blunder boys
blunder boys was a pretty good short considering it was shemp' s last completed film. the rest of his films were: husbands beware, creeps, flagpole jitters, & for crimin' out loud. sadly, four of his shorts were shot with a double after he died in 1955. but blunder boys isn' t too bad for being shemp' s last completed film. * * * out of 5 stars .
so the programme was never going to be far from critique, in particular one especially hard - to - spot blunder in a scene featuring dr watson .
and we' ll drink a good success to all fox - hunting boys .
the school has issued a statement a year to the day later, saying it was sorry for the blunder and the
emotional and physical harm
it caused to the families involved .
alive! four thai boys who made it out of cave in daring ...
,
which has also been covered—though not yet officially released—by the pet shop boys .
blunder boys
is living proof that a) amc should show more of shemp' s later shorts, and b) columbia should put more shorts on vhs. notice that the first holiday shemp identifies himself as is st. patrick' s day: shemp' s birthday .
wat - son your screen, dr? sherlock viewers mock martin freeman for pretending to update static picture of his blog in epic blunder... as opener gets best audience of new year' s day
rickie lee jones and the pet shop boys shared the bill at the 2007 montreux jazz festival .
the song
mr. average
on andy' s 2014 solo release torsten the bareback saint name - checks the pet shop boys :
i remember when the pet shop boys were new… .
the drama returns: despite the blunder, the show was a success as actors (from left) benedict cumberbatch, martin freeman and amanda abbington returned as sherlock, dr watson and mary watson to an audience of 8. 1million
the boys were rushed to hospital with life - threatening injuries and further performances of the production were cancelled .
the pet shop boys and elton also collaborated on a 2005 cover of
alone again, naturally .
rescued thai cave boys face a lifetime of trauma from their ordeal as traumatic memories could trigger fear ...
, the pet shop boys share with elton john the distinction of having composed totally original scores for stage musicals .
george invited the boys to be his opening act at his 2007 wembly arena concert, but they politely declined .
anne dudley, who has worked extensively with the boys, orchestrated george' s
careless whisper
single .
like the pet shop boys and the aforementioned rickie lee jones, rufus appeared at the 2007 montreux jazz festival .
frantic parents of rescued thai cave boys have not been told which children have been saved – as teammates ...
, both the boys and neil hannon appeared on the november 1, 1996 episode of the u. k. tv show
the boys performed at the big
pre - nuptial
bash for elton and his partner david furnish in late 2005 .
blunder boys is a most welcome oasis in the midst of the stooges stock footage drudgery that was all too common by 1955. by the way, did anyone else notice larry give a sort of reverse middle finger during one of the halladay, tarraday, holiday segments? it was most unexpected! we also get a glimpse of shemp' s fat double when he goes partway through the ceiling! this is more of a general observation, but it seemed that about one out of every 4 or 5 shorts were original. had shemp lived long enough, the stooges might have had another 2 to 3 years of rebuilt remakes before reaching the end of their original shemp era material. anyway, blunder boys gets 8 / 10 from me. i found this one fun and enjoyable! cheers !
not their best by any stretch, but at least the boys are trying something different; considering the budget handcuffs they had to work with, i think blunder boys comes off pretty well. in fact, i wish they' d been allowed more opportunities to do these kind of specific satires of hit shows and movies. it must' ve been a terrible blow for moe to lose another brother, but at least shemp passed on without suffering (i' ve read he actually died smiling - a nice touch, eh? )
final four thai cave boys and coach are in' good health' but must remain trapped underground for at least ...
elton' s 1997 album the big picture features string arrangements by anne dudley, who has also often collaborated with the boys .
the divine comedy is the second of three artists in this list—see the beach boys, above, for the first—who share with the pet shop boys the distinction of having been covered (
our mutual friend
) by the fauré quartett on their 2009 album popsongs .
incidentally, if i didn' t count cd singles, the beach boys / brian wilson would easily replace psb in first place .
peter gabriel' s
here comes the flood
is covered by the fauré quartett on their 2009 album popsongs, making him the third artist in this list (along with the beach boys and the divine comedy) who shares that honor with the pet shop boys .
in the same year, 1987, the pet shop boys and richard carpenter both released collaborations with dusty springfieldthe boys, of course, on
what have i done to deserve this? ,
and richard on the song
something in your eyes
from his solo album time .
in the documentary pet shop boys: a life in pop, comedian matt lucas jokes that psb are
almost as good as erasure .
vincent frank—better known as frankmusik—remixed the pet shop boys'
love etc .
