Photo: “West End Girls” by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys and also written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, was released twice as a single. The song’s lyrics are concerned with class and the pressures of inner-city life which were inspired partly by T. S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land. It was generally well received by contemporary music critics and has been frequently cited as a highlight in the duo’s career. In October 1985, a new version was released, reaching number one in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1986. In 1987, the song won Best Single at the Brit Awards, and Best International Hit at the Ivor Novello Awards. In 2005, 20 years after its release, the song was awarded Song of The Decade between the years 1985 and 1994 by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. A critic’s poll in 2020 by The Guardian selected “West End Girls” as the greatest UK number-one single.
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