Pet Shop Boys - Did You Know?
April 9, 2018Music facts, music trivia, interesting stories and much more. Introducing the "Did You Know" page about English synthpop duo, Pet Shop Boys.
Enjoy!
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Pet Shop Boys are an English synthpop duo that was formed 1981 in London. They two are Neil Tennant (lead vocals, keyboards, occasional guitar) and Chris Lowe (keyboards, vocals).
Prior to forming the now known band as Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant worked as an editor for the UK branch of Marvel Comics. He judged whether the drawings of female characters were too risque for the British readers, as well as anglicized spellings.
Chris Lowe studied architecture at the university of Liverpool, where he designed a staircase for an industrial complex in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.
The first time Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe met, was at an electronics store in London, and from that momemnt on, they quickly began working together under the name West End. How did the two got to be Pet Shop Boys eventually? Well, the name Pet Shop Boys was actually inspired by friends, who worked at a pet shop.
Pet Shop Boys have sold over 50 million records all over the world, and are considered as the most successful duo in UK music history. They won the Brit Award three times and were nominated for the Grammy Award six times.
In 2009, Pet Shop Boys received an award for Outstanding Contribution to Music at the Brit Awards that was held in London, and in 2016, Billboard magazine named them the No.1 dance duo/group over the 40 years since the chart's inception in 1976. In 2017, the two received NME's Godlike Genius Award.
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Neil Tennant from Pet Shop Boys was raised catholic and the lyrics in the song "It's a Sin" reflect his unfavorable view of the church. This caused a lot of controversy, but got the band a lot of attention and helped make the song a huge hit in the UK.
Neil Tennant wrote the lyrics to get back at some of his teachers at his former school, St. Cuthberts. The teachers said some harsh things about Tennant when "It's a Sin" was released.
The ending stanza is sung in Latin and means: "Father my father, please forgive me for I have sinned, it is my fault, it is my fault."
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The song "Heart" by Pet Shop Boys was written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe during sessions for the band's first album, Please, in 1986.
The two intended to offer this song to Madonna or Hi-NRG singer, Hazell Dean, but they eventually decided to record the song themselves.
The song was originally called "Heartbeat," but the title was changed as Jon Moss from the band Culture Club had just started a band called Heartbeat UK.
The song "Heart" topped the UK chart, as well as the charts in Germany and Switzerland.
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The song "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" was written during the duo's formative years, in 1983. Neil Tennant wrote the lyrics of the song as a satire of thatcherism and its embodiment in the UK during the 1980s.
Tennant wrote the song after keyboardist Chris Low asked him to make up a lyric based around the line "Let's make lots of money." It was first released as a single in July 1985, however, the song failed to chart.
A new version of the song was mixed, and the second release following the success of the song "West End Girls" resulted in a better performance, becoming the only Pet Shop Boys single that charted higher in the US than the UK.
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