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How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?

Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 1990
Original album - Behaviour
Producer - Harold Faltermeyer, Pet Shop Boys
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - single (UK #4,* US #93, US Dance Sales #10, US Dance #19)

*In the U.K. this was one side of a double-sided single with "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)"; as such, both tracks deserve credit for the single's #4 placement.

A somewhat snide comic putdown of the pretensions and hypocrisies of one or more unnamed rock stars. Allegations and speculations have cited Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, and George Michael, among others. (One of my online correspondents has intriguingly suggested Phil Collins, who released his …But Seriously album about a year before Behaviour came out.) But Neil has specifically stated that it's no one artist in particular. (He would write in his 2018 book One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem that it's "A satire of late eighties rock stars relentlessly saving the planet.") The facts, however, that it was released as a double-sided single with "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)" and that the music videos for the two tracks are clearly linked in style (with the "Seriously" video recapitulated in high-speed reverse at the start of the "Streets" video) have long been interpreted to suggest that Bono and his band U2 are, at the very least, among the targets—if not the chief target—of its satire.

It was the second single from the album in the U.S. but the third in the U.K., where it was a "double A-side" with the non-album track "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)." The instrumental track of the album version of "Seriously" borrows heavily from the jagged "new jack swing" hip-hop style of then-popular Bobby Brown, especially his 1989 hit "Every Little Step." But the single and video versions of the PSB song were dramatically remixed by Brothers in Rhythm into a lusher, more fluid soundscape. The video depicted the Boys, especially Neil, acting out their roles as preachy, pretentious rockers.

By the way, the titular question is almost certainly rhetorical. Pop stars actually can expect to be taken seriously when they take public stands on ecology, politics, social issues, and so on simply because so many people—primarily their fans—do take them seriously. The Pet Shop Boys only point out how questionable this all is. More than one of their fans, however, have noted the irony that, in more recent years, the Boys have themselves occasionally taken certain public stands of the sort that they seem to be calling into question in this song.

Annotations

"Do you think they'll put you in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame?" – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is an institution that recognizes key figures (especially artists) in the history rock and roll music. It was founded in 1983, although its museum in Cleveland, Ohio, did not open until 1995. It has generated more than its share of controversy and criticism through the years primarily on account of its nomination process, which is dominated not by musicians themselves but rather by music critics whose personal tastes largely dictate "who's in" and "who's out." Not so incidentally, the Pet Shop Boys themselves have expressed their disdain for the institution on more than one occasion.
There's a noticeable resemblance between the arrangement—particularly in the percussion and bass—of the Brothers in Rhythm "Perfect Attitude" single and video mixes of this song and that of the continental European (but not U.K.) hit "No Coke" by the Swedish producer Dr. Alban, which had been released about five months prior to the PSB single. It's distinctly possible that this is no coincidence and that Brothers in Rhythm were overtly influenced by the Dr. Alban track when they created their remixes of this track for the Pet Shop Boys. There's even a hint of stylistic similarity between the videos for the two songs. I'm not aware, however, of any such acknowledgments having ever been made along these lines.
On a few occasions the title of this song has been "officially" cited simply as the single word "Seriously." For instance, the 1991 promo release EMI Narm Sampler, which included the Behaviour album version of the song, listed the title as such. Could this be an instance of the record label taking the PSB penchant for giving their albums single-word titles a little too—seriously? A variation that appeared on some French promos involved the use of parentheses: "(How Can You Expect to Be Taken) Seriously?" Regardless, these alternates are clearly anomalies. The correct title is indisputably "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?"—or, if you prefer the idiosyncratic PSB capitalization standard, "How can you expect to be taken seriously?"
The U.K. 12-inch vinyl double-single of "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)"/"How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?" (Parlophone 12R6285) features a glaring typo of the latter title on its label: "How Can You Be Expect to Be Taken Seriously?" (my emphasis). I imagine Neil and Chris, who have always taken tremendous pride in the quality of their "product," were none too happy about this error—assuming they ever did become aware of it (it's surprisingly easy to miss) early enough for them actually to care about it. Later on, after all, it would merely be an amusing anomaly.
And, as if that weren't enough, an official French promo 7-inch vinyl single (Parlophone SP 1525) lists the title, both on the sleeve and on the record label, as "How Can We Expect to Be Taken Seriously?" (again, my emphasis). A Freudian slip, perhaps, revealing how some disgruntled person behind the scenes actually felt about the Boys? I mean, has there ever been a PSB release with more apparent "title trouble" than this one?

Mixes/Versions

Officially released

Mixer: Julian Mendelsohn
- Album version (3:56)
Mixer: Brothers in Rhythm
- 7" Perfect Attitude Mix (4:10)
- Perfect Mood Mix (5:09)
- Classical Reprise (3:06)
- Extended Mix (6:04)
- Video Mix (4:10)
Mixer: David Morales
- New 7" Mix (4:10)
- Def Mix (4:01)
- Eclipse Mix (3:38)
- Mo Mo Mix (6:51)
- Ragga Zone Mix (6:26)

Official but unreleased

Mixer: David Morales
- Justified Mix (4:15)
Mixer(s): unknown
- Club Edit (3:34)
- Power Mix (4:40)
  - These two mixes appear on an official EMI Columbia reference CD by Capitol Mastering designed for client review before determing actual releases.

List cross-references

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