Tag Archives: Pet Shop Boys

Music Video of the Day: What Have I Done To Deserve This? by Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield (1987, directed by Eric Watson)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

“Someone who’s in this relationship that they know they shouldn’t be in. It’s this dysfunctional relationship, and they don’t have the strength to get out. And ‘what have I, what have I, what have I done to deserve this?’ – there’s a real sense that they shouldn’t be there, but they’re basically a slave to this obsessive love. It’s one of the few songs of mine that is about that but doesn’t turn itself around and go, ‘I’m leaving here, screw you, go make someone else miserable.’ Usually I don’t just leave it at ‘what have I done to deserve this,’ but it felt right for the group, so that’s what it was.”

— Allee Willis, co-writer of What Have I Done To Deserve This?

Though this song may be out a toxic relationship, I always think of it as being about the showgirl taking off her glasses before going out to dance on stage.  That’s the power of a good music video.

This video was directed by Eric Watson, who spent most of his music video career working with Pet Shop Boys, though he also did videos for Samantha Fox, Rod Stewart, and Debbie Harry.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: West End Girls (New Lockdown Version) by Pet Shop Boys (2020, directed by Luke Halls)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

This is the second video for the Pet Shop Boys’s West End Girls, updated for the age of lockdowns.  In 2020, you could still sing about the girls in the West End.  You just couldn’t leave your house and go down there to see them.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: West End Girls by Pet Shop Boys (1984, directed by Eric Watson and Andy Morohan)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Is Chris Lowe a ghost in this video?

He better be, just so I can justify picking this video during our annual Shattered Lens Horrorthon. 

Neil Tennant and his ghost friend go for walk through London.  Among the sights that we see: Waterloo Station, Tower Bridge, West Minster, the South Bank, Leicester Square, and a protest outside the South African Embassy.  (This video was filmed at a time when South Africa was still ruled by Apartheid.)  Both Fletch and Desperately Seeking Susan are playing at a cinema.

This was the video that first introduced the US to the Pet Shop Boys.  Watching it makes me nostalgic for London.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Numb by Pet Shop Boys (2006, directed by Julian Gibbs and Chris Sayer)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

According to the band, the music video for Numb was meant to be an homage to Russian constructivist cinema and the video does have the look of the old propaganda films that were put into production during the early days of the Soviet Union.  The video also begins with what appears to be the sinking of the Titanic before moving onto all of the other tragedies that occurred around the same time.  It may not be a “Halloween song” but the video does have a horror aesthetic.

Numb, itself, is a song that was often played whenever the UK was dealing with a tragedy, like being eliminated from the World Cup.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Always On My Mind, performed by Pet Shop Boys (1988, directed by Jack Bond)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In 1987, ITV commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley by airing Love Me Tender, a special that featured popular British acts covering songs that were originally made famous by Elvis.  Pet Shop Boys’s synth-pop version of Always on My Mind proved to be the unexpected hit of the program and the band released the song as a single.  It went on to become the UK’s Christmas number one single for the year.

It was also featured in It Couldn’t Happen Here, a surreal film that starred Pet Shop Boys and which was directed by documentarian Jack Bond, who had started his career with a ground-breaking film about Salvador Dali and who later became famous for his work with The South Bank Show.  The subsequent music video was lifted from the film.  In the movie and the video, Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant are driving a taxi cab.  They stop to pick up a passenger, an older man played by Joss Ackland.  (In the movie, there’s an earlier scene in which Lowe and Tennant hear a news report about an escaped killed who matches their new passenger’s description.)  While their passenger rambles on, Lowe and Tennant turn on the radio and listen to the song, which leads to several other clips from the film.  And while the critics may not have cared much for It Couldn’t Happen Here, the band’s version of Always On My Mind remains a popular classic.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: What Have I Done To Deserve This? by Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield (1987, directed by Eric Watson)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

“Someone who’s in this relationship that they know they shouldn’t be in. It’s this dysfunctional relationship, and they don’t have the strength to get out. And ‘what have I, what have I, what have I done to deserve this?’ – there’s a real sense that they shouldn’t be there, but they’re basically a slave to this obsessive love. It’s one of the few songs of mine that is about that but doesn’t turn itself around and go, ‘I’m leaving here, screw you, go make someone else miserable.’ Usually I don’t just leave it at ‘what have I done to deserve this,’ but it felt right for the group, so that’s what it was.”

