Pet Shop Boys "West End Girls (Single & Video)"

"West End Girls" is a song by the British pop duo Pet Shop Boys. Written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, the song was released twice as a single. The song is influenced by hip hop music, with lyrics concerned with class and the pressures of inner-city life which were inspired partly by T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land. It was generally well received by contemporary music critics and has been frequently cited as a highlight in the duo's career.

The first version of the song was produced by Bobby Orlando and was released on Columbia Records' Bobcat Records imprint in April 1984, becoming a club hit in the United States and some European countries. After the duo signed with EMI, the song was re-recorded with producer Stephen Hague for their first studio album, Please. In October 1985, the new version was released, reaching number one in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1986.

In 1987, the song won Best Single at the Brit Awards, and Best International Hit at the Ivor Novello Awards. In 2005, 20 years after its release, the song was awarded Song of The Decade between the years 1985 and 1994 by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. In 2015 the song was voted by the British public as the nation's 12th favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV.

The song was performed by Pet Shop Boys at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony and was included as part of the soundtrack of the 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V on the Non-Stop-Pop radio station.

In 1983, Neil Tennant met producer Bobby Orlando, while on an assignment in New York interviewing Sting for Smash Hits. After listening to some demos, Orlando offered to produce for the duo.

In 1983–84, the duo recorded twelve songs with Orlando, at Unique Studios in New York, "West End Girls", "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", "One More Chance", "I Want a Lover", "Thats My Impression", "A Man Could Get Arrested", "I Get Excited", "Two Divided by Zero", "Rent", "It's A Sin", "Pet Shop Boys", and "Later Tonight". Orlando played most of the instruments on "West End Girls", including the jazz riff at the end. Lowe played one chord and the bassline. It included a drum part lifted from Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean", and an arrangement involving what Tennant called "Barry White chords". Orlando was thrilled by the song's production; his idea was to make a rap record in a British accent.

In April 1984, "West End Girls" was released, becoming a club hit in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and 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, and hired manager Tom Watkins, who signed them with EMI. They re-recorded "West End Girls" with producer Stephen Hague, and re-released the song in late 1985, topping the charts in both the UK and the US.

In an interview on BBC4's Synth Britannia programme, Neil Tennant explains the role of the then new sampling technology on the track and how every single sound came from the newly introduced E-mu Emulator keyboard.

The video was directed by Andy Morahan and Eric Watson, and consists of shots of the duo around London. At the beginning of the video, noises from the city can be heard, a camera passes Lowe on the street, and focuses on two vintage dolls in a shop window. Then appears a sequence of quick cuts with shots of the city's different sub-cultures; the video freezes and cuts to Tennant and Lowe, who walk through an empty Wentworth Street in Petticoat Lane Market. They stand in front of a red garage door; Tennant is in front dressed with a long coat, white shirt and dark necktie, directly addressing the camera, with Lowe standing behind him with a blank expression. Lowe is filmed in double-exposure and appears almost ghostlike. In other shots, Tennant walks imperiously while Lowe follows behind.

Then the video shows various shots at Waterloo Station, as the chorus starts. In slow motion, the camera pans across the WHSmith shop on the station concourse as the duo walk past. It cuts to a brief shot of a No. 42 red double-decker bus, showing the destination as Aldgate, also advertising the stage-show Evita, then black and white shots of the Tower Bridge, Westminster and the Westminster Palace Clock Tower from the sky. The duo poses on the South Bank of the River Thames in a pastiche of a postcard image, with the Houses of Parliament as a background.

The camera shows shots of young women, and passes through arcades and cinemas in Leicester Square. The camera now passes South Africa House showing protestors in the Non-Stop Picket, an anti-apartheid vigil. The video cuts to a closeup of Tennant singing the chorus, with a purple neon sign eerily passing across his face. At the end the camera passes again through Leicester Square, where people queue to see Fletch and Desperately Seeking Susan. The video was nominated for Best New Artist in a Video at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards, but lost to a-ha's Take On Me.

The video was published on YouTube on April 22, 2009; as of September 1, 2018, it had been viewed almost 59 million times, making it their most-viewed YouTube video.

7" UK (1984 release)

1. "West End Girls" (Nouvelle version) – 4:10
2. "Pet Shop Boys" – 5:10

12" UK (1984 release)

1. "West End Girls" (extended mix) – 7:50
2. "Pet Shop Boys" – 5:10

7" Belgium (1984 release)

1. "West End Girls" (Nouvelle version) – 4:10
2. "Pet Shop Boys" – 5:10

7" Germany (1984 release)

1. "West End Girls" (Nouvelle version edit) – 3:21
2. "Pet Shop Boys" (Edit) – 3:26

7" Canada (1984 release)

1. "West End Girls" (Original 7" version) – 4:14
2. "West End Girls" (Original 7" version) – 4:14

7" UK (1985 release) Parlophone / R 6115

1. "West End Girls" – 3:55
2. "A Man Could Get Arrested" (7" version) – 4:50

'10" limited edition – UK (1985 release) Parlophone / 10R 6115

1. "West End Girls" (10" mix) – 7:05
2. "A Man Could Get Arrested" (Bobby Orlando version) – 4:18

12" UK (1985 release) Parlophone / 12R 6115

1. "West End Girls" (dance mix) – 6:31
2. "A Man Could Get Arrested" (12" version) – 4:09
3. "West End Girls" – 3:55

'12" The Shep Pettibone Mastermix – UK (1985 release) Parlophone / 12RA 6115

1. "West End Girls" (The Shep Pettibone Mastermix) – 8:09
2. "West End Dub" – 9:31
3. "A Man Could Get Arrested" (12" version) – 4:09