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 British music history in the 1999 edition of The Guinness Book of Records. Furthermore, they are one of the best-selling bands of all time in the UK.
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.
The duo is recognized as a significant act within electronic music. Their sound spans multiple genres, with synth-pop and dance-pop at its core. In their early days, they were influenced by Hi-NRG and the emerging New York hip-hop scene. They experimented with house music starting with the album Introspective (1988) and explored eurodance and techno on releases such as Very (1993) and Bilingual (1996)—the latter of which also ventured into Latin pop and Latin house. For Nightlife (1999), they collaborated with trance producers like Rollo from Faithless. In their trilogy of albums from the 2010s, they fully embraced EDM, working alongside Stuart Price. Additionally, the duo has often chosen to blend orchestral and acoustic elements with synthesizers across their works, most notably on Release (2002) and on certain tracks from Behaviour (1990).
Pet Shop Boys have been nominated for four Grammy Awards in the Dance/Electronic categories, and they have won three Brit Awards. They were presented with the award for Outstanding Contribution to Music at the 2009 Brit Awards. In 2016, Billboard named Pet Shop Boys the number one dance duo or group since the inception of the Hot Dance Club Play chart, where the duo achieved 11 number-one hits and 31 top-10 entries. In 2017, the duo received NME Godlike Genius Award, and in 2024, they were awarded the Pop Pioneers award at the MTV Europe Music Awards.
History Early years (1981–1984)
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 their mutual interest in disco and electronic music, they became friends. Both musicians had an affinity for the synth-pop duos Soft Cell and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, drawing particular inspiration from their 1981 singles "Bedsitter" and "Souvenir" (the former reflecting the pair's lifestyles at the time). Tennant and Lowe explored the work of other pioneering electronic acts such as Kraftwerk, the Human League and Depeche Mode, while also embracing Hi-NRG influences from artists including Patrick Cowley and producer Bobby Orlando. They were further inspired by the nascent New York hip-hop scene.
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 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,Cowton, Michael (1991). Pet Shop Boys: Introspective, p. 15. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 0-283-99825-3. but was only available in the United Kingdom as a 12" import.
Please (1985–1986)
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.
After the success of "West End Girls", Pet Shop Boys released a follow-up single, "Love Comes Quickly", on 24 February 1986. The single reached number nineteen on the UK Singles Chart and was followed by their debut album, Please, on 24 March. In June 1986, the band announced a tour of Europe and America; however, their plans for a theatrical extravaganza proved to be too expensive and the tour was cancelled. Please started Pet Shop Boys' tradition of choosing one-word album titles, which Neil Tennant has since stated is now a Pet Shop Boys "signature thing", akin to E. E. Cummings' use of exclusively lower case letters. New versions of their second single, "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", and the album track "Suburbia" were also released in 1986, followed by Disco. In September 1986, Pet Shop Boys performed "Love Comes Quickly" and "West End Girls" at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles.
Actually (1987–1988)
In 1987, Pet Shop Boys received both a BRIT Award and Ivor Novello Award for "West End Girls". On 15 June, they released what became their second number one single, "It's a Sin". The single caused some controversy: Tennant's school, St. Cuthbert's Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne, chastised him in the Evening Chronicle, while pop impresario Jonathan King accused them of plagiarising the Cat Stevens song "Wild World". King recorded a version of "Wild World" in the style of Pet Shop Boys to prove his point. The group later sued King and won damages, which were donated to Jefferiss Research Trust, supporting the study of sexually transmitted diseases. The music video for "It's a Sin" was their first collaboration with director Derek Jarman.
The success of "It's a Sin" was followed up with the release of "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" on 10 August. Co-written with Allee Willis and also featuring Dusty Springfield on vocals, the single reached number two on the UK Singles Chart and the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Although the duo had wanted to release this track on their debut album, Springfield had not agreed, and they were reluctant to record it with any other female singer, despite their record company's suggestions. Springfield's manager finally contacted them in 1986, following the release of Please, and towards the end of that year, she travelled to London to record "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" with them. It was the first track to be recorded for the duo's second album, Actually. Pet Shop Boys had been told that Springfield was difficult to work with and even that she could no longer sing; however, her performance on the track put any such concerns to rest and they began a collaboration with her, which lasted until the end of the decade. The song resurrected Springfield's career, leading to her 1990 album, Reputation, on which Pet Shop Boys were major contributing writers and producers. This duet was also the start of a series of collaborations with high-profile musicians, going on throughout the band's career.
Actually was released in September 1987, followed by the single "Rent" in October, which reached number eight in the UK. The last track on the album, "King's Cross", accidentally anticipated the King's Cross fire at the London Underground section of the station in November of that year (part of the lyrics read: "Dead and wounded on either side/You know it's only a matter of time"). The Sun newspaper in the UK subsequently tried to get the track released as a charity single, but Pet Shop Boys did not agree.
At the end of the year, "Always on My Mind" became both the duo's third number one single in the UK and the Christmas number one single for 1987, beating "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl. Pet Shop Boys had selected the song for an appearance on Love Me Tender, an ITV programme commemorating the tenth anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, and decided to release it. The song was not included on Actually, prompting EMI to repackage the album in the U.S. with a 12" version of the single; an extended version, "Always on My Mind/In My House", was later included on Introspective (1988). In November 2004, The Daily Telegraph newspaper placed Pet Shop Boys' version of "Always on My Mind" at number two in a list of the fifty greatest cover versions of all time.
To capitalise on their string of hits, and in lieu of a tour, Pet Shop Boys made a film that incorporated songs from Please and Actually. Working with director Jack Bond, the project grew into a full-scale movie, It Couldn't Happen Here, starring Barbara Windsor, Joss Ackland and Gareth Hunt. Footage from the film was used in the music video for "Always on My Mind". The film was released in 1988 to mixed reviews.
Heart, released in March 1988 as the last single from Actually, was Pet Shop Boys' fourth UK number one hit and their last to date. The video for the single, directed by Jack Bond, starred Ian McKellen as a vampire.
Pet Shop Boys wrote and produced the song "I'm Not Scared" for Patsy Kensit's band, Eighth Wonder. The song, released in February 1988, became her biggest hit single. Pet Shop Boys recorded their own version of the track for their album Introspective later that year. The Pet Shop Boys' version of "I'm Not Scared" was included as the opening track on the album.
Introspective and Behaviour (1988–1992)
Neil Tennant has said that the Pet Shop Boys' "Imperial Phase" ended in September 1988, when their new single, "Domino Dancing", entered the UK Singles Chart at number nine and only reached number seven. Tennant recalls being disappointed upon hearing the news, and he felt that their peak period was over and that it was going to be a challenge to maintain their level of success in the future.