Home > PSB Lists >

PSB songs with "extra lyrics"

This list notes Pet Shop Boys songs in which official, authorized versions contain additional lyrics not included in the studio album version. But I do not include the following:

So, aside from those disqualifications, the songs with additional lyrics include (in alphabetical order):

  1. Being Boring

    The "New Verson" released on the Furthermore bonus disc with the special edition of Nonetheless includes a new spoken part between the second and third verses in which Neil reads aloud the text that appears handwritten onscreen (beginning "I come from Newcastle in the north of England…") at the start of the song's classic music video. Also, Neil modifies the third verse slightly ("… but some were missing by the 1990s"), as he had usually done in post-nineties live performances of the song.

  2. Closer to Heaven

    Following the original release of this song on the album Nightlife, alternate versions appeared in association with the musical Closer to Heaven, featuring variations both in the musical arrangements and in the lyrics. For instance, when the characters Straight Dave and Mile End Lee sing the song together in the musical, the verse texts are completely different.

  3. Did You See Me Coming?

    The "Possibly More Mix" of the song adds the repeated lines "Every night is Friday night / Welcome to my life" as well as new spoken segments, suggestive of the personal ads found in certain newspapers, magazines, and online dating/hookup sites, that emphasize how people of all orientations seek each other out "for friendship—or possibly more."

  4. Discoteca

    The "New Version" of the song that accompanied the "Single-Bilingual" single offers the new lines—written and rapped by Neil (at Chris's instigation) in a voice heavily distorted through digital manipulation—"Understand the man who could talk in tongues / You're ready to speak like a Shakespeare."

  5. DJ Culture

    The Extended Mix includes the repeated line "I just thought I'd mention it" spoken very quietly by Neil shortly after the third verse and chorus.

  6. Domino Dancing

    In the "Base Mix," Neil speaks a single line of Spanish during an instrumental break. It's somewhat difficult to make out in the mix, but with the help of a couple of my site visitors I've learned that he's saying, "Te vas a quemar," which can be alternately translated as "You will burn," "You will burn yourself," or "You will get burned."

  7. Fluorescent

    Two new versions of the song (called the "Cali Mix" and the "Indio Mix") were re-recorded by the Boys for a special vinyl single exclusive for U.K. "Record Store Day." Played in a different key with a slightly modified melody, and performed in a very different style, they feature extensive additional lyrics rapped by Neil—beginning "Your future ex-new boyfriend is walking through the door"—memorably described by NME as "fantastically bitchy."

  8. For All of Us

    The lyrics of earlier demo versions of this song are markedly different from those of the eventual Closer to Heaven version, with the original lyrics seeming much more personal in nature.

  9. Forever in Love

    A version of this song recorded before but released later than the one that appeared on Relentless includes an extra verse beginning "Did you ever talk the whole night through with someone you just met…?" This earlier version eventually surfaced on the Further Listening bonus disc that accompanied the 2001 reissue of Very.

  10. In Denial

    The lyrics of the Closer to Heaven musical version are somewhat modified from those of the original Nightlife album version.

  11. It's Alright

    The single boasts a stanza (beginning "Forests falling at a desperate pace") not included in the Introspective album version. And the rare 10-inch mix of the track includes still more additional lyrics that Neil later dismissed as "pretentious":

    There's a boy standing by a river
    There's a girl lying with her lover
    There's a statesman standing at a crossroads
    There's a soldier polishing his gun

  12. Jealousy

    The inclusion of four declaimed lines from Shakespeare's Othello at the beginning and end of the "Extended Version" qualifies as "additional lyrics" in my book.

  13. Leaving

    Both the "PSB Side-by-Side Remix" and the "PSB Freedom Remix" of the song feature two whole stanzas of new lyrics toward the end, though they're delivered by Neil in a voice so distorted and buried in the mix that it's difficult to make them out—and you might miss them altogether if you're not paying close attention. The new lines begin "I believe in love for all time" and appropriately end "Because love's forever."

  14. Love Life

    The recording of this song released both as a limited-edition vinyl single (along with "A Powerful Friend") and on one of the "Further Listening" bonus discs accompanying the 2017 reissue of Release is missing several spoken lines—

    I like walks in the country
    A film or a play
    A couple of beers
    Or a glass of Chardonnay

    —that appear in both the Boys' original demo of the song (which they briefly made available for listening on their official website) and in Alcazar's rendition based on that demo. The PSB demo also includes a further reference to "romantic dinners" that wasn't used either by Alcazar or in the Boys' own later rendition.

