This is the original 1984 recording of 'West End Girls' by Pet Shop Boys, released on the Bobcat label and produced by Bobby Orlando. It is significantly different to the 1985 re-release which went on to become a worldwide smash-hit.
I had this version; I would play it on my 100-watt Stereo System. I would crank up the bass and volume and it was like I was in a Club in Hollywood. I have always liked the Pet Shop Boys from the start. I worked at Clothing Store in the 80's in Downtown Los Angeles, we had a DJ play dance music while customers shopped. It was called the Factory with the trendiest clothes at that time. My co-workers and I would hit the clubs in Hollywood after we clocked out. Saturday Night and Sunday nights. Awesome Memories!! Now 67 and chillin like a Villin.
I'm 49 now (turning 50 this year) but I feel you, the 80s were awesome, always wondering what the future might bring, now lots of people would love to go back to the 80s... oh well, glad to have lived through the 80s 😎😍
@@Garrett1974 Those were the best times for me. Sorry to say now some of my friends are no longer with us. I had an 86 Trans Am at the time living in the fast lane and blasting Pet Shop Boys or Depeche Mode.
I'll always have soft spot for this version. The production on the later version is clearly superior in a broad sense. But this version is a darker, grittier, edgier version that resides in the musical underground. This version is somewhere on the path to things like Nine Inch Nails. I remember being so confused when the newer version came out but I came to love it also. It has a timeless sound. This one will always be the cooler version.
I remember being confused why the song was no.1 after hearing this .... years later I hear the version that carried it to no.1 and understood its charm without realising that its different from the one I heard earlier ... but now revisiting this version that I used to disliked I do find something rather atmospheric about this version ... its that 80s vibe.... love both versions now/.
There I was, 24 years old,1984, at a club called The Red Onion in West Covina, Ca. And there before me were beautiful latinas, from Whittier, from East LA, from Pico Rivera, from Montebello, from Pomona....latinas with olive skin, heavy eye-shadow and big hair...... and they danced and moved illuminated by the multi-color and strobe lights which cut thru the dance floor machine-induced fog, and this song was playing....it was magic, and I was there....
A masterpiece of dancesynth from Bobby Orlando which brought them closer to the stars 18 months later in 1985 but I do love this version very much. It's so filled with beatiful sound riffs and wonderful emotionel takes all through the song ❤👌🤗🙏🎶 love from Denmark in copenhagen 🇩🇰🙏
Yesss the original mix! We used to dance to this in the clubs a few years before they released the other version on Please. I always thought this version was superior. It's nice to hear it again.
Im not a record enthusiast by any means but my Dad just gave me his original pressing of this song. Growing up he would always play this for me, and yes it’s the superior version.
This version had moderate success in Europe, but it fizzled in the US. It took about five different versions before The Pet Shop Boys got it right for American tastes.....and it paid off! It went to #1 on Billboard Hot 100 charts in the summer of 1986, paving the way for more hits to follow.
Actually it was a modest club hit in the US, and in particular San Francisco. While it also did ok in some european countries, that did not include UK. It was way more successful in the US than in UK.
This version sounds so mechanical...the first time i heard the pet shop boys, my friend told me, "I got this song i recorded on cassette called West end Girls, from the Pet Shop Boys, you are going to love it" He played me the song and I fell in love with it, but it was the 2nd version produced by Stephen Hague. I went and bought the cd and fell in love with all the songs...The 2nd Album was even better and the 3rd, 4th, 5th were amassing, but best of all was when I met them in person...
I never knew they released two different versions of this. I really like this version, it helped me clear up my misunderstood lyrics. I always thought he said “West End town the damn walls, The East End boys and West End girls”. 🤣
I remember I downloaded the original one by accident, and it just felt so soothing to the soul that when I lost I immediately went to re-download it again. Unfortunately, I kept on coming across the newer, more polished version, and for some reason it just didn't feed my ears the way this version does. This one has more emotion behind it, imo, like it was made strictly for himself and we were just accidental participants in his own personal music. The other version is clearer, but the extra polish it has dilutes the spirit in it, like now the artist knows ppl like it and tried to have it appeal to the masses. Of course, just my opinion
I'm with YOU Freeze!! I was in my early 20s when this song VERSION came out; it was THE only version, for a while. At the dance bars, it was the bomb!! THIS version is the BEST!
