Glad All Over

Writers - Clark/Smith
First released - 2010
Original album - Yes 2017 reissue Further Listening 2008-2010 bonus disc
Producer - Pet Shop Boys, Tim Powell
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - bonus track with the single "Together"

The Boys performed this song—originally a big 1964 hit for the Dave Clark Five—at their July 13, 2010 concert in Blackpool during the U.K. leg of their "summer festival" tour of that year (essentially an extension of the previous year's Pandemonium Tour).

"Glad All Over," written by Dave Clark and his bandmate Mike Smith, was the first major hit for Clark's group as well as the first "British Invasion" hit in the U.S. aside from the Beatles. It has long served as the anthem of the Blackpool Football Club, which almost certainly explains why Neil and Chris decided to add it to their Blackpool setlist. It is, after all, Chris's hometown. In fact, in the July 2010 issue of the PSB Fan Club magazine Literally, Chris spoke enthusiastically of "the great atmosphere" of Blackpool football matches: "[W]hen we win they play all these great songs like 'Glad All Over' and everyone sings along," later adding, "How can you not support your home team?"

A studio rendition served as a bonus track with the single "Together" in late November 2010. It's especially noteworthy in at least two respects. First, the Pet Shop Boys transform it into a "semi-ballad," with slow, even somewhat somber verses. It brings out a tenderness nowhere to be found in the DC5 original, which was very much a "rock" track. The tempo of the PSB version picks up, however, in the choruses, and it gets downright raucous right near the end. Secondly, Neil modifies the original middle-eight line "Other girls may try to take me away," substituting "boys" for "girls." In so doing, he turns it into an overtly "gay" track—which, after all this time, is still an uncommon enough phenomenon in mainstream popular music that it merits being commented on.

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