B-side "That's My Impression" Format 7", 12" Genre Synthpop | Released 24 February 1986 Recorded 1985 Length 4:18 | |
"Love Comes Quickly" is a song by UK synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys, released as the third single from their 1986 album Please, and the last of its singles to be released before the album itself. Although a Top 20 hit in the UK, and cited as one the band's own favourite songs, its chart performance was disappointing given that it followed the worldwide number one "West End Girls". It peaked at number 19 in the UK in March 1986.
Contents
- Production
- Release
- Cover
- Music video
- 7 Parlophone R 6116 UK
- 12 Parlophone 12 R 6116 UK
- 12 Capitol V 19218 US
- Cover versions
- References
The song is about the inevitability of falling in love, even for those who deliberately shun the idea.
Production
Producer Stephen Hague receives a co-writing credit for writing the first two chords of the middle section of the song. Andy Mackay of Roxy Music plays the saxophone parts towards the end of the song.
Release
As with "Opportunities", the 12-version of the single contains remixes by 1980s producer Shep Pettibone. The remixes of "Love Comes Quickly" and "That's My Impression" reached the top ten on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in October 1986. Later, in 2003, new remixes by Blank & Jones were produced for the promotion of the singles collection PopArt.
Cover
The cover, featuring Chris Lowe in a baseball cap emblazoned with "BOY" in block letters, has become an iconic Pet Shop Boys image. It has been incorporated into various parodies of the duo's appearance, such as the music video for the 2006 Pet Shop Boys single "I'm with Stupid", and a 2006 comic strip from webcomic Scary Go Round.
Neil Tennant of the duo later recollected that he had expected the image of the cap to be the group's coming out moment, calling it "incredibly gay".
Music video
Directed by Andy Morahan and Eric Watson, the video to the song is very simple, utilising facial shots of Tennant singing, interposed with blurry montages of the faces of various other people; at points, shots of Lowe, lying on top of a construction of a square grid, are superimposed over these shots. Watson would later call it a "complete disaster".
7": Parlophone / R 6116 (UK)
A. "Love Comes Quickly" – 4:18
B. "That's My Impression" – 4:45
12": Parlophone / 12 R 6116 (UK)
A. "Love Comes Quickly" (Dance Mix) – 6:50
B. "That's My Impression" (Disco Mix) – 5:18
12": Capitol / V-19218 (US)
A1. "Love Comes Quickly" (Shep Pettibone Mastermix) – 7:34
A2. "Love Comes Quickly" (Dub Mix) – 6:55
B1. "Love Comes Quickly" (Dance Mix) – 6:50
B2. "That's My Impression" (Disco Mix) – 5:18
Cover versions
As early as 1986, a Japanese-language cover version of the song was recorded by pop singer Hidemi Ishikawa.
In English, "Love Comes Quickly" was also covered by Memphis on their 2004 album I Dreamed We Fell Apart, and it was one of the songs on the Pet Shop Boys tribute band West End Girls' 2006 debut album.
Singer/songwriter Kevin Caffrey covered the song acoustically in 2008.