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Heart

Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 1987
Original album - Actually
Producer - Andy Richards, Pet Shop Boys
Subsequent albums - Discography, PopArt, Pandemonium, Ultimate, Inner Sanctum, Smash
Other releases - 1988 single (UK #1)

Neil and Chris were aiming for a seventies-style "mega-disco sound" with this track (dig those syndrums!), and many would say they succeeded admirably. Although they had originally considered offering it to British dance diva Hazell Dean, they changed their minds and instead developed it with Madonna in mind. But they decided against submitting it to her as well. (They themselves have suggested that they lacked the nerve to do so.) One can definitely imagine Madonna doing this; it's very much in her late '80s style, which itself often harkened back to the heyday of disco. Neil has also reportedly cited Phyllis Nelson's "I Like You"—a 1985 Shep Pettibone production that hit #1 hit on the U.S. dance charts—as an influence, although the strongest overt connection would seem to be the earlier track's prominent use of syndrums during its instrumental break.

Thematically, "Heart" is simply a confession, "quite sweet and sincere" according to Neil, of how deeply in love the narrator is—his "heart starts missing a beat" every time he sees the object of his affections. Neil has also described it as "a very warm song," and Chris has noted that it's "not ironic at all."

To promote the single (the fourth and final one released from Actually), the Pet Shop Boys starred in what is perhaps their most cinematic short-form video, featuring Ian McKellen as a rather creepy vampire closely modeled on Dracula. The plot of the video is very loosely based on the 1922 silent film classic Nosferatu, itself based on Dracula. Neil appears as a wealthy groom arriving at his castle with his new bride—who, contrary to rumor and occasional report, is not portrayed by the eighties hit singer Tiffany, though the resemblance is striking; the actress's name is Daniela Colić-Prizmic. Chris functions as Neil's chauffeur/valet, playing a rather ambiguous role in the plot. The vampire seduces Neil's young bride and absconds with her, leaving Neil, as he has put it, "bitter and twisted"—an excellent example of that genre of elaborate videos that have only a tenuous connection to the song itself.

As it turned out, "Heart" hit #1 in the U.K. but, curiously, it wasn't even released as a single in the States.

Annotations

According to Neil, the song's "uh-uh-oh-oh-uh" refrain blends his own vocal with that of Wendy Smith of the band Prefab Sprout and a sample of famed opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti's voice. It's one of those otherwise indiscernible things that, had someone in the know not revealed it, would have been lost forever.
One of my site visitors astutely noted in this track the recurring "skipping" (or, to my ears, more like a "stuttering") effect of the percussion, adding an extra rhythmic offbeat, immediately after each time Neil sings the line "My heart starts skipping a beat"—a clever but fairly subtle use of instrumentation to acentuate or reinforce the meaning of the lyric.

Mixes/Versions

Officially released

Mixer: Julian Mendelsohn
- Album version (3:58)
  - Available on Actually and PopArt
- 12" Remix (8:53)
Mixer: Andy Richards and Pet Shop Boys

7" Mix (4:16)
- Available on Discography and Ultimate
Video Mix (4:25)
Disco Mix (8:39)
- Available on the Further Listening bonus disc with the Actually reissue
- Some releases of this mix are shorter, clocking in at approximately 8:28. Tthe longer time on the Further Listening disc is apparently the result of it being slowed-down a bit, causing it to be longer and at a slightly lower pitch; otherwise the recordings are the same.

Mixer: Shep Pettibone

Shep Pettibone Dance Mix (6:12)
Shep Pettibone Dub Mix (5:12)

Mixer: Shep Pettibone and Pet Shop Boys

Shep Pettibone Version (4:12)
- Available on the Further Listening bonus disc with the Actually reissue

Mixer: Stuart Price

Pandemonium CD live version in medley with "More Than a Dream" (4:22)
Inner Sanctum CD live version in medley with "Go West" (7:59)

Mixer: Pete Gleadall
- "Previously unreleased 2021 version" (full length unknown at this time)
  - So far "released" in an abruptly curtailed version (2:35) only on the Boys' official YouTube channel, they began using this mix during the 2023 leg of their Dreamworld Tour.
- "New PSB Version" (3:57)
  - Available on the Furthermore bonus disc accompanying the special expanded editions of Nonetheless

Official but unreleased

Mixer: Stuart Price (?)
- 2009 studio version of mashup with "More Than a Dream" (Magical Dub) for the Pandemonium Tour (4:21)
Mixer: unknown
- "Chris Lowe Monitor Mix" (3:47)
- "First Ruff Vocal Demo" (5:51)
- "First Ruff Instrumental Demo" (4:31)
  - Distributed on Sarm West Demos and other bootlegs; probably early demos that eventually evolved into the song as we know it. The "Chris Lowe Monitor Mix" title, however, was almost certainly fabricated by someone outside the PSB camp. At least four other allegedly "official" demo-type versions have also come to light on bootleg releases.

List cross-references

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