Best Pet Shop Boys "Please" era B-side

We've polled ALL their b-sides but it's far too overwhelming.

Good poll idea. I've always been fond of the uncharacteristically rough vocals on That's My Impression and WTWIW (and the gleeful trying out of the latest club tricks on the latter) but In the Night and Paninaro are stone-cold classics.

These are good songs. I'll probably vote for "Paninaro," which is sometimes the greatest thing the Boys have ever committed insofar as it nails an aesthetic and a sound.

"A Man Could Get Arrested" has the only "eighties" production that graces a PSB single.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex4VM6GupAc&feature=related

Wait...no hat on Chris there? Something's wrong.

the young Chris Lowe was a fetching lad.

man do I love the fuck out of all of these songs

Lock thread, all votes to go previous post.

In The Night
Jack the Lad
Paninaro

how the hell can I choose between these three

pretend each song corresponds to a favorite Alanis tune

Paninaro.

You oughta know which one to choose DJP

If you want to choose.
Don't choose.
Do it.

Probably my least favourite set of their b-sides pre-Very, but still not a dud among them. Voting for the theme to the Clothes Show.

it's a sexy beast, ain't it?

The lyric to In the Night is one of my favourite examples of the PSBs taking an abstruse theme and marrying it to a killer tune. Such a clever, nuanced lyric about the relationship between music and politics and whether hedonism can be a form of resistance or a selfish escape from it. Pre-internet it took me years to work out who he was singing about - for Don Juan I practically needed Cliff Notes.

plus, it boasts the best "comment allez-vous" in rock history.

I love precisely these 5 songs more than anything on Alternative. I would like give my vote to the wonderful WTWIT because I feel it's generally shunned. But I never vote that way in polls, and the obvious highlight is Paninaro.

I meant 6 songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl-E7le5B_w

Fans of Please-era b-sides would probably like their demo, "In The Club Or In The Queue".

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Vote damn you

voted Paninaro

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

daaayum

Huh. I mean, I like "Paninaro"'n'all, but I've never quite gotten w/how prominently it figures w/in the PSBs canon (top 10 in the poll IIRC?) compared with other Lowe-monologue tracks like "I Want A Dog" or "One Of The Crowd".

I, too, can't believe two songs that weren't on this poll didn't win it

Sorry, I meant the overarching done-w/-ballots poll Billy Dodds ran. I know "Paninaro" had a video and was revamped/re-released ... did it get a lot of underground dancefloor play that other PSBs tracks didn't?

"Paninaro" has so many awesome things going on at once.

(I didn't vote for it)

Actually b-sides coming soon btw

P sure the solitary Jack the Lad vote was me.

we
all
fall

I really really wanted to vote "Jack the Lad" but the "Paninaro"/"In The Night" 1-2 was too much to resist

It's a great song, though.

DO IT

Hahahahaha! Weirdly, that was the first song that came to mind when I saw the thread had been bumped. I get that in my head regularly.

I know I voted for 'Paninaro' here, but man is this such a great set of songs.

DO IT!

"In the Night" is on the setlist for the current tour and that was a fine addition.

I love how 'In The Night' basically started life as an exercise in trying to write a B-side with the same chord progression as the A-side, but it ended up growing into a classic in its own right.

Was there ever a poll for the Actually b-sides?

I think there was? I remember we got as far as Introspective (I think)?

I love the 7"-inch version of "A Man Could Get Arrested" to bits.

Dan: Best Pet Shop Boys "Actually"-era B-side

Neil's almost-shouty singing in the last minute of 'That's My Impression' never fails to be a surprise no matter how many times I hear it.

DO IT!

why don't we do it now?

I missed this poll but I adore "Jack the Lad", such a gorgeous track (actually, all six are great songs)

Do it indeed. I feel like I've said this before but: "A Man Could Get Arrested" by a wide margin. But probably that mix on the WEG 12".