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Following 'West End Girls' and 'Love Comes Quickly', 'Opportunities' became the Pet Shop Boys' 3rd U.K. hit single when it reached No.11 in June 1986.
It seems slightly odd now that as big a hit as 'West End Girls' managed to elude the Now albums, but it was a victim of timing - it became a hit too late for Now 6 and must have seemed too much like old news for this album. So instead they make their first appearance with this single which, like their first hit, failed to chart in its original form and finally succeded in a re-recorded version. It's also their only single to chart higher in the US than in the UK, though a couple of others have matched positions exactly.
It's a track I remember from the time (unlike 'Love Comes Quickly) and one that seems of its time in more ways than one. The lyric is a very obvious satire on Thatcherism (I think I even grasped the general idea when I was eight) and the production is a typically busy dancefloor-inspired one of the era that sounds a bit desperate now; although of course there's a possibility that this was the intention all along. If so, it merely strengthens the impression that this, like a lot of PSB material, merits a nod of recognition rather than genuine enjoyment.
Also appearing on: Now 8, 10, 11, 15, 18, 20, 26, 28 [as Absolutely Fabulous], 35, 72
Available on: Discography - Complete Singles Collection
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