Your Instant Classics

[SmallThinMan]

I'm going to go with 'Footsteps.'

When Nightlife came out I was in hospital having some back operations. I was there for a long time and wasn't aware PSB were releasing another album. It was pretty horrifying and I had to learn to walk afterwards. I was 19 so it all felt a bit like life had stopped. The mother of the patient in the bed next to mine overheard me telling my friends I loved PSB and could they bring me some music in and she brought me her cassette of Nighltife which she'd recorded for me. It ended near the end of New York city boy so I just assumed that was the album sans the rest of that track. When I'd left hospital and learnt to walk well enough to get about I went to HMV and bought the CD and saw that Footsteps was on there. I poured over the lyrics on the bus home and was so excited to hear it.

I got in, put the album on from the beginning and when it got to Footsteps I think I cried. It seemed to sum up the experience I'd had in hospital - missing my mum and dad and hoping they'd 'turn on the welcome light' and it just felt like it was meant to be. When my dad passed away in 2009 the song was all I played, again because the lyrics talk about hoping they'd return and I think at heart i've always been a child who feels afraid. So for me this is a classic song and I fell completely in love with it.

[Straight_Talker]

Gin and Jag
After the event

(Yes, I know they’re not from an album, but I loved these immediately and never tire of them.)

[Drico One]

Recent:

Burn
Bolshy
Intergal
Love etc.

Integral is another of mine. Trevor Horn's production is very 1984 in every sense. The soaring somersaulting synths prior to the final glorious crescendo threaten to implode in a frenzy of bombastic hysteria. Perfect.

Another entry in the Should Have Been the Lead Single file. See also Will-o-the-wisp and Leaving.

Drico.

[Drico One]

I'm going to go with 'Footsteps.'

When Nightlife came out I was in hospital having some back operations. I was there for a long time and wasn't aware PSB were releasing another album. It was pretty horrifying and I had to learn to walk afterwards. I was 19 so it all felt a bit like life had stopped. The mother of the patient in the bed next to mine overheard me telling my friends I loved PSB and could they bring me some music in and she brought me her cassette of Nighltife which she'd recorded for me. It ended near the end of New York city boy so I just assumed that was the album sans the rest of that track. When I'd left hospital and learnt to walk well enough to get about I went to HMV and bought the CD and saw that Footsteps was on there. I poured over the lyrics on the bus home and was so excited to hear it.

I got in, put the album on from the beginning and when it got to Footsteps I think I cried. It seemed to sum up the experience I'd had in hospital - missing my mum and dad and hoping they'd 'turn on the welcome light' and it just felt like it was meant to be. When my dad passed away in 2009 the song was all I played, again because the lyrics talk about hoping they'd return and I think at heart i've always been a child who feels afraid. So for me this is a classic song and I fell completely in love with it.

Lovely post.

Drico.

[jules]

Instant classics are very rare. Maybe king's cross and it's alright.

I think it's interesting too the song that needs several listens until the moment you decide to call it a classic.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

Instantly in awe, from first listen...

Always On My Mind
Left To My Own Devices
Where The Streets Have No Name

Retro.

[james23_uk]

Only been a fan since Very;

Can you forgive her
Go West
The Theatre
For your own good
Integral
All over the world
The way it used to be
Invisible
Burn

Honourable mentions;
Hallo spaceboy
She's Madonna

[TwizzleUK]

Two Divided By Zero
Paninaro (Disco)
King's Cross
This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave
The Theatre
Forever In Love
Closer To Heaver (Nightlife)
Integral + Fugitive
All Over The World
The Last To Die
Burn
Hoping For A Miracle

[lucienchardon]

There are quite a few since they are my favorite band. These come to mind:

West End girls (still remember where I was and what I was doing when I first heard it)
In the night
Paninaro
It's a sin
Left to my own devices
Jealousy
Can you forgive her?
The Theatre
Dreaming of the Queen
Discoteca
I don't know what you want but I can't give it any more
Fugitive
Minimal
Integral
The way it used to be
After the event
The way through the woods (long version)
Axis
Love is a bourgeois construct
The dictator decides
Through you (extended mix)

