It's Thursday night so it's time for another weekly entry of Reminiscings of Youth, and this duo already has a few entries on KKP under this Label, but that's how good and popular they are. Pet Shop Boys have been one of the anchors for my beloved music of the 1980s.
Reading up on this particular song on Wikipedia, I was surprised that "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" had come out in the mid-1980s. The first version of the song was apparently released in July 1985; I assumed that it had first made its appearance a couple of years earlier because as the very first PSB song that I'd ever heard, I made my first encounter with it as I was in the car listening to the "Top Six at Six" on CFTR-AM when our family was making the weekly drive to Nippon Video to return and rent out new Japanese videos. Indeed I am now aware that their ticket to the big time was "West End Girls" which was an earlier single but for some reason "Opportunities" was the first one for me.
Some months later, I was able to see the music video as shown above for the original version. The practical effects done to Neil Tennant were a bit on the scary side, admittedly, but the song was catchy, and along with Canadian singer Gowan's "A Criminal Mind", "Opportunities" was the first tune that I heard that dealt with planning the so-called perfect crime. Tennant seemed to have the perfect voice for the lyrics: silky and oh-so-slithery, although him and his partner Chris Lowe have stated that the partners-in-crime in the song were total losers, so I'm kinda thinking Harry and Marv from the "Home Alone" franchise.
The original version did very modestly, coming in at No. 116 on the UK charts. On the other hand, its slightly rearranged version which was released in May 1986 with a slightly more strident approach hit No. 11 in Great Britain while reaching No. 10 in the United States and No. 22 in Canada. There was even another music video for this new version which looks like a synthpop band's attempt at Penn & Teller. Strangely enough, I still rather prefer the original 1985 version because it comes off as a bit more sinister.
Now, what was in the Top 10 for July 1985 on Oricon? I have here Nos. 1, 7 and 8.
1. Akina Nakamori -- Sand Beige - Sabaku e (砂漠へ)
7. Ayumi Nakamura -- Tsubasa no Oreta Angel （翼の折れたエンジェル）
8. Anzen Chitai -- Kanashimi ni Sayonara（悲しみにさよなら)
Massive kudos for Pet Shop Boys, J-Canuck. Love the duo as well as the song in question. However, if I were to choose my all-time favourite, it would be "Heart" and "What have I done to deserve this?" (sung together with Dusty Springfield). PSB also had some interesting MVs like the aforementioned Heart and Always on My Mind.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Oliver. I'm sure that Pet Shop Boys will be one of the acts under Reminiscings of Youth that will have the largest number of articles. It would be difficult to come up with a Top 5 for my favourites, let alone THE favourite. "Heart" and "What have I done to deserve this?" were great songs with great videos. I've enjoyed "Heart" because Ian McKellen was in there, too.
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