David's City"—the melodies of which were written by German composer Felix Mendelssohn and British composer Henry Gaunteltt, respectively.

  • Left to My Own Devices

    The "Disco Mix" (by Robin Hancock) of this song takes a cue from the lyric's famous line "Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat," adding a few brief measures of a clearly Debussy-esque orchestral sequence immediately afterward. But is it from an actual Claude Debussy composition? I don't know. Whatever the case, while this song isn't "based on" a classical composition, there's certainly a connection.

  • Miserablism

    This track contains a brief sample from Shostakovich’s Twelfth Symphony during the middle instrumental break. As Neil puts it—probably with tongue in cheek—he was in his "Shostakovich phase."

  • My October Symphony

    Although it opens with a "choral shout" of the Russian word for "October" sampled from a recording of Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 2, and it boasts a string coda performed by the Balenescu String Quartet that's written "vaguely in the style of Shostakovich," the song "My October Symphony" doesn't seem to be based on any particular classical composition.

  • The Sound of the Atom Splitting

    This track emerged from an experiment with the aforementioned "Left to My Own Devices" in which the Boys themselves, together with Trevor Horn and Steve Lipson, tried to realize Horn's desire to put "Debussy to a disco beat." In a lengthy free-form studio jam, the four of them built this recording around a sequence of "Debussy-ish" chords—though not a specific Debussy work. They decided against using it in "Devices" itself, instead turning it into this, one of the most controversial tracks in the entire PSB canon.

  • This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave

    As I note in my list of PSB songs with "Russian connections," this track contains a very brief snippet taken from composer Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 2.

PSB "cover songs" and who first recorded them

For such prolific songwriters, Neil and Chris have certainly recorded and performed their share of "covers"—that is, songs originally recorded by other artists. Here's a complete list of such songs that the Pet Shop Boys are known so far to have recorded or otherwise performed, along with the names of the songwriters and the original artists. I don't include, however, other artists' songs that have merely been interpolated into PSB originals, such as Marvin Gaye's "I Want You" (interpolated into "Between Two Islands") and KC and the Sunshine Band's "That's the Way (I Like It)" (interpolated into "Party Song"), nor do I include songs that the Pet Shop Boys have merely sampled, such as Barry White's "You're My First, My Last, My Everything" (sampled in "Positive Role Model").

1. Always on My Mind (Wayne Carson Thompson*/Mark James/Johnny Christopher)

Originally recorded by Brenda Lee in 1972, but made more famous by Elvis Presley later that same year.

*Note: "Wayne Carson Thompson" wrote songs under two different names: Wayne Carson and Wayne Thompson. You will therefore find the songwriters of "Always on My Mind" sometimes listed as "Thompson/James/Christopher" and at other times as "Carson/James/Christopher." It's all the same.

2. Alone Again, Naturally (Gilbert O'Sullivan)

Gilbert O'Sullivan's original was an international #1 hit in 1972. The Pet Shop Boys collaborated with Elton John in covering it, a rendition that has been officially released only on a hard-to-find 2005 promo disc.

3. Believe (Elton John/Bernie Taupin)

Originally recorded by Elton John in 1994 (released in early 1995). The Boys performed this with Elton John as part of a medley with "Song for Guy" on a U.K. television show; so far it has not been officially released.

4. Break 4 Love (Vaughan Mason)

Originally recorded by Raze in 1988.

5. Climb Every Mountain (Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein III)

From the 1959 musical The Sound of Music, in which it was originally sung by Patricia Neway. Chris and Neil performed this song live at the 1997 Stonewall Concert, but haven't yet released it officially.

6. Do Anything You Wanna Do (Graeme Douglas/Ed Hollis)

A 1977 U.K. hit for Eddie and the Hotrods. The Boys performed this song at some of the dates on their 2002 "Uni" tour, but haven't yet released it officially.

7. Girls and Boys (Damon Albarn/Graham Coxon/Alex James/Dave Rowntree)

Originally a 1994 hit for the band Blur and remixed for them by the Pet Shop Boys, who subsequently performed it live and released one such live performance as a bonus track on their "Paninaro '95" single.

8. Go West (Henri Belolo/Jacques Morales/Victor Willis)

Originally recorded by the Village People in 1979.

9. Hallo Spaceboy (David Bowie/Brian Eno)

Originally recorded by David Bowe in 1996, the single version of which was remixed by the Pet Shop Boys. They later performed it live during their "Somewhere" shows.

10. Homosexuality (Morey Goldstein/Ken Kessie)

Originally recorded in 1985 by Modern Rocketry. Neil and Chris performed this song live at the 2000 "Equality Rocks" concert in Washington, D.C. but haven't yet released it officially.

11. I Am What I Am (Jerry Herman)

The "hit song" from the 1983 musical La Cage Aux Folles, in which it was originally performed and recorded by George Hearn. It was later remade as a dance track by Gloria Gaynor and became a major club hit. The Boys have, as far as I know, performed it only once: a live rendition accompanied by Scissor Sisters lead singer Jake Shears, at the December 19, 2005 London "stag party" for Elton John and David Furnish.

