Songoftheday 9/28/14 - Sometimes you're better off dead, there's a gun in your hand and it's pointing at your head...

Pet Shop Boys - "West End Girls"
from the album Please (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's Song of the Day is the first hit single for the British electropop duo Pet Shop Boys, who met in the early 80s, and after originally naming themselves West End, changed to their current moniker. Neil Tennant was an up and coming music writer that just got hired by Smash Hits, one of the music tabloids of the day in the UK, while Chris Lowe, a former architecture student, was an keyboard whiz. Coming to America to interview the Police, Neil hooked up with freestyle producer/artist Bobby O, who collaborated with the duo for the original recording of their first single "West End Girls". With a narrative inspired by old 'gangster' films and set in the gritty streets of west London, and delivered in a deadpan rap that drew listeners to the bass synth, the single started to get play in American clubs and even made the Canadian singles chart at #81...

After parting ways with Bobby O, Neil and Chris enlisted producer Stephen Hague to revamp "West End Girls" from a freestyle novelty to the classic slice of new wave Britpop it's known for. The infectious bassline stayed, but an ominous minor chord of synths stayed in the back throughout the track...

"West End Girls" became a huge international hit in its second incarnation, climbing to #1 on the American pop chart in May of 1986, four months after doing the same (for an extra week, even) in Britain. The single also went to #1 on the dance club play chart in Billboard, and even crossed over to the Mainstream Rock (#37), adult contemporary (#26), and the R&B (#36) charts in the magazine. It was a hit all over the world, topping the chart in Canada, Norway, and New Zealand, and reaching the top-10 almost everywhere else.

And from the time it hit American radio waves, where it sounded nothing like anything else on their playlists, the single remains a classic, blending the street attitude and storyline of rap with the frenetic pacing of dance and new wave. It's like a book you don't mind picking up to re-read over again, even though you know the storyline. And that bass. Damn that bass.

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In 1992, British "boy-band" East 17 released a cover of the song that went to #4 in Australia and #11 in the UK...