A resounding NO. A curious early version for sure, but no such early version could ever surpass the final, "Please" version which was audibly brought to its level of a great pop song that stood the test of time.... On this one, it is very audibly something is in the making - interesting to hear where it came from but this is so hopelessly dated, and a lot of empty spaces where they (or Bobby Orlando?) desperately toy with samples to fill it in which only adds to its absolute tediousness... sorry.
I finally found a pristine copy of the Bob Cat Label. Steal for $4. I also still have my original EMI U.S. 12" with the 9:31 dub & 6:31 Extended Version and Love Come Quickly 12" single.
I still have the West End Girls 45 on EMI America B-8307 from 1985 my freshman year backed with A Man Could Get Areested. I was extra keen on music and knew it could be a hit. Because I hadn't seen the video, I thought this was a girl singing and talking about their friends like Bananrama. The production on this stands the test of time, an irresistable dance track.
This version was the one that dance clubs played in Southern California and on KROQ in LA. To me, it's far better than the watered down, boring radio friendly release that came out a couple years later as it's more raw, punchy, and eclectic. This version battled "Relax" by FGTH and "White Lines" by Grandmaster Flash for dance floor supremacy anywhere you'd go!
I remember this being played on 91X (San Diego) in 1984. In my mind, this was an "underground" song and I didn't think it could ever become a hit (I loved the song, BTW). To my surprise, it became a hit song 2 years later.
@@91dodgespiritrt The original doesn't suck. It was meant to be played at the dance clubs. Both this and the 1985 version are legendary and stand on their own.
I remember hearing this for the first time on WLIR. It was a frigid, February morning during my winter recess doing some homework. I much prefer this mix over the re-release in 1985.
Thank you Mark!!!! I love the Pet Shop Boys and I never heard this version! I had no idea this existed, I'm from NYC and they never played this version back in 1984.
Was dancing the clubs in North Jersey back then. This song was one to move to for sure. What a great time for that type of music. Thanks for posting it!
Going to the clubs at that time, this WAS the original, there WAS no other version... and not for nearly one to two years later. This version sounded GREAT in the clubs; so different from all the other music at that time. This version really stood out and was loved by all. When Please came out, I was PISSED this version wasn't anywhere on the album, and instead, there was some new "jazzed-up" version. All the memories and fun was of this version. Many others I knew felt slighted also. I looked for this version for years (before the Internet), and could never find it. In fact, I never heard it again, anywhere, after the release of Please. : ( I began to think it never existed, and maybe some copy-cat group or DJ had made this version. However... There is no denying the fact that the later rendition of the song was in fact... way better. They had recorded most (if not all) of the other songs from Please (and some others), in this 1984 version style, most all of the parts actually were played and recorded by Bobby Orlando, and not the "Boys". The original 1984 version WAS what launched The Pet Shop Boys, and no one should forget that! A lot of debt and respect is owed to this ORIGINAL version, and again, it was the only version at first. When it hit the clubs, people went wild for it! It was a huge club hit. I honestly wonder if they would have made as big a splash and become as successful as they have, had it not been for this first original version wetting club goers lips and paving the way of anticipation to the re-recorded versions? The '85, '86 versions sound much more like all the other New Wave music of that time, and I really wonder if the song would have popped if the '85 version had been released instead of the '84 version? ; ) Interesting.
The original version is more political and European. The newer version is more of a love song and doesn't have the politics of the original (so its perfect for America.) That line about Joseph Stalin makes all the difference. Because of my age and where I grew up I only heard the second version, and now I'm glad I know the history because it always seemed like there was more than meets the eye to that song. Thank you for telling us the history.
Yep, when the album came out with the new version, I was so mad that I immediately gave the whole album to my younger brother. Salt and Pepa's 'Push It' (played in clubs about a year or two later) also has a simpler, but better, original mix.
in 85 i lived in Beaumont and there was this club called Rosedale's that was the only place that had a DJ who was halfway ahead of the curve. this was the version we heard there and that's the only place i ever heard it.
