What have Seriously done to deserve this?

[Drico One]

As for 'Seriously', the BIR 7" mix/edit is one of their finest sonic achievements

dVTB? Is that you?

Arf! One for the old school...

[Drico One]

Is there a good reason why they released 'Was It Worth It' as a standalone CD single, or has this ever been discussed? I've always liked it, and I still love it to this day. The video clip is lovely, too. They both look great in it, don’t they?

It was typical enough, at the time, for an act to include new songs on any greatest hits compilation they released. Tina Turner had her greatest hits out at the same time with three new songs on it. Obviously, as new songs on a greatest hits record like Discography, they had to be singles too. So, Was it worth it? wasn't standalone per se. It was the second of Discography's new singles. But while DJ culture was "new" because it was previously unreleased when it preceded the compilation, Was it worth it? was sent out to bat as a single in its "old" form - as it had to if it was on a singles collection. By then they were a fanbase-only act anyway, so it's arguable that not having a remixed 7" had any impact sales-wise.

I suppose you could argue a new song on the compilation would attract buyers. I know that it was the first song I listened to when I bought Discography that November. But then, as fans, having singles on CD for the first time was enough of an attraction for many...

Drico.

[TwizzleUK]

Obviously, as new songs on a greatest hits record like Discography, they had to be singles too. So, Was it worth it? wasn't standalone per se. It was the second of Discography's new singles. But while DJ culture was "new" because it was previously unreleased when it preceded the compilation, Was it worth it? was sent out to bat as a single in its "old" form - as it had to if it was on a singles collection.

And yet, when they did a similar thing with 'Miracles' coming out before 'PopArt', and 'Flamboyant' coming afterwards, 'Flamboyant' did get a new single mix that was different to the version on the "greatest hits" collection of singles. But then, the original UK release of PopArt incorrectly featured the album version of 'Heart' rather than the single mix!

[NotInvisible]

Ab Fab doesn't even appear in the upcoming "Volume"

This kind of revisionism is absurd. It was a (hit) single, it appears on Various, Disco 2 and some releases of Yesterday, When I Was Mad... it's obviously a Pet Shop Boys track. ...Seriously? is a double A-side, with a video, remixes and everything. It's a single. Both tracks should be on Smash etc. Is Absolutely fabulous really not in Volume? That's dumb.

But then again this is the same group that ignores its first two singles in the official history, because they didn't chart well.

FWIW I think ...Seriously? fits on Behaviour nicely if you use the video mix, and I think Absolutely fabulous is a lot of fun and the people who moan about it being a charity single (the only way they could license the clips) are being a bit Victor Meldrew about life.

[Patrick Bateman]

This kind of revisionism is absurd. It was a (hit) single, it appears on Various, Disco 2 and some releases of Yesterday, When I Was Mad... it's obviously a Pet Shop Boys track. ...Seriously? is a double A-side, with a video, remixes and everything. It's a single. Both tracks should be on Smash etc. Is Absolutely fabulous really not in Volume? That's dumb.

But then again this is the same group that ignores its first two singles in the official history, because they didn't chart well.

FWIW I think ...Seriously? fits on Behaviour nicely if you use the video mix, and I think Absolutely fabulous is a lot of fun and the people who moan about it being a charity single (the only way they could license the clips) are being a bit Victor Meldrew about life.

Still waiting for it to come up on the Please to Nonetheless thread but it's the worst thing they ever did. From being a pretty much perfect pop group whose sole mis-step at the time was considered to be their film, they released a half-arsed 'comedy' charity single. Rather than parody europop, they should have released their own take on it - instead they did this and covered Mr Vain. It also heralded Showbiz Neil, the name-dropping national treasure who blossomed in the latter part of the 1990s.

Of course I can kind of see why they did it. Chris was clearly in a pretty dark place and you can associate it with the Discovery tour in terms of liberating them from the group they were before. But it definitely lessened them.

[Drico One]

Obviously, as new songs on a greatest hits record like Discography, they had to be singles too. So, Was it worth it? wasn't standalone per se. It was the second of Discography's new singles. But while DJ culture was "new" because it was previously unreleased when it preceded the compilation, Was it worth it? was sent out to bat as a single in its "old" form - as it had to if it was on a singles collection.

And yet, when they did a similar thing with 'Miracles' coming out before 'PopArt', and 'Flamboyant' coming afterwards, 'Flamboyant' did get a new single mix that was different to the version on the "greatest hits" collection of singles. But then, the original UK release of PopArt incorrectly featured the album version of 'Heart' rather than the single mix!

Yeah, the old quality control and tight career management was a thing of the past by then. PopArt was a mess.