and produced erasure' s 2011 album tomorrow' s world .
donna beat the boys and taylor - wood by two decades in covering serge gainsbourg' s
je t' aime moi non plus .
one of the better three stooges shorts with shemp is blunder boys, a very funny spoof of dragnet which was in its original run on television and very popular at the time. moe narrates the film and its how the stooges become police detectives in the crisp staccato style of sergeant joe friday. of course this is the three stooges so some liberties are taken with the facts. there is a brief prologue in which stooges are shown during world war ii fighting a rear guard action, the only kind they know how as moe informs us. larry comes into his own in this film with a very funny bit about how he is dazed, but in that condition of stupor wipes out an enemy machine gun nest singlehanded. the climax of the film involves the boys tangling with a criminal in drag in the person of vaudeville veteran benny rubin who must have been on loan from jack benny because rubin was something of a semi - regular on his tv show. rubin and shemp have some battle of wits. blunder boys, a very enjoyable short subject that concentrates on only the facts ma' am .
this was a difficult and most distressing time for the boys and their families, and the staff and other students involved in the production .
neil unsuccessfully auditioned for elton' s rocket records label way back in the early 1970s, years before there even were
pet shop boys .
an unreleased demo version of the pet shop boys'
forever in love
contains a brief sample borrowed from the beach boys' and the fat boys' collaborative 1987 hit cover of the rock and roll classic
wipeout !
it' s someone shouting
wipeout !
in a very silly voice, appearing near the beginning of the bb / fb track and about halfway through the psb demo. and, according to chris, another unreleased track ,
fat northern bastards ,
samples the
ba - ba - ba
vocal segment from the beach boys'
barbara ann .
longtime avowed bowie fans, the boys remixed and performed on the single version (and appear in the video) of his song
hallo spaceboy .
a rare 1986 vinyl ep released as a promo by record mirror magazine features the pet shop boys'
in the night
along with depeche mode' s
dressed in black
( prior to its subsequent release on black celebration) and two other tracks by the beastie boys and ll cool j .
of course, the boys titled their 2009 album yes, but surely that' s just a coincidence. (after the title was announced but even before the album itself was released, fans were cracking jokes online about how the band yes should respond in kind, titling their next album pet shop boys. )
as noted above, my favorite dc album is 1996' s casanova. ten years later the boys would release their own song
casanova in hell .
the boys remixed
walking on thin ice
for lennon' s widow, yoko ono (and performed it live on stage with her in june 2005) .
turnabout is fair play, so the boys asked bowie to remix
i get along ,
but he declined on account of his hectic schedule at the time .
i should watch this again before commenting because my only clear recollection of
blunder boys
are the parts where they parody
dragnet .
those are the parts i enjoy most. for me, shemp' s yukking it up over his own bad puns makes those parts funny. i also like the beginning where the police call box shakes when moe closes its door. forgot to add: i * love * shemp' s groundhog / ground hog pun. i also enjoy seeing moe' s just - too - large glencheck jacket with that loud tie .
chris has noted that the boys' 2002
university tour
was inspired by the fact that the first paul mccartney and wings tour was of u. k. universities .
on his 1989 flowers in the dirt album, mccartney worked with producer trevor horn. this was only a year after the boys had worked with horn on their album introspective .
apparently some copies (no one' s sure how many, but very few) of disc 2 of the 1986 - 87 cd reissue of john lennon / yoko ono 1972 album some time in new york city were mistakenly pressed with the psb album please rather than the
live jam
it' s supposed to have. the lennon release was on capitol / parlophone, a subsidiary of the boys' label, emi. so the two cds were probably pressed at the same facility, thereby enabling the blunder. an anomalous, rare, quite collectible—and quite valuable—error .
andy has also described erasure as
the poor man' s pet shop boys ,
which he clarified by adding that erasure' s roots were more
working class .
both peter and the boys were recipients of 1987 brits awards: gabriel as best male solo artist and psb as performers of the single of the year ,
west end girls .
as with the aforementioned stephin merritt' s magnetic fields, rufus was among the artists lined up for the boys' erstwhile 2001 touring
gay music
summer festival
wotapalava .
as noted above under erasure, stephen hague has worked with the boys on various occasions. hague has worked with gabriel as well, such as by co - producing his 2002 album up .
jon pollak, who was the lighting designer for the boys' somewhere shows at the savoy theatre in 1997, also designed the lighting for a rickie lee jones tour in the late 1980s .