  15. The Loving Kind

    The first version of this song to be officially released was by the group Girls Aloud. But it was presumably preceded by the Pet Shop Boys' own demo, which hasn't yet been released—unless the "Monitor Mix" of the song released in 2017 as a bonus track with the reissue of Yes actually is (or at least closely correlates with) that demo. For instance, the Girls Aloud version contains an entire verse that's not included in the PSB rendition:

    I want you to kiss away the tension
    The issues never mentioned
    With all the best intentions
    But you turn away

    The PSB version also contains a few lines not in the Girls Aloud rendition:

    Look at us now
    Whatever happened to the way we are
    And how it used to be
    The sun is running after me

    And later:

    Don't think that I'm resigned
    To be the lover much maligned

    There are a few other less significant differences in the lyrics of the two versions as well. But, whatever the case and whichever came first, one of them has "extra lyrics" compared to the other.

  16. My Night

    Perhaps a questionable inclusion seeing as how the complete version of this, the opening number of Closer to Heaven, has never been officially released on disc or even as a paid download. But it was "officially available" for a very short time during the show's original run back in 2001 as a free download from the Pet Shop Boys' website, so I'll go ahead and list it. The full version of this song is much longer than the one released on the Closer to Heaven original cast album, with each of the main characters chiming in with additional lines. (The only solo-singing character in the album version is Billie Trix.)

  17. A New Bohemia

    The demo version (released as a bonus track with the single) includes a third verse not found in the album and primary single versions:

    Making it look so easy is always a big mistake
    Nobody gives you credit for all the risks you take
    The words, the melody that kept you up at night
    Doing it over and over 'til you've got it right

  18. One More Chance

    19. The early Bobby O-produced version includes a few words missing from the later, far better-known rendition on Actually. At the end of the second verse, "I remember when you said, 'Baby, baby, please'" (which isn't in the Actually version) is initially sung in place of "Push me in a corner and I'll scream," although that clause does appear following an instrumental interlude in a greatly truncated third verse—just its last two lines, although it's used in its entirety in the extended mix.

  19. Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)

    20. The final quatrain of the song, quietly spoken by Neil in some versions (but not in the one found on Please), is:

    All the love that we had
    And the love that we hide
    Who will bury us
    When we die?

  20. Paninaro / Paninaro '95

    A unique case in which additional lyrics (not to mention a completely new arrangement) inspired the Boys to designate the later version as a new song altogether. Generally interpreted as a reference to the then-recent death of Peter Andreas, the added lyrics find Chris describing his sense of loss and his need to find someone else "to dance with." Notably, the line "You're my lover" from the original is shifted to the past tense, "You were my lover."

    I should note, although as a strictly live performance it doesn't actually qualify for this list—but since the song is already listed I'll go ahead and mention it anyway by virtue of it simply being both figuratively and literally remarkable, prompting me to make this one exception—that during renditions of "Paninaro" on the 2023 leg of their Dreamworld Tour, Chris would sometimes add a few new things to his recitations of things that he presumably likes: "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Plus…." Also, on at least one occasion, at the end of the line "You, you're my lover,… my passion, love, sex," he added "my everything." Unless, however, Chris talks about it at some point, we can only speculate as to whether this latter change was planned in advance or done impromptu, the result of his simply forgetting the usual words, in which case it really isn't an example of "extra lyrics."

  21. Paris City Boy

    An interesting case, this. By its very nature, "Paris City Boy" is "New York City Boy" with extra lyrics, only in French. But since they changed the title—which suggests that it's a "different song"—perhaps I'm justified in not including "New York City Boy" in this list. Years later, however, with the 2017 reissue of Nightlife, PSB unveiled the previously unreleased "Full French Vesion" of "Paris City Boy" with even more new lyrics in French, dispensing almost entirely with the English. So now "Paris City Boy" indisputably qualifies, even considered separately from the original song from which it arose.

  22. Party in the Blitz

    The lyrics section of the Pet Shop Boys' official website includes a verse near the beginning that doesn't appear in the released track:

    Party in the Blitz
    Avoiding direct hits
    Only for sophisticates
    If the situation permits

    While this may be a dubious inclusion given the criteria listed above, I'm taking the view that the official website constitutes an "official released version."

  23. The Pop Kids

    The PSB remix—perhaps more accurately, the extended version—titled "The Full Story" provides an additional verse of lyrics not heard in the album or standard single version, which (in the words of the Boys themselves) "brings the story of the Pop Kids up to the present."

  24. Positive Role Model

    The text of the Closer to Heaven version is quite different from that of the Boys' own studio version, beginning with the very first lines: "Here I stand where I planned" versus "Here we are where we were."

  25. Radiophonic

    In addition to a few minor variations scattered about—just a word here and there—the Boys' released demo version of this song features a substantially different second half of the second verse:

    My hands are shaking
    What have I been taking?
    And did I really see
    That you were always sending signals
    In the way you smiled at me?