[telys]

Please: 2/0
Actually: apart from the obvious It's a sin I'd have to say I want to wake up
Introspective: Always on my mind
Behaviour: Oh, there are quite a few: This must be the place... totally resonated with me but the beauty of October symph also and the perfect pop song End of the world

Very: Go West floored me for a few months in '93 but I guess behind all that there was A different point of view lurking
Bilingual: Up Against It
Nightlife: I don't know what you want but I can't give it any more
Release: ?
Fundamental: Minimal... wow it's one of their spotless perfect songs/production
Yes: The dub mixes, remember listening to it for a whole day without interuption in a dark, almost windowless apartment in a dull city far east in Europe and still being happy
Elysium: Leaving
Electric: Thursday
Super: Pop Kids
Hotspot: Hoping for a M
and of course I will fall.... their best song ever.

[telys]

oh forgot: the whole of Disco, all of it!

[telys]

and yes.... Theme for the Pet Shop Boys... (both versions). Classic stuff!

[telys]

and yes.... Theme for the Pet Shop Boys... (both versions). Classic stuff!

[jasonjohn]

There are SO many

I think one clincher for me was hearing Being Boring on he radio, buying the LP - and then being treated to the extended opening sequences and the lovely tones of the synths and being entranced by the unique vocals.... and after that, being hit with the angst of Years... double whammy

(and around the same time to have Streets on the charts, whoa.. it was so different and stylish)

But there are so many.... they just keep coming at you with classic moments

more recently: Love Etc, Breathing Space, Construct, Wisp,.... heaps more, can you tell I'm a fan?

I'm going to go with 'Footsteps.'

When Nightlife came out I was in hospital having some back operations. I was there for a long time and wasn't aware PSB were releasing another album. It was pretty horrifying and I had to learn to walk afterwards. I was 19 so it all felt a bit like life had stopped. The mother of the patient in the bed next to mine overheard me telling my friends I loved PSB and could they bring me some music in and she brought me her cassette of Nighltife which she'd recorded for me. It ended near the end of New York city boy so I just assumed that was the album sans the rest of that track. When I'd left hospital and learnt to walk well enough to get about I went to HMV and bought the CD and saw that Footsteps was on there. I poured over the lyrics on the bus home and was so excited to hear it.

I got in, put the album on from the beginning and when it got to Footsteps I think I cried. It seemed to sum up the experience I'd had in hospital - missing my mum and dad and hoping they'd 'turn on the welcome light' and it just felt like it was meant to be. When my dad passed away in 2009 the song was all I played, again because the lyrics talk about hoping they'd return and I think at heart i've always been a child who feels afraid. So for me this is a classic song and I fell completely in love with it.

That's a very moving story!

Footsteps gets bad press on this forum sometimes, but for me also it's a great track. In the context of "Nightlife", it's like the subject is waking up after experiencing the crazed ups and downs of partying and loving and heartache, and there they are facing a little loneliness but also in touch with his or her feelings enough to know what is important. It's a very warm track, even if melancholy!

[Finn]

As a fan there are many of their songs which I obtain great joy by listening to them. Always on my Mind was the song that made me take notice of the Pet Shop Boys initially and there has been no looking back. But I don't recall my initial reaction to it being one where I stopped and was blown away. There's only one Pet Shop Boys song where I've done this and still have to stop and listen to the song everytime I hear it. That song is "I didn't get where I am Today".

I can remember purchasing the Flamboyant single excitedly and sitting down to listen to it. Obviously I had already heard Flamboyant online and enjoyed it, but when the b-side played, I did sit bolt upright and boy did I listen. And I replayed it. And again. It was so different and catchy, and in my mind an instant classic.

The only other one of their songs which comes even remotely close to that sort of reaction is "Shouting in the Evening".

As much as I enjoy nearly all the Pet Shop Boys catalogue, the songs mentioned above are the ones I've had an immediate reaction to upon hearing them the first time.