Pet Shop Boys' U.K. and U.S. Pop Chart History
| Singles |
| Single | UK Release |
UK Peak |
UK Weeks Charted |
US Release |
US Peak |
US Weeks Charted |
| West End Girls (initial release) | Apr '84 | 121 | ? | Apr '84 | -- | -- |
| Opportunities (initial release) | Jul '85 | 116 | ? | Jul '85 | -- | -- |
| West End Girls | Oct '85 | 1 | 17 | Feb '86 | 1 | 20 |
| Love Comes Quickly | Feb '86 | 19 | 9 | Aug '86 | 62 | 8 |
| Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money) | May '86 | 11 | 8 | May '86 | 10 | 16 |
| Suburbia | Sep '86 | 8 | 9 | Nov '86 | 70 | 10 |
| It's a Sin | Jun '87 | 1 | 11 | Aug '87 | 9 | 19 |
| What Have I Done to Deserve This? | Aug '87 | 2 | 9 | Dec '87 | 2 | 18 |
| Rent | Oct '87 | 8 | 10 | -- | -- | -- |
| Always on My Mind | Nov '87 | 1 | 14 | Mar '88 | 4 | 15 |
| Heart | Mar '88 | 1 | 10 | -- | -- | -- |
| Domino Dancing | Sep '88 | 7 | 11 | Sep '88 | 18 | 14 |
| Left to My Own Devices | Nov '88 | 4 | 8 | Jan '89 | 84 | 3 |
| It's Alright | Jun '89 | 5 | 8 | -- | -- | -- |
| So Hard | Sep '90 | 4 | 6 | Oct '90 | 62 | 8 |
| Being Boring | Nov '90 | 20 | 8 | -- | -- | -- |
| How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously? | Mar '91 1 | 4 | 8 | Feb '91 | 93 | 3 |
| Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You) | May '91 | 72 | 7 | |||
| Jealousy | May '91 | 12 | 5 | -- | -- | -- |
| DJ Culture | Oct '91 | 13 | 5 | Oct '91 | -- | -- |
| DJ Culturemix (DJ Culture remix) | Nov '91 | 40 | 2 | -- | -- | -- |
| Was It Worth It? | Dec '91 | 24 | 4 | Dec '91 | -- | -- |
| Can You Forgive Her? | May '93 | 7 | 7 | May '93 | 109 2 | 7 |
| Go West | Sep '93 | 2 | 9 | Sep '93 | 106 | 11 |
| I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing | Nov '93 | 13 | 7 | Jan '94 | -- | -- |
| Liberation | Apr '94 | 14 | 5 | - | -- | -- |
| Absolutely Fabulous | May '94 | 6 | 7 | -- | -- | -- |
| Yesterday, When I Was Mad | Aug '94 | 13 | 4 | Dec '94 | -- | -- |
| Paninaro '95 | Jul '95 | 15 | 7 | Aug '95 | -- | -- |
| Before | Apr '96 | 7 | 8 | Jun '96 | 107 | 4 |
| Se A Vida É (That's the Way Life Is) | Aug '96 | 8 | 8 | Apr '97 3 | -- | -- |
| Single-Bilingual | Nov '96 | 14 | 6 | -- | -- | -- |
| A Red Letter Day | Mar '97 | 9 | 4 | Oct '97 4 | -- | -- |
| To Step Aside | -- | -- | -- | Apr '97 3 | -- | -- |
| Somewhere | Jun '97 | 9 | 5 | Oct '97 4 | 125 | 1 |
| I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More | Jul '99 | 15 | 5 | May '00 | (66) 5 | -- |
| New York City Boy | Sep '99 | 14 | 7 | Nov '99 | (53) 5 | -- |
| You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk | Jan '00 | 8 | 4 | -- | -- | -- |
| Break 4 Love | -- 6 | -- | -- | Sep '01 | (51) 5 | -- |
| Home and Dry | Mar '02 | 14 | 8 | -- | -- | -- |
| I Get Along | Jul '02 | 18 | 3 | -- | -- | -- |
| Miracles | Nov '03 | 10 | 4 | -- | -- | -- |
| Flamboyant | Mar '04 | 12 | 4 | -- | -- | -- |
| I'm with Stupid | May '06 | 8 | 4 | -- | -- 7 | -- |
| Minimal | July '06 | 19 | 3 | -- | -- 7 | -- |
| Numb | Oct '06 | 23 | 3 | -- | -- | -- |
| She's Madonna (with Robbie Williams) | Mar '07 | 16 | 3 | -- | -- | -- |
| Integral | Oct '07 | 197 8 | 1 | -- | -- | -- |
| Love etc. | Mar '09 | 14 | 4 | Mar '09 | (2) 9 | -- |
| Did You See Me Coming? | Jun '09 | 21 | 3 | -- | -- 7 | -- |
| Beautiful People | -- | -- | -- | Oct '09 | (7) 9 | -- |
| All Over the World / 10 It Doesn't Often Snow at Christmas |
Dec '09 | 40 | 2 | -- | -- | -- |
| Love Life / A Powerful Friend 11 |
Apr '10 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Together | Nov '10 | 58 | 1 | Apr '11 | (20) 9 | -- |
| Winner | Jul '12 12 | 86 | 1 | Jul '12 | (17) 9 | -- |
| Leaving | Oct '12 | 44 | 1 | Oct '12 | -- | -- |
| Memory of the Future | Dec '12 | 11113 | 1 | Dec '12 | -- | -- |
| Axis | Apr '13 | 19614 | 1 | Apr '13 | -- | -- |
| Vocal | Jun '13 | --15 | -- | Jun '13 | -- | -- |
| Love Is a Bourgeois Construct | Sep '13 | 105 | 1 | Sep '13 | -- | -- |
| Thursday | Nov '13 | 61 | 1 | -- | -- | -- |
| The Pop Kids | Mar '16 | 12816 | 1 | -- | -- | -- |
| Twenty-something | Jun '16 | --17 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Say It to Me | Sep '16 | --17 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Undertow | Apr '17 | --17 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Dreamland (with Years & Years) | Sep '19 | --18 | -- | Sep '19 | -- | -- |
| Burning the Heather | Nov '19 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Monkey Business | Jan '20 | --18 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| I Don't Wanna | Apr '20 | --18 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Cricket Wife* | May '21 | --18 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Purple Zone (with Soft Cell) | Mar '22 | --18 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Loneliness | Jan '24 | --18 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Dancing Star | Apr '24 | --18 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| A New Bohemia | Jul '24 | --18 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Feel | Sep '24 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| New London Boy / All the Young Dudes |
Nov '24 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
* Despite its 10-minute length, the Pet Shop Boys themselves referred to "Cricket Wife" as a "digital single" when they released it as such. If they call it a single, I guess that makes it a single.
1In the U.K., "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?" and "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You" were combined as a "double single," although the latter garnered more airplay and is commonly considered the "primary" single, if not the "A-side."
2"Can You Forgive Her?" and the other songs that peaked in the hundreds in the U.S. appeared on the Billboard "Bubbling Under" chart. For instance, #9 on the "Bubbling Under" chart is the equivalent of #109 by "Hot 100" standards.
3In the U.S., "Se A Vida É" and "To Step Aside" were combined as a "double single."
4In the U.S., "A Red Letter Day" and "Somewhere" were combined as a "double single." But Billboard chart rules somehow determined that only "Somewhere" would receive "credit" for its chart placement.
5Sales only. Because of a near-total lack of radio airplay, "I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More," "New York City Boy," and "Break 4 Love" failed to hit the U.S. "Hot 100" pop chart (in Billboard magazine) despite their sales figures.
6"Break 4 Love" was released in the U.K. in March 2002 as a bonus track on the "Home and Dry" CD single, but since it wasn't the "A-side" it didn't chart as a single in the U.K.
7Released only as "promo singles" in the U.S., aimed primarily at dance clubs.
8Released only as a promo and digital (downloadable) single in the U.K. with minimal promotion, accounting for its extremely low chart placement. As stated in the February 2008 issue of the PSB Fan Club magazine Literally, "'Integral' was not, the Pet Shop Boys would like to emphasize, released as a proper Pet Shop Boys single…." So even its inclusion in this list is questionable.
9Physical single sales only. Like several previous singles (see Note 5 above), "Love etc." failed to hit the Billboard "Hot 100" pop chart because it had virtually no radio airplay and comparatively few digital sales (compared to those that did make the "Hot 100")—in its case despite being the second-best-selling physical-format single in the U.S. for one week. Hardly seem fair, does it? Subsequently, "Beautiful People," "Together," and "Winner" also made it onto the physical-sales-only chart.
10The Christmas EP released for the 2009 holiday season featured five tracks. Of these, the new versions of "All Over the World" and "It Doesn't Often Snow at Christmas" received the most attention and U.K. airplay, thereby essentially serving as a double-sided single.
11A limited-edition single released for "Record Store Day" 2010. It quite understandably didn't chart since its release was limited to only 1,000 copies.
12Released as a standalone digital single (iTunes and Amazon) in early July 2012, but failed to chart at that time. When it was released as a CD single and "digital bundle" with bonus tracks in early August 2012, it hit #86. But it's perhaps worth noting that, at the same time, it hit #1 on Amazon.UK's own singles chart.
13Released as a single on December 31, 2012, so its actual chart debut occurred during the first week of 2013.
