4. “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” – They Might Be Giants: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

4. “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” – They Might Be Giants

(From the album Flood)

1990

They Might Be Giants had a real college rock/alternative radio hit on their hands with “Birdhouse In Your Soul”, the first single from Flood. The duo were able to follow this up with another successful single “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”. While not as commercially successful in the moment, “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” probably went on to have a greater impact and legacy for the group and is, perhaps, the song that They Might Be Giants are best known for. “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” is a humorous and catchy song about the impermanence of place names and tackles several themes that They Might Be Giants frequently explored: history, geography, humor, and the transitory nature of life. Indeed, “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” feels like the work of the group in almost every way, which is why it is so interesting that it is actually a cover. The original version of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” was actually written in 1953 to note the 500th anniversary of the city of Constantinople to the Turkish Ottomans, who then renamed the city Istanbul. The original version of the song was released that same year and performed by The Four Lads and was a success. It had been covered several other times over the years before They Might Be Giants gave it their quirky rock update and made it a success again. The song gained even more appeal when it was used (as was another They Might Be Giants song from Flood titled “Particle Man”) in the witty, satirical cartoon Tiny Toon Adventues. The popularity of the songs on Tiny Toon Adventures highlighted the band’s appeal to children, due to the absurd nature of the lyrics and catchy pop melodies. While not a children’s band, especially at this time, this would spark an interest in They Might Be Giants to make music for the children’s market, which they would eventually make a decade or more down the road on albums like No!, Here Come The ABC’s, Here Come The 123’s, and Here Comes Science.

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3. “Birdhouse In Your Soul” – They Might Be Giants: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

3. “Birdhouse In Your Soul” – They Might Be Giants

(From the album Flood)

1990

They Might Be Giants had earned enough success with their first two albums, both released on the small and fledgling Bar/None Records, that larger labels came calling and the duo signed with Elektra prior to recording their third album Flood. On Flood They Might Be Giants would perfect their unique sound and vision by creating a unique and quirky album that was built on their previous work, while also taking advantage of now being on a major label and using their larger recording budget to hire the veteran production team of Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. This combination of experienced producers working with the band in better studios with better equipment helped Flood stand out sonically from its predecessors even while it mined the same general sound and array of influences. The better production increased the pop appeal of They Might Be Giants and Flood became the group’s signature album and commercial peak. Much of the success of Flood was due to the album’s lead single, the odd new wave pop of “Birdhouse In Your Soul”. A song sung from the unusual perspective of a child’s night light, “Birdhouse In Your Soul” married its surrealistic lyrics to one of They Might be Giants’ sweetest, most melodic hooks to score the band its biggest hit ever in both the US and the UK when it went to #3 on the American alternative rock chart and to #6 on the UK Top 40. Flood itself also went on to be a real hit, going to #75 in the US and #14 in the UK. 

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2. “Ana Ng” – They Might Be Giants: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

2. “Ana Ng” – They Might Be Giants

(From the album Lincoln)

1988

MTV and college radio had supported “Don’t Let’s Start” from They Might Be Giants debut album. Indeed, the relative success of the song and album seemed to surprise everyone to some degree, not least of all the band itself. So for the follow-up, second album Lincoln They Might Be Giants simply doubled-down on the sound and formula of their debut. Lincoln, named for their hometown in Massachusetts, offers the same dizzying array of sounds, styles, and genres, all created with the same odd instrumentation, homespun production, and surrealist humor and wit. That said, while Lincoln may follow a similar pattern it is not a mere reproduction. On Lincoln the songs are tighter, the hooks are sharper, the lyrics are more pointed and have a wider reach (topics such as romantic relationships and political/social satire are more directly tackled), and the overall sound feel is simply of a band with more experience that has honed their unique vision. The opening track and first single was “Ana Ng” a song that feels like a sharper, musical cousin to the previous album’s pseudo-hit “Don’t Let’s Start” without repeating the formula. Lyrically, the song was inspired, in part, by John Linnell noticing that there were four pages in the New York City phone book all taken up by this short name without any vowels – Ng. While Ng is a common Asian family name John Linnell was unfamiliar with it and the oddity of there being such an exceptional name that he knew nothing about caught his attention and he built up a song about a troubled relationship around it. “Ana Ng” became They Might Be Giants’ first charting song when it hit #11 on the US alternative rock charts and helped Lincoln be another success for the group.