german synthesist - composer - producer harold faltermeyer, who cut his professional teeth working extensively with summer and moroder during their disco heyday, co - produced the pet shop boys' album behaviour .
marius de vries, who co - produced two tracks on the boys' december 2009 christmas ep, has worked often with rufus wainwright, including producing his albums want one and want two .
both groups have repurposed music they had originally intended for a james bond film. in the case of the beach boys, it was the title track from pet sounds, an instrumental initially titled
run, james, run ,
whereas for the pet shop boys it was an early version of the basic instrumental track of
this must be the place i waited years to leave .
the pet shop boys and neil hannon are professed admirers of each other' s music. neil tennant reportedly once referred to hannon as
unbelievably talented but, unfortunately, an unrecognized genius .
merritt' s most prolific band, the magnetic fields, was slated to take part in the pet shop boys' ill - fated 2001 touring
gay music
summer festival
wotapalava .
johnny marr once told the boys that, when he had previously met donna' s most frequent producer and collaborator, giorgio moroder, he had expressed great interest in working with neil and chris .
andrew dawson, whom the boys tapped as producer and mixer of their 2012 studio album, had served as audio engineer for simon and garfunkel' s 2004 live reunion album old friends live on stage .
as with the aforementioned thomas dolby, rufus performed at the latitude festival in suffolk on july 15, 2012, the same day that featured excerpts there from the boys' ballet the most incredible thing .
the stooges are private detectives hired to protect a rich politician. after the man disappears, the boys wander around his spooky mansion confronting various villains and a dangerous dame... . see full summary »
blue weaver, a keyboardist who spent much of the seventies working with the bee gees, also worked with the boys on their first album, please, as well as some of their earliest live performances .
speaking of interviews, during a 1991 appearance on the short - lived tv show rick dees live into the night, the gibb brothers mentioned the pet shop boys among artists they currently drew upon for inspiration .
in august 2009 neil hannon talked to the guardian about music that inspires him .
if you want it intellectual and soulful ,
he said ,
you can look to the pet shop boys .
according to michael cowton' s 1991 book pet shop boys: introspective (p. 5), neil in his pre - fame days enjoyed doing parodies of various popular artists, including the moody blues .
pink floyd' s most famous (and, arguably, their greatest) album the dark side of the moon was recorded at abbey road studios, where the pet shop boys have often recorded as well .
i can' t resist noting that neil had his photo taken with yes' s best - known keyboardist, rick wakeman, and posted it on the boys' twitter page on march 10, 2009 .
this may be a bit esoteric, but it' s interesting at least to me: both the pet shop boys and the carpenters are officially and
correctly
referred to without the use of the definite article
the .
that is, one is always supposed to say simply
pet shop boys
and
carpenters
—not
the pet shop boys
and
the carpenters .
that being said, i personally feel free to deviate from that stated preference on the part of the artists in question whenever i think the writing calls for it. i believe elegance in composition trumps idiosyncracies in naming conventions .
‘2 days, 8 wild boars. hooyah’: upbeat navy seals celebrate successful rescue of eight thai cave boys after elite divers pulled them through flood water - leaving just four children and their coach trapped for another night
in 1986, after the boys hit it big, they attended her birthday party at london' s groucho club, where she asked them to be the opening act on her next tour. they politely declined .
anyhow, back at the ranch, i saw blunder boys tonight wednesday after the sox whupped the' stros as i videotape the morning airings on spike tv, damn this is a good one, in my top 5 shemp shorts and in my top 25 stooges. moe is better portraying sgt friday than webb his self. fine straight acting, larry in the army was among his best outings and shemp was off the chain throughout the short. being very familair with the original 1950' s dragnet, it made it funnier, those who only know the 60' s dragnet series may not appreciate the parody as much. the enrollment in criminology school is classic stooge, great dialogue .
the stooges go to criminology school and graduate with the lowest possible honors. the boys join the police force and are assigned to track down a crook called the
eel
, who disguises... see more »
roughly nine years before the boys released bilingual (1996), an album largely inspired by brazilian music, the manhattan transfer released brazil (1987), which was even more strongly inspired by the music of that nation .
friends and pets play a role in both bands' names. the pet shop boys, after all, were named for petshop - owning friends. and procol harum borrowed their name from a friend' s burmese cat .
the boys have scheduled a four - night
inner sanctum
residency at london' s royal opera house in july 2016, but rufus beat them to it with his own five - night residency there in july 2011 .