12. I Can't Take My Eyes Off You (Bob Gaudio/Bob Crewe)

Originally recorded in 1967 by Frankie Valli, whose version was a U.S. hit. Andy Williams shortly afterward recorded the U.K. hit version. The Boys of course blended it into their cover of "Where the Streets Have No Name." Oddly, it was they who added "I" to the title; the song's original and "official" title is simply "Can't Take My Eyes Off You."

13. I Will Survive (Dino Fekaris/Freddie Perren)

Originally recorded in 1978 by Gloria Gaynor. On many occasions the Boys have performed this song as a medley with their own "It's a Sin."

14. If Love Were All (Noël Coward)

From the 1929 musical Bitter Sweet, in which it was originally sung by Ivy St. Helier.

15. It's Alright (Sterling Void/Paris Brightledge/Marshall Jefferson)

Originally recorded in 1988 by Sterling Void.

16. It's Not Unusual (Gordon Mills/Les Reed)

Originally recorded by Tom Jones in 1965. Chris and Neil performed it live at the 1997 Stonewall Concert, but haven't yet released it officially.

17. Je T'Aime … Moi Non Plus (Serge Gainsbourg)

Originally recorded in 1967 by Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot, but that version remained unreleased for many years. The first actual release was in 1969, a recording by Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin.

18. Losing My Mind (Stephen Sondheim)

From the 1971 musical Follies, in which it was originally sung by Dorothy Collins.

19. Mr. Vain (Nosie Katzmann/Steven Levis)

Originally recorded in 1993 by Culture Beat. The Boys performed it live as part of a medley with their song "One in a Million" during their DiscoVery shows.

20. My Girl (Mike Barson)

Originally recorded in 1979 by Madness and a major U.K. hit for them early the following year. The Pet Shop Boys performed their rendition with two members of Madness (Suggs and Chas) at a May 2, 2008 benefit at London's Heaven nightclub in memory of their mutual friend Dainton Connell, who died in an automobile accident the previous year. Shortly afterward, Chris and Neil made their demo version available for listening on their official website.

21. Numb (Diane Warren)

Although Chris and Neil didn't write this song, I'll concede that it might not really be a "cover" since the Pet Shop Boys did record the first officially released version. (Aerosmith had reportedly considered it and may even have recorded a demo, but no version by them has surfaced, not even as a bootleg.) Diane Warren's unreleased demo, however, made the rounds on the Internet well before the PSB version became public, so from that perspective it makes the list.

22. Philadelphia (Neil Young)

Originally recorded by Neil Young for the 1994 film of the same name. Neil and Chris performed it live on U.K. television and in some of their 2002 concerts. So far they haven't released it officially, although Neil has intimated that they will eventually. It is, however, another of those tracks that they've available for listening on their official website.

23. Rhythm of the Night (Francesco Bontempi/Peter Glenyster/Michael Gaffey/Annerley Gordon/Giorgio Spagna)

Originally recorded by Corona in 1994. The Boys performed this song live during the DiscoVery tour as part of a medley with their own "Left to My Own Devices."

24. Sail Away (Noël Coward)

From the 1950 musical Ace of Clubs, in which it was originally sung by Pat Kirkwood.

25. Sixteen Going On Seventeen (Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein III)

From the 1959 musical The Sound of Music, in which it was originally sung by Brian Davies. Chris and Neil performed it live in 1997 at the Royal Albert Hall, but haven't yet released it officially.

26. So Long, Farewell (Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein III)

Yet another song from The Sound of Music, in which it was performed by the cast members portraying the Von Trapp Family Singers. (This is the third song from The Sound of Music recorded by the Boys. Do you get the impression that they're rather fond of this particular musical?) Recorded by Neil and Chris for U.K. radio's The Simon Bates Show, but officially unreleased.

27. Somewhere (Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim)

From the 1957 musical West Side Story, in which it was originally sung by Larry Kert and Carol Lawrence.

28. Song for Guy (Elton John)

Originally recorded by Elton John in 1978. The Boys performed it with Elton in medley with "Believe" on U.K. television, but they haven't released it officially.

29. Try It (I'm in Love with a Married Man) (Bobby Orlando)

Originally recorded in 1983 by one of Bobby O's "girl groups," Oh Romeo.

30. Viva la Vida (Berryman/Buckland/Champion/Martin)

Coldplay's original, a hit single, was the title track on their 2008 album Viva la Vida, or Death and All His Friends.

31. We're the Pet Shop Boys (Howard Robot)

In an unexpected and frankly fascinating move, Neil and Chris covered this tribute to them written and first recorded in 2002 by My Robot Friend (aka Howard Robot). They "re-covered" it, so to speak, in collaboration with Robbie Williams in 2006.

32. What Keeps Mankind Alive? (Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill)

From the 1928 musical The Threepenny Opera, in which it was originally sung by Lotte Lenya.

33. Where the Streets Have No Name (Paul Hewson/Dave Evans/Larry Mullen/Adam Clayton)

Originally recorded in 1986 by U2 (released in 1987).

