The melody and tempo seemed lifted from an early Romantics song, "What I Like About You," which along with Mr. Mellencamp's tune seemed the focal point of many mash-ups and medleys over the years: It seemed like Mr. Mellencamp simply added new lyrics . . .
"If She Knew..." was the song that made me a Bangles fan. I don't really recall my reaction to "Manic Monday" - I guess I thought it was okay - but I just loved their version of "If She Knew..."!
Yeah, the video got lots of play. It does seem like one of those songs that felt like it charted higher than it did!
I never made that connection before but yeah, you're right. Of course, both songs are intentionally referencing the same 60s garage-rock esthetic,
Maybe people were buying the album at that point. This stared to happen more and more with second (and third, and fourth) hit singles during this period. The economy was on fire at the time thanks in part to massive deficit spending, so many record buyers had the cash to splurge on whole albums if a pair of singles interested them.
Well, where to start. First of all, by the time that this song hit number 1 on Billboard, we in L.A. had already been loving this group for almost two years. West End Girls (the original Bobby O version) was #11 on KROQ's year end chart for 1984, an early version of a future top ten hit was #3 on their 1985 chart, and another one of their songs was the number 1 song on KROQ for 1986. Recently named the UK's greatest ever number one single by the Guardian, this timeless classic really sounds like no other. From the "brit-rap" verses, the memorable synth-bass line and the cryptic lyrics that range all the way from coded gayness "a hard or soft option" to lines about Lenin "From Lake Geneva to the Finland Station" and so much more, this song was an opening salvo for a group that is still going strong 35 years later. Of course, looking back after 14 top-ten studio albums and more than 40 top-twenty UK singles later, it all looks like it was pre-destined. But at the time, it was just seen as a new one hit wonder that would soon fade from view. The sheer depth and breadth of their catalog is daunting, but weaving through all of it is a profound sense of melody and and an ability to write always interesting lyrics to songs, whether they be full on dance tracks, mid tempo ballads or any other style they put their mind to. Truly two of the most prolific and important artists/composers of the past 40 years, I am so happy that Neil and Chris have been in my life all this time. For anyone looking to get into this group, I highly recommend Wayne Studer's site that gets into the details of every one of their songs (some 300 or so of them).
The lead vocals on this were, to my ears anyway, reminiscent of Al Stewart. This was an across the board #1 in Britain, peaking on all three charts of the time (Gallup, NME and Melody Maker). And, here in the States, also topping Cash Box and Radio & Records.
A 180 degree swing from "Addicted To Love", that's for sure. I forget that this hit while I was (barely) still in high school. The next #1 is probably the last I still associate with high school, although this one I've always associated with college, probably because I was still listening to it frequently over the next few years... It's fascinating to me that now two #1 singles from Europe in 1986 had fed rap back to us, but rap had yet to have a #1 single of its own here in America (not counting "Rapture" back in 1981). I wonder why that was... As has been noted up above, Pet Shop Boys had already made a splash on dance floors and on KROQ and elsewhere in limited geographic or genre patches, but it feels like the labels and the mainstream didn't really sit up and take notice until after the massive success of fellow UK duo Tears For Fears the year before. We think of Pet Shop Boys today as primarily a dance act, but their debut album Please is very much a late New Wave and synth pop affair, somewhere between Welcome To The Big Chair and early Depeche Mode. In fact both traditional New Wave and synth pop felt very much on their way out in '86 - everyone from Duran Duran to Eurythmics had moved on to more R&B-influenced, less-electronic styles, while Tears For Fears had blended arena rock with their earlier electronic-drenched New Wave sound. Pet Shop Boys in contrast just layered on all the latest synths and samplers, achieving a lusher, thicker sound than their predecessors without resorting to acoustic instruments or arena-rock staples. And while Please isn't a straight-up dance record, like Madonna's work there was no doubt these tracks were laid down with one foot planted firmly on the parquet. Nowhere is that more in evidence than on "West End Girls", their first huge hit and arguably the greatest track they ever recorded. Neil Tennant noted in 1990's "Being Boring" that the duo had, "bolted thru a closing door" with their breakthru in 1986, and that's undoubtedly true. I'm not sure this would have been a hit - let alone a #1 hit - just a year later, strewn among Bon Jovi, U2, Los Lobos and Heart. New Wave synth pop and anything much like it was thoroughly dead on the upper reaches of the charts with maybe one or two freak exceptions - in fact, Pet Shop Boys would be one of the only acts holding down that fort on the charts for a couple of years, until more-electronic, dance-oriented pop enjoyed a huge chart revival toward the end of the decade thanks in part to that other monster of the '80s and '90s dance floor, Madonna. "West End Girls" is deliciously moody and was fantastically exotic to a kid growing up in the suburbs of Phoenix. It sounded like nothing else on the radio, yet made perfect sense. Dusty Springfield claimed that when it came on the radio the first time she had to drive off the road and park to listen to it. It was the first - but not the last - time she'd change course because of the Pet Shop Boys. Of course Tennant and Lowe were experienced pop listeners themselves - Tennant had written for Smash Hits for several years before meeting Chris Lowe at at hi-fi shop on King's Road in Chelsea in '81. As an assistant editor at Smash Hits, he'd given producer Bobby Orlando a demo tape while he was in Manhattan to interview Sting in '83. A contract with Orlando ensued and "West End Girls" was first released in April of '84, but the duo were dissatisfied with the results, and broke the contract