Guardian 100 Greatest UK No.1's

[Disco.]

Love the boys and love West End girls but it isn't the greatest no. 1 by any stretch. These endless lists are just a means to write about music that's been endlessly written about before. It's a never ending competition with ever changing winners. These regular polls are held precisely in order to undo the one prior to them. It's trashy recycled journalistic crap.

And for what it's worth Bridge Over Troubled Water is a greater song by all criteria.

West End girls is fantastic, first rap nr. 1 i. America ever !

[Disco.]

Love the boys and love West End girls but it isn't the greatest no. 1 by any stretch. These endless lists are just a means to write about music that's been endlessly written about before. It's a never ending competition with ever changing winners. These regular polls are held precisely in order to undo the one prior to them. It's trashy recycled journalistic crap.

And for what it's worth Bridge Over Troubled Water is a greater song by all criteria.

West End girls is fantastic, first rap nr. 1 in America ever !
classic !!

[boyjohn]

Love the boys and love West End girls but it isn't the greatest no. 1 by any stretch. These endless lists are just a means to write about music that's been endlessly written about before. It's a never ending competition with ever changing winners. These regular polls are held precisely in order to undo the one prior to them. It's trashy recycled journalistic crap.

And for what it's worth Bridge Over Troubled Water is a greater song by all criteria.

West End girls is fantastic, first rap nr. 1 i. America ever !

Rapture by Blondie hit number 1 in 1981, although maybe PSB is more of a "rap song with a sung chorus" and Blondies is more of a "sung song with a rap interlude".

[Shopper]

WOW ! am so thrilled and proud as a fan

I think over time, I got a little bored of this, but it truly is their most iconic song. The intro, the melody, the vocals..just sublime
and their new lockdown version has such a cool oomph to it.

Human League's Dont you want me sounds soo good even today! but i always felt it needed another verse? donno why..

and I feel love at #4

[Marie loves PSB]

WOW ! am so thrilled and proud as a fan

Human League's Dont you want me sounds soo good even today! but i always felt it needed another verse? donno why..

I agree - I am well chuffed about it too Shopper. For some reason I have never been keen on Human League's Don't you want me. Then I got in to it much more after listening to The Farm's version - which, is also good.

[Gabby]

Love the boys and love West End girls but it isn't the greatest no. 1 by any stretch. These endless lists are just a means to write about music that's been endlessly written about before. It's a never ending competition with ever changing winners. These regular polls are held precisely in order to undo the one prior to them. It's trashy recycled journalistic crap.

And for what it's worth Bridge Over Troubled Water is a greater song by all criteria.

I'm actually in agreement with you on this. As pleased as I am that the Boys were given the #1 spot in this very skewed list, saying West End girls is the best UK #1 ever is likely off the mark by a fair margin. I'd have been happy to see them in the top 10 or 20, but #1. If I took a look at the list of all UK #1's ever I am sure I could find something that tops West End girls.

Even still, I'm well chuffed - people do need to start to come around to the fact that 30+ years on they are still a force to be reckoned with when it comes to songwriting. Even if you don't like their songs, you'd be hard pressed not to have some level of admiration for their prolific and longstanding work. There's plenty of musical artists out there who I absolutely cannot stand but I would at least give them credit for having talent.

[romy]

What is the problem,that they are Nr.1?

Who says,that Beatles must be Nr.1 or Abba or Madonna etc.....There are a lot of great tracks,which all deserve to be on the top of the spot.

Pet Shop Boys are British Icons,Legends,but some people treat them like a "One-Hit-Wonder".

West End Girls was famous,is famous and will be famous in 2040.....

[dbaseboy]

Completely shocked to read that it was Stephen Hague who played the infamous bass line on West End girls not Chris! Need a lie down after that as all my dreams have been shattered.

[TwizzleUK]

Completely shocked to read that it was Stephen Hague who played the infamous bass line on West End girls not Chris! Need a lie down after that as all my dreams have been shattered.

Where did you read that - may have missed it?

[dbaseboy]

Ah, it’s in the latest Annually.

[glennjridge]

I remember something about them suing someone who implied they didnt play on their own records, but I feel like while reading the remaster booklets from years back it seemed filled with mentions of other people playing on their tunes in the studio.

in fact that one interview with Pete Gleadall he almost straight up said he played alot on their records and that he even compared the PSB records with george michael albums and said he played very little on georges implying to me that with the PSB he played alot.

[Suburban_Boy]

I remember something about them suing someone who implied they didnt play on their own records, but I feel like while reading the remaster booklets from years back it seemed filled with mentions of other people playing on their tunes in the studio.

in fact that one interview with Pete Gleadall he almost straight up said he played alot on their records and that he even compared the PSB records with george michael albums and said he played very little on georges implying to me that with the PSB he played alot.

You're probably thinking about this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/573718.stm

[joe stalin]

Actually ... with the PSB he doesn’t play much

https://petshopboys-online.com/intervie ... recording/


‘It depends on the job. With the Pet Shop Boys, I’m a sound library — I don’t actually play much. I get sounds up for them, record what they do in Logic Audio, and manipulate it for them. I fly vocals in, or tune them. Recently, Neil [Tennant, Pet Shop Boys vocalist] said he wanted that Babylon Zoo vocal sound, from ‘Spaceman’, and I had to get that. Chris [Lowe] will give a very specific list of things he wants: a French horn, a Russian choir, an exploding boiler. He can be quite specific about the kind of sounds he wants, too — he might say ‘Let’s have a 909 bass drum, a house loop, some vibey congas, and a tambourine’ — or he might do it by referring to another record.

[TallThinMan]

Completely shocked to read that it was Stephen Hague who played the infamous bass line on West End girls not Chris! Need a lie down after that as all my dreams have been shattered.

I first learned this years ago, it's come up occasionally over the years. Don't worry, Chris still wrote the bassline! He wanted it to be programmed, I don't know why it wasn't, it sounds like it was anyway. I should imagine that Stephen Hague played it because he was technically a better keyboard player than Chris. He used to be a session musician.

[Patrick Bateman]

This is such an anodyne, predictable list, exemplified by Fat of the Land being on there rather than the far superior Music for the Jilted Generation:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articl ... album-vote