well, i remember a few of the things i loved as a kid watching tv - - the stooges being one (obviously) and the other being the show dragnet with jack webb as joe friday, so naturally when i saw blunder boys for the 1st time, i immediately felt that this was my favorite shemp short. now - - if you were to ask me - - what my favorite shemp is, i might have a hard time picking this one or the much earlier scrambled brains. at any rate, blunder for me is easily the last stooge masterpiece & maybe the last one really worth talking about. so many great bits in this one - - the opening scene alone has a shitload of great lines, i. e. 3 fingers on the arm of the law & shemp being the hangnail. i also loved moe talking about the rear - guard action - - it' s the only action we knew how to fight. the scenes in alma matter' s office are definitely the best part, especially larry and shemp going gaga over angela stevens - - who can blame them. the last time i get to trot out this rating: 10 out of 10 pokes... .
i fully and readily acknowledge that pet sounds (1966) is a far better album—in fact, one of the greatest rock / pop albums of all time. and i enjoy it immensely. but, for some reason, i enjoy sunflower even more. maybe it' s because i feel that pet sounds is almost like a brian wilson solo album with beach boys vocals, whereas sunflower is indisputably a beach boys album, with nearly equal contributions from every member. it showed dennis wilson at his peak as a singer and songwriter (the man was a lot more than just
the beach boys' drummer
), and baby brother carl did some of his all - time greatest singing while coming into his own as the inheritor of brian' s mantle as a studio - savvy producer. and it' s also where the beach boys wrote the book on the art of background vocals .
the stooges go to criminology school and graduate with the lowest possible honors. the boys join the police force and are assigned to track down a crook called the
eel
, who disguises... see full summary »
both erasure and the boys have worked with producer / mixer richard x: psb on the song
fugitive
and
the way it used to be ,
and erasure on their albums snow globe and the violet flame .
it was the scissor sisters' outrageous bee gees - on - ecstasy remake of the floyd classic
comfortably numb
that helped persuade the boys to tap them (the sisters, that is) for remixing
flamboyant .
my favorite shemp short. being a dragnet fan, i always liked this one & moe' s jack webb spoofing. the narrative bumpers are excellent & my favorite scene is when the boys are in alma matter' s office .
the pet shop boys wrote but decided against releasing a tribute to the cartoon / action figure action man, tentatively titled
if anyone can, the action man can .
( they ended up repurposing part of its music for
the 1996 divine comedy single
generation sex
features narration by tv personality and columnist katie puckrik—who also happens to be a dancer who toured with the pet shop boys' as part of their onstage ensemble on their 1991 performance tour .
the music of quite a few artists—including several cited on this page—has become integrated into
jukebox musicals .
( the beach boys, the beatles, billy joel, queen, the four seasons, and, yes, abba come to mind .) but the pet shop boys share with abba' s benny and björn (and with elton john) the distinction of having composed completely new scores for stage musicals: closer to heaven for psb and chess for benny and björn .
in an interview with rob fitzpatrick in the april 2009 issue of the word, neil said of one of the beach boys' classics ,
' good vibrations' is surrounded by genius, it sounds like it just arrived like that .
in a 1988 television interview, neil compared the pet shop boys to steely dan as songwriters who seldom toured as performing musicians. of course, that was a few years before both bands began to perform live much more often in the 1990s .
well, the pet shop boys did turn
i can' t take my eyes off you
which was co - written by gaudio and originally performed solo by valliinto an unlikely hit medley with
where the streets have no name .
set in the old west, the stooges are mistaken for lawmen and manage to capture a gang of crooks. the boys then get the job of guarding some money in an old house reputed to be haunted by... see full summary »
like a number of other artists listed here (the beatles, david bowie, kate bush, genesis, and pink floyd), queen shares with the pet shop boys the honor of receiving the ivor novello award for outstanding contribution to british music .
blunder boys
happens to be a parody of an old crime drama
dragnet
moe makes a good dead - pan narration of lapd detective joe friday, as played by the late jack webb. webb was the driving force of universal - based mark vii limited productions (the logo that featured the hammer and chisel, and # 7 which is etched in stone - in roman numerals. moe was halliday, larry was tarraday, and shemp played various characters that ends in day (st. patrick' s day, groundhog day, new year' s day, christmas day, independence day, and labor day). there were good detectives, but the boys ended up on the streets - somebody has to do the dirty work around here. a great stooge short. see it in its entirety commercial - free, not on spike. btw: what' s the 81 - c? a double - eye poke in which moe gave to both larry and shemp. don' t try this or any other pain - crunching methods at home .
