Discography: The Complete Singles Collection Explained

Discography: The Complete Singles Collection
Type:greatest
Artist:Pet Shop Boys
Cover:Pet Shop Boys - Discography.png
Border:yes
Recorded:1985–1991
Genre:
Label:Parlophone
Prev Title:Behaviour
Prev Year:1990
Next Title:Very
Next Year:1993

Discography: The Complete Singles Collection is the first greatest hits album by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, released on 4 November 1991 by Parlophone.

Composition

Discography collects all of the singles released by Pet Shop Boys up to 1991. 16 of the 18 tracks were singles, while the last two tracks ("DJ Culture" and "Was It Worth It?") are new songs recorded exclusively for this compilation. Discography also contains a non-album single: the duo's cover version of U2's song "Where the Streets Have No Name", which later in the song breaks into the chorus of Frankie Valli's "Can't Take My Eyes Off You". Although many of the album's songs were released in other forms, this compilation only features the seven-inch single versions.

Pet Shop Boys also released a companion video compilation, Videography, consisting of the music videos for each of the songs on Discography, arranged in a slightly different order. Additionally, the song "Was It Worth It?" was replaced with "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?", which was not on the audio version of the album, despite being a double A-side with "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes off You)" (the exclusion being due to the constrictions of the CD's running time).

Critical reception

Upon its release, Andrew Collins of NME praised the compilation as "sublime and clever pop music" and added that you "don't have to despise rock music in order to love it". He added, "These songs are rooted in a distinctly bourgeois variety of urban angst but just think how closer it all is to your life than 'Vienna' and all that New Romantic nonsense to which the PSBs are so clearly indebted." Simon Price of Melody Maker summarised, "Somehow the lush symphonic sweep of these singles seems deeply cinematic. Every song is a full-scale Panavision epic whose recurrent moods are regret, nostalgia, and above all, jealousy. If you want near-faultless shimmering, shuddering disco melodrama, nobody does it better."[1]

Track listing

Notes

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Discography: The Complete Singles Collection.[2]

Pet Shop Boys

Technical

Artwork

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1991–1992)! scope="col"
Peak
position
Belgian Albums (IFPI)[3] 4
European Albums (Music & Media)[4] 12
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[5] 4
Greek Albums (IFPI)[6] 10
Irish Albums (IFPI)[7] 4
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[8] 29
Spanish Albums (AFYVE)[9] 28

Year-end charts

Chart (1991)! scope="col"
Position
UK Albums (OCC)[10] 36
Chart (1992)! scope="col"
Position
European Albums (Music & Media)[11] 80
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[12] 82

External links

Notes and References

  1. Price . Simon . 2 November 1991 . Retroactive: Tennant's Rites . . 38.
  2. Discography: The Complete Singles Collection . liner notes . . . 1991 . CDPMTV 3.
  3. Top 10 Sales in Europe . . 8 . 49 . 7 December 1991 . 31 . 29800226 . World Radio History.
  4. European Top 100 Albums . Music & Media . 8 . 47 . 23 November 1991 . 29 . 29800226 . World Radio History.
  5. Book: Pennanen, Timo . 2006 . Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 . fi . 1st . Helsinki . . 233 . 978-951-1-21053-5.
  6. Top 10 Sales in Europe . Music & Media . 9 . 3 . 18 January 1992 . 30 . 29800226 . World Radio History.
  7. Top 10 Sales in Europe . Music & Media . 8 . 47 . 23 November 1991 . 24 . 29800226 . World Radio History.
  8. Web site: ペット・ショップ・ボーイズのアルバム売り上げランキング . Pet Shop Boys album sales ranking . ja . . 17 June 2018 . https://archive.today/20130111175636/http://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/artist/152447/ranking/cd_album/ . 11 January 2013.
  9. Book: Salaverrie, Fernando . September 2005 . Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 . es . 1st . Madrid . . 84-8048-639-2.
  10. 1991 Top 100 Albums . . 11 January 1992 . 21 . 0265-1548 . World Radio History.
  11. 1992 Year-End Sales Charts – Eurochart Top 100 Albums . Music & Media . 9 . 51/52 . 19 December 1992 . 17 . 29800226 . World Radio History.
  12. Web site: Top 100 Album-Jahrescharts – 1992 . de . Offizielle Deutsche Charts . 17 June 2018.