25 Years On: When Liza met the Pet Shop Boys
By Ben Kelly
Today (August 5) marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Losing My Mind, the Liza Minnelli/Pet Shop Boys collaboration that gave the sequinned one her only real pop hit, and led the campaign for her album Results, co-written and produced by the Boys too.
The collaboration came about after the Pet Shop Boys’ track Rent caught Liza’s attention – a difficult thing to do. When it was touted that she’d make a new album, she reached out to Neil and Chris, and – voila – they agreed to do it. Following their hit 1987 duet What Have I Done To Deserve This, the Pet Shop Boys were also working with Dusty Springfield that year, which produced Nothing Has Been Proved and In Private, so it was something of a moment for their revival of divas; Neil claims they drew the line before taking on a third, but has never named the lady in question.
The fusion of the very contemporary electro-pop duo with one of the ultimate gay icons made for interesting output, and Liza herself commented that “nobody compromised”. The songs on Results are mostly the same kind of show tunes and reflective chansons for which Liza was famous, but the production was firmly rooted in the electronic, orchestral field of the Pet Shop Boys; something Ms Minnelli found difficult to get to grips with. When she first arrived at the recording studio and found only Neil, Chris and some machines, she asked: “When do the musicians get here?”. Good old Liza had spent over a decade boogying at Studio 54 but the existence of the synthesizer had somehow passed her by.
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y_pK_uYCmA[/youtube]
Seven of the album’s ten tracks were written by the Pet Shop Boys, including a dark, orchestral cover of Rent which amounts to a classic Liza moment. Neil Tennant wrote the others with Liza in mind, including the sultry yet danceable tracks I Want You Now and Don’t Drop Bombs, plus the pulsing, infectious melodies of If There Was Love. Neil spoke of getting into a different mindset to write ballads like So Sorry, I Said for a woman of Liza’s “age and experience.” She in turn speaks of how he pushed her to new vocal highs and lows in the studio.
But arguably, the gem in the record’s crown is Losing My Mind – the most unlikely version of a Stephen Sondheim song since Grace Jones covered Send in the Clowns. The song is the 11 o’clock number from Sondheim’s 1971 musical Follies, and was therefore familiar to Liza. Considering how she performs it with all her musical theatre gusto, set to the hard electronic beat with which the Boys had also transformed Go West and Always on My Mind, this is the track which best portrays the musical style and success of the entire venture. It’s also the reason we got to have Liza on Top of the Pops, so thanks for that.
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJvhAZ3MQg8[/youtube]
Results was a very British affair, recorded in London and peaking at Number Six on the UK’s Official Albums Chart, and Losing My Mind gave Liza her first Top Ten hit, but it effectively flopped in the US, and made little impact elsewhere. That said, one look at Liza’s discography shows she’s not much of an album gal as it goes, and this was in fact her most successful studio album ever, achieving Gold status in the UK and Spain. The title itself came from an off-hand comment the Boys heard from Janet Street Porter about certain clothes she had which “always got results” – it doesn’t get much more camp than that.
So, 25 years to the day it was released, mark the madness of this wonderful collaboration and give Results a spin on Spotify, where it’s hosted in its entirety; or, better still, buy it – and contribute to Liza’s retirement fund.
> Read our review of Pet Shop Boys’ recent BBC Proms performance dedicated to the late Alan Turing
> Pet Shop Boys make Panti’s speech into dance track
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdfZIj-6WNU[/youtube]