the stooges witness an armed robbery and are brought in by the cops as suspects. after passing a lie detector test, the boys are freed and go back to their jobs in a cafe. when one of the... see full summary »
in 1995, madonna collaborated with massive attack to cover marvin gaye' s 1976 hit
i want you .
in 2002, the pet shop boys interpolated a bit of the same song into the conclusion of their track
between two islands .
the boys' april 2, 2017 performance benefitting the teenage cancer trust at royal albert hall provides another psb / who connection. the who' s lead singer, roger daltrey, is (along with sarah, duchess of york) a patron of the trust, and he played a key role in establishing the annual series of concerts for that charity, during which the who have often performed. chris lowe attended the who' s own 2017 benefit concert there several nights before the boys' performance. and daltrey took the stage once again on april 2 to
re - introduce
the pet shop boys toward the end of their intermission, relating an anecdote about how their benefit show was taking place several years after he had first asked them about it .
neil has cited the bb classic pet sounds as one of his favorite albums. (hmmm pet sounds pet shop boys .) and he once told an interviewer that his all - time favorite pop song is
god only knows
from that same album .
with regard to losing to the pet shop boys as
best group
at the 1988 brits awards, barry gibb admitted in a 2013 interview that he and his brothers felt very
jealous
at the time, believing that they should have won instead .
both psb and queen have collaborated with liza minnelli: the boys, of course, on her album results, and the surviving members of queen in april 1992 at the freddie mercury memorial concert in london, where she sang
we are the champions .
i had not seen the blunder boys in 30 years, since 9 - 23 - 75, when i used to see the stooges 2 - reelers on los angeles over the air tv late at night and early weekend mornings, channel 13 - kcop. this is one according to my notes i had never seen in the movies, either as a short before the main feature or at one of the many stooges festivals i have attended. i have the stooges filmography photocopied from an an early 1970' s leonard maltin book called the great movie shorts and have used that to notate the dates i have seen each of the shorts, i mark tv or movies because back in the day the tv versions were heavily edited so as to fit 2 episodes in a 1 / 2 hr show so the movies versions obviuosly had the complete 2 - reeler .
the surviving members of the who, pete townshend and roger daltrey, share with the pet shop boys and the aforementioned george michael as well as brian may and roger taylor of queen the fact that they performed at the closing ceremonies of the 2012 olympics in london .
there’s a wonderful scene midway through clint eastwood ’s jersey boys. we catch a fleeting glimpse of a rugged young cowboy on a black and white tv screen - and it turns out to be none other than eastwood himself, in an episode of his breakthrough series rawhide .
the working title of the pet shop boys' 1987 feature film it couldn' t happen here was reportedly a hard day' s shopping —clearly an ironic and perhaps even self - deprecating nod to the beatles' first film, a hard day' s night (1964) .
elton and the boys are personal friends. but even before they became friends, elton sent them a crate of champagne when
west end girls
became a big hit. as chris once described it to chris heath ,
it was like' welcome to the club.'
in 2000 merritt provided time out new york with a list of what he considered to be the single best recordings for each year of the twentieth century. for 1993 he singled out the pet shop boys'
dreaming of the queen
as the finest that year had to offer .
marie
( 1974, from good old boys) a portrait of a redneck who treats his wife like crap yet still loves her deeply, only he can' t bring himself to tell her that while he' s sober. and this one' s even more gorgeous .
paul mccartney shares with the pet shop boys the distinction of having composed a ballet. the tennant / lowe work is, of course, the most incredible thing. sir paul' s is titled ocean' s kingdom, and it premiered in september 2011 at the new york city ballet .
as with the bee gees, influences go both waysand in this case in the same song. reportedly it was the pet shop boys' influence that inspired dm to give
enjoy the silence
a strong dance beat. (it seems they originally considered it more of a ballad. )
while i admit that it' s not exactly the passing of the torch, the moodies had their last u. s. top 10 hit ,
your wildest dreams ,
in the same year (1986) that the pet shop boys had their first ,
west end girls .
while we' re on the topic of the yes' s drama, we should note that one of the audio engineers for that album was julian mendelsohn, who would later go on to work with the pet shop boys both as engineer and producer during their first few years of commercial success .
like the beatles, stevie nicks was listed among 300 artists whose names quickly flashed on an overhead screen during
the clock 10 - 11 - 12
in live performances of the most incredible thing. (the boys must like her a lot more than the rest of
the mac .
)
for rumpus in the harem, palma is seen from the back several times. the first time occurs in the restaurant when moe declares that the trio must do something to help their sweethearts. larry then concludes the conversation by saying
i' ve got it, i' ve got it !
moe inquires with
what ?
larry replies ,
a terrific headache !
later, palma is seen from the back being chased in circles by the palace guard. a few lines of dialogue appear —
whoa, moe, larry! moe, help !
— by dubbing shemp' s voice from the soundtracks of fuelin' around and blunder boys. [ 1 ] palma is seen one final time, making a mad dash for the open window, and supplying his own yell before making the final jump. this was one of the few times during his tenure as shemp' s double that palma was required to speak without the aid of dubbing. [ 2 ]
neil met kate at the grosvenor house hotel at the 1987 bpi awards .
she wasn' t particularly friendly, i' m afraid ,
says neil ,
but she wasn' t unfriendly. shy, i think .
both boys ran into her again at an emi conference in 1993 .
another bit of a stretch, but on the afternoon of july 15, 2012, excerpts from the pet shop boys' ballet the most incredible thing were performed at the latitude festival in suffolk, u. k. that same afternoon, dolby also performed at the festival, though on a different stage .
both are songwriting teams known (fairly or unfairly) for irony. yes, i know the boys don' t like to be called
ironic
in the immortal words of neil tennant ,
irony is shit
but there' s no denying they' ve written their share of ironic songs .
johnny marr has described himself as
the carlos alomar of the pet shop boys
—a metaphor that means absolutely nothing to anyone who doesn' t recognize the name of david bowie' s perennial guitarist. alomar has appeared in a supporting role on bowie' s albums more often than any other single musician .
hold me
( 1982, from mirage) i love the blend of christine' s and lindsay' s voices, but better yet is the delightfully strange arrangement, which tips several hats to the beach boys —appropriate enough given that the lyrics were apparently inspired by christine' s tumultuous relationship with dennis wilson .
in the 2010s, the pet shop boys edged past donna to become the fifth most successful act in the history of the u. s. dance charts (as tabulated by billboard magazine). now, if that doesn' t seal the deal of them being bona fide superstars and legends of dance music, nothing will .
michael nyman arranged the strings on the track
reaching out
on kate' s 1989 album the sensual world. years later, the boys would base their song
love is a bourgeois construct
on nyman' s 1982 composition
chasing sheep is best left to shepherds ,
itself based on a work by henry purcell .
it' s a rather tenuous connection, for sure, but i like it: one of abba' s more bizarre songs ,
two for the price of one
from the visitors, shares with the
possibly more mix
of the pet shop boys'
did you see me coming ?
a concern with personal ads .
just as the pet shop boys collaborated with jean - michel jarre on the track
brick england
on his 2016 album electronica 2: the heart of noise, vince clarke collaborated with jarre on the tracks
automatic (part 1 )
and
automatic (part 2 )
on its 2015 predecessor electronica 1: the time machine .
in the audio commentary track of the pandemonium live dvd, the boys and set designer es devlin compare the part where chris briefly dances onstage with the support singers / dancers during the song
why don' t we live together ?
to apparently similar moves made by madonna in her performance of her 1985 hit
dress you up
on madonna live - the virgin tour. remarkably, chris had said more than 20 years earlier—as revealed in robin mackintosh' s 1988 book pet shop boys special (page 58) —that among his ambitions was to do a dance routine onstage similar to that performed by madonna for
dress you up .
how' s that for a long - term vision ?
the two bands have connectionsalbeit very different oneswith british songwriter / producer jonathan king, who discovered, named, and gave genesis their professional start back in the late 1960s. two decades later the pet shop boys would successfully sue king for his allegations that they had cribbed
it' s a sin
from cat stevens' s
wild world .
more than one writer have described simon and garfunkel as
arguably the most successful duo in pop music history
( perhaps in terms of total units sold worldwide), although the pet shop boys by common reckoning—at least judged by chart performance—hold that title in the u. k. (for another extremely successful duo, just scroll down a bit. )
just as the pet shop boys collaborated with jean - michel jarre on the track
brick england
on his 2016 album electronica 2: the heart of noise, pete townshend collaborated with jarre on the track
travelator (part 2 )
on its 2015 predecessor electronica 1: the time machine. (reportedly other jarre - townshend collaborations remain unreleased .
queen' s freddie mercury and psb share opposite sides of a rarity released in 1987 by emi in hong kong: a clear vinyl single titled dance and romance, in which freddie' s solo outing
the great pretender
appears on the
romance
side and the boys'
it' s a sin
occupies the
dance
side .