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1. “Don’t Let’s Start” – They Might Be Giants: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

1. “Don’t Let’s Start” – They Might Be Giants

(From the album They Might Be Giants)

1986

Few, if any, bands can truly be said to be peers or contemporaries of They Might Be Giants. Part new wave, part post-punk, part college rock, part surrealist art rock experiment, They Might Be Giants emerged from the New York City art punk and noise rock scene to become alternative rock mainstays by the late 1980’s. However, the roots of They Might Be Giants go back much further. The two band members, John Flansburgh and John Linnell, were from the same town of Lincoln, Massachusetts and began writing songs together while in high school, although they did not actually form a band at that time. The two Johns then left to attend different universities but fate intervened when a few years later they both moved into the same apartment building in Brooklyn on the same day. Soon, Flansburgh and Linnell began making music together again with Flansburgh on guitar and vocals and Linnell on accordion, saxophone and vocals (accompanied by a drum machine), and the duo took the name They Might Be Giants from a 1971 mystery/comedy film. They Might Be Giants began to play around New York City and buzz around their unusual shows began to slowly grow. To help build awareness for the group and to try and build momentum They Might Be Giants began their famous “Dial-A-Song” service. For “Dial-A-Song” They Might Be Giants would record a song to a telephone answering machine and then run ads in local newspapers like The Village Voice that gave out the phone number where people could call and listen to the song recorded on the answering machine. This clever trick worked to both expose more people to their music and to build up buzz around the group, leading the group to sign a record deal and releasing their self-titled debut album in 1986. They Might Be Giants continued to use their “Dial-A-Song” service in one form or fashion throughout their career. In spite of the band’s quirky and unusual sound, They Might Be Giants earned a solid amount of airplay on alternative/college rock radio thanks to the record’s lead single “Don’t Let’s Start”. “Don’t Let’s Start” was a strong choice for lead single as the song walks the line between being a quirky pop/rock song and They Might Be Giants’ more eccentric tendencies. For this reason, “Don’t Let’s Start” was a good introduction to the band for those who weren’t already familiar with the group as it uses catchy new wave and pop hooks to interest listeners without hiding the oddities and surrealistic humor that the band loves. Indeed, while “Don’t Let’s Start” has a strong melodic and vocal hook, it also features a jerky start/stop rhythm, strange lyrics, and unusual instruments; all of which seem to become more prominent over the course of the song (the “I don’t want to live in this world” section at the end being almost downright mad). “Don’t Let’s Start” lures you in to the album, where a listener soon finds that They Might Be Giants explores a vast array of sounds and musical styles and that nearly all of them are surreal and weird. “Don’t Let’s Start” is only the beginning and They Might Be Giants contains other great moments like “She’s An Angel”, “Boat Of Car”, “Put You Hand Inside The Puppet Head” and “(She Was) A Hotel Detective”, among others. After They Might Be Giants second album further established the duo “Don’t Let’s Start” was re-released as an EP in Europe to capitalize on growing success there.

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7. “You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk” – Pet Shop Boys: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

7. “You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk” – Pet Shop Boys

(From the album Nighlife)

1999

Following the release of Bilingual the Pet Shop Boys began working with playwright Jonathan Harvey on the stage musical Closer To Heaven. As the Pet Shop Boys wrote material for the play they began to also write for their next album and eventually decided to release Nightlife, a song cycle about, well, nightlife released in 1999. While lyrically and thematically the songs were all connected by this theme, musically the album was quite diverse, exploring everything from trance, dance-pop, country, classic disco, and classical elements. Commercially Nightlife did not meet the success of earlier Pet Shop Boys releases, only reaching #7 in the UK and #84 in the US, both the lowest charting position for any of their albums. That said, the album still did well with critics, sold solidly, and had UK hits. The moody dance pop of “I Don’t Know What You Want But I Can’t Give It Anymore” hit #15 in the UK and went to #2 on the American dance chart. While second single “New York City Boy”, a disco tribute to the Village People, did one spot better on both charts. The third single was the very lightly country-tinged (although still definitely Pet Shop Boys sounding) “You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk”, which managed to hit the UK Top Ten at #8. As the 21st century dawned the Pet Shop Boys settled into respected elder statesmen status, while still being interesting and innovative enough to continue to have UK Top 20 hits on their next several albums. The introspective and melancholy Release album scored Top 20 hits in the UK with “Home & Dry” and “I Get Along”, while PopArt – a new hits compilation – scored hits with two new songs “Miracles” (UK #10) and “Flamboyant” (UK #12). 2006’s Fundamental scored the band a UK #8 hit with “I’m With Stupid” and saw two other singles still enter the UK Top 20. This would be the last time Pet Shop Boys entered the British Top 10, but they continued to release albums that were critically well received and that sold well to their fans. These albums included Yes (which included their last Top 20 hit “Love, etc.”) in 2009, Elysium in 2012 (Pet Shop Boys also played at the London Olympic Games this year), Electric in 2013, Super in 2016, and Hotspot in 2020. In 2022, following the Covid-19 pandemic Pet Shop Boys went on the road for the very successful Unity Tour with New Order.