14Released only as a digital single on April 30, 2013.
15Released as a digital single, but failed to chart; subsequently released as a physical single (CD and 12-inch vinyl) but its length—with a large number of remixes—rendered it ineligible for the U.K. singles chart.
16Released as both a digital and physical single, but failed to make the final Top 100 despite it having appeared at #62 on the tentative "midweek chart"—which, unfortunately, doesn't count. The chart rules had been revised, however, to include digital streaming; apparently "The Pop Kids" would have hit #44 in a chart based on physical and digital sales as opposed to streaming, and #1 based strictly on physical sales. It also reached #30 on the airplay chart.
17"Twenty-something," despite not appearing on the overall U.K. singles chart, hit #1 on the chart for physical singles sales (CD and vinyl) and #80 for all sales (CD, vinyl, and downloads). By the same token, "Say It to Me" also hit #1 on the U.K. physical singles chart but, again, failed to appear on the overall singles chart, and "Undertow" peaked at #14 for physical singles sales without appearing on the overall singles chart. All this underscores how streaming has become far more important to the overall singles chart than sales.
18"Dreamland," "Monkey Business," "I Don't Wanna," "Purple Zone," and "A New Bohemia" all hit #1 on the U.K. chart for physical singles sales (CD and vinyl). "Dreamland" also reached to Top 20 for U.K. radio airplay, and "Cricket Wife" appeared at #72 on the sales-only chart and at #70 on the downloads chart. "Loneliness" peaked at #2 on the physical singles chart, #10 on the singles sales chart, and #23 on the singles download chart. "Dancing Star" peaked at #1 and "A New Bohemia" at #3 on the singles sales chart (I'm not sure how that differs from the "physical singles sales" chart; perhaps it includes digital sales as well). Despite all this, however, none of these songs appeared on the overall U.K. singles chart. This (or something much like it) has become a common pattern with subsequent singles, so there isn't much point in further documenting it here.
Albums
| Album | UK Release |
UK Peak |
UK Weeks Charted |
US Release |
US Peak |
US Weeks Charted |
| Please | Apr '86 | 3 | 82 | Apr '86 | 7 | 31 |
| Disco | Nov '86 | 15 | 72 | Nov '86 | 95 | 12 |
| Actually | Sep '87 | 2 | 61* | Sep '87 | 25 | 45 |
| Introspective | Oct '88 | 2 | 39 | Oct '88 | 34 | 22 |
| Behaviour | Nov '90 | 2 | 14 | Nov '90 | 45 | 25 |
| Discography | Nov '91 | 3 | 45 | Nov '91 | 111 | 14 |
| Very | Oct '93 | 1 | 26 | Oct '93 | 20 | 17 |
| Disco 2 | Sep '94 | 6 | 5 | Sep '94 | 75 | 3 |
| Alternative | Aug '95 | 2 | 5 | Sep '95 | 103 | 2 |
| Bilingual | Sep '96 | 4 | 11 | Sep '96 | 39 | 6 |
| Nightlife | Oct '99 | 7 | 4* | Nov '99 | 84 | 3 |
| Release | Apr '02 | 7 | 5* | May '02 | 73 | 2 |
| Disco 3 | Feb '03 | 36 | 1 | Feb '03 | 188 | 1 |
| PopArt | Nov '03 | 18 19 | 18 | Oct '06 | -- 20 | -- |
| Battleship Potemkin | Sep '05 | 97 | 1 | -- | -- | -- |
| Fundamental | May '06 | 5 | 5* | Jun '06 | 150 | 1 |
| Concrete | Oct '06 | 61 | 1 | -- | -- | -- |
| Disco 4 | Oct '07 | -- 21 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Yes | Mar '09 | 4 | 6* | Apr '09 | 32 | 2 |
| Pandemonium (CD/DVD) | Feb '10 | 29 | 2 | Mar '10 | -- 22 | -- |
| Ultimate | Nov '10 | 27 | 4 | -- | -- | -- |
| The Most Incredible Thing | Mar '11 | 57 | 1 | Mar '11 | -- | -- |
| Format | Feb '12 | 26 | 1 | -- | -- | -- |
| Elysium | Sep '12 | 9 | 4* | Sep '12 | 44 | 1 |
| Electric | Jul '13 | 3 | 5 | Jul '13 | 26 | 2 |
| Super | Apr '16 | 3 | 3 | Apr '16 | 58 | 1 |
| Inner Sanctum (CD/Blu-ray) | Apr '19 | 123 | 7 | Apr '19 | -- | -- |
| Hotspot | Jan '20 | 3 | 3 | Jan '20 | 100 | 1 |
| DiscoVery - Live in Rio 1994 (CD/DVD) | Apr '21 | 31 | 1 | Apr '21 | -- | -- |
| Smash (boxed set) | Jun '23 | 4 | 2 | Jun '23 | (89)24 | 1 |
| Relentless (2023 standalone reissue) | Oct '23 | 25 | 1 | Oct '23 | -- | -- |
| Nonetheless | Apr '24 | 2 | 1 | Apr '24 | --25 | -- |
| *Includes one additional week on the U.K. album chart as a result of the 2017-18 reissues. +Still on the chart, with the final number of weeks to be determined. | ||||||
19PopArt peaked at #30 during its original 2003 run on the U.K. album chart. But in the wake of the Pet Shop Boys' hits-medley performance at the 2009 Brits Awards show and their "Outstanding Contribution to Music" award, PopArt re-entered the chart in late February 09 at #19 and the following week hit a new peak of #18.
