"West End Girls [1984 version]" | ||||
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12" single cover
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Single by Pet Shop Boys | ||||
B-side | "Pet Shop Boys" | |||
Released | 9 April 1984 | |||
Format | ||||
Recorded | Unique Studios, New York 1984 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 4:45 | |||
Label | Bobcat Records | |||
Writer(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | Bobby Orlando | |||
Pet Shop Boys singles chronology | ||||
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"West End Girls [1985 version]" | ||||
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7" single cover
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Single by Pet Shop Boys | ||||
from the album Please | ||||
B-side | "A Man Could Get Arrested" | |||
Released | 28 October 1985 | |||
Format | ||||
Recorded | August 1985 | |||
Genre | Synthpop, hip hop, new wave | |||
Length | 3:59 (7" version) 4:41 (album version) |
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Label | ||||
Writer(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | Stephen Hague | |||
Pet Shop Boys singles chronology | ||||
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"West End Girls" | ||||
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Single by East 17 | ||||
from the album Walthamstow | ||||
Released | 21 June 1993 | |||
Format | 7" single, 12" Single , CD Maxi , CD Single , Cassette | |||
Recorded | 1992 | |||
Genre | Pop | |||
Length | 3:59 | |||
Label | London Records | |||
Writer(s) |
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Producer(s) |
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East 17 singles chronology | ||||
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"West End Girls" is a song by the British pop duo Pet Shop Boys. Written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, the song was released twice as a single. The song is influenced by hip hop music, with lyrics concerned with class and the pressures of inner-city life which were inspired partly by T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land. It was generally well received by contemporary music critics and has been frequently cited as a highlight in the duo's career.
The first version of the song was produced by Bobby Orlando and was released on Columbia Records' Bobcat Records imprint in April 1984, becoming a club hit in the United States and some European countries. After the duo signed with EMI, the song was re-recorded with producer Stephen Hague for their first studio album, Please. In October 1985, the new version was released, reaching number one in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1986.
In 1987, the song won Best Single at the Brit Awards, and Best International Hit at the Ivor Novello Awards. In 2005, 20 years after its release, the song was awarded Song of The Decade between the years 1985 and 1994 by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. In 2015 the song was voted by the British public as the nation's 12th favourite 1980s number one in a poll for ITV.
The song was performed by Pet Shop Boys at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony and was included as part of the soundtrack of the 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V on the Non-Stop-Pop radio station.