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6. “Go West” – Pet Shop Boys: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

6. “Go West” – Pet Shop Boys

(From the album Very)

1992

Pet Shop Boys took some much needed time off following the release of Behaviour and its supporting world tour. During that time the duo wrote and produced for two of their idols, Dusty Springfield and Liza Minelli, before the duo also worked with Electronic, the new side-project supergroup consisting of New Order’s Bernard Sumner and band-friend Johnny Marr, once of The Smiths. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe contributed to two of the Electronic album’s songs, the lead single “Getting Away With It” and another song “The Patience Of A Saint”. Tennant also provided lead vocals for Electronic’s non-album hit “Disappointed” which was included on the Cool World soundtrack. The Pet Shop Boys, that seemingly ultimate 80’s act in both sound and worldview, then showed they could still thrive in the 90’s with the release of their new album Very in 1993. Very found success in both the UK and the US with the lead single “Can You Forgive Her?”, which featured a pulsing beat, harsh and icy synth stabs, and a (for the time) technologically cutting-edge music video. The song went to #7 in the UK and to #10 on the US alt rock chart and #1 on the US dance chart. Those are pretty strong results for a synthpop band in the wake of grunge rock and at the dawn of Britpop. Pet Shop Boys followed up the success of “Can You Forgive Her?” with an even more successful single. Continuing their now established pattern of adapting covers into their own sound and making them hits again (they already had hits with “Always On My Mind”, “Where The Streets Have No Name” and “It’s Alright”) the Pet Shop Boys updated the Village People disco classic “Go West” into a club hit and gay anthem that crossed over to be a sizable mainstream hit. Pet Shop Boys’ “Go West” takes the melody and beat of the original disco classic and adds to it a both sense of triumph and a world-weary nostalgia that adds depth to the song without robbing it of its club-thumping fun. “Go West” went to #2 in the UK and hit #1 on the US dance charts. These two successful singles helped to carry Very to #1 on the British album chart, making it the only Pet Shop Boys album to hit #1 in their home country. “Go West” also earned another interesting historical footnote when it became the first song played on MTV Russia. With the recent collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of communism, “Go West” was used to encourage the Russian people to embrace the western ideas of freedom and capitalism. The video for the song also plays into the themes of rejecting communism and embracing freedom and other western ideals. Even though Very was quite successful, the Pet Shop Boys took their time following it up. They did buy time by releasing the remix album Disco 2 and the B-sides compilation Alternative, before releasing the proper follow-up Bilingual in 1996. Bilingual took the basic blueprint of Very and grafted more Latin musical influences and bilingual (Spanish and Portuguese) language parts on several songs.

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5. “So Hard” – Pet Shop Boys: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

5. “So Hard” – Pet Shop Boys

(From the album Behaviour)

1990

Pet Shop Boys decided to go to Germany to work with producer Harold Faltemeyer for their fourth album Behaviour. The duo intended Behaviour to be something of a return to the sound and format of the group’s more pop-oriented first two albums Please and Actually and away from the harder dance textures of Introspective. In one sense Behaviour accomplishes this as the song’s are more concise and pop-oriented in length and format. However, in another sense Behaviour moves the Pet Shop Boys in a new direction that is just as different as Introspective was as nearly every song on the record is somber, reflective, and introspective in tone and pacing. Songs like “Being Boring” and “Jealousy” were singles that showed a more melancholy and introspective side of the band, while “To Face The Truth”, “Only The Wind”, “My October Symphony” and “This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave” (which features former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr) continued that autumnal mood across the entire album. One of the few exceptions to this general rule is the cold, but disco-kissed lead single “So Hard”, which features analog synths, sharp edges and hard, club-oriented beats to create a song that feels like a retro update on the early Pet Shop Boys sound. “So Hard” hit #4 in the UK and helped Behaviour become another success for the Pet Shop Boys. The other singles did okay if not up to the Pet Shop Boys normal standards, although they had another big hit with the third single “How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?” which was released as a double A-side with the Pet Shop Boys’ cover of U2’s “Where The Streets Have No Name”. This single also went to #4 in the UK although primarily on the strength and success of the non-album “Where The Streets Have No Name”, which also earned some airplay in the US. Pet Shop Boys then went on their first extended tour and spent the next year circling the world performing. The group then took some time off and released an excellent singles collection titled Discography that rounded up all of their singles and two new tracks, “DJ Culture” and “Was It Worth It?”, proving that Pet Shop Boys had been both innovative and successful.

