"Domino Dancing" | ||||
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Single by Pet Shop Boys | ||||
from the album Introspective | ||||
B-side | "Don Juan" | |||
Released | 12 September 1988 | |||
Format | 7", 12", cassette, CD single | |||
Recorded | 1987–1988 | |||
Genre | Synthpop, freestyle | |||
Length | 4:18 (7") 7:41 (album version & 12") |
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Label | Parlophone / EMI | |||
Writer(s) |
Neil Tennant Chris Lowe |
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Producer(s) |
Lewis A. Martinée, Pet Shop Boys |
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Pet Shop Boys singles chronology | ||||
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"Domino Dancing" is a song recorded by the British synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys, released as the lead single from their 1988 album, Introspective. It reached number 7 on the UK Singles Chart.
Written by Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant, influenced by Latin pop and apparently also by the song "Elle est comme les étoiles" by Desireless, the song was produced by Lewis A. Martinée, the Miami-based producer behind 1980s freestyle groups like Exposé. The song was also recorded at Martinée's studio in Miami, resulting in a considerably large number of studio musicians for a Pet Shop Boys song being featured on it.
The duo had achieved three number ones in 1987–1988 and Domino Dancing was expected to continue this success. But the public reception to the duo's new Latin sound proved disappointing. Tennant remembers: "...it entered the charts at number nine and I thought, 'that's that, then - it's all over'. I knew then that our imperial phase of number one hits was over."
The single missed the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #18, and was the duo's sixth and, to date, last Top 20 pop hit in the USA. (In fact, they have not made the top 60 since Domino Dancing.) The song did reach #5 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, where the duo have seen more consistent success.
The Domino Dancing music video was directed by Eric Watson and was director's sixth of the 11 collaborations he had with the band.
The storyline is about a love triangle between two handsome young men who are fighting over one woman. Rolling Stone magazine calls the video "probably the most homoerotic pop video ever made", citing the slow-motion shots of the boys wrestling on the beach: