Pandemonium

Album: Yes (2009)
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Songfacts®:

  • This upbeat love song is about a lover who brings "chaos every time we meet."
  • Former Smiths and Electronic guitarist Johnny Marr plays both guitar and harmonica on this track.
  • The Pet Shop Boys originally wrote this song about former Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty's tempestuous relationship with supermodel Kate Moss and offered it to Kylie Minogue. However they ended up recording it themselves. Neil Tennant explained to Digital Spy: "It was originally written as a single for Kylie. About two years ago, we were asked in the same month to write songs for Kylie and Madonna. We wrote five songs for Kylie and one of them was 'Pandemonium.' Consequently the song's sung from a woman's point of view and I haven't changed the lyrics. It's sung from Kate Moss's point of view about Pete Doherty, but it's a bit of a cartoon version obviously."
  • Tennant said in The Observer Music Magazine March 2009 that 1960s singer Dusty Springfield was a major influence on him. He explained: "I like that breathy thing. I also like the fact that Dusty used to double-track her records and I like my sound double-tracked. From her, I learned things that had never entered my head; how you arrange a song, how you change the melody at every verse and every chorus, how you give it a climax." Tennant added that at the end of this song, "I finally do a Dusty Springfield. On the last chorus I change the melody and take it up and I thought, 'Wow, I've never done that before - I'm trying to be Dusty!'"
    Springfield teamed up with The Pet Shop Boys on the 1987 hit "What Have I Done To Deserve This?."

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