i thought this was an excellent short with no old footage with hilarious scenes. i also really liked shemp' s monkiers
st. patrick' s day
,
christmas day
, etc. larry (as most everyone knows) raises his middle finger. the scene with the boys getting lost in a turkish bath is hilarious! * * * * mike holme
neil has, with obvious delight, told the story of how, at a festival once where both psb and david bowie were among the performers, he was watching bowie' s set when the latter at one point said ,
i would like to dedicate the next song to neil tennant from the pet shop boys. it' s called' queen bitch.'
on a more concrete level, stephen hague, who has often worked with the boys, produced please, and provided additional production for very, also produced erasure' s album the innocents. in fact, erasure and psb have shared numerous other producers, engineers, and remixers, among them david jacob, phil harding, mark stent, shep pettibone, and bob kraushaar .
david byrne, the talking heads' erstwhile leaderi want to call him the
head head
so badly i could just burst has, like the pet shop boys (
my october symphony
) and kate bush (see above), drawn upon the services of the balanescu string quartet. in 1988, the quartet joined byrne for a series of live concert performances .
a lengthy interview with neil specifically on the subject of bowie' s music and careerincluding his influence on the pet shop boysappears in the january 2007 issue of record collector. neil notes ,
david bowie transformed the way i felt about music ,
and reveals that whenever he and chris perform their song
sexy northerner
live he has to restrain himself from impersonating bowie vocally .
both psb and kate have recorded duets with elton john. the boys have done so on
in private
and
alone again, naturally
( not to mention neil and elton both guesting on the killers'
joseph, better you than me
), and kate did so on
snowed in at wheeler street
on her 2011 album 50 words for snow .
representatives for madonna contacted neil and chris in 2007 asking whether they might have something
lying around
that would be good for her to record. but before the boys could actually offer anything, madonna' s people phoned back to politely withdraw the request since madge had decided to
go r & b
for her next album—which turned out to be 2008' s hard candy .
joe mentioned the boys in the march 2015 entry in his blog ,
what i' m listening to ,
this particular edition subtitled
80s vs. 90s .
in it he speaks, with some apparent regret, of the change in british pop music that occurred from one decade to the next :
meanwhile in darkest england, frilly shirts and eyeliner gave way to northern miserablism... well, it had to, didn' t it? i preferred the pet shop boys, or the pogues… .
( a remarkable pairing there, to say the least .) he wrote at even greater length about psb on his personal website in october 2016, stating ,
i became a pet shop boys fan quite late. after years of not being sure, i suddenly realized that a lot of their songs were great—even classic—and i suddenly found myself charmed by neil tennant' s voice… .
he goes on to write about several of their more recent albums, starting with release, but spends most of his time discussing electric and super, comparing the two. while he likes them both, he considers super the
more substantial album .
the moodies' special 1988 re - recordings of their classics
question
and
isn' t life strange
for one of their hits colllections were orchestrated by anne dudley, who also provided orchestrations for justin hayward' s 2013 solo album spirits of the western sky. as documented elsewhere here on my website, she has worked quite a bit with the pet shop boys as well .
the stooges go to criminology school and graduate with the lowest possible honors. the boys join the police force and are assigned to track down a crook called the
eel
, who disguises himself as a woman. the stooges track the eel to a hotel, but he slips through their hands after a wild chase. the stooges are booted off the force and wind up as ditch diggers .
neil took part in a june 2010 tribute concert in honor of rufus' s mother, singer - songwriter kate mcgarrigle, who had passed away the preceding january after a long bout with cancer. he performed kate' s song
i cried for us ,
which the pet shop boys subsequently recorded and released as one of the
b - sides
for their single
together .
if the moodies were the faves of my teen years, these guysthe greatest and most enduring of the italian - american doo - wop groupswere the faves of my pre - teen years. like their contemporaries the beach boys, they quickly transcended their initial genre and produced some of the most vivacious music of the sixties. frankie' s astonishing voice, boasting the most phenomenal falsetto in the history of recorded music—and he was a great singer even when he wasn' t using his falsetto—struck a chord in me even then. bandmate bob gaudio wrote some terrific tunes, too. in fact, let' s hope the pet shop boys can match the legendary longevity of the valli - gaudio musical partnership, which has now lasted more than a half - century. and on a handshake, no less .
on march 1, 2012, neil and chris took part in recording sessions for string and brass parts for their album elysium at capitol studios housed in the capitol tower in hollywood, california. these studios have served as a favored recording venue for many legendary artists, not the least among them the beach boys. brian' s live 2008 performance of that lucky old sun for dvd was also filmed there .
