Please (Pet Shop Boys album)

Please is the debut studio album by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, released on 24 March 1986 by Parlophone in the United Kingdom and by EMI America Records in the United States. According to the duo, the album's title was chosen so that people had to go into a record shop and say "Can I have the Pet Shop Boys album, 'Please'?".[8] Please spawned four singles: "West End Girls", "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", "Suburbia", and "Love Comes Quickly"; "West End Girls" reached number one in both the UK and the US.

"Two Divided by Zero" redirects here. For dividing by zero in mathematics, see Division by zero.

Please
Original CD cover
2001 remastered album
Studio album by
Pet Shop Boys
Released24 March 1986
Recorded
StudioAdvision (London)
Genre
Length44:02
LabelParlophone
ProducerStephen Hague
Pet Shop Boys chronology
Please
(1986)		 Disco
(1986)
Singles from Please
  1. "West End Girls"
    Released: 28 October 1985
  2. "Love Comes Quickly"
    Released: 24 February 1986
  3. "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)"
    Released: 19 May 1986
  4. "Suburbia"
    Released: 22 September 1986
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Christgau's Record GuideA−[3]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[4]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[5]
Spin Alternative Record Guide8/10[6]
Uncut8/10[7]

Background and composition

Please is musically simpler than, but lyrically just as rich as, Pet Shop Boys' later work. The instrumentals are comparable to other techno pop of this period. As with many early PSB albums, the lyrics were considered androgynous. The stories they contain being equally applicable to gay and heterosexual relationships. Tennant, in particular, enjoyed this ambiguity and refused to comment on his own sexuality until he came out shortly prior to the 1993 release of Very.

The tiny cover photograph enclosed by a sea of white has been seen by some design observers as a reaction to the traditional album cover. With the new CD cases of the time being necessarily smaller than designs seen on 12" albums, the passport-sized photograph is far removed from standard cover artwork. The actual size of the image is the same size as a 35mm photographic negative. Although some commentators have remarked that "Two Divided by Zero" samples a Texas Instruments Speak & Spell toy from the 1980s, this is a myth. Neil Tennant stated in an interview in the BBC Radio documentary About Pet Shop Boys that the sample used on "Two Divided by Zero" was in fact a talking calculator he had bought for his father. The calculator was a Sharp Elsi Mate model EL-640..

Please was re-released on 4 June 2001 (as were most of the duo's studio albums up to that point) as Please/Further Listening 1984–1986. The re-released version was not only digitally remastered but came with a second disc of B-sides and previously unreleased material from around the time of the album's original release. Yet another re-release followed on 9 February 2009, under the title of Please: Remastered. This version contains only the 11 tracks on the original. With the 2009 re-release, the 2001 two-disc re-release was discontinued. On 2 March 2018 a new remastered edition of Further Listening was released, with 2001 edition content.

"Suburbia" was dramatically remixed for the single release.

"Violence" was later re-recorded by the Pet Shop Boys for a charity concert at The Haçienda nightclub in the early 1990s. This version, known as the 'Haçienda version', was released as one of the B-sides to "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing" and was then made available on the B-sides album Alternative and the 2001 Further Listening re-release of the Very album.

The Pet Shop Boys later sampled the Please version of "Love Comes Quickly" for their song "Somebody Else's Business", which appeared on the Disco 3 album.

"Tonight Is Forever" was later covered by Liza Minnelli on the Pet Shop Boys-produced album Results.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, except where noted

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Two Divided by Zero"
3:34
2."West End Girls" 4:45
3."Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" 3:43
4."Love Comes Quickly"
4:19
5."Suburbia" 5:50
6."Opportunities" (reprise) 0:33
7."Tonight Is Forever" 4:31
8."Violence" 4:27
9."I Want a Lover" 4:50
10."Later Tonight" 2:46
11."Why Don't We Live Together?" 4:44
Total length:44:02
Further Listening 1984–1986 (bonus disc)
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."A Man Could Get Arrested" (12-inch B-side) 4:11
2."Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" (full-length original 7-inch) (previously unreleased) 4:36
3."In the Night" 4:51
4."Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" (original 12-inch mix) (previously unreleased on CD) 7:00
5."Why Don't We Live Together?" (original New York mix) (previously unreleased) 5:14
6."West End Girls" (dance mix) (previously unreleased on CD) 6:39
7."A Man Could Get Arrested" (7-inch B-side) (previously unreleased on CD) 4:51
8."Love Comes Quickly" (dance mix)
  • Tennant
  • Lowe
  • Hague
6:50
9."That's My Impression" (disco mix) 5:19
10."Was That What It Was?" 5:17
11."Suburbia" (The Full Horror) 8:58
12."Jack the Lad" 4:32
13."Paninaro" (Italian remix) 8:38
Total length:76:56

Notes
  • "Opportunities" (reprise) is included on the LP version of the album as a hidden track before of the track "Tonight Is Forever", while appearing as a separate track on the CD version.
  • Track 4 on the Further Listening 1984–1986 bonus disc is a previously unreleased mix, different from the actual 12″ version released in 1985 (dance mix) and which reappeared in 1986 (original dance mix).

