Video hit Pet Shop Boys

Pet Shop Boys - Rent (1987)

The lyrics are commonly thought to deal with a financially one-sided relationship, i.e. that of a kept man, the title implying more specifically the lot of a rent boy.

Neil Tennant, however, stated in the Actually: Further Listening liner notes: "I've always imagined it's about a kept woman, and I always imagined it set in America. I vaguely thought of one of the Kennedys, for some reason, and imagined that this politician keeps this woman in a smart flat in Manhattan, and he's still got this family, and the two of them have some [sort] of relationship and they do love each other but it's all kind of secret..."

It peaked at number 8 in the British charts. Producer Stephen Hague remixed the song for single release.

The video for the song was directed by Derek Jarman. It features two intercut storylines. One, filmed in black and white, shows Chris Lowe arriving at King's Cross station by train and walking past various low-life characters. The other, filmed in colour, features Margi Clarke as the partner of a wealthy man (played by Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath), who is hosting a dinner party. The lyrics are sung by Tennant, who plays her chauffeur. The woman becomes annoyed when the man pays her no attention. She then gets Tennant to drive her to King's Cross. There, she meets Chris Lowe on the platform and they embrace.

Cover versions

Serbian punk rock band KBO! recorded a version on their 2001 cover album (Ne) Menjajte Stanicu (Do Not) Change the Station).

In 2007, Thirteen Senses covered the song to be placed on preloaded iPod Nano. These were then given away as prizes at their May 2007 tour of the UK.

"Rent" has been performed live by Neil Tennant with Suede and has also been covered by Carter USM and Liza Minnelli on her 1989 album Results.

In 2002, the German ska-band Frau Doktor covered "Rent". It was released on their album Penner Superdisco. 

UK electro pop singer/songwriter Alexander Price recorded a cover version of Rent which was released as a digital download in September 2010.

British indie rock band Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine released a cover of Rent as a b-side on their single "Rubbish" in 1990.

Field Music recorded a cover of this, along with "Heart" for their 2012 Record Store Day release, actually, nearly.

The lyrics:

You dress me up, I'm your puppet

You buy me things, I love it

You bring me food, I need it

You give me love, I feed it

And look at the two of us in sympathy

With everything we see

I never want anything, it's easy

You buy whatever I need

But look at my hopes, look at my dreams

The currency we've spent

(Ooooh) I love you, oh, you pay my rent

(Ooooh) I love you, oh, you pay my rent

You phone me in the evening on hearsay

And bought me caviar

You took me to a restaurant off Broadway

To tell me who you are

We never-ever argue, we never calculate

The currency we've spent

(Ooooh) I love you, oh, you pay my rent

(Ooooh) I love you, you pay my rent

(Ooooh) I love you, oh, you pay my rent

I'm your puppet

I love it

And look at the two of us in sympathy

And sometimes ecstasy

Words mean so little, and money less

When you're lying next to me

But look at my hopes, look at my dreams

The currency we've spent

(Ooooh) I love you, oh, you pay my rent

(Ooooh) I love you, you pay my rent

(Ooooh) Ooh, I love you, you pay my rent

Look at my hopes, look at my dreams

The currency we've spent

(Ooooh) I love you, oh, you pay my rent

(Ooooh) I love you, you pay my rent

Look at my hopes, look at my dreams

The currency we've spent

(Ooooh) I love you, oh, you pay my rent

(Ooooh) I love you, you pay my rent

(Ooooh) I love you, you pay my rent (It's easy, it's so easy)

(Ooooh) You pay my rent (It's easy, it's so easy)

(Ooooh) You pay my rent (It's easy, it's so easy)

(Ooooh) I love you (It's easy, it's so easy)

(It's easy, it's so easy)

(It's easy, it's so easy)

(It's easy, it's so easy)

(It's easy, it's so easy)

(It's easy, it's so easy)

(It's easy, it's so easy)

Eros si Thanatos cu Pet Shop Boys?

Pet Shop Boys - Domino Dancing 

"Domino Dancing" is a song recorded by the British synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys which reached #7 on the UK Singles Chart.

It was released as the lead single from their 1988 album, Introspective.

Written by Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant, and influenced by Latin pop, the song was produced by Lewis A. Martinée, the Miami-based producer behind 1980s freestyle groups like Exposé.

The song was also recorded at Martinée's studio in Miami, resulting in a considerably large number of studio musicians for a Pet Shop Boys song being featured on it.

The duo had achieved three number ones in 1987–1988 and "Domino Dancing" was expected to continue this success. But the public reception to the duo's new Latin sound proved disappointing. Tennant remembers: "...it entered the charts at number nine and I thought, 'that's that, then - it's all over'. I knew then that our imperial phase of number one hits was over."

The single missed the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #18, and was the duo's sixth and, to date, last Top 20 pop hit in the USA.

The song did reach #5 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, where the duo have seen more consistent success.

Music video

The "Domino Dancing" music video was directed by Eric Watson and was director's sixth of the 11 collaborations he had with the band.

The storyline is about a love triangle between two attractive young men who are fighting over one girl. Rolling Stone magazine calls the video "probably the most homoerotic pop video ever made", citing the slow-motion shots of the boys wrestling on the beach: “As such, the video exemplified the mainstream exploitation of gay sex in the Eighties, most evident in Calvin Klein ads and feature films like Top Gun. Unfortunately, "Domino Dancing" was every bit as dishonest, titillating the straight world with images it could never acknowledge, then doubling the repression by keeping openly gay expression closeted.” — Jim Farber, "Beyond the Big Hair – Video News and Notes", Rolling Stone magazine, 14–28 December 1989, page 235.

The video was filmed in about four days in the old colonial district of San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1988. One of the locations that was featured in the music video is the Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery.

All the actors were Puerto Rican; the two boys were David Boira and Adalberto Martinez Mojica and the girl was Donna Bottman, who was an aspiring actress and model. All of them were cast by the Pet Shop Boys.

Cast:

• Chris Lowe as Himself
• Neil Tennant as Himself
• David Boira as Boy
• Adalberto Martinez Mojica as Boy
• Donna Bottman as Girl

The lyrics:

(All day, all day)

I don't know why, I don't know how

I thought I loved you but I'm not sure now

I've seen you look at strangers too many times

The love you want is of a different kind

Remember when we felt the sun

A love like paradise, how hot it burned

A threat of distant thunder, the sky was red

and where you walked you always turned every head

(All day, all day) Watch them all fall down

(All day, all day) Domino dancing

(All day, all day) Watch them all fall down

(All day, all day) Domino dancing

I thought that when we fought I was to blame

but now I know you play a different game

I've watched you dance with danger still wanting more

Add another number to the score

(All day, all day) Watch them all fall down

(All day, all day) Domino dancing

(All day, all day) Watch them all fall down

(All day, all day) Domino dancing

When you look around you wonder

Do you play to win

or are you just a bad loser?

(All day, all day) Watch them all fall down

(All day, all day) Domino dancing

I don't know why, I don't know how

I thought I loved you but I'm not sure now

I hear the thunder crashing, the sky is dark

and now a storm is breaking within my heart

(All day, all day) Watch them all fall down

(All day, all day) Domino dancing

(All day, all day) Watch them all fall down

(All day, all day) Domino dancing