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West End Girls

"West End Girls [1984 version]"
WestEndGirls.jpg
12" single cover
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
"West End Girls"
(first release)
(1984)
"One More Chance"
(1984)
"West End Girls [1985 version]"
WestEndGirls-PSB21985.jpg
7" single cover
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)
Label
Writer(s)
Producer(s) Stephen Hague
Pet Shop Boys singles chronology
"Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)"
(first release)
(1985)
"West End Girls"
(second release)
(1985)
"Love Comes Quickly"
(1986)
"West End Girls"
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)
  • Neil Tennant
  • Chris Lowe
Producer(s)
  • Mykaell S. Riley
  • The Groove Corporation
East 17 singles chronology
"Slow It Down"
(1993)
"West End Girls"
(1993)
"It's Alright"
(1993)

"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.


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Wikipedia

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