    In addition, on several occasions Neil speaks the line "I don't want to be a freak," repeating the title phrase of the 1979 hit "I Don't Want to Be a Freak (But I Can't Help Myself)" by the band Dynasty, a vocal sample of which appears repeatedly throughout the demo.

  26. Run, Girl, Run

    Released on a disc sold in the theater lobby during the original run of Closer to Heaven, the so-called "1971" and "1981" versions of this song have significantly different lyrics, as does the Boys' original demo rendition.

  27. The Schlager Hit Parade

    The "Deutsche Demo" version of this Nonetheless track, sung by Chris (!) and released as a bonus with the "Feel" single, offers not only a rather faithful (with a few understandable minor exceptions) translation of the original English into German but also a few English lines that are markedly different from those on the album. Three lines that begin with "Never trust your memories" on Nonetheless become "Never trust a leader / It probaby won't end well / The leader of the band." And two more lines that follow, beginning "The future is forever" on the album, are changed to "The future is the present / We all regret the past."

  28. The Sodom and Gomorrah Show

    The Boys' released demo of this song includes some substantial differences from the version on Fundamental, such as "Abandoned in the easy atmosphere" and, most significantly, several lines that begin "You need to cast off any guilt or shame" and ending "You'll still be glad you came."

  29. Somewhere

    Another perhaps questionable inclusion since the lyrics—sung by Neil and spoken by Chris—that are added to certain mixes (such as the "PSB Extended Mix") actually come from other West Side Story songs: "I Feel Pretty" and "One Hand, One Heart." Still, if only for the sake of completeness, it's best to note it here.

  30. Suburbia

    "The Full Horror" remix includes additional text not included in the album or single versions, the most memorable of which is the repeated line "Suburbia—where the suburbs met utopia."

  31. Twenty-something

    I'm counting as from an "official, authorized version" the unrecorded (or at least unreleased) additional third verse of the song, which Neil nevertheless included with its lyrics in his 2018 book One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem:

    Twenty-something
    Meet and greet
    Avoiding that
    Bubonic creep
    A vampire who
    Seemed so friendly
    Stole your ideas
    Still feels envy
    Oh, Twenty-something
    In too deep

  32. Vocal

    The demo version released as a bonus track with the 2017 reissue of Elysium includes a pair of short lyrical segments not found in the Electric album version: "Words of inspiration singing out to everyone" and, a little later, "Words a lonely guy is singing out for everyone."

  33. We All Feel Better in the Dark

    The Extended Mix includes the following lines that aren't found in the version featured on Alternative:

    And now our time has come
    And I'm feeling really horny
    You're with me
    And together we're in ecstasy

  34. West End Girls

    One of the best-known examples of alternate lyrics in PSB songs came right at the get-go, including the infamous—

    All your stopping, stalling and starting
    Who do you think you are, Joe Stalin?

    —featured in the original Bobby O version but omitted from the later, much more familiar Please album version and single. Other Bobby O mixes include assorted "extra" couplets scattered about:

    Looking left, turning right
    'Cause money's short and time is tight

    I've said it all before and I'll say it all again
    We're all modern men

    If we don't find the right solution
    Will there be a revolution?

    Some later "post-Bobby O" versions have still other extra lines, such as an entire additional verse in the "Disco Mix" and the "Dance Mix" that starts "You can find a place that no one knows" and ends "And no one knows your name."

  35. You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk

    A comparatively minor case—so minor, involving just two words, that I hesitate to list it here—yet it's also so curious that it overcomes my hesitation. In both the lyrics section of Pet Shop Boys' official website and in Neil's book One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem, there's a short line right near the end of the song reading "Am I junk?" Yet in the PSB recording of this song and in, as far as I know, all of their live performances of it, Neil instead sings "Is it junk?" The only explanation I can think of is that Neil, at some point after recording the song, may have decided to change the original "Is it junk?" to "Am I junk?" and therefore uses his revision on their website and in his book. But then why does he continue to sing "Is it junk?" as he did in their 2022 Dreamworld Tour? (Yes, I've checked!) On the other hand, if "Am I junk?" is the original line and "Is it junk?" the recorded revision, then why does "Am I junk?" continue to appear on their website, and why did it appear in Neil's book? Is there some kind of copyright issue that requires the original wording to be used in print? A mystery, to be sure.



All text on this website aside from direct quotations (such as of lyrics and of other nonoriginal content) is copyright © 2001-2024 by Wayne Studer. All Rights Reserved. All lyrics and images are copyright © their respective dates by their respective owners. Brief quotations and small, low-resolution images are used for identification and critical commentary, thereby constituting Fair Use under U.S. copyright law. Billboard chart data are copyright © their respective dates by Billboard Media, LLC.

 

◀ ▲ ▶