#15: Domino Dancing by Pet Shop Boys

City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: December 1988
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #12
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #18
Peak Position on Finland Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Spain Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on Denmark Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Italy Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on West Germany Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Ireland Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Puerto Rico Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Norway Singles chart ~ #5
Peak Position on Sweden Singles chart ~ #5
YouTube: “Domino Dancing”
Lyrics: “Domino Dancing”

The Pet Shop Boys are a duo formed in 1981 by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe. Tennant was born in 1954 in North Shields, Northumberland, England. He attended an all-boys’ Catholic school in Newcastle upon Tyne. He would later write several songs, including “It’s A Sin”, referencing his days at the Catholic school. He taught himself to play guitar and piano, and learned cello in school. In his teens, he played in a folk group named Dust. In the mid-70s, Neil Tennant worked as a production editor with Marvel (Comics) UK. He was responsible for anglicizing the dialogue to suit British spelling. He was offered a job at Smash Hits as news editor of the British teen pop magazine in 1982. He went on to edit The Smash Hits Yearbook from 1982 to 1985.   

Chris Lowe was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, in 1959. From a young age, Lowe learned to play the trombone (which his father also played), as well as piano. Lowe played trombone in a semi-professional seven-piece dance band named One Under the Eight. He was also part of a youth band. In the Pet Shop Boys, Chris Lowe plays keyboards, provides some spoken-word vocals and occasionally is the lead vocalist. However, most of the lead vocals are left to Neil Tennant.

Tennant and Lowe met in August 1981 in Chelsea, London, at the Chelsea Record Centre, on 203 King’s Road. Tennant needed a connector for a Lord MS-10 synthesizer he had purchased, which sparked a conversation with Lowe. Discovering that they had a mutual interest in disco and electronic music, they became friends. In particular, the pair drew inspiration from several synth-pop records, including “Souvenir” by Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark. They say that their band name was taken from friends who worked in a pet shop in Ealing, West London, and were known as the “pet shop boys”.

In 1984, the duo released their debut non-album single titled “West End Girls”. It became a minor hit in both Canada and the UK. It was re-released in 1986 and became an international Top Ten hit in a dozen nations. In addition, the single climbed to number-one in Canada, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, the UK and USA. It was the debut single from the Pet Shop Boys album Please. A followup single, “Love Comes Quickly”, peaked in the Top Ten in New Zealand and Spain. A third track from the album, “Suburbia”, was a Top Ten hit in ten nations in 1986-87. A fourth track, “Opportunities (Lets Make Lots Of Money)” was another international Top Ten hit.

In September 1987, the Pet Shop Boys released their second studio album titled Actually. The lead single was “It’s A Sin”. The single topped the pop charts in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, West Germany and Zimbabwe. In the winter of 1987-88, the duo teamed up with Dusty Springfield to record “What Have I Done To Deserve This?”. The single topped the pop charts in Ireland and Cashbox in the USA. It was also a Top Ten hit in another thirteen countries. The song helped revive Springfield’s career and led to a resurgence of interest in her music.

Next up, the duo released a cover of “Always On My Mind”. The song was first recorded as a minor country hit in 1972. It has been recorded by over three hundred recording artists. Elvis Presley made it a Top Ten country and pop hit in a half dozen nations in 1972. Willie Nelson won three Grammy Awards for his 1982 recording (including Best Country Song and Best Male Country Vocal Performance) which also became a crossover-pop hit. However, the Pet Shop Boys version became the biggest selling version of “Always On My Mind”. It topped the pop charts in Canada, Europe, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and West Germany. It was also a Top Ten hit in at least a dozen more nations.

Two more tracks, “Rent” and “Heart”, were released as singles. Both were international Top Ten hits, but not released in North America. “Rent” reached the Top Ten in Ireland, Switzerland, the UK, and West Germany, #11 in Italy and #12 in Finland. “Heart” climbed to #1 in Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland, the UK, and West Germany. It was also a Top Ten hit in over a half dozen other countries.

In 1988, the Pet Shop Boys released their third studio album titled Introspective. 

The debut single from the album is titled “Domino Dancing”.

Neil Tennant says that the title of this song was inspired during a stay on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. “In the evening there was nothing to do except play dominoes; this friend of ours [their personal assistant and Chris’s roommate, the late Pete Andreas] always used to beat us, and he used to do this celebratory dance.” Despite this prosaic origin, “domino dancing” became Neil’s metaphor for a love relationship breaking down because of jealousy. As he once described it, he “created a scenario of, you know, a guy going out with a beautiful girl and all the guys are looking at her on the beach in her bikini or whatever and they’re all dropping dead before her because she’s so gorgeous and so consequently he gets jealous and the relationship collapses….”

Neil and Chris had traveled to Miami specifically to work with Exposé producer Lewis A. Martineé, whose work they admired, most notably with his highly successful “girl group” Exposé. This track, which exemplifies the ‘eighties electro-Latino musical subgenre commonly known as “freestyle,” was the result.

