Please – Pet Shop Boys (1986)

December 26, 2025

Keyboardist Chris Lowe met vocalist Neil Tennant at a hi-fi shop in London while Tennant was shopping for synth parts, and the two immediately bonded over their love of artists like Soft Cell, Kraftwerk, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, the Human League, and Depeche Mode. So throughout the early 80s, the duo began working on material that would eventually become buffed and polished enough to comprise their debut album, Please (the title of which came from the fact that they wanted fans to go into the record store and say, “Can I have the Pet Shop Boys album, please?”). 

Aside from his time spent making music, Tennant worked as the assistant editor at the British music magazine, Smash Hits – which would be the pathway they needed to shake the right hands and get their material in front of the right people. So after lining up an interview with Sting in New York City, Tennant would meet producer Bobby Orlando and share their demo with him, leading to the recording and release of an early version of “West End Girls.” And despite not initially landing as a commercial success, their debut single would gain some traction as a club hit in Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as a frequently requested track on the Long Island radio station, WLIR.

Tennant and Lowe on stage

Realizing that they had a potential hit on their hands, Tennant and Lowe bought out Orlando and signed with a new label before re-recording their early singles – including “West End Girls” and “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)” – giving them a sleeker and more highly produced sound, and earning some traction in the UK. This early success would lead to the creation of their debut album, in which they wanted to combine the familiar and extremely popular synth pop that had been dominating radio airwaves with some of their italodisco influences as well as the emerging new-school hip-hop sound that was gaining traction across the Atlantic. So in early 1986, Please was released to very positive critical reviews and would chart at #7 in the US – propelled in particular by the mega-success of their two lead singles, “West End Girls” (#1) and “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)” (#7). 

Narratively centered around the duo’s time living in London, the track listing is sequenced to form a story of finding love in the city and eventually leaving for the suburbs. But throughout the album, Tennant’s cynical view of 1980s society drips through the upbeat melodies with the influence of class on romance on “West End Girls,” the rampant materialism and greed in both Ronald Reagan’s America and Margaret Thatcher’s United Kingdom on “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money),” the spiritual death and emotional malaise of living in “Suburbia,” and the rampant crime in major cities on “Violence.” Other tracks on Please focus on more standard pop music themes like love and relationships, with the biggest standout being their homage to the Beach Boys, “Why Don’t We Live Together?” – which not only mirrors the title of “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?,” but also directly lifts the line, “I may not always love you,” from the opening of “God Only Knows.”

Pet Shop Boys looking dapper as ever

As excellent and enjoyable a debut as any of the era, Please cements Pet Shop Boys as one in a long line of the synth pop duos that dominated the 1980s (see: Tears for Fears, Soft Cell, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Eurythmics, etc.). But something about their sound feels refreshingly new compared to some of their predecessors, who at times felt nearly interchangeable from one another – potentially in part due to their subtle incorporation of the fading italodisco perfected by Giorgio Moroder, as well as a light touch of the emerging new-school hip-hop popularized by Run-D.M.C. and LL Cool J in the United States. The result gives a sense of nostalgia for older dance music, the familiarity of staying in the lines of modern day pop, and the innovation of genre crossover with a seemingly incompatible music scene. And Pet Shop Boys’ on-the-nose social commentary makes their debut album even more enjoyable upon multiple listens, making you question the societal norms that you take for granted and contemplate your unflinching conformity to them. Please is the perfect encapsulation of the bloated and gluttonous West in the second half of the 1980s, and the British duo provide the best remedy they can with their infectiously catchy and danceable first record.