Very. A blog about Pet Shop Boys.

According to Wikipedia (as of this writing, at least) Paninaro is…

a subculture born in Milan, Italy during the early 1980s at a fast food restaurant called Al Panino (in English: At the Sandwich Shop). The subculture was famous for its apolitical nature and its obsessions with fashion and the United States, contrasting sharply with the hyperpoliticized 1970s. It did develop consequently with the vapid hedonism on the 80s, fostered by reaganomics, thatcherism and deregulation liberalism, reinforced by the diffusion in Italy of privately-owned television channels which vehiculated messages of consumerism and a fetishitic urge of self-affirmation through status symbols.

According to Neil Tennant, he and Chris Lowe had heard about the frowned-upon paninari, young people madly in love with designer clothing and holding a great devotion to new wave records and thought “how fabulous - so do we!” Famously, this is the first song to include Chris Lowe’s vocals, and it was also written primarily by Lowe, originally composed as the backing track for a gay disco record for another Tom Watkins-managed act, The Hudsons. After the initial session recording at Abbey Road, the duo reprogrammed the song with Adrian Cook (who had been attached to the aborted first tour) utilizing sounds from previously-recorded Pet Shop Boys tracks on the Fairlight.

“It was a nightmare, Chris doing his vocal,” Tennant has stated, referring to the fact that Lowe would only do two takes. Lowe’s response? “You know what I’m like.”

One of those songs that pretty much every fan likes, “Paninaro” was featured in the second half of Pet Shop Boys’ recent tour, but let’s take a look at the unreleased live version from the MCMLXXXIX tour:

(And for those of you who are about to say “Hey, the original “Paninaro” wasn’t a single: while it was originally offered up as the B-side to “Suburbia,” “Paninaro” saw a limited-edition single release in Italy, hence its mention here and yes, I’ll probably also discuss the 1995 remix as well when I get around to it. Nyah.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 14th, 2007 at 8:00 pm and is filed under Song Commentary.