Peak
1
Weeks
20
Score
3,802
Chart Year
1986
West End Girls" is a journey through the club scene in London, where Pet Shop Boys Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe spent many evenings. The glamorous West End is where the action was, contrasting with the rougher East End. There are a number of themes running through the lyric, which Tennant wrote, but a key idea is nightlife escape, the same thing Earth, Wind & Fire sing about in "Boogie Wonderland." In 2020, Tennant told The Guardian: "It's about the city at night. It's about boys and girls meeting to have fun and presumably to bond. It's about sex. It's paranoid." One of the group's favorite hangouts gets a mention in the lines: There's a madman around Running down underground to a dive bar in a West End town The Kings Head and Dive Bar was the Chinatown section of London; upstairs was The Kings Head, and in the basement was the Dive Bar, which Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe haunted. "It was a very funny place where they used to play soundtracks or Barbra Streisand on a vinyl record player," Tennant told Phil Marriott. "There would be just a few guys singing. Then it got quite trendy when students started to go there because it was such a funny and unusual place." The place closed in 2004. This was the breakout hit for Pet Shop Boys, a global smash that went to #1 in both America and their native UK. The hit version, thought, wasn't released until a year after the original. The group wrote the song in 1983 before they had a record deal. Neil Tennant was a writer for the UK music magazine Smash Hits, and used his position to get an audience with the American producer Bobby O (Bobby Orlando), who was on the cutting edge of synthesizer-based dance music - the kind Tennant wanted to make. Bobby O agreed to produce the group; they recorded "West End Girls" and got a deal with Epic Records to release it as a single. Issued in 1984, it did well in France and Belgium, but had little impact elsewhere. They parted ways with Bobby O on acrimonious terms and had to honor their contract by sitting out a year. In 1985, they signed with EMI and released "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots Of Money)" as their first single on the label. It stiffed, but they still had hopes for "West End Girls" and re-recorded the song with producer Stephen Hague, who made it less clubby and gave it a slow build that added some depth and made the song more foreboding. This version was a huge hit, topping the UK chart in January 1986, and reaching #1 in America in May. The group went on to become one of the most successful and enduring British pop groups of their time. "West End Girls" was conceived as a rap song in the style of "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five. Neil Tennant was intrigued by the burgeoning rap scene coming out of America, and thought it would make quite an impact if they released a rap song with an English accent. It wasn't until they went in the studio that he decided to sing the hook in stead of rap it. The verses he does in more of a spoken-word style. Vocals are delivered from various perspectives, creating a kind of collage. Tennant cites the TS Eliot poem The Waste Land as an influence for this approach. Report this ad The opening lines were inspired by a Jimmy Cagney movie Neil Tennant watched one night: Sometimes you're better off dead There's a gun in your hand and it's pointing at your head He doesn't recall which film he was watching, but it was certainly one of Cagney's gangster movies. The music video was shot in London and directed by Andy Morahan and Eric Watson. It got a lot of airplay on MTV, which was the only place most Americans could see the group in action. Pet Shop Boys didn't tour until 1989, so their performances were limited to European TV appearances and other showcases. They earned a MTV Video Music Award nomination for Best New Artist, but lost to A-ha's "Take On Me" video. In 1984, the Pet Shop Boys combined this with elements of the Corey Hart song "Sunglasses At Night" to create a track called "West End - Sunglasses" that they released as a 12" single in Germany. There is a gay element to some Pet Shop Boys songs that Neil Tennant didn't discuss until he came out in 1994. Regarding the gay perspective in "West End Girls," he told The Guardian: "I think it has an outsider perspective. Ultimately, it's a celebration of heterosexuality! [laughs] Some of the East End boys might be getting together with West End boys. The idea is really that opposites attract, the glamorous posh girls and the beautiful rough East End