Continuing with the Latino theme, the accompanying video was set in Puerto Rico—at director Eric Watson’s suggestion—and became notorious for its thinly veiled homoeroticism, despite a heterosexual veneer.

(The final scenes of two shirtless young men—even more obviously posited as “sex objects” than the lovely young woman who served as the ostensible object of their competing desires—tussling among the crashing waves on a beach were frequently cited as evidence by critics).

Dominoes appeared as a game in the 12th Century in China. The game illustrates theories of chance and fate, where each move mimics real-life decisions and their consequences, reflecting the randomness of choices. Dominoes frequently appear in films, television, and literature as symbols of chance, fate, and the unpredictability of life. In Asian cultures, dominoes represent luck and fortune, while in Western contexts, they signify strategy and connection among players. In political science, the Domino Theory presents a metaphor of falling dominoes: that a rise or fall in communist influence in a country will have the same knock-on effect in neighboring countries, and so on.

“Domino Dancing” peaked at #1 in Montreal, #2 in San Francisco, #3 in Houston, #5 in Sacramento (CA), #8 in Atlanta, #9 in New York City, #10 in Seattle, #11 in Norfolk (VA) and Burlington (VT), #12 in Vancouver (BC) and San Jose (CA), and #13 in San Diego and Newport News (VA).

Internationally, “Domino Dancing” peaked at number-one in Finland and Spain, #2 in Denmark, #3 in Italy and West Germany, #4 in Ireland and Puerto Rico, #5 in Norway and Switzerland, #6 in Belgium and Sweden, #7 in the Netherlands and the UK, and #9 in Canada and New Zealand.

The followup single from Introspective was “Left To My Own Devices”. In 1988-89, it became a Top Ten hit in Finland, Greece, Ireland, Spain, the UK and West Germany. A third track, “It’s Alright”, was a Top Ten hit in five nations across Europe.

In 1990, the duo released Behaviour. The debut single, “So Hard”, was a number-one hit in Finland. It also cracked the Top Ten in over ten countries. “Being Boring” was less commercially successful and only made the Top Ten in Finland and Italy. This was followed with “How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?”/”Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You)”. The double-sided single was a Top Ten hit in over ten countries in 1991. “Jealousy” and “DJ Culture” were modest hits in 1991, each cracking a few of the Top Ten charts in Finland and Ireland.

In 1993, the Pet Shop Boys released Very and the hit single “Go West”. It topped the pop charts in Finland, Germany, Iceland, and Ireland. It also cracked the Top Ten in a dozen other countries. However, in the USA “Go West” didn’t crack the Billboard Hot 100, stalling at #106 below the music industry pop chart. Neither did the followup single “Can You Forgive Her?” which stalled at #109, though it made the Top Ten in a half dozen countries in Europe.

In the years that followed, in North America the Pet Shop Boys have charted on the Dance Charts in the USA and Canada. However, their appearances on the pop charts have been mostly in European countries, Australia and New Zealand. In 1999, “I Don’t Know What You Want but I Can’t Give It Any More” climbed to #14 on the Canadian RPM singles chart. And in 2004, “Home And Dry” reached #17 on the RPM Singles chart. In 1995, “Before” topped the Billboard Dance chart in the USA. The Pet Shop Boys repeated the feat on the same chart in 1996 (“To Step Aside”), 1999 (“New York City Boy”),  in 2009 (“Love Etc.” and “Did You See Me Coming”) and in 2016 (“The Pop Kids”).

In 1992, Neil Tennant provided backing vocals for the Boy George hit “The Crying Game”. He has also provided backing vocals for songs recorded by Electronic, Suede, Robbie Williams, DJ Fresh and others. In 2016, he sang a duet with Chrissie Hynde titled “Lets Get Lost”.

Over the decades, the Pet Shop Boys have charted 44 singles into a Top Ten chart in one or more countries. They have released fifteen studio albums, the most recent being Nonetheless in 2024 cracked the Top Ten on the pop album charts in over ten nations. They have sold over 100 million records worldwide.

The Pet Shop Boys have been nominated seven times for Grammy Awards. In Britain, they have won two Ivor Novello Awards: “West End Girls” for International Hit of the Year (1987), and for Outstanding Contribution to British Music (2000). They have received four other Ivor Novello Award nominations.

May 21, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
James Righton, “Being Boring (1990),” A Magazine Curated By, January 20, 2023.
“Pet Shop Boys: History – 1988,” petshopboys.co.uk.
David Bennun, “We Are The Boys,” Guardian, October 3, 1999.
J C Franco, “History of Dominoes (Game): From China to Europe to Worldwide …,” gamesver, January 7, 2024.

CKOI 96.9 FM Montreal (PQ) Top Ten | December 23, 1988