9 songs written by PSB that were inspired by AIDS (plus 3 more debatable interpretations)

1. A Man Could Get Arrested

Some listeners have long believed that the sense of sexual frustration that this song so clearly expresses was inspired at least in part by the AIDS crisis. It turns out they're correct. Neil has noted that its subject matter is "heterosexual," but of course gay men aren't the only ones who can contract the disease. He affirms that the line "You want to see a doctor before our love is tested" is a quote from the girlfriend of a friend of his, and it refers specifically to an AIDS test. Written in 1984, it's the first reference to AIDS in any Pet Shop Boys song.

2. Hit Music

"But it's really all about AIDS, this song, though I sort of hid it at the same time," says Neil in the booklet accompanying the 2001 reissue of Actually. "It's about how sex had gone out of the entire nightclubbing ethos because of AIDS."

3. It Couldn't Happen Here

Neil again from the Actually reissue booklet: "The lyric is about this friend of mine who was diagnosed with AIDS.… [We] were discussing AIDS, and how people said it wasn't going to develop in England like it had in America."

4. Your Funny Uncle

"The words are about one of my best friends who died of AIDS," states Neil in the Introspective reissue booklet. "This is a description of his funeral. All the details are true."

5. Being Boring

"All the people I was kissing—some are here and some are missing…." All but unmistakeable from the beginning. Neil has noted that this song emerged from his memories of a party thrown back in 1972 by the same friend whose funeral nearly twenty years later inspired "Your Funny Uncle."

6. Dreaming of the Queen

Another one recognized for what it was from the start. "The idea of the song," says Neil in the 2001 Very reissue booklet, "is that the person singing it has got AIDS."

7. Postscript

Neither Neil nor Chris will discuss this song at any length. "It's personal," Chris has said. But it's generally acknowledged that he wrote this brief "hidden" song at the end of Very in honor of his friend Peter Andreas, who died of AIDS not long after the album's release.

8. Discoteca

Although it didn't start out that way, Neil notes (in the 2001 Bilingual reissue booklet) that this song evolved into the story of "someone dealing with HIV or AIDS.… How do you deal with something going so wrong?"

9. The Survivors

Even before Bilingual was released, the Boys had described this song as a response of sorts to the recurring rumors that one or both of them were HIV-positive or had AIDS. Certainly it's about surviving more than just AIDS, but that's just as certainly part of it.

… plus 3 more debatable interpretations:

Neil has specifically pointed out that the following songs were not inspired by AIDS.

Domino Dancing

The Boys don't mention any connection of this song to AIDS in the 2001 Introspective reissue booklet. Rather, Neil has noted that this song concerns a relationship breaking down on account of jealousy. Yet the "watch them all fall down" references have so often been linked to AIDS by various commentators that, rightly or wrongly, it seems an indelible part of PSB lore by now. Neil reportedly even referred to the song at the time of its release as the Pet Shop Boys' "Numbers," referring to a 1983 Soft Cell song about casual sex. If that's the case, then "Domino Dancing" is, if not actually AIDS-inspired, nevertheless "AIDS-inflected," its meaning to others almost unavoidably shaped by the disease.

Only the Wind

Neil maintains that it's about domestic violence, and it is their song, so from that perspective that is what it's about. But art—or at least good art—must be more than what the artist says it is. Much of the greatness of great art lies in its ability to mean different things to different people. And to me it sounds very much like this song is also about AIDS. Take it for what it's worth, which may not be very much.

Positive Role Model

The first verse of the Pet Shop Boys' own rendition of this song (as opposed to the Closer to Heaven cast version) is read by some as a statement of cautious relief over having survived what may prove to have been the worst of the AIDS epidemic. The words "Went too far, now we're fine" particularly lend themselves to such an interpretation. Nevertheless, the Boys have asserted that this song is a satire about rehab and has nothing to do with AIDS.

PSB songs with literary references

The Pet Shop Boys are an uncommonly "literary" group. So far I've found (or been alerted to) the following, but I'd be willing to bet there are plenty more. I'll add them as they come to my attention.

1. Being Boring

The title and spirit of this song were inspired by a line from a 1922 article written by Zelda Fitzgerald (wife of the great American author F. Scott Fitzgerald), "… she refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn't boring."

2. Betrayed

The lines "And still you need to justify yourself to others but not me with that more-in-sorrow-than-anger routine" echo the words of Horatio in Shakespeare's Hamlet (Act 1, Scene 2) when he describes the ghost as having "A countenance more in sorrow than in anger."

3. Bright Young Things

This song was written for (but, as it turns out, wasn't actually used in) the 2003 film of the same name, which itself is loosely based on the Evelyn Waugh 1930 novel Vile Bodies. The title phrase does appear repeatedly in the novel, but otherwise the lyrics have little or nothing to do with the book. So the "literary reference" here is tenuous at best. (Thanks to my frequent site contributor Jeffrey Durst—a fan of Waugh as well as of the Pet Shop Boys—for confirming the "tenuousness" of this connection.)

