Very. A blog about Pet Shop Boys.

“Opportunities (Let’s make lots of money)” was the second single released by Pet Shop Boys and served as the second half of the duo’s short-lived relationship with Epic Records¹. The first version, mixed by Bobby Orlando, was never released, replaced with a second mix by J. J. Jeclazik of Art of Noise and producer Nicholas Froome. This remixed version debuted on July 1, 1985 and charted at 116 on the UK charts, signalling an end to the duo’s relationship with Epic¹.

It was the second release of “West End girls,” as produced by Stephen Hague, that prompted yet another mix of the song. This Hague-produced version of “Opportunities” was released on the heels of Please and did significantly better, this time reaching 11th place on the UK chart, 10th on the stateside Billboard Hot 100, and #3 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart issued by Billboard. The most notable change between these versions is the removal of a spoken-word coda to the track, deemed too pretentious after some examination by Tennant and Lowe.

The lyrics, written by Tennant after Lowe suggested they write a song around the line “Let’s make lots of money,” satirize consumer culture and Thatcherism as the narrator attempts to get the listener on board for a get-rich-quick scheme. The monologue of the song is roughly based around Dustin Hoffman’s character in Midnight Cowboy, and Tennant has stated that he’s quite sure that whatever the scheme is, it’s going to fail.

Listeners (particularly in the States) being what they are, many misinterpreted the track as a manifesto for the band, a declaration that they were only in it for the money. Wayne Studer, PhD, believes this perception is one of the earliest indications that Pet Shop Boys would never be fully accepted in America, and it could easily be argued that Americans don’t want to think at all when it comes to their pop music. If a song is not about dancing, loving, or fucking, its chance of chart success is roughly equal to that of a rabbit thrown into a dog cage.

Those that didn’t interpret the song as the band’s mission statement seem to have embraced it as an anthem glorifying their own consumerist greed. The song has served as the opening theme for Beauty And The Geek, an American reality show wherein mismatched couples (a media-friendly version of “attractive” woman and the sort of guy who loves Star Trek more than bathing) are pitted against each other for a cash prize. In addition to this, it was also used for another, more short-lived reality program featuring billionaire Mark Cuban: The Benefactor. Aside from these more prominent placements, it’s also frequently used as “bumper” music during financial reporting on networks such as CNN and FOX News, showing either a heightened sense or irony, or complete cluelessness.

As far as the song itself goes, the production (particularly the Hague version) shows a couple of notable influences: the sharp drums feature a jackhammer beat that’s not a million miles away from the industrial-style percussion used on Depeche Mode’s Some Great Reward, and the cut-and-paste treatment of the sampled background vocals can definitely be linked to Jeclazik’s work with Art of Noise. Working with an already club-friendly track, Shep Pettibone certainly helped elevate second release’s 12″ version to its high placement on the Billboard Dance charts with a smart, propulsive build to the introduction of the constantly-quoted “I’ve got the brains / you’ve got the looks” lyric.

Despite any misunderstanding on the part of listeners, “Opportunities (Let’s make lots of money)” now serves as an early sign that Tennant and Lowe would eventually become the smartest pop songwriting duo of the past three decades.

Favorite Versions: The live one on the Performance tour. Incredible, funny staging. Since YouTube and DailyMotion don’t have that version handy, here’s the live version from Montage, another favorite:

¹We’ll ignore the release of “One More Chance” in three markets, for now. If I can ever bring it upon myself to pick up that horribly-designed ZYX box set, I’ll probably get back to it.

² For completeness’s sake, it should be mentioned that the Jeclazik-produced version was first made available on CD with the out-of-print Essentials compilation from 1998 and can still be had on the remastered 2CD edition of Please.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 8:00 am and is filed under Song Commentary.