boys all meeting in the West End and going clubbing or something. This was a very exciting time for clubbing in the West End of London." This is an unlikely song to hit #1 in America because it's very British, with a title referring to an area of London and a singer with a British accent. But even though most Americans had never seen the West End, they could relate to the subject matter and appreciate the new wave sound of the music, which was trending at the time. Just a few weeks earlier, and even more unlikely song topped the Hot 100: the German-language "Rock Me Amadeus." Neil Tennant was an assistant editor at the British music magazine Smash Hits when he formed Pet Shop Boys with Chris Lowe. When they had this smash hit, they made the cover. The headline was, "Pet Shop Boys: What Does It Take To Make These Men Happy?" a reference to their sourpuss TV appearances. Pet Shop Boys were focused on singles, so they didn't release their first album until March 1986, months after "West End Girls" was released. They named it Please so fans could go into record stores and say, "May I have the new Pet Shop Boys album, Please." Chris Lowe wrote the music first, then Neil Tennant added the lyrics. According to the BBC, Tennant drew inspiration from T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, a 1922 poem about alienation and despair in modern life. Have you heard the phrase "soft option"? It means the easier (and often lazier) choice, and it shows up in the "West End Girls" lyric: Which do you choose A hard or soft option? The Guardian placed "West End Girls" #1 on their 2020 list of the top 100 UK #1 singles of all time. On a My Top 12 feature on the British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) Radio 1, Sting named "West End Girls" his third-favorite recording. Neil Tennant heard Sting say this and felt bad for having publicly put the former Police frontman down by calling him "the man who makes David Bowie look like a good actor." A Swedish Pet Shop Boys tribute band named West End Girls started performing 2003. They built a sizable following and have toured the world doing Pet Shop Boys songs. In 2006 they released a cover of "West End Girls."
Sometimes you're better off dead There's a gun in your hand and it's pointing at your head You think you're mad, too unstable Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables In a restaurant in a West End town Call the police, there's a mad man around Running down underground to a dive bar In a West End town In a West End town, a dead end world The East End boys and West End girls In a West End town, in a dead end world The East End boys and West End girls West End girls Too many shadows, whispering voices Faces on posters, too many choices If, when, why, what? How much have you got? Have you got it, do you get it, if so, how often? Which do you choose, a hard or soft option (How much do you need?) In a West End town, a dead end world The East End boys and West End girls In a West End town, in a dead end world The East End boys and West End girls West End girls West End girls (How much do you need?) In a West End town, a dead end world The East End boys and West End girls Ooh, a West End town, in a dead end world East End boys and West End girls West End girls You got a heart of glass or a heart of stone Just you wait 'til I get you home We've got no future, we've got no past Here today, built to last In every city, in every nation From Lake Geneva to the Finland Station (How far have you been?) In a West End town, a dead end world The East End boys and West End girls Oh, West End town, in a dead end world East End boys, West End girls West End girls West End girls West End girls (How far have you been?) Girls East End boys And West End girls And West End girls And West End girls (How far have you been?) East End boys The West End girls And West End boys And West End girls And West End girls And West End boys And West End girls
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mar 1, 1986 | 71 | 55 |
| 2 | Mar 8, 1986 | 50 | 76 |
| 3 | Mar 15, 1986 | 40 | 86 |
| 4 | Mar 22, 1986 | 30 | 96 |
| 5 | Mar 29, 1986 | 19 | 107 |
| 6 | Apr 5, 1986 | 12 | 114 |
| 7 | Apr 12, 1986 | 8 | 118 |
| 8 | Apr 19, 1986 | 5 | 121 |
| 9 | Apr 26, 1986 | 3 | 123 |
| 10 | May 3, 1986 | 2 | 124 |
| 11 | May 10, 1986 | 1 | 125 |
| 12 | May 17, 1986 | 2 | 124 |
| 13 | May 24, 1986 | 4 | 122 |
| 14 | May 31, 1986 | 14 | 112 |
| 15 | Jun 7, 1986 | 20 | 106 |
| 16 | Jun 14, 1986 | 31 | 95 |
| 17 | Jun 21, 1986 | 43 | 83 |
| 18 | Jun 28, 1986 | 59 | 67 |
| 19 | Jul 5, 1986 | 75 | 51 |
| 20 | Jul 12, 1986 | 97 | 29 |