[telys]

Ab Fab doesn't even appear in the upcoming "Volume"

This kind of revisionism is absurd. It was a (hit) single, it appears on Various, Disco 2 and some releases of Yesterday, When I Was Mad... it's obviously a Pet Shop Boys track. ...Seriously? is a double A-side, with a video, remixes and everything. It's a single. Both tracks should be on Smash etc. Is Absolutely fabulous really not in Volume? That's dumb.

But then again this is the same group that ignores its first two singles in the official history, because they didn't chart well.

That's it. The revisionism. Quite sad actually. AC/DC have done the same thing with their first album and single. The first single was with another singer than Bon Scott and was sort of glam rock. The first album feature an extremely non-typical AC/DC-song "Love Song" which I believe was released as a single in Australia. All this is never spoken about because it doesn't fit with the AC/DC-mythology.

[telys]

Is there a good reason why they released 'Was It Worth It' as a standalone CD single, or has this ever been discussed? I've always liked it, and I still love it to this day. The video clip is lovely, too. They both look great in it, don’t they?

It was typical enough, at the time, for an act to include new songs on any greatest hits compilation they released. Tina Turner had her greatest hits out at the same time with three new songs on it. Obviously, as new songs on a greatest hits record like Discography, they had to be singles too. So, Was it worth it? wasn't standalone per se. It was the second of Discography's new singles. But while DJ culture was "new" because it was previously unreleased when it preceded the compilation, Was it worth it? was sent out to bat as a single in its "old" form - as it had to if it was on a singles collection. By then they were a fanbase-only act anyway, so it's arguable that not having a remixed 7" had any impact sales-wise.

I suppose you could argue a new song on the compilation would attract buyers. I know that it was the first song I listened to when I bought Discography that November. But then, as fans, having singles on CD for the first time was enough of an attraction for many...

Drico.

Well, one new song, in this case DJ Culture, would've been enough and that would've given space for Seriously. And the buyer of Discography would get two new tracks anyway because Streets was a non album track from '91. So basically Discography has three new tracks: DJC, Was it worth it? and Streets. That's one too many,

[minimal]

Obviously, as new songs on a greatest hits record like Discography, they had to be singles too. So, Was it worth it? wasn't standalone per se. It was the second of Discography's new singles. But while DJ culture was "new" because it was previously unreleased when it preceded the compilation, Was it worth it? was sent out to bat as a single in its "old" form - as it had to if it was on a singles collection.

And yet, when they did a similar thing with 'Miracles' coming out before 'PopArt', and 'Flamboyant' coming afterwards, 'Flamboyant' did get a new single mix that was different to the version on the "greatest hits" collection of singles. But then, the original UK release of PopArt incorrectly featured the album version of 'Heart' rather than the single mix!

Yeah, the old quality control and tight career management was a thing of the past by then. PopArt was a mess.

Nevertheless, the single version of 'Flamboyant' far surpasses its somewhat demo-like counterpart on the original PopArt release.

m+

[Drico One]

Nevertheless, the single version of 'Flamboyant' far surpasses its somewhat demo-like counterpart on the original PopArt release.

m+

Remixed singles usually do - or did.

Suburbia, Rent, Heart, Left to my own devices, It's alright... I'd say the Jealousy single was better too. I wouldn't normally do is more debatable. I think it lost something in the horns and bombast of the 7", but it depends on my mood. A red letter day never sounded right in any version.

Drico.

[NotInvisible]

Still waiting for it to come up on the Please to Nonetheless thread but it's the worst thing they ever did.

Nah. You'd be raving about it if they'd skipped the samples and stuck it on Relentless.

From being a pretty much perfect pop group whose sole mis-step at the time was considered to be their film, they released a half-arsed 'comedy' charity single.

It takes a certain kind of fan to categorize a #6 chart hit as a mis-step. It's also a bit misleading to focus on the charity angle when we know it was the only way to clear the samples, and not actually an example of why they previously criticized bands who jumped on charity bandwagons.

It's a fun track that's in keeping with the era around it. They've got much, much worse in their catalogue.

[Patrick Bateman]

It takes a certain kind of fan to categorize a #6 chart hit as a mis-step.

A fan with taste?

[Patrick Bateman]

Remixed singles usually do - or did.

Suburbia, Rent, Heart, Left to my own devices, It's alright... I'd say the Jealousy single was better too. I wouldn't normally do is more debatable. I think it lost something in the horns and bombast of the 7", but it depends on my mood. A red letter day never sounded right in any version.

Suburbia was definitely the template for this. It's one of the things I miss about modern PSB - single mixes are edits now, rather than remixes.

[tottenhammattspurs]

So songs that they pretend don’t exist:-

Bobby O era West End girls and OMC
How can you expect to be taken seriously? Absolutely fabulous, burning the heather, she’s Madonna, Dj culturemix, break 4 love, integral. Have I missed any…..?

[NotInvisible]

A fan with taste?

Do you know of one?