at some expense to future royalties before hooking up with producer Stephen Hague (Malcom McLaren, OMD, New Order) to re-record "West End Girls". It topped the UK charts in January of '86, then stunned pretty much everyone by topping the American charts in May. The album Please had followed their first three singles out in March. After 5 years of knocking on the door, Pet Shop Boys were suddenly admitted to the castle. Please is an absolutely amazing debut album. Like Pretenders, the duo hit the ground running, sounding like an act that's been around releasing fully-formed material since forever. The lyrics are several steps beyond and to the left of pretty much anything else you'd find on the pop charts in the '80s: Sometimes you're better off dead There's a gun in your hand and it's pointing at your head You think you're mad, too unstable Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables In a restaurant in a West End town Call the police, there's a mad man around Running down underground to a dive bar In a West End town As much as I love Please - and my New Wave aficionado friends all think it's their best work - 1987's more overtly dance and less-closeted Actually is even better in my opinion, and maybe their best, most-accessible work, if not their smartest (that honor certainly goes to 1990's Behaviour). Neil Tennant is the Joni Mitchell of the dance floor, and outside of Moroder I can't think of anyone else who's had such a positive, pivotal impact on the genre. Given the labels' inclination to imitate success, I think you can attribute much of the coming chart access and success of acts like New Order, Depeche Mode and even some of SAW's product to the success Pet Shop Boys had with "West End Girls", Please and later the big hits off Actually. It's possible this is the most important UK #1 since "Love Me Do" almost a quarter-century before in terms of changing the course of pop music over the next half-decade or so. The only other post-Beatles UK act I can think of in between that was equally chart-influential are those other kings of the dance floor, The Bee Gees. We were still a few years away from all that, though. Disco was still a dirty word in '86. In a few years though, dance music would be back in a huge way. "West End Girls" is certainly a milestone - maybe the milestone - on that journey back.
I first heard this on the radio and thought that's who it was for a minute. Tennant's lyrics are often complex enough to mistake for Stewart's, and both composers love to write about historical events and milieus. One of the B-Sides from the Please era is the amazing "In The Night", about counterculture figures in occupied France, a group who would later go on to inspire the Beatniks. Zazou, what you're gonna do? There's a lot of people coming for you Zazou, comment allez-vous? A knock on the door in the night Now everybody's under somebody's spell Unless they've already gone to hell In the streets you can hear the people say That, Zazou, he should be locked away! When the soldiers strut, all he cares about Is love Oh, when the flags are out, all he cares about Is love And there's a thin line between love and crime And in this situation A thin line between love and crime and collaboration
Fitting that we'd hit "West End Girls" at the same time the miniseries It's A Sin - named after their '87 UK #1, and detailing the lives of 5 18-year-olds who move to London in '81 - makes its television debut.
This is apparently the only US #1 for the Pet Shop Boys. I like many songs from their catalog, however, this song is not one of them. I far prefer the releases where Neil actually sings.
Easily my favorite #1 hit of 1986. Pet Shop Boys hooked me with 1985’s “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money);” and reeled me in with this iconic track. Pet Shop Boys quickly became one of my favorite bands, and one of the few bands that my wife and I both like. Frankly, I’m quite (pleasantly) surprised that this made it to Number 1. Their next single, “Suburbia” - a fabulous single and my favorite Pet Shop Boys track - only made it to Number 70.
I keep placing this song in 1987. Either way, it's never been a favorite of mine. Like alphanguy, there are other Pet Shop Boys songs i'd rather listen to.
Scarecrow is probably my favorite Mellencamp album, but that particular song always left me cold. I usually skip it. I don't really know why, but it never hooked me. Different Light may well be the only 1986 album I bought in 1986 (on cassette - I don't even remember seeing vinyl anywhere). I loved it then and I love it now. Oddly, I was never quite impressed with any of their other albums to get them. But this one is great. I remember really hoping "What Have I Done to Deserve This" would get to #1, because criminally, Dusty Springfield had never had a #1 single. It almost made it...
Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls 5/5 Timeless. This was No1 at the end of 1985 in the UK going into the New year. This song was enough to buy Please when it was released. Still my fav album by them. Great as this is...its not my fav single from their debut. That remains the superb Love Comes Quickly. Enjoying the thread. Brings back a lot of memories having met my now ex- wife in the June of this year. Feeling very melancholic.
I'm a huge Bangles fan and if I could wear out a CD, I would have worn "Different Light" to death! I absolutely love power pop music. In the early months of 1986, The Cars had a pair of hit singles. My favorite of the two was: Tonight She Comes - The Cars The other one was "I'm Not The One". They were both issued on their Greatest Hits album.
And, uh, have we mentioned this one yet? It debuted in the spring of 1986 and was a huge single. Why Can't This Be Love? - Van Hagar Halen I love the album, and it's the only Van Halen album I like. But, my favorite song on the album would hit the charts a tad later in the summer.
And, while i'm on a roll, Joe Jackson had stopped charting singles by now, but he had just released his "Big World" album with this single: Joe Jackson - Right And Wrong It was a direct dig at President Ronald Reagan, which was quite a popular thing for artists to do in the 80s. What made this album interesting is that it is a live recording, except that he warned the crowd not to make a sound until the music was completely over because they were recording an album.
