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Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of keyboardist Chris Lowe and vocalist Neil Tennant, they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide and were listed as the most successful duo in UK music history in the 1999 edition of The Guinness Book of Records.
Pet Shop Boys have achieved 42 top 30 singles, including 22 top-10 hits on the UK singles chart, including four UK number-ones: "West End Girls" (also number one on the US Billboard Hot 100), "It's a Sin", a synth-pop version of "Always on My Mind", and "Heart". Other hit songs include a cover of "Go West", and their own "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", and "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" in a duet with Dusty Springfield. With five US top 10 singles in the 1980s, they are associated with the Second British Invasion.
Pet Shop Boys have won three Brit Awards and have been nominated for Grammy Awards. At the 2009 Brit Awards in London, they received an award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2016, Billboard named Pet Shop Boys the number one dance duo or group since the chart's inception in 1976. In 2017, the duo received NME's Godlike Genius Award, and in 2024, they were awarded the Pop Pioneers award at the MTV Europe Music Awards.
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe met in a hi-fi shop, Chelsea Record Centre, at 203 King's Road, in Chelsea, London, on 19 August 1981. Tennant needed a connector for a Korg MS-10 synthesiser he had purchased, which sparked a conversation with Lowe. Discovering that they had a mutual interest in disco and electronic music, they became friends. In particular, the pair drew inspiration from two synth-pop records: "Souvenir" by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD); and "Bedsitter" by Soft Cell, which reflected their lifestyles at the time. According to Tennant, he and Lowe would listen to "pioneers of electronic music", including OMD, Soft Cell, Kraftwerk, the Human League, and Depeche Mode.
The duo began to work together on material, first in Tennant's flat in Chelsea, then, from 1982, in a small studio in Camden Town owned by Ray Roberts. "Jealousy", written in 1982, was among the first songs they recorded there. They briefly labelled their demo tapes under the band name West End before settling on Pet Shop Boys. They say that their band name was taken from friends who worked in a pet shop in Ealing and were known as the "pet shop boys". They also noted a naming similarity with the recently formed rap rock group Beastie Boys. In August 1983, Tennant, who was an assistant editor at Smash Hits, went to New York to interview Sting. While there, he arranged to meet hi-NRG producer Bobby Orlando and gave him a demo tape containing "It's a Sin" and "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)".
From 1983 to 1984, Orlando recorded a number of tracks with Tennant and Lowe, including "Two Divided by Zero", "West End Girls", "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", "A Man Could Get Arrested", "That's My Impression", "Pet Shop Boys", "One More Chance", "Rent", "It's a Sin", "I Get Excited", and "To Speak Is a Sin". In April 1984, the Orlando-produced "West End Girls" was released, becoming a club hit in Los Angeles and San Francisco. On 2 November, it was voted "Screamer of the Week" by listeners of Long Island, New York, radio station WLIR. It was a minor dance hit in Belgium and France, but was only available in the United Kingdom as a 12" import.
In March 1985, after long negotiations, Pet Shop Boys cut their contractual ties with Orlando, with a settlement giving him significant royalties for future sales. Hiring manager Tom Watkins, they signed with the London-based Parlophone label. In April, Tennant left Smash Hits magazine—where he had progressed to the position of deputy editor—and in July, a new single, "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", was released, reaching number 116 in the UK. The B-side to this single, "In the Night", later resurfaced, in a longer remixed version, as the opening track to the duo's first remix album, Disco, in 1986. This version was also used as the theme for the UK television series The Clothes Show.
They returned to the studio in August to re-record "West End Girls" with producer Stephen Hague. Released in October 1985 it rose slowly in the British charts to become number one in January 1986. It subsequently replicated this success in the United States, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand and Norway and sold an estimated 1.5 million copies worldwide.
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Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of keyboardist Chris Lowe and vocalist Neil Tennant, they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide and were listed as the most successful duo in UK music history in the 1999 edition of The Guinness Book of Records.
Pet Shop Boys have achieved 42 top 30 singles, including 22 top-10 hits on the UK singles chart, including four UK number-ones: "West End Girls" (also number one on the US Billboard Hot 100), "It's a Sin", a synth-pop version of "Always on My Mind", and "Heart". Other hit songs include a cover of "Go West", and their own "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", and "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" in a duet with Dusty Springfield. With five US top 10 singles in the 1980s, they are associated with the Second British Invasion.
Pet Shop Boys have won three Brit Awards and have been nominated for Grammy Awards. At the 2009 Brit Awards in London, they received an award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2016, Billboard named Pet Shop Boys the number one dance duo or group since the chart's inception in 1976. In 2017, the duo received NME's Godlike Genius Award, and in 2024, they were awarded the Pop Pioneers award at the MTV Europe Music Awards.
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe met in a hi-fi shop, Chelsea Record Centre, at 203 King's Road, in Chelsea, London, on 19 August 1981. Tennant needed a connector for a Korg MS-10 synthesiser he had purchased, which sparked a conversation with Lowe. Discovering that they had a mutual interest in disco and electronic music, they became friends. In particular, the pair drew inspiration from two synth-pop records: "Souvenir" by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD); and "Bedsitter" by Soft Cell, which reflected their lifestyles at the time. According to Tennant, he and Lowe would listen to "pioneers of electronic music", including OMD, Soft Cell, Kraftwerk, the Human League, and Depeche Mode.
The duo began to work together on material, first in Tennant's flat in Chelsea, then, from 1982, in a small studio in Camden Town owned by Ray Roberts. "Jealousy", written in 1982, was among the first songs they recorded there. They briefly labelled their demo tapes under the band name West End before settling on Pet Shop Boys. They say that their band name was taken from friends who worked in a pet shop in Ealing and were known as the "pet shop boys". They also noted a naming similarity with the recently formed rap rock group Beastie Boys. In August 1983, Tennant, who was an assistant editor at Smash Hits, went to New York to interview Sting. While there, he arranged to meet hi-NRG producer Bobby Orlando and gave him a demo tape containing "It's a Sin" and "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)".
From 1983 to 1984, Orlando recorded a number of tracks with Tennant and Lowe, including "Two Divided by Zero", "West End Girls", "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", "A Man Could Get Arrested", "That's My Impression", "Pet Shop Boys", "One More Chance", "Rent", "It's a Sin", "I Get Excited", and "To Speak Is a Sin". In April 1984, the Orlando-produced "West End Girls" was released, becoming a club hit in Los Angeles and San Francisco. On 2 November, it was voted "Screamer of the Week" by listeners of Long Island, New York, radio station WLIR. It was a minor dance hit in Belgium and France, but was only available in the United Kingdom as a 12" import.
In March 1985, after long negotiations, Pet Shop Boys cut their contractual ties with Orlando, with a settlement giving him significant royalties for future sales. Hiring manager Tom Watkins, they signed with the London-based Parlophone label. In April, Tennant left Smash Hits magazine—where he had progressed to the position of deputy editor—and in July, a new single, "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", was released, reaching number 116 in the UK. The B-side to this single, "In the Night", later resurfaced, in a longer remixed version, as the opening track to the duo's first remix album, Disco, in 1986. This version was also used as the theme for the UK television series The Clothes Show.
They returned to the studio in August to re-record "West End Girls" with producer Stephen Hague. Released in October 1985 it rose slowly in the British charts to become number one in January 1986. It subsequently replicated this success in the United States, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand and Norway and sold an estimated 1.5 million copies worldwide.