Songoftheday 4/25/16 - When you look around you wonder, do you play to win? Or are you just a bad loser?

"Domino Dancing" - Pet Shop Boys
from the album Introspective (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #18 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's song of the day is by the Pet Shop Boys, whose second album Actually had rewarded them with a trio of top-10 pop hits in America with "It's A Sin", "What Have I Done To Deserve This" with Dusty Springfield, and their cover of "Always On My Mind". Instead of using that momentum for a third full-length album, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe took a little bit of a left turn with an EP titles Introspective. A six-track set that had an extended version of "Always On My Mind", it was preceded by the decidedly different first single "Domino Dancing". Written by the duo and produced with Miami-based guru Lewis Martinee', who had success with his female vocal group Expose' ("Come Go With Me", "Point Of No Return"), the record had much more in common with the latter's work, although the biting wit of Tennant's lyrics is still hidden in there. That, along with the music video, filmed in Puerto Rico with lots of Latin muscled boys in the mix, reminded us, yes, it was the Pet Shop Boys after all...

"Domino Dancing" became the pair's sixth and so far most recent top-40 hit in the U.S. in December of 1988. The single also made Billboard's Modern Rock radio chart at #22, while the extended remix reached #5 on their Dance Club Play list. Internationally, the song went top-ten in Germany (#3), Ireland (#4), Italy (#4), Switzerland (#5), Norway (#5), Belgium (#6), Sweden (#6), the Netherlands (#7), New Zealand (#9), and their native UK (#7).

The next single from the set, the more electro-pop goodness of "Left To My Own Devices" (which I personally would've preferred to have been the lead single), did better for them in England, climbing to #4, but in the States it stalled out down at #84. Another stellar track, the third single "It's Alright", was another top-ten hit in the UK at #5, making four total of those (albeit not in radio-version form) on the EP. The entire set itself made the American dance chart at #15.

By the time their next full-length album, Behaviour, was released in 1990, American pop radio had mostly passed them by, with the first single "So Hard" stopping at #62 (that song did make it to #17 on the Modern Rock radio list). Two more minor pop hits came from the record, but even another fun remake, this time the mash-up of U2's "Where The Streets Have No Name" with the Four Seasons' "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", only manage to squeak by at #72. They both went to #4 in the UK, where their popularity kept going strong.

In 1993 the Boys' fourth full-length album, Very, landed them in the top ten on the modern rock radio chart in America for the final time with "Can You Forgive Her?", which also brought them back to #1 on the Dance chart for the third time (after "West End Girls" and "What Have You Done..."). A second single, a remake of the Village People's camp anthem "Go West", also hit the top of the US Dance list and reached #2 on the British chart. They would continue their success internationally and in the gay-dominated dance clubs, reaching the top-10 in the UK as recently as in 2008 with "I'm With Stupid". Their 2009 release, Yes, gave them two top-40 UK pop/#1 US dance hits with "Love Etc." and "Did You See Me Coming?". The duo has no perception of stopping, scoring yet another #1 club hit this past week with "The Pop Kids" from their new Super album.

But "Domino Dancing" marked the point when the Boys went from being pop up-and-comers to underground cult faves.

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Here's the "Disco Mix" of "Domino Dancing" that reached #5 on Billboard's club chart...

The pair included the song in many of their shows. Here's their 1989 Wembley concert in London...

...and again in Rio in 1995...

Swedish Eurodance act West End Girls, named for the Boys' first hit, went to #3 in their homeland with a cover of "Domino Dancing" in 2005...

...and finally, back to the Boys in 2009...

Up tomorrow: A grimy rock band introduces you to L.A.