Released 11 March 1991 Genre Synthpop | Format 7", 12", cassette, CD Length 4:31 (7" version) | |
A-side "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?" B-side "Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend" | ||
"Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes off You)" is a song by English synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys. The song is a medley of covers of U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", the 1960s single by Frankie Valli, though in an arrangement informed by the 1981 disco version of the song by Boystown Gang rather than the original. The song accompanied "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?", the third single from their 1990 album, Behaviour, as a double A-side in the UK (both singles were released separately in the US). Released in March 1991, this song was the band's fifteenth consecutive Top 20 hit in the UK, peaking at No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart. The band have said that they thought the guitars in the original sounded similar to a sequencer.
Contents
Background and inspiration
In the liner notes for the album Discography: The Complete Singles Collection, the Pet Shop Boys stated that they wanted to turn "a mythic rock song into a stomping disco record."
Content
The Pet Shop Boys version differed significantly from the original version in its musical arrangement. In contrast to the U2 version's instrumental build-up, the Pet Shop Boys version opens abruptly with synthesized and sampled noises and a drum machine. The musical climax of the song is also changed in other elements; a background vocal sample of "burning down love" is played right at the start, and synthesized horns erupt with even higher notes immediately following each chorus. Singer Neil Tennant performs the lyrics with no vocal exertion or stresses, in contrast to Bono's performance. In addition, at the transition between "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "Can't Take My Eyes off You", Tennant sings the two lines one after the other, with no change in pitch — pointing out the similarities in the two songs. Following the release of the single, U2 issued a statement saying "What have we done to deserve this?". Tennant mentioned to The People in 2002 that he had "managed at long last to patch things up with Bono" after meeting him at one of Elton John's homes in the south of France.
This version has been paired with "How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?", a song criticizing the insincere humanitarian messages of a number of pop stars during the 1980s and the institutionalization of rock and roll.