4. Building a Wall

The line "More work for the undertaker means there's less for me" was inspired by the title of the 1989 novel More Work for the Undertaker by British author Margery Allingham. There's also a spoken bit where Neil refers to "Sand in the sandwiches, wasps in the tea." The twentieth-century British poet (and poet laureate) John Betjeman's poem "Trebetherick" includes the exact same line, raising the spectre of a direct connection. Neil, however, has suggested that this apparent allusion is more or less coincidental, describing it as one of those "typical experiences of a British picnic which Betjeman will have experienced, too." While it's quite possible Neil may have been unconsciously influenced by the Betjeman poem, it's also possible that the poem and the song simply draw upon the same common British expression.

5. Can You Forgive Her?

The title is borrowed from an 1864 novel by the British author Anthony Trollope.

6. Casanova in Hell

Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798) wrote his famous (and infamous) Memoirs in his old age, as described by the Pet Shop Boys in this song, though they almost certainly take some liberties with the details. The song itself, however, was more immediately inspired by another literary work, the short 2005 novel Casanova's Homecoming by the Viennese writer Arthur Schnitzler.

7. Delusions of Grandeur

In the booklet that accompanies the 2001 reissue of Bilingual, Neil notes that this song was inspired by the novel Hadrian VII by the relatively obscure late nineteenth/early twentieth-century British author Frederick William Rolfe, alias Baron Corvo. He also states that the "ring the bells" portion was inspired by the poem "A Sane Revolution" by a far better-known British author, D.H. Lawrence. The poem concludes with the line "Let's make a revolution for fun!"

8. Did You See Me Coming?

The line "You don't have to be in Who's Who to know what's what" is borrowed (unwittingly, although Neil has confessed upfront his conviction that the line wasn't original with him) from the title of a 1979 book by the American writer and humorist Sam Levenson (1911-1980). Another line, "Just to thyself be true," echoes the famous advice of Polonius to his son Laertes in Shakespeare's Hamlet: "To thine own self be true."

9. Discoteca

The reference to "where angels fear to tread" may be a familiar metaphor, even a cliché, but it originated with the brilliant British neo-classical poet and satirist Alexander Pope (1688-1744), who wrote, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread" in his 1711 work An Essay on Criticism. It also served as the title of a 1905 novel by the great British author E.M. Forster (1879-1970).

10. DJ Culture

The line "And I, my lord—may I say nothing?" is a slight rearrangement of the words actually spoken by Oscar Wilde immediately after he was sentenced in 1895 to two years of hard labor: "And I? May I say nothing, my lord?" Despite Wilde's plea, the judge adjourned the court.

11. Don Juan

The legend of the amoral Spanish nobleman received its earliest known literary treatment more than 350 years ago in a drama written by Gabriel Tellez, using the pseudonym Tirso de Molina. In subsequent centuries artists as diverse as Molière, Mozart, Shadwell, Byron, Browning, and Shaw have told his tale in one way or another. So the Pet Shop Boys put themselves in very good company indeed when they decided to use him as a metaphor for Adolph Hitler. In an additional literary connection, Neil has stated that he tried to compose the lyrics somewhat in the style of the 1922 abstract poetic sequence Façade, written by the British poet Edith Sitwell (1887-1964).

12. Dreaming of the Queen

The chorus ("There are no more lovers left alive") was inspired by the title of the 1964 novel Only Lovers Left Alive by British author Dave Wallis.

13. Gin and Jag

The scholarly consensus seems to be that the line "Youth is wasted on the young" was coined by the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), although the precise source seems uncertain and there's some disagreement as to whether it actually originated with Shaw. Another line in the song, "Boredom abhors a vacuum," is a takeoff on the ancient dictum "Nature abhors a vacuum," attributed to the Greek philospher-scientist Aristotle (384-322 BC). And the narrator's line about there being "a lot of room at the inn tonight" sounds like an inverted takeoff on the biblical "no room at the inn," which led to Joseph and Mary taking overnight shelter in the stable in which Jesus was born. The implication could be that, if the night in which there was no room at the inn was the holiest of nights, then this night in which there's a lot of room is anything but holy.

14. Happiness Is an Option

When Neil speaks the line "This is neither old nor new," he is directly quoting the English translation of the title of a poem by the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966).

15. I Get Excited (You Get Excited Too)

The line "We're lying in the gutter, but we're looking at the stars" is a paraphrase of Oscar Wilde, who actually wrote, "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" in his 1892 play Lady Windermere's Fan.

16. If There Was Love

This song, written by Neil and Chris for Liza Minnelli's Results album, concludes with Liza reading William Shakespeare's Sonnet 94 in its entirety.

17. I'm Not Scared

The line "Take these dogs away from me…" is, according to Neil, a "quote, or a misquote" from the poem "Senex" by the twentieth-century British poet John Betjeman.

18. In the Night

The lyrics were inspired by the 1981 book Paris in the Third Reich: A History of the German Occupation, 1940-1944 by historian David Pryce-Jones.

19. Integral

This song was partly inspired by the 1921 science-fiction novel We by the Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884-1937), although Neil hadn't actually read the book; he had merely thumbed through it. The novel's dystopian plot concerns the inhabitants of a totalitarian, highly bureaucratic, and efficiency-obsessed "One State" that deems itself "perfect" and "immaculate." Their lives are dedicated to the construction of a spaceship called The Integral, designed solely to achieve the goals of the One State.

