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Paninaro

Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 1986
Original album - Disco
Producer - Pet Shop Boys
Subsequent albums - Alternative, Please 2001 reissue Further Listening 1984-1986 bonus disc
Other releases - b-side of 1986 single "Suburbia"; released as a single in its own right in some countries; reworked as the later single "Paninaro '95"

The 7" version of this track previously appeared as the b-side of the "Suburbia" single. It was also released as a single in its own right in Italy, where this song has its thematic roots. Italy in the early 1980s boasted a "youth cult" consisting primarily of young men dedicated to fashionable clothes (particularly baggy jeans), Timberland boots, motor scooters, and large sandwiches known as "panini" (the plural of "panino"). These youngsters were referred to as "paninari"—or singular "paninaro."

Chris learned of this phenomenon while in Italy promoting "West End Girls," and a bizarre sequence of events then led to the creation of this cult classic in tribute to it. He and/or Neil had mentioned their interest in the "Paninaro cult" to a journalist friend, Peter Martin, who then made note of it in a Rolling Stone article about them. Another journalist, Dylan Jones, had apparently heard about this second-hand and subsequently misconstrued the Boys' interest sufficiently to state in an article for i-D magazine that they had written a song called "Paninaro." But at that point they hadn't yet done so! Our heroes read the Jones article and felt that, error notwithstanding, it was a terrific idea. So they took a track that they had already been working on—more about that in a moment—in which Chris listed his own particular loves and obsessions (including specific fashion designers and "girls, boys, art, pleasure") and added a new "Paninaro" chorus. Hence the final song was born from a remarkable misunderstanding and the Boys' decision to act upon it.

It wasn't until May 2007, in an issue of the PSB Fan Club magazine Literally, that Neil revealed another surprising fact. "Paninaro" (presumably with a different title) was originally something that he and Chris were writing for their manager at the time, Tom Watkins, who happened also to be part of a recording duo called "The Hudsons." Its lyrics included the lines—

I never thought that I would leave you
But I'm in love with a woman

—which would have been somewhat risqué for the period. But nothing came of Tom's duo, so Neil and Chris tossed out the old lyrics and repurposed the track into "Paninaro."

A virtual instrumental, basic and repetitive, it seems very much a "Chris Lowe track" from beginning to end and has been cited by Neil as indicative of his musical partner's fondness for simplicity. (As he said in an interview with Andrew Sullivan, "Chris likes very simple, repetitive dance music, with a single uplifting phrase.") Neil has little to do except sing "Paninaro…oh, oh, oh" over and over. Some mixes feature excerpts from a television interview in which Chris expostulates on his likes and dislikes—mostly dislikes.

The Boys obviously thought a lot of this song; nearly a decade later they would release an entirely new version as "Paninaro '95." On the other hand, years later Chris told an interviewer that he had grown tired of it, even to the point of having come to dislike it.

Annotations

Paninaro – As noted above, "paninaro" was Italian slang in the 1980s for young men known for their fashionable clothes, Timberland boots, motor scooters, and fondness for large sandwiches known as "panini" (the plural of "panino"), from which the term derives. ("Paninaro" is thus tantamount to a "sandwicher" in English—if there were such a word.)
Chris mentions several popular brands of men's fashion popular in Italy (and elsewhere):
- Armani – Named for its founder, Italian designer Giorgio Armani.
- Versace – Named for its founder, Italian designer Gianni Versace, who would later be murdered outside his Miami Beach home in 1997. Versace is mentioned in the 12-inch version found on Disco, but not in other versions. Chris has said that he edited out "Versace," but forgot to do so on the 12-inch version. Neil then added, "We didn't like Versace that much. Also Versace wasn't Paninaro." That is, apparently the real-life paninari didn't generally wear Versace clothes.
- Cinque – Italian for "five," the name of a German company that specializes in "Italian" fashion. One of my Italian site visitors, however, has informed me that this brand was not popular among the paninari. In his opinion, it's much more likely to be Chris's use of a "slangish" expression that apparently was popular in Italy at the time, short for "Dammi il cinque" ("Gimme five") or "Batti il cinque" ("High five"). If this is the case, it's Chris's way of "punctuating" the conclusion of his little rap. Given the way that he says it, I'm actually inclined to agree with this interpretation. It is, however, a definite point of contention since at least one other Italian site visitor disputes it as unlikely. Another possibility is that it refers to Canale 5 (Channel 5), a private television station based in Milan that was very popular with young people (including the paninari) in the early and mid-1980s. Whatever the case, unless Chris comes right out at some point and tells us what he meant by saying "Cinque," all we can do is speculate and, if necessary, agree to disagree.
Quite pertinent to that list of fashion brands, one commentator has said of "Paninaro" that it uses "consumerism as a backdrop in the song about the importance of love in a fast-paced and ruthless world." Although one might suspect this may be a case of reading a bit too much into such a seemingly simple track, there's something to be said for an interpretation like this. Besides, who am I, of all people, to suggest that someone else could be reading too much into a song?

Mixes/Versions

Officially released

Mixer: David Jacob
- 7" version (4:40)
  - Available on Alternative and Essential
- Italian Remix (aka 12" mix) (8:38)
  - Available on Disco and the Further Listening bonus disc with the Please reissue
Mixer: Ian Levine
- Ian Levine Mix (9:54)
  - Available on the various-artists compilation 12 Inch Dance Indie
Mixer: David Woolley and Mike Woolley

Live at the Royal Arena, Copenhagen (2:32)
- Available on an exclusive gold-vinyl disc available with Issue 113 of Electronic Sound magazine

Note: For the "1995 version" and its various remixes, see the separate entry for "Paninaro '95."

Official but unreleased

Mixer: Ian Levine
- Ian Levine Mix - Original (10:03)
- Ian Levine Instrumental (6:28)

List cross-references

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