Pet Shop Boys initially offered one of their new songs to Brandon Flowers.
The synth-pop legends released their fifteenth studio album ‘Nonetheless’ on Friday (26.04.24), and duo Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant have revealed album track ‘Feel’ was actually meant for The Killers frontman.
They told Record Collector magazine: “We sent it to him when he was making his solo album with Stuart Price, but we don’t know if it reached him – and then, during lockdown, I read a book about the spy, George Blake, escaping from prison.
“For some reason, it inspired me to return to this, so now it’s about visiting a loved one in prison.”
Brandon worked with Stuart Price on his 2010 debut solo album ‘Flamingo’, while the producer also served as engineer for ‘The Way It’s Always Been’ on his 2015 follow-up ‘The Desire Effect’.
It’s not the only time they’ve offered up a song to another artist only for it to not work out, as they once pitched a track to Bananarama.
Chris recalled: “They were always going to be difficult, were’t they?”
His bandmate added: “They asked us many times to write a song. And Sarah [Dallin] said, ‘You’ve just picked something off the shelf, haven’t you, and given it to us?’
“She just knew. She’s clever.”
Pet Shop Boys did earn worldwide acclaim for their remixes and reimagined takes on other artist’s songs, from the likes of David Bowie’s ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ to Madonna’s ‘Sorry’ and Paul Weller’s ‘Cosmic Fringes’.
In 1994, they reworked Blur’s song ‘Girls and Boys’, and their version took on a life of its own.
Neil said: “Well, we liked the song. And our remix ended up being the version that was released across Europe.
“Blur did a promotional tour of Europe, miming on television shows to our remix.”