20. It Couldn't Happen Here

A slight variation on It Can't Happen Here, the title of a 1935 novel by American author Sinclair Lewis.

21. It Must Be Obvious

Neil has stated that the line "I didn't intend to interrupt your own shadowplay" is a reference to Shadowplay, a dramatic work by Noël Coward.

22. Jack the Lad

The line "To feast with panthers every night" is again adapted from Oscar Wilde, who in his 1897 apologia De Profundis wrote of his scandalous life, "It was like feasting with panthers. The danger was half the excitement."

23. Jealousy

The "Extended Version" of this song opens and closes with Neil's recitation of a brief quotation from one of world literature's greatest works focusing on jealousy, Shakespeare's Othello.

Incidentally, in addition to quoting him in "Jealousy" and "If There Was Love" (noted above), the Boys also mention Shakespeare in the "New Version" of "Discoteca." I've put that reference in my list of people mentioned by name in PSB songs, but it's certainly worth mentioning here as well.

24. Luna Park

Although it was not the first PSB song to make this particular literary reference (see "The Sound of the Atom Splitting," below), it does come first alphabetically. The "circuses and bread" reference here inverts the classic phrase "bread and circuses," coined nearly 2,000 years ago by the ancient Roman satirist Juvenal (Decimus Junius Juvenalis), who wrote in the late first and early second century. Juvenal's original Latin phrase was "panem et circenses," which more literally translates as "bread and games." It refers, of course, to the means by which governments—then and now—strive to keep the masses in ignorant contentment by meeting their basest needs and distracting them with crude entertainments.

25. King of Rome

The lyric's reference to Manderley stems from Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel Rebecca, where it serves as the name of the house at the heart of the story. Apparently the song originally included additional allusions to the novel, but Neil decided to cut back on them in its final version.

26. More Than a Dream

Neil has referred to the line "Though the mountains may divide, we can reach the sea" as "biblical." I haven't been able to locate any "we can reach the sea" reference in the Bible, but the book of Isaiah (54:10) does contain the words "For the mountains may depart…" (King James Version), which is rendered in some more modern translations as "For the mountains may divide…."

27. My October Symphony

Neil has stated that this song was partly inspired by Ian MacDonald's 1989 book The New Shostakovich.

28. No Time for Tears

The song's "one for all and all for one" cliché, borrowed from the subtitles of The Battleship Potemkin, originated with The Three Musketeers, written in 1844 by the French novelist Alexandre Dumas. More accurately, the Dumas original has it the other way around: "Tous pour un, un pour tous" ("All for one, one for all"). The line recurs in "For Freedom," the final track of the Boys' Potemkin score, but I'll give "No Time for Tears" the credit since it appears there first.

I could also cite "Our Daily Bread" for its quoting from The Lord's Prayer, but that has such familiarity beyond a purely biblical context that to call it a "literary reference" is perhaps questionable.

29. Nothing Has Been Proved

Long before the Boys were asked to write the theme song for the film Scandal, about the Profumo Affair, Neil had written a song inspired by his reading of the 1964 book The Trial of Stephen Ward by Ludovic Kennedy. Having unearthed this old song, he and Chris modified and completed it to create "Nothing Has Been Proved."

30. A Red Letter Day

One line in this song refers clearly (by title) yet somewhat cryptically to Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot. And the line "What on earth does it profit a man?" is clearly derived from the words of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew (16:26): "What does it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"

31. The Sodom and Gomorrah Show

Sodom and Gomorrah were the biblical "cities of the plain" that were destroyed by God for their wickedness, as described in Genesis 19:1-29. Of course, the song isn't "about" Sodom and Gomorrah, but the reference is absolutely vital to its understanding. Neil was also drawing upon French author Marcel Proust (1971-1922), the fourth volume (1921) of whose great work À la recherche du temps perdu (variously translated into English as Remembrance of Things Past and In Search of Lost Time) is titled Sodome et Gomorrhe (translated either as Sodom and Gomorrah or as Cities of the Plain). And the lyrics contain another reference to Alexander Pope's "where angels fear to tread," described in the entry above for "Discoteca."

32. The Sound of the Atom Splitting

This song preceded "Luna Park" by roughly 18 years with its "bread and circuses" reference, courtesy of Juvenal.

33. This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave

While it's possibly coincidental, in all likelihood the line "History, someone had blundered" is a meaningful echo of the second stanza of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's famous (and quite historical) 1854 poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade":

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
  Someone had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
  Rode the six hundred.

Also, the sampled Russian at the end of the track comes from a speech made in 1936 by the Soviet state prosecutor Andrei Vyshinsky, who is paraphrasing the great French writer Voltaire's famous phrase "Écrasez l'infâme!" ("Crush the infamy!"), used often in his essays and letters. True, it's a "second-hand" literary reference, but it's good enough for me.

34. To Step Aside

The title is borrowed from a 1939 collection of short stories by Noël Coward.

35. Up Against It

Not only is the title borrowed from that of an unfinished screenplay by British playwright Joe Orton, but the lyrics make passing reference to another twentieth-century British playright, Harold Pinter.

