One of the world's best-selling music artists, Pet Shop Boys have sold over 100 million records worldwide, and are listed as the most successful duo in UK music history by The Guinness Book of Records.Three-time BRIT Award winners and six-time Grammy nominees, since 1986 they have achieved 42 Top 30 singles and 22 Top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart, including four Number Ones: "West End Girls", "It's a Sin", "Always on My Mind" and "Heart".
At the 2009 BRIT Awards, Pet Shop Boys received an award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. The duo's latest studio album, Yes (continuing their tradition of single word titles) was released on 23 March 2009.
"West End Girls" is a song written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe.It was released twice as a single. It is a synthpop song, influenced by hip hop music. The lyrics focus on class, and inner-city pressure, and were inspired 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 late 1985, the song was re-released, reaching number one in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1986. In 1987, the song won for Best Single at The BRIT Awards, and Best International Hit at the Ivor Novello Awards. In 2005, 20 years later 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.
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