Pet Shop Boys' UK and US Pop Chart History

¹In the U.K., "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?" and "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You" were combined as a "double single," although the latter garnered more airplay and is commonly considered the "primary" single, if not the "A-side."

²"Can You Forgive Her?" and the other three songs that peaked in the hundreds in the U.S. ("Go West," "Before," and "Somewhere") appeared at those positions on the Billboard "Bubbling Under" chart.

³In the U.S., "Se A Vida É" and "To Step Aside" were combined as a "double single."

⁴In the U.S., "A Red Letter Day" and "Somewhere" were combined as a "double single."

⁵Sales only. Because of a near-total lack of radio airplay, "I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More," "New York City Boy," and "Break 4 Love" failed to hit the U.S. "Hot 100" pop chart (in Billboard magazine) despite their sales figures.

⁶"Break 4 Love" was released in the U.K. in March 2002 as a bonus track on the "Home and Dry" CD single, but since it wasn't the "A-side" it didn't chart as a single in the U.K.

⁷Released only as "promo singles" in the U.S., aimed primarily at dance clubs.

⁸Released as a only promo and digital (downloadable) single in the U.K. with minimal promotion, accounting for its extremely low chart placement. As stated in the February 2008 issue of the PSB Fan Club magazine Literally, "'Integral' was not, the Pet Shop Boys would like to emphasize, releasd as a proper Pet Shop Boys single…." So even its inclusion in this list is questionable.

Albums

⁸PopArt didn't even make it onto Billboard's 200-position album chart. It sold fewer than 1,000 copies during its first week of U.S. release, and after nearly a month it had still sold only a little over 3,000. But that's hardly unexpected. After all, most American fans—both dedicated and more casual—who wanted to get it would surely have bought it as an import during the nearly three years between its release in most of the rest of the world and in the United States. I don't pretend to comprehend the rationale behind such a belated (and ill-fated) release.

⁹Since Disco 4 consists of tracks by various artists—the common thread being that they were all remixed by PSB—UK chart rules dictated that it couldn't place on the primary album chart, but qualified only for the Compilation and Dance album charts, where it peaked at #15 and #3, respectively.

Copyright © 2001-2008 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.