36. Up and Down

The lyric's phrase "a cloud in trousers" is taken from the title of a 1915 poem by the early twentieth-century Russian poet and playwright Vladimir Mayakovsky. With regard to the subject matter of the song, it's a telling choice in that Mayakovsky's poem is written from the perspective of a spurned lover, corresponding to the situation in which the song's narrator finds himself.

37. West End Girls

The line "From Lake Geneva to the Finland Station" refers not only to Lenin's journey from exile back to Russia at the start of the Russian Revolution but also to the book To the Finland Station, a 1940 study of the history of European socialism by the great American literary critic and cultural historian Edmund Wilson.

38. Yesterday, When I Was Mad

There's some uncertainty about this one. The opening exclamation, "Darling, you were wonderful!" may be taken from a reference in The Orton Diaries by Joe Orton—which Neil is known to have bought and read while on tour in 1989—or perhaps from the title of a 1990 play by Derek Lomas, Darlings, You Were Wonderful, or maybe from the title of a 1977 memoir collection (yes, Darling, You Were Wonderful) by Harvey Sabinson. As it turns out, "Darling, you were wonderful" is apparently something of a theatre-world cliché, often spoken casually by directors and fellow actors who wish to comment favorably on someone's performance—whether they truly mean it or not. Therefore it's quite possible, even likely, that someone actually did say those words to Neil regarding their Performance show, inspiring him to use them in this song. So while it may be a "literary reference," that's not necessarily the case. But we can safely call it a "literary connection" in any event.

39. Your Funny Uncle

The title was borrowed from a line in the John Betjeman poem "Indoor Games Near Newbury": "And your funny uncle saying/'Choose your partners for a foxtrot.'" In addition, the lines near the end of the song beginning "To wipe away the tears" and ending "These former things have passed away" are adapted from the Bible—Revelation 21:4 to be precise: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away" (King James Version).

40. The Performance of My Life

The line "A vision of love revealed in sleep" has a double source. First, it's the title of a prose poem written in 1870 by the British Pre-Raphaelite artist and author Simeon Solomon. It's also the title of a 1989 drama based on Solomon's life by the modern British playwright Neil Bartlett.

41. Viva la Vida

Of course, Neil and Chris didn't write this song, which was composed by the members of Coldplay. But that doesn't stop it from boasting literary allusions aplenty, most notably from the Bible. St. Peter (one of Jesus's disciples) and Calvary (the place where Jesus was crucified) are obvious. Only slightly more obscure are references to pillars of salt (the fate of Lot's wife), castles standing on sand (one of Jesus's parables), and having one's head on a silver plate (the death of John the Baptist). The lyric is both vague enough and rich enough to invite further—though far less certain—citations as well.

And possibly—

42. One and One Make Five

One of my site visitors has suggested the intriguing possibility that this song, which deals with (among other things) the way rumors can cause hurt and concern in a relationship, may have been partly inspired by the 1852 Hans Christian Andersen tale "Det er ganske vist" ("It's Quite True!"). This very brief story begins with a hen who plucks out one of her feathers. Other barnyard animals start gossiping about it. With each telling the story becomes a little more exaggerated. By the time it gets back to the original hen, the one plucked feather has inflated into five completely denuded hens. One feather, thanks to rumor, becoming five hens. Hmmm— It's probably just a coincidence. But considering that the Boys are now working on a ballet based on an Andersen fairy tale, it may be worth noting.

PSB lyrics that include non-English words and phrases

Since English is absolutely rife with words borrowed from other languages, I do not include single words that, despite their non-English origin, are so engrained into English that they can always be found in English dictionaries. For example, the words "cliché" and "résumé" are of French origin, but they've become part of the English language; therefore I don't include them here.

Note also that I list only words and phrases that can genuinely be considered part of the lyrics of the song in question; I don't include samples lifted from other sources that are included within the audio track of the recording. So, for instance, I don't cite "Birthday Boy," "My October Symphony," and "This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave" (among others), all of which include spoken or sung samples from other languages. A good rule of thumb is that if it's sung or spoken by one of the Boys, it qualifies; if not, it doesn't. But if it's a special live-only rendition that hasn't seen official release—such as their singing "Wir sind die Pet Shop Boys" ("We're the Pet Shop Boys") in Germany or "Nous sommes les Pet Shop Boys" (ditto) in France—I don't count that, either.

Decadence

  • fin de siècle - French for "end of century," which is an idiomatic reference to any period of jaded decadence.

Discoteca

  • Hay una discoteca por aqui? - Spanish, "Is there a discotheque around here?"
  • Te quiero - Spanish, "I want you" (though it can idiomatically also mean "I love you," which is apparently what Neil had in mind).
  • Entiende usted? - Spanish, "Do you understand?" (although it's also a subcultural idiom that can mean "Are you gay, too?").
  • Digame - Spanish, "Tell me."
  • Cuanto tiempo tengo que esperar? - In Spanish it can mean either "How long must I hope?" or "How long must I wait?"

The Former Enfant Terrible

  • Enfant terrible - French, "terrible child" (although it's used idiomatically to refer to an extremely talented young person with a reputation for just as extremely bad behavior).

Girls and Boys

  • Du bist sehr schoen - German, "You are very beautiful." (Yes, it's a Blur song, but PSB did cover it.)

