Pet Shop Boys "Domino Dancing (Single & Video)"

"Domino Dancing" is a song recorded by the British synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys, released as the lead single from their 1988 album, Introspective. It reached number 7 on the UK Singles Chart.

Written by Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant, influenced by Latin pop and apparently also by the song "Elle est comme les étoiles" by Desireless, the song was produced by Lewis A. Martinée, the Miami-based producer behind 1980s freestyle groups like Exposé. The song was also recorded at Martinée's studio in Miami, resulting in a considerably large number of studio musicians for a Pet Shop Boys song being featured on it.

The duo had achieved three number ones in 1987–1988 and Domino Dancing was expected to continue this success. But the public reception to the duo's new Latin sound proved disappointing. Tennant remembers: "...it entered the charts at number nine and I thought, 'that's that, then - it's all over'. I knew then that our imperial phase of number one hits was over."

The single missed the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #18, and was the duo's sixth and, to date, last Top 20 pop hit in the USA. (In fact, they have not made the top 60 since Domino Dancing.) The song did reach #5 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, where the duo have seen more consistent success.

7": Parlophone / R 6190 (UK)

1. "Domino Dancing" (Single version) – 4:17
2. "Don Juan" – 3:53

12": Parlophone / 12 R 6190 (UK)

1. "Domino Dancing" (Disco mix) – 7:41
2. "Don Juan" (Disco mix) – 7:32
3. "Domino Dancing" (Alternative mix) – 4:42

also released on MC (TCR 6190) and CD (CDR 6190)

12": Parlophone / 12 RX 6190 (UK)

1. "Domino Dancing" (Base mix) – 5:53
2. "Don Juan" (Demo) – 4:19
3. "Domino Dancing" (Demo) – 4:45

12": EMI-Manhattan / V-56116 (US)

1. "Domino Dancing" (Disco mix) – 7:41
2. "Domino Dancing" (Single version) – 4:17
3. "Domino Dancing" (Alternative mix) – 4:48 (Longer outro)
4. "Don Juan" (Disco mix) – 7:32

The Domino Dancing music video was directed by Eric Watson and was director's sixth of the 11 collaborations he had with the band. The storyline is about a love triangle between two handsome young men who are fighting over one beautiful woman. Rolling Stone magazine calls the video "probably the most homoerotic pop video ever made", citing the slow-motion shots of the boys wrestling on the beach:

As such, the video exemplified the mainstream exploitation of gay sex in the Eighties, most evident in Calvin Klein ads and feature films like Top Gun. Unfortunately, Domino Dancing was every bit as dishonest, titillating the straight world with images it could never acknowledge, then doubling the repression by keeping openly gay expression closeted.
— Jim Farber, "Beyond the Big Hair – Video News and Notes", Rolling Stone magazine, 14–28 December 1989, page 235

In 2012, Ricky Martin, who appeared briefly in one of the crowd dancing scenes in the video as an uncredited extra, quipped on Twitter:

Puerto Rico+Homoeroticism = Pet Shop Boys "Domino Dancing". [...]
— Ricky Martin

The video was taped in about four days in the old colonial district of San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1988. One of the locations that was featured in the music video is the Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery.

All the lead actors were Puerto Rican; the two boys were David Boira and Adalberto Martinez Mojica and the girl was Donna Bottman, who was an aspiring actress and model. All of them were cast by the Pet Shop Boys.

Domino Dancing (extended version) is a seven-minute dance song, combined with Lowe's synth melodies, Cuban brass and early hip hop beats.