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Please (Pet Shop Boys album)

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Please is the first album by the UK electronic music group Pet Shop Boys, released in 1986. According to the duo, the album's title was chosen so that people had to go into a record shop and say "Can I have the Pet Shop Boys album, 'Please'?" The debut album has sold to date in the region of 3 million copies worldwide.

Hits from Please include "West End Girls," "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)," "Suburbia," and "Love Comes Quickly". "West End Girls" was a hit in both the UK and the United States.

Overview

Please is musically simpler than, but lyrically just as rich as, Pet Shop Boys' later work. The instrumentals are comparable to other techno pop of this period. As with many early PSB albums, the lyrics were considered androgynous, the stories they contain being equally applicable to gay and heterosexual relationships. Tennant, in particular, enjoyed this ambiguity and refused to comment on his own sexuality until he came out before 1993's Very hit the charts.

The tiny cover photograph enclosed by a sea of white has been seen by some design observers as a reaction to the traditional album cover. With the new CD cases of the time being necessarily smaller than designs seen on 12" albums, the passport-sized photograph is far removed from standard cover artwork. The actual size of the image is the same size as a 35mm photographic negative.

"Two Divided by Zero" samples a Texas Instruments Speak & Spell toy from the 1980s.[1]

Please was rereleased in 2001 (as were most of the group's albums up to that point) as Please/Further Listening 1984-1986. The rereleased version was not only digitally remastered but came with a second disc of B-sides and previously unreleased material from around the time of the album's original release. Yet another re-release followed on 9 February 2009, under the title of Please: Remastered. This version contains only the 11 tracks on the original

"Suburbia" was dramatically remixed for the single release.

"Violence" was later rerecorded by the Pet Shop Boys for a charity concert at the Hacienda nightclub in the early 1990s. This version, known as the 'Hacienda Version', was released as one of the b-sides to "I wouldn't normally do this kind of thing" and was then made available on the b-sides album Alternative and the 2001 2-disc rerelease of the Very album.

The Pet Shop Boys later sampled the Please version of "Love comes quickly" for their song "Somebody else's business", which appeared on the Disco 3 album.

"Tonight is forever" was later covered by Liza Minnelli on the Pet Shop Boys-produced album Results.

Track listing

  1. "Two Divided By Zero" - 3:32
  2. "West End Girls" - 4:41
  3. "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" - 3:43
  4. "Love Comes Quickly" - 4:18
  5. "Suburbia" - 5:07
  6. "Opportunities (Reprise)" - 0:32
  7. "Tonight Is Forever" - 4:30
  8. "Violence" - 4:27
  9. "I Want a Lover" - 4:04
  10. "Later Tonight" - 2:44
  11. "Why Don't We Live Together?" - 4:44

Further Listening 1984-1986

  1. "A man could get arrested" (Twelve-inch b-side) - 4:14
  2. "Opportunities (Let's make lots of money)" (Full length original seven-Inch)
  3. "In the night" - 4:50
  4. "Opportunities (Let's make lots of money)" (Original twelve-inch mix) - 6:43
  5. "Why don't we live together?" (Original New York mix)
  6. "West End girls" (Dance Mix) - 5:11
  7. "A man could get arrested" (Seven-inch b-side) - 4:51
  8. "Love comes quickly" (Dance mix) - 6:52
  9. "That's my impression" (Disco mix) - 5:20
  10. "Was that what it was?" - 5:14
  11. "Suburbia" (The Full Horror) - 8:55
  12. "Jack the lad" - 4:30
  13. "Paninaro" (Italian remix) - 8:35

Singles

Personnel

Guest musicians
  • Andy Mackay - Saxophone on track 4
  • Helena Springs - Additional vocals on tracks 2 & 8
  • Stephen Hague - Keyboards and programming (uncredited)[citation needed]
  • Ron Dean Miller - Original production and guitar (uncredited)[citation needed] on track 11 and "New York overdubs" on track 3
  • Blue Weaver - Original production on track 9
  • J.J. Jeczalik & Nicholas Froome - Original production on track 3

Chart performance

Chart (1986) Peak
position
Germany 3
Switzerland 20
Norway 13
Sweden 21
Australia 10
UK 3
US 7

References

  1. ^ Stylus Magazine article specifically mentions the "Speak & Spell"
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