The Crying Game
by Boy George
Writers -Geoff Stephens
First released - 1993
Original album - The Crying Game (original soundtrack - various artists)
Producer - Pet Shop Boys
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - single (UK #22, US #15)
The Pet Shop Boys produced this, the title song from the hugely successful 1993 movie. Neil sings backup to Boy George's lead vocal; Neil and Chris also play all of the keyboards on the track. In fact, Neil spent two days trying to get the right combination of keyboard sounds for the lead melody line. It proved a hit in both the U.K. and the U.S.—in fact, a bigger hit in the States than in Britain, becoming George's biggest solo success in America, reaching #15. It's also the most successful PSB production on the U.S. charts for another artist.
While it's tempting to say that the prominent use on this track of an electric guitar (or, perhaps more likely, a keyboard/sampler that replicates the sound of an electric guitar) betrays the same influence of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence" that Neil and Chris have forthrightly confessed for their song "The End of the World," that's not necessarily the case. After all, well before "Enjoy the Silence" was released, they had employed a similar guitar sound on their 1987 instrumental demo for The Living Daylights, which then evolved "This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave," although that song wasn't released until after the Depeche Mode recording.
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