jackson makes passing reference to psb in his autobiography a cure for gravity :
up close, there might appear to be a million worlds of difference between, say, aerosmith and the pet shop boys. zoom out, and they' re both pop groups. zoom out further, and it' s all just music .
not exactly a profound observation, joe, but i still love ya .
when neil presented madonna with a brits award in february 2006, she thanked various british artists, including the pet shop boys, for their influence on her music. before the show, neil and madonna even did a radio interview together, during which they performed a brief a cappella duet of
sorry
( lasting only a few seconds), with neil reprising his
please forgive me
part .
rag doll
( 1964, from rag doll) more class - consciousness (well - heeled boys apparently can' t go out with poor girls, either, much less marry them) in this, the apotheosis of doo - wop. but what truly makes it great is the coupling of such lovely harmonies and such touching lyrics :
such a pretty face should be dressed in lace .
more than one concert reviewer has compared the pet shop boys' 2009
pandemonium tour
staging with the floyd' s classic 1980 - 81 the wall tour in that both made use of an onstage wall, though in very different ways. one reviewer suggested that the psb wall was inspired by their song
building a wall ,
which is distinctly possible considering that it was part of the tour setlist .
the stooges go to criminology school and graduate with the lowest possible honors. the boys join the police force and are assigned to track down a crook called the
eel
, who disguises himself as a woman. the stooges track the eel to a hotel, but he slips through their hands after a wild chase. the stooges are booted off the force and wind up as ditch diggers. written by mitch shapiro
by contrast (perhaps somewhat facetiously), chris said in an interview for mixmag in 2012 that he tends to want pet shop boys music to be
downbeat
—or, as he put it more specifically ,
i would rather it was all like pink floyd .
then again, it would seem that chris does indeed have some fondness for floyd. in chris heath' s book pet shop boys, literally, neil says that when he first met chris, he
went back to his flat and he had all these pink floyd cassettes ,
at which neil added he was
shocked .
the albums specifically mentioned in this exchange are dark side of the moon, wish you were here, and the wall, although chris' s opinion of the latter is that it' s
not very good .
speaking of stuart price, it was surely his production work on madonna' s confessions album as well as his service as musical director for her subsequent confessions tour—replete with his trademark mashups—that led to the boys tapping him to produce their 2009 brits hits medley and then their own mashup - laden pandemonium tour, followed by their albums electric and super (and prospectively a third as part of a
psb - price trilogy
) .
rufus appeared as a guest vocalist at the boys' special may 2006 bbc radio concert with orchestra, singing their
casanova in hell .
( this show, including rufus' s performance, was recorded for the live album concrete .) and rufus also provides backing vocals on the 2016 psb track
wiedersehen
—although, to be honest, i wouldn' t have known without the credits and announcement of the fact .
after bowie passed away in 2016, the boys would at times dedicate certain performances to his memory. for instance, during their concert in july 2017 in turku, finland, they dedicated their rendition of
always on my mind
to bowie, at which time neil mentioned how they had met up with bowie (not for the first time, of course) when they had both played the ruisrock festival in turku back in 1997 .
this whole world
( 1970, from sunflower) brian' s sense of tonality can be shocking. it' s challenging enough trying to figure out the key (s) of the aforementioned
god only knows .
but this one takes the cake. here he and his boys adopt and discard keys, one line after another, with greater ease than a cold sufferer going through kleenex. yet it all sounds perfectly natural .
and while i' m generally loath to include shared remixers among these
connections
( on account of the potential for it getting out of hand), i shouldn' t ignore the very special case of the klf, who rarely mixed other artists' work but made exceptions for both depeche mode (the
trancentral mix
of
policy of truth
) and the pet shop boys (
so hard
and
it must be obvious
).
blunder boys is the 166th short film released by columbia pictures in 1955 starring american slapstick comedy team the three stooges ( moe howard , larry fine and shemp howard ) . the comedians released 190 short films for the studio between 1934 and 1959 . 
blunder boys is the 166th short film released by columbia pictures in 1955 starring american slapstick comedy team the three stooges (moe howard, larry fine and shemp howard). the comedians released 190 short films for the studio between 1934 and 1959.
blunder boys is the 166th short film released by columbia pictures in 1955 starring american slapstick comedy team the three stooges (moe howard, larry fine and shemp howard). the comedians released 190 short films for the studio between 1934 and 1959.