In the Night

  • Comment allez-vous? - French, "How do you go?" which is used idiomatically to mean "How is it going for you?" or "How are you?"

It's a Sin

  • Confiteor Deo omnipotenti vobis fratres, quia peccavi nimis cogitatione, verbo, opere et omissione, mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa - Latin, "I confess to almighty God, and to you my brothers, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, act, and omission, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault."

J'ai Pas Peur

  • Eighth Wonder's French-language version of "I'm Not Scared." (Yes, that's essentially what j'ai pas peur means, although a more precise translation would be "I have no fear.") In one sense it's really not any different from other artists' translations of PSB songs into other languages. But in this case the translated track was produced by the Boys, so I think it merits special mention. I won't bother, however, writing out the complete French text here; that would constitute a copyright violation.

Legacy

  • Tous les artistes dans le monde chantent pour toi ce soir / Tous les artistes dans le monde chantent pour toi—C'est noir - French, "All the artists in the world sing for you tonight / All the artists in the world sing for you—It's dark." The French text occurs during the brief "waltz section" of the final song on Yes. (If the "C'est noir" conclusion of that bit sounds out of place, note that it connects directly with the very next English words in the lyrics, "It's dark.")

Nyet

  • Nyet! - Russian, "No!"
  • Da! - Russian, "Yes!"

Paninaro (and Paninaro '95)

  • Paninaro - Italian slang from the 1980s that referred to young men noted for, among other things, their fondness for large sandwiches (panini), from which the term is derived. An English-language equivalent might be the admittedly ridiculous "sandwicher."
  • Cinque - The name of a German company that specializes in Italian fashion is also Italian for "five."

Paris City Boy

  • Voilà le jour que tu attendais - French, "This is the day you've waited for."
  • Tu es un Paris city boy - French, "You are a Paris city boy."
  • Comme un prince sur les Champs Elysées - French, "Like a prince on the Champs Elysées."
  • Tu sais que c'est ta chance - French, "You know that this is your chance."
  • Si jeune - French, "So young."
  • Va tien rejoins Paris city - French, "So go back to Paris city."
  • Tu ne t'ennuieras plus jamais - French, "You won't be bored anymore."

A Powerful Friend

  • en coucher - French, "in sleeping," but idiomatically and more aptly "in bed"

Se A Vida É (That's the Way Life Is)

  • Se a vida é - Bad Portuguese that's supposed to mean "That's the way life is," but really doesn't; it actually comes out more like "If the life is."
  • Essa vida é - Portuguese, "This life is" (probably more "bad Portuguese," in this case intended to mean "That's life")

Single

  • Perdóneme, me llamo Neil - Spanish, "Pardon me, my name is Neil."
  • Adelante! - Spanish, "Forward!" which is used idiomatically to mean "Come in!" or "Come on ahead!"
  • Un momento, por favor - Spanish, "One moment, please."

Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention Miyuki Motegi's "All or Nothing." Although it's not really a "PSB lyric" since the Pet Shop Boys haven't performed this song (at least in a released version) and its Japanese lyrics were written by Motegi herself, Neil and Chris wrote the music. So, by virtue of that fact, it deserves recognition here.

The Pet Shop Boys' greatest acts of deconstruction

I hope you don't mind if I get a little "academic" here. (Yes, even more academic than usual.) Maybe even a little pretentious, but I hope not terribly so.

The term "deconstruction" has various meanings in art criticism. My favorite definition, however, is offered by U.S. professor and scholar Richard Rorty in The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism (1995), in which he describes deconstruction as an act of "betraying" or "subverting" the apparently "essential" message of a work of art.

So, by nature, deconstruction is generally something that one does to someone else's art. A critic or analyst (like myself) might "deconstruct" a work by offering a radically new interpretation. (In light of some things that Neil has said about this very website, he may feel I've already done precisely that to some of his lyrics.) But artists themselves can also deconstruct the work of other artists. In fact, Chris and Neil are masters of recording deconstructive cover versions of other people's songs.

Here, then, are what I consider to be the Pet Shop Boys' greatest acts to date of deconstruction:

1. Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)

It subverts U2's deeply heartfelt but somewhat self-mythologizing work by emphasizing musical form at the expense of lyrical function, exposing it as the dance pop that it always was but tried deperately hard not to be. By linking it in a medley with "I Can't Take My Eyes Off You"—a blatant piece of pop fluff that may nevertheless be every bit as heartfelt—the Boys suggested by implication that there was little if any difference between the two. It was a stridently demythologizing act, immediately regarded as utterly loathsome by most U2 fans, even in those cases when they only partially understood what was going on. That partial understanding was sufficient. Fully understanding it would only have intensified the loathing.

