Songfacts®:

• "Disappointed" was the fourth single released by Electronic. It marked Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant's third collaboration with founding members Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner following "The Patience of a Saint" and "Getting Away With It."
• The song's foundation came from a piano riff by Johnny Marr's brother, Ian. Marr and Sumner then built this into a backing track. Recognizing the need for the perfect vocal touch, they brought in Neil Tennant. The Pet Shop Boy, drawing inspiration from Mylène Farmer's 1991 hit "Désenchantée," crafted lyrics about the complexities of love. They explore the hesitancy of falling for someone new, the fear of disappointment battling with a longing for genuine connection.
• "Disappointed" emerged just before New Order started recording their Republic album. The song made its live debut on Electronic's European tour with Bernard Sumner handling vocals in Glasgow and Neil Tennant stepping in during a Pet Shop Boys guest appearance in London.
• Howard Greenhalgh, who also worked with Boy George, Spice Girls, Iron Maiden and Snap, directed the video. The graphic style is similar to the technique he used in Snap's "Rhythm Is A Dancer."
  
  Greenhalgh recalled on Channel 5's Greatest Pop Videos 1992. "For some reason I don't know why we just decided to do this surreal happening in a rape [as in rapeseed] field. I just love the big sea of yellow we have people running in with slow motion flags and very shortly this field just turned to mud, and I'll never forget Neil with plastic bags on his feet, the most unrockstar look in the world."
  
  "There are molecules going on, algebra, maths problems but not quite understanding why," the director added. "People said to me was it the DNA that you were mixing from all these different bands coming together? Nope it was just fancy stuff I wish I had a deeper meaning for that, but I've just don't."
• While Electronic went on to score several more UK hits, "Disappointed" proved to be their last major international success story. The song climbed charts around the world, reaching the Top 20 in Germany, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Sweden. In the UK it became their highest charting single, peaking at #6.
• "Disappointed" was first heard when it featured in the soundtrack for the roundly panned 1992 live-action/animation hybrid mystery movie Cool World. It was released as a single a couple of weeks later.
  
  For fans who wanted "Disappointed" on an Electronic album, they had to wait. It wasn't included on any of the band's releases until the 2006 compilation Get the Message – The Best of Electronic.