— Allee Willis, co-writer of What Have I Done To Deserve This?

Though this song may be out a toxic relationship, I always think of it as being about the showgirl taking off her glasses before going out to dance on stage.  That’s the power of a good music video.

This video was directed by Eric Watson, who spent most of his music video career working with Pet Shop Boys, though he also did videos for Samantha Fox, Rod Stewart, and Debbie Harry.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money) by Pet Shop Boys (1985, directed by Zbigniew Rybczyński)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Yesterday, I shared the first video for Opportunities.

Today. I’m sharing the second version.  The second version was released after the song itself was remixed and re-recorded.  This is the version that subsequently became a hit for the Pet Shop Boys.  This is the version that is currently being unironically used by Allstate in their commercials.

(As much as I complain about this song being used by Allstate, it did lead to both Opportunities and West End Girls reentering the charts.)

The director of this video is the Polish artist and filmmaker, Zbigniew Rybczyński.  Before directing this video, he won the 1982 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Tango.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money) by Pet Shop Boys (1985, directed by Andy Morahan and Eric Watson)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

First off, a big thank you to Lisa for covering the past few days!

“It’s a simple message isn’t it? ‘I’ve got the brains, you’ve got the looks, let’s make lots of money.’ A very insensitive thing that was meant to be a satire of Thatcherism. Actually, we’d written the Thatcherite anthem. But it’s very difficult to think, now, that there was a period before money culture. That was the changing moment. It wasn’t even an original thing to say because it was at the same time as Loadsamoney, Harry Enfield. It was that period where suddenly one’s sensitive left-wing soul was shocked by everything being about money. Now, of course, generations have grown that haven’t known anything else.”

— Neil Tennant

It’s amazing how things can get misinterpreted.  I remember when I was a kid, Mercedes used Janis Joplin singing, “Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz” in their commercials.  It used to drive my father crazy because the whole point of the song was that a Mercedes wasn’t a big deal and it was foolish to act like the car you drove had anything to do with your worth as a human being.

Right now, the song in today’s music video of the day is being used in an Allstate Commercial!  Of course, in the commercial, all you hear is “Let’s make lots of money!”  The commercial doesn’t include any of the lyrics that indicate that the singer is basically looking for someone who is dumb but good-looking so that he can be exploited.

There were two music videos for this song.  This is the first one and it leaves no doubt what the point of the song actually is.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: It’s A Sin by The Pet Shop Boys (1987, directed by Derek Jarman)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

For all the analysis that has been dedicated to this song and Neil Tennant’s reasons for writing it, Tennant himself has said that the song itself isn’t as a serious as everyone makes it out to be.  As he explained it in a 2009 interview with Andrew Sullivan:

“People took it really seriously; the song was written in about 15 minutes, and was intended as a camp joke and it wasn’t something I consciously took very seriously. Sometimes I wonder if there was more to it then I thought at the time. But the local parish priest in Newcastle delivered a sermon on it, and reflected on how the Church changed from the promise of a ghastly hell to the message of love.”

Not surprisingly, the video is full of religious imagery, along with representations of the seven deadly sins.  In the video, Tennant’s fellow Pet Shop Boy, Chris Lowe, plays Tennant’s jailer while the judge is played by the distinguished British actor Ron Moody.  An Oscar nominee for playing Fagin in 1968’s Oliver!, Ron Moody also came very close to being cast as the Third Doctor on Doctor Who.  Though the role was offered to him, Moody turned it down to focus on his film career.  Instead, Moody’s friend, Jon Pertwee, received the role and Moody would often later say that the decision to turn down Doctor Who was one of his biggest mistakes.

This video was directed by Derek Jarman, the experimental British director who is perhaps best known for his adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II.  A political activist and a pioneer in the British gay rights movement, Jarman would sadly pass away just seven years after directing the video but he left behind a body of work that continues to be influential to this day.  Along with directing Laurence Olivier in his final performance (in War Requiem), Jarman is also often credited with having “discovered” Tilda Swinton.

It’s A Sin was one of the Pet Shops Boys’s biggest hits.  Would it have been a hit without this video?  Probably.  But the video definitely didn’t hurt.

Enjoy!