PET SHOP BOYS: Its A Sin + You Know where you went wrong 7″. Check video 1987

Description

“Its a Sin” is a song recorded by Pet Shop Boys which reached number one on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in 1987.

Written by Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant, “Its a Sin” was the lead single from the duos second “proper” album, Actually. Released in June 1987, it became the duos second UK number one single. It was also a massive hit across Europe, supposedly the best-selling European single of 1987. In the United States it reached number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the duos third Top 10 hit there.

The song is a description of Tennants Catholic upbringing and education at St Cuthberts High School in Newcastle upon Tyne. The song uses extensive samples from Latin masses (specifically, Tennant reciting a part of the Confiteor, and other sounds recorded at locations such as Westminster Cathedral) and religious imagery throughout to reinforce the feel of the song. Tennant has said that he wrote the lyrics in 15 minutes, purging his emotions in a moment of frustration and anger.
The Latin passage near the end translates as, “I confess to almighty God, and to you my brothers, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, act, and omission, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault”.
The dramatic, overblown production style of the song, loaded with synthesizers, orchestra hits and bookended by a non sequitur sample of a NASA countdown, has come to exemplify the most theatrical extremes of the Pet Shop Boys’ musical style.

7″: Parlophone / R 6158 (UK)
“Its a Sin” (4:59)
12″: Parlophone / 12R 6158 (UK)