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Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)

"Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money) (First version)"
Single by Pet Shop Boys
B-side "In the Night"
Released 1 July 1985
Format 7", 12", cassette
Recorded Late 1984
Genre Synthpop
Length 3:45 (7" version), 6:44 (dance mix)
Label Parlophone / EMI
Writer(s) Neil Tennant, Chris Lowe
Producer(s) J. J. Jeczalik, Nicholas Froome
Ron Dean Miller ("New York overdubs")
Pet Shop Boys singles chronology
"One More Chance"
(1984)
"Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" (First version)
(1985)
"West End Girls"
(1985)
"Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money) (Second version)"
PSB Opportunities.jpg
Second release cover
Single by Pet Shop Boys
from the album Please
B-side "Was That What It Was?"
Released 19 May 1986
Format 7", 12"
Recorded Late 1985
Genre Synthpop
Length 3:36 (7" version), 3:44 (album version)
Label Parlophone / EMI
Writer(s) Neil Tennant, Chris Lowe
Producer(s) Stephen Hague
Pet Shop Boys singles chronology
"Love Comes Quickly"
(1986)
"Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)"
(1986)
"Suburbia"
(1986)

"Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" is a song by UK duo Pet Shop Boys, released as a single in 1985 and then in 1986, gaining greater popularity in both the United Kingdom and United States with its second release, reaching number 11 in the UK Singles Chart and number 10 in the US Billboard Hot 100.

The song's indirect attack on its subject matter has come to exemplify the Pet Shop Boys as ironists in their songwriting.

The song was written during the Pet Shop Boys' formative years, in 1983. According to Neil Tennant, the main lyrical concept came while in a recording studio in Camden Town when Chris Lowe asked him to make up a lyric based around the line "Let's make lots of money". Tennant has said that he was somewhat inspired by the relationship between the characters of Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight in the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy.

The first version of the song, recorded with the duo's first producer, Bobby Orlando, was not released; upon signing with record label Parlophone, they re-recorded the song with J. J. Jeczalik (of Art of Noise) and Nicholas Froome.

The original single release charted low at number 116 in the UK, to be exceedingly outdone by the number one spectacle of the second release of "West End Girls" in multiple countries. With producer Stephen Hague still on board from that release, a new single version for the duo's debut album, Please, was mixed, with reprogramming done by Hague and re-recorded vocals from Tennant. The second release of "Opportunities", following the album's release, resulted in better chart performance. It is currently the only single from the band to chart higher in the US than the UK, becoming the duo's second Top 10 single in the US, peaking at #10, and just missing out (#11) in the UK. In Australia, the first version was the one to chart (although outside the Top 40).


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