20PopArt didn't even make it onto Billboard's 200-position primary album chart, although it did hit #19 on the "Dance/Electronic Albums" chart. It sold fewer than 1,000 copies during its first week of U.S. release, and after nearly a month it had still sold only a little over 3,000. But that's hardly unexpected. After all, most American fans—both dedicated and more casual—who wanted to get PopArt would surely have bought it as an import during the nearly three years between its release in most of the rest of the world and in the United States. I don't pretend to comprehend the rationale behind such an ill-conceived and ill-fated belated release.
21Since Disco 4 consists of tracks by various artists—the common thread being that they were all remixed by PSB—UK chart rules dictated that it couldn't place on the primary album chart, but qualified only for the Compilation and Dance album charts, where it peaked at #15 and #3, respectively.
22Pandemonium didn't hit Billboard's 200-position primary album chart, but it did reach #8 on the "Dance/Electronic Albums" chart.
23Inner Sanctum peaked at #1 on the U.K. Music Video Blu-ray/DVD chart. I list it here because it includes two CDs, qualifying it as an "album" in my reckoning, even though it didn't appear on the album charts. From that perspective, its appearance in this particular table is questionable, but at least I'm documenting its chart performance in this way.
24This is the peak position of the album on Billboard's album sales chart, which does not include figures for streaming. Smash has not year appeared on the Billboard's primary album chart, the Billboard 200, which covers both sales and streaming.
25Although it appears that Nonetheless may be the first PSB studio album not to make it onto the primary Billboard album chart at all, it reached #3 on the Billboard "Dance/Electronic Albums" chart.
Charted UK/US Singles by Other Artists that PSB Wrote and/or Produced
| Single | UK Peak |
US Peak |
| I'm Not Scared Eighth Wonder (PSB: writers) |
7 | -- |
| Losing My Mind Liza Minnelli (PSB: producers) |
6 | -- |
| Don't Drop Bombs Liza Minnelli (PSB: writers/producers; Neil: support vocalist) |
46 | -- |
| So Sorry, I Said Liza Minnelli (PSB: writers/producers) |
62 | -- |
| Love Pains Liza Minnelli (PSB: producers) |
41 | -- |
| Getting Away with It Electronic (Neil: co-writer/support vocalist) |
12 | 38 |
| Nothing Has Been Proved Dusty Springfield (PSB: writers/producers; Neil: support vocalist) |
16 | -- |
| In Private Dusty Springfield (PSB: writers/producers) |
14 | -- |
| Love Is Everywhere Cicero (PSB: producers) |
19 | -- |
| That Loving Feeling Cicero (PSB: producers) |
46 | -- |
| Heaven Must Have Sent You Back to Me Cicero (PSB: co-producers/remixers of re-release; Chris: director of the music video) |
70 | -- |
| Disappointed Electronic (Neil: co-writer/lead vocalist) |
6 | -- |
| The Crying Game Boy George (PSB: producers; Neil: support vocalist) |
22 | 15 |
| Hallo Spaceboy David Bowie (PSB: co-producers; Neil: support vocalist) |
12 | -- |
| Jack and Jill Party Pete Burns (PSB: co-writers/producers) |
75 | -- |
| The Loving Kind Girls Aloud (PSB: co-writers) |
10 | -- |
| It's a Sin Elton John and Years & Years (PSB: writers/co-producers) |
47 | -- |
Charted Albums by Other Artists Produced by PSB or Otherwise Strongly Associated with Them
| Album | UK Peak |
US Peak |
| Results Liza Minelli (PSB: producers) |
6 | 128 |
| Reputation Dusty Springfield (PSB: co-producers) |
18 | -- |
| Closer to Heaven Original cast (PSB: songwriters/co-producers) |
107 | -- |
| Release the Stars Rufus Wainwright (Neil: executive producer*) *Neil's role as "executive producer" was primarily just advisory in nature. |
2 | 23 |
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