2. Go West

Written at the pre-AIDS height of the disco era as a dual paean to gay liberation and idealistic west-coast hedonism (no, idealism and hedonism are not necessarily mutually exclusive; one can be quite idealistic about hedonism), this song couldn't help but take on a bitterly ironic retrospective cast in the wake of AIDS. Virtually any performance of the song in the early 1990s would have been an act of deconstruction. But it was the Pet Shop Boys who actually did it. And how they did it! In a masterful stroke, the Boys kept it every bit as celebratory as the Village People's original, thereby letting it speak for itself. In a sense, it wasn't PSB that deconstructed the song, but rather history that did their dirty work. The result was a "disco dirge" with strikingly tragic implications. But not content with letting matters rest there, they then added in the video an entirely new deconstructive layer, giving the song yet another meaning linked to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Two deconstructions for the price of one—what a bargain.

3. Always on My Mind

PSB first performed this song as part of an Elvis Presley tribute televised on the anniversary of his death (as opposed to his birth—a possibly significant fact). Rather than pick a song from Elvis's youthful heyday as the "King of Rock and Roll," they pointedly chose a non-rock number from his late "fat Elvis in Vegas" period, after he had become little more than an outrageously glorified lounge singer. By taking a song that lyrically can be read as a statement of either profound devotion or equally profound selfishness, stripping it of emotion—including all the emotional baggage that Elvis checked it in with—and revving it up with a fast, completely synthesized musical track that seemed totally at odds with the words, they transformed it into a work that struck some as being, in the words of one critic, "supremely mean-spirited." But if that's the case, to whom is that mean-spiritedness directed? To the lover (or ex-lover), imaginary or otherwise, to whom Neil is singing? Or to Elvis himself? After all, these are the same Boys who would later write and record a song called "How I Learned to Hate Rock and Roll." Of course, mean-spiritedness may not actually have been their intention, but, as I note elsewhere, intentions don't count nearly as much as results. Whatever the case, you can count this song as having been thoroughly deconstructed.

4. Je T'Aime…Moi Non Plus

Our heroes take on the notorious 1969 Serge Gainsbourg duet with Jane Birkin—notorious not only for its overt sexuality but also its infamously ambiguous title, which defies a definitive English translation and is now, then, and forever the source of debate. The female role is now handled by the Boys' friend and occasional collaborator Sam Taylor-Wood; the male role by a computer. It's still overtly sexual, but to what end? Half of the passion is still there, but the other half is devoid of passion, lending the song an air of incredibly creepy sexuality that was never (or only just hinted at) in the original, or in any other rendition for that matter. By coating an already controversial song with a whole new glaze of ambiguity, the Boys (and the Girl helping them out on this one) leave you arching your eyebrows, scratching your head, and quite possibly suppressing your libido for fear of what you might discover in yourself while listening. Consider this— What does this performance suggest about men? What does it suggest about women? And what does it suggest about sex itself?

5. How I Learned to Hate Rock and Roll

Although, as noted above, deconstruction is usually something that one does to someone else's art, that's not always the case. Look no further for evidence than the Pet Shop Boys' own "How I Learned to Hate Rock and Roll," which deconstructs an entire genre of music—or, perhaps more accurately, the subcultural paradigm that emerged in its wake. In an act of arch-heresy, the Boys made a musical statement that a generation earlier (and in many quarters still today) would have labeled them hopelessly "uncool," but in so doing subverted cool itself, pointing out the hypocrisy and sheer nastiness that underlies much of what is termed "rock and roll." "Someone states the obvious" despite pretensions of newness; "someone sneers at all you love" despite assertions of individuality; "someone preaches ugliness, excluding some, including me" despite claims of peace and brotherhood. But their bitterest accusation: "Everybody does what everybody does." The rock and roll rebel has become thoroughly mainstream, hardly a rebel at all, serving ultimately "to recreate the status quo." What is truly rebellious now is to reject the traditions, standards, and mentalities that pass for "rock and roll"—which is precisely what Neil and Chris do. In short, they expose rock and roll as having become everything that it has always purported not to be. If this is what rock and roll is, they essentially say, who the hell needs it?

Note: Although it may be tempting to include their covers of "Losing My Mind" and "Somewhere" in this list—and, to be sure, there may indeed be some deconstructive elements in their renditions—I personally believe that these recordings are not particularly deconstructive but rather are "reconstructive," adhering closely to the likely "essential messages" of the songs. "Somewhere" is an especially good case in point. Although written for the Romeo and Juliet "musical update" West Side Story (itself in many ways a deconstructive work) and therefore closely linked to its core storyline of tragic heterosexual love, it has long been embraced by gay listeners and performers alike as an expression of their own longings for love and acceptance. There can be little doubt that the Boys' performance of the song is deeply informed by their own "gay sensibilities" and socio-political views, which may well be somewhat aligned with those of the song's authors: bisexual composer Leonard Bernstein and gay lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Therefore the PSB version is only minimally deconstructive, if at all. If anything, it reconstructs the song's core message.

To see the lists in Part 1, click "Previous" below. To see the lists in Part 3, click "Next."

   

Home page   Survey Results

All text on this website aside from direct quotations (such as of lyrics and of other nonoriginal content) is copyright © 2001-2010 by Wayne Studer. All Rights Reserved. All lyrics and images copyright © their respective dates by their respective owners. Brief quotations and small, low-resolution images are used for identification and critical commentary; it is therefore believed that they constitute Fair Use under U.S. copyright law. Billboard chart data are copyright © their respective dates by Nielsen Business Media, Inc.