Pet Shop Boys Community

A cute track that they enhanced big time for Disco 3. I didn't feel much about it until the remix hit me. It feels almost imperial.

Here is one of my favorites! Especially the Disco 3 version!

Track 146: The night I fell in love
Chronology: Release - Track 9

It recounts a backstage sexual encounter between a young gay fan and his rap music idol following a concert.
The lyrics directly satirize American rapper Eminem, known at the time for using lyrics considered homophobic.
The track explicitly mentions the name "Stan" ("Hey man, your name isn't Stan, is it?"), a direct reference to Eminem's famous 2000 hit.

I think it's one of the band's worst songs and a real letdown on *Release*.

Bland and cringe. I didn't like it then and I would skip it now anytime. The lowest point in Release and I'd say their career but Winner and Wedding in Berlin are down the line.

To favour this instead of I didn't get where I am today, Always, Between two islands or Sexy northerner was a choice.

I’ve always loved this song. I think it’s both funny and quite touching at the same time. Hearing Neil sing about Dre and his homies and folks is hilarious.

I find the song a bit lame.

It was amusing for the first listen. After that it's just cringey...and that "I was already late for school" line implies a pedophilic line cross I'm quite uncomfortable with.

stussyboy wrote: Fri 10 Jul 2026, 7:46 am I’ve always loved this song. I think it’s both funny and quite touching at the same time. Hearing Neil sing about Dre and his homies and folks is hilarious.

That's two of us that like it!

I think it’s one of the weakest tracks they ever included on an album.
What really blows my mind, though, is how they included this while leaving out the four songs Leonard Pier already mentioned. It’s surreal.

TallThinMan wrote: Fri 10 Jul 2026, 1:58 pm

stussyboy wrote: Fri 10 Jul 2026, 7:46 am I’ve always loved this song. I think it’s both funny and quite touching at the same time. Hearing Neil sing about Dre and his homies and folks is hilarious.

That's two of us that like it!

Make that 3 !

Nope. Absolute cringe. My least favorite PSB track.

I'm not even an Em fan.

ETA: Is the "9 out of 10" thing a subtle reference to the Closer to Heaven song?

Greetings,

Gabby wrote: Fri 10 Jul 2026, 1:12 pm It was amusing for the first listen. After that it's just cringey...and that "I was already late for school" line implies a pedophilic line cross I'm quite uncomfortable with.

Yes. That sums it up well.

And to repeat an old refrain, the fact that a track like this was included on Release over I Didn't Get Where I Am Today is bamboozling.

Retro.

I honestly think The Night I Fell In Love is one of the better, more listenable tracks on a very choppy, poorly produced record (by PSB standards).

It meets the intersection of warm blanket crooning sincerity with a subtext of satire and absolutely has some of their trademark humor. It suffers a bit from the clunky lo-fi production the entire album suffers from, but ultimately is friendlier on the ears than many other tracks.

I understand fans who find it tasteless. Yet, this isn't Neil flailing around doing a Party Song with a good time lyric. This is Neil doing what Neil does, taking on a role, mixing in subversion, yet presenting it sweetly (of course sometimes they present in finger-wagging taunts).

Of the final 4 songs on the album I'll take this over the all consuming depression of LIAC, the oddly demo-ish vocodorized Here, and the well written but ultimately a bit staid You Choose.

And this song gets them a mention/diss/drove over in Eminem's track Can-I-Bitch. One has to wonder what Eminem actually thought of this track.

retrofuturist wrote: Sat 11 Jul 2026, 12:34 am Greetings,

Gabby wrote: Fri 10 Jul 2026, 1:12 pm It was amusing for the first listen. After that it's just cringey...and that "I was already late for school" line implies a pedophilic line cross I'm quite uncomfortable with.

Yes. That sums it up well.

And to repeat an old refrain, the fact that a track like this was included on Release over I Didn't Get Where I Am Today is bamboozling.

Retro.

Bamboozling. The new Pet Shop Boys B-side.

Going through these post-imperial albums is interesting. Bilingual is very good with a couple of duff tracks, Nightlife is a mess and Release a lot better than its reputation deserves.

However, this is truly one of their most awful songs and completely breaks the mood of the album. Neil could get away with writing about U2 or Morrissey as their peer but once he starts bitching about the next generation of pop stars on this or Ego Music, it's all a bit embarrassing. Eminem is releasing great pop singles like Without Me at the same time as you're writing this homoerotic fan fiction.

And he kept complaining about being perceived as a gay band once he'd come out publicly but then they'd put something like this or In Denial on an album. The less coded the songwriting got, the less interesting it became.