I agree totally with you! This is ONE AND ONLY original version of this song. However, I didn't hear it in clubs, but it was being played on W-Lir 92.7 The Station That Dares To Be Different here in NYC.
What! Never heard this version before. We went nuts in the 80's over the shorter version. This is absolutely sick! They know they're fass. Thanks for uploading.
The broken glass and the guttural moans (in echo) make this the definitive version for me. Its rawness and incompleteness make it that more powerful and haunting. PSB on the ascendant... So emotive of urban decay and malaise. Thank you forever.
The best version of this song. A big hit in Toronto when it was released and played extensively on radio station CFNY at the time. Didn't become a world-wide hit until the reworked version was released almost two years later. Rarely heard nowadays. Thanks for posting it!
As a fellow native Torontonian I 300% agree... the sound of this song on the (original) Richard Long Twilight Zone sound system ...insanely good. Though the remake is "feels" less intance, it also seems to flow a bit better as being slower, there's a more natural (less forced) vocal delivery in the rap/singing. Love both versions for different reasons 🎵♥️🔥👊🏾🎶
I remember when I heard this song on WBBQ [when I listened to that station] on the 80's block and I loved it the first time I heard it. This version is so much better than that first version. I never heard that first part before and that's the best part of the song! It's just beautiful. I repeat this song multiple times. I love the 80's!
This is very cool - hearing it for the first time now. I don't recall hearing it on the radio back in '84 in South Africa, but I definitely remember the '86 charting version. Fantastic reading people's comments and recollections here. The PSB have certainly come a very long way.
This version's edgy sound effects could be added to the 1985 version's more sophisticated instrumentation. And then wow. But I fell in love with this song the first time it premiered on MTV. I still remember the scene and where I was. That was along time ago now.
This was the superior version of this song. It should never have never been remixed after. I have this on 12" vinyl from 1985 and would not trade this for the toned down album version. Orlando did a great mix with this song. Needs more "cowbell"!!!!
cuando escuché este tema estaba en el seminario, estudiando para ser cura que hoy lo soy y me gustó muchísimo y toda la discografía y me trae muy buenos recuerdos de mi juventud y que era como una cábala cada vez que iba a rendir y lo sigue siendo en mi tarea pastoral, que Dios bendiga a cada uno que lo escuche gracias
Happy memories i have of this, iloved it from the start...No one seemed to pay any attention to this version but i kept playing it on the disco as DJ and then when it faded away almost forgotten, then it came out again in 1985 remixed and re-produced - Thank you PSB!!
I agree, the beat on this song was awesome, and would get people to dance. At that point, the Pet Shop Boys era began...and, thirty years later, their music is still popular! Loved the lyrics on this version.
meu grande amigo vejo sempre seus comentários , em todos os vídeos dos Pet Shop boys, também sou muito fã desde criança , me adiciona no Facebook Rodrigo navarro
XD, wow! This was actually the first version I heard of West End Girls when I my dad played it on his big sound system while I was playing with my legos with my cousin back in like 2008. Quickly fell in love with it.
I had never heard this particular version of the song, and I must say I loved it! I gave it five stars and added it to my favorite list. This song is a testament to the greatness of the fabulous '80s, music-wise.
Now I listen to Hot Since 82 a Dj from the U.K. I listen to all his live mixes from Ibiza, Croatia, and the best one live at the Lagoon in Argentina on RU-vid. He was at Coachella last year.
This is THE version I prefer. Because it got a lot of radio play in my area. So it did the full rise and fall as any other hit. So I was surprised when it came back a year later, and sounded different. I wasn't as crazy about the later remix, I found it lost its edge.
Great time to be alive and enjoy the music. I was 24 and just recovering from a middle ear virus that had made my young life dull for five years. The music was a great help.
Gracias por subir el remix original lo recuerdo perfectamente pues aqui en Monterrey Mexico habia programas de radio espacializados en este tipo de Mixes 5*
![West End Girls [Original 1984 version] - Pet Shop Boys](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