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4. “Left To My Own Devices” – Pet Shop Boys: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

4. “Left To My Own Devices” – Pet Shop Boys

(From the album Introspective)

1988

Like many of their synthpop peers of the time the Pet Shop Boys straddled the line between mainstream pop group and cutting edge dance music outfit. For their third album Introspective the Pet Shop Boys certainly leaned toward the latter camp, reversing the usual order of things where groups released an album full of the shorter pop versions of songs and then releasing longer dance mixes on the single releases. For Introspective Pet Shop Boys reversed that order (perhaps influenced by New Order’s successful 1987 compilation Substance which gathered the 12” dance versions of their singles) and released an album of lengthy dance mixes, several of which were then released in shorter pop-formatted singles. The lead single was the Latin-flavored “Domino Dancing” which, despite the band’s disappointment that it didn’t do better, still went to #7 in the UK and to #18 on the US charts. However, it is Introspective’s opening track and second single “Left To My Own Devices” that is the crowning achievement of the record. Recorded with a full orchestra, “Left To My Own Devices” finds Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant perfectly blending club beats with an orchestral arrangement and Tennant’s deadpan but campy vocal performance, as the song’s protagonist goes through his day just wanting to be left alone. “Left To My Own Devices” manages to feel both high-brow and low-camp all at once as it explores the “serious” world of classical music and the “disposable” one of dance culture at the same time. The song was edited down to a more radio-friendly length and released as a single, where it went to #4 in the UK and #84 in the US (although it did hit #8 on the US dance chart). The gamble to release an album of dance-lengthed mixes seems to have paid off well enough as Introspective still went to #2 in the UK on the album chart and, according to the group, is their best-selling international release.

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3. “Always On My Mind” – Pet Shop Boys: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

3. “Always On My Mind” – Pet Shop Boys

(From the non-album single “Always On My Mind”)

1987

The Pet Shop Boys scored three successful singles from their second album Actually – “It’s Sin”, “What Have I Done To Deserve This?”, and “Rent” – and would have a fourth with the UK #1 “Heart”. However, in between the release of “Rent” and “Heart” the Pet Shop Boys would release their version of the standard “Always On My Mind” which became the UK’s Christmas #1 as a non-album single. Their version of the classic became a sizable American hit as well, going to #4. The origins of the Pet Shop Boys version of the song dates back to a British TV special titled Love Me Tender which was commemorating the tenth anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley by having pop stars cover his hits. The Pet Shop Boys did a performance of “Always On My Mind”, reworking the Elvis Presley ballad (which had also been previously sung by Brenda Lee and Willie Nelson among others), into a synthpop song for the show. The Pet Shop Boy’s “Always On My Mind” was very well received and so the duo decided to record a studio version for release as a single. The single was not included on Actually but was released as a non-album single. However, “Always On My Mind” was used as promotion for the film It Couldn’t Happen Here which the Pet Shop Boys were involved with and the video for the song is an excerpt from the film. Ultimately, “Always On My Mind” became one of the Pet Shop Boys biggest hits and a longer, remixed medley of the song titled “Always On My Mind/In My House” was included on the duo’s next album Introspective.

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2. “It’s A Sin” – Pet Shop Boys: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

2. “It’s A Sin” – Pet Shop Boys

(From the album Actually)

1987

The Pet Shop Boys had become mainstream pop stars but they had made their name originally in the clubs. To prove their club chops and the commitment to that scene Pet Shop Boys followed up Please with a remix album titled Disco. Disco however was not intended as the proper follow-up to Please and in September of 1987 the duo released their sophomore album Actually. Actually had been preceded by its lead single “It’s A Sin” which shot up the charts to #1 in the UK and #9 in the US in spite of some controversy around the single. Lyrically, “It’s A Sin” drew upon Neil Tennant’s experiences attending the prestigious St. Cuthbert’s Grammar School, an all boys Catholic school, and the negative experiences he had and attitudes he dealt with while a student there. The school fired back in the press and the surrounding furor only helped the single to sell copies in the UK. That said, the success of “It’s A Sin” has much more to do with the quality of the song than any localized British press attention and the proof of that is that “It’s A Sin” was another massive success for the group, going to #1 in ten other countries besides the UK. Actually continued to find success for the Pet Shop Boys as well, and two more UK hit singles came from the record. The satirical and humorous “Rent” went to #8 in Britain and “Heart”, a song the duo originally wrote for Madonna but never offered to her because they were too scared to approach her with it, became another UK #1.

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