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Please.[9]

Pet Shop Boys
  • Chris Lowe – sequencer, synthesizer, keyboards, samples, programmer, drum programmer (track 3, 4, 7–9, 11), piano (track 3), electric piano (track 6),
  • Neil Tennant – vocals, keyboards

Additional musicians

Technical
  • Stephen Hague – production
  • David Jacob – engineering
  • J. J. Jeczalik – production (original recording) (track 3)
  • Nicholas Froome – production (original recording) (track 3)
  • Ron Dean Miller – New York overdubs (track 3); production (original recording) (track 11)
  • Pet Shop Boys – production (original recording) (track 9)
  • Blue Weaver – production (original recording) (track 9)

Artwork
  • Eric Watson – cover photograph, inner sleeve photographs
  • Paul Rider, John Stoddart, Brian Aris, Joe Shutter, Ian Hooton, Chris Burscough – inner sleeve photographs
  • Mark Farrow – sleeve design
  • Pet Shop Boys – sleeve design

Charts

Certifications and sales
Certifications and sales for Please
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Brazil — 75,000[30]
Canada (Music Canada)[31] Platinum 100,000^
Hong Kong (IFPI Hong Kong)[32] Gold 10,000*
New Zealand (RMNZ)[33] Platinum 15,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[34] Platinum 300,000^
United States (RIAA)[35] Platinum 1,000,000^
Summaries
Worldwide — 3,000,000[36]

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Notes
  1. "West End Girls"

References
  1. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Please – Pet Shop Boys". AllMusic. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  2. Hunt, Dennis (4 May 1986). "These Boys Aren't the Critics' Pets". Los Angeles Times. 4 May 1986. Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  3. Christgau, Robert (1990). "Pet Shop Boys: Please". Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s. Pantheon Books. p. 313. ISBN 0-679-73015-X. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  4. Larkin, Colin (2011). "Pet Shop Boys". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
  5. Hull, Tom (2004). "Pet Shop Boys". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 630–31. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  6. Sheffield, Rob (1995). "Pet Shop Boys". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. pp. 294–95. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  7. Dalton, Stephen (March 2018). "Pet Shop Boys: Please / Actually / Introspective". Uncut. No. 250. p. 43.
  8. "Pet Shop Boys – History (1986)". PetShopBoys.co.uk. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  9. Please (liner notes). Pet Shop Boys. Parlophone. 1986. CDP 7 46271 2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  10. Kent 1993, p. 232
  11. "Top RPM Albums: Issue 0678". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  12. "European Hot 100 Albums" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 3, no. 21. 31 May 1986. p. 17. OCLC 29800226 – via World Radio History.
  13. Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p. 233. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
  14. "Offiziellecharts.de – Pet Shop Boys – Please" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  15. "Ísland (LP-plötur)". DV (in Icelandic). 23 May 1986. p. 43. ISSN 1021-8254 – via Timarit.is.
  16. "Classifiche". Musica e dischi (in Italian). Retrieved 3 June 2022. Select "Album" in the "Tipo" field, type "Pet Shop Boys" in the "Artista" field and press "cerca".
  17. "Charts.nz – Pet Shop Boys – Please". Hung Medien. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  18. "Norwegiancharts.com – Pet Shop Boys – Please". Hung Medien. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
  19. Salaverrie, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Madrid: Fundación Autor/SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
  20. "Swedishcharts.com – Pet Shop Boys – Please". Hung Medien. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
  21. "Swisscharts.com – Pet Shop Boys – Please". Hung Medien. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  22. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  23. "Pet Shop Boys Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  24. Kent 1993, p. 438
  25. "Top 100 Albums of '86". RPM. Vol. 45, no. 14. 27 December 1986. p. 9. ISSN 0033-7064 – via Library and Archives Canada.
  26. "European Hot 100 Albums – Hot 100 of the Year 1986" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 3, no. 51/52. 27 December 1986. p. 35. OCLC 29800226 – via World Radio History.
  27. "Top Selling Albums of 1986". Recorded Music NZ. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  28. "Top 100 Albums (January to December 1986)" (PDF). Music Week. 24 January 1987. p. 25. ISSN 0265-1548 – via World Radio History.
  29. "Billboard 200 Albums – Year-End 1986". Billboard. Archived from the original on 2 July 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  30. Fucuta, Brenda (9 December 1994). "Discografia marcada pela 'dance music'". Jornal do Brasil (in Portuguese). No. 245. p. 38 – via National Library of Brazil.
  31. "Canadian album certifications – Pet Shop Boys – Please". Music Canada. 23 July 1986.
  32. "IFPIHK Gold Disc Award − 1988". IFPI Hong Kong.
  33. "New Zealand album certifications – Pet Shop Boys – Please". Recorded Music NZ. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
  34. "British album certifications – Pet Shop Boys – Please". British Phonographic Industry. 12 January 1987. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  35. "American album certifications – Pet Shop Boys – Please". Recording Industry Association of America. 29 September 1986. Retrieved 12 April 2012.
  36. Freeman, Josh (19 May 2011). "A Lot Of Opportunities: Pet Shop Boys' Please Revisited". The Quietus. Retrieved 24 November 2019.

Bibliography
  • Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
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