Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)
Encyclopedia
"Opportunities" is a song by UK synthpop
duo Pet Shop Boys
, released as a single in 1985 and then in 1986, gaining greater popularity in both the UK and U.S. with its second release.
Written as a satire of Thatcherism
and its embodiment in conspicuous consumption
and yuppie
s in the United Kingdom during the 1980s, the song's indirect attack on its subject matter has come to exemplify the Pet Shop Boys as ironists
in their songwriting.
when Chris Lowe asked him to make up a lyric based around the line "Let's make lots of money". Tennant has said that he was somewhat inspired by the relationship between the characters of Dustin Hoffman
and Jon Voight
in the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy
.
The first version of the song, recorded with the duo's first producer, Bobby Orlando
, was not released; upon signing with record label Parlophone
, they re-recorded the song with J. J. Jeczalik (of Art of Noise) and Nicholas Froome.
The original single release charted lowly at number 116 in the UK, to be exceedingly outdone by the number one spectacle of the second release of "West End Girls
" in multiple countries. With producer Stephen Hague
still on board from that release, a new single version and a version for the duo's debut album, Please, were mixed. The second release of "Opportunities", following the album's release, resulted in better chart performance. It is currently the only single from the band to chart higher in the US than the UK, becoming the duo's second Top 10 single in the US, peaking at #10, and just missing out (#11) in the UK. In Australia, the first version was the one to chart (although outside the Top 40).
Please also included a brief, cacophonic track entitled "Opportunities (Reprise)", which was the original middle section to the song proper before it was edited out.
Tennant has made it clear, however, that the schemes are doomed to failure. The protagonist's claimed accreditations, a PhD
in mathematics
from the Sorbonne
and knowledge of computer programming
, are conceited fabrications. The punchline of the "joke" of the song, he says, is that "the people in it are not going to make any money". The band have attributed the cynicism of the song, in part, to the punk rock
attitudes of the period.
The meaning of the lyrics is taken at face value by some listeners, and this subsequent interpretation of the song as a materialistic anthem receives mixed reactions. The satirical interpretation, on the other hand, has cemented the Pet Shop Boys' reputation as ironists to many, to the chagrin of the band as the result is often their more sincere songs being ignored.
A notable change between the original and re-recorded versions of "Opportunities" is the omission of the spoken outro "All the love that we had / And the love that we hide / Who will bury us / When we die?" According to Tennant, the lyrics were removed from the second version of the song as the duo feared the passage would be construed as "too pretentious". The first two lines of the outro, however, are sung within the lyrics of "Why Don't We Live Together?" from the Please album. The original single version of "Opportunities" was unavailable on compact disc until the U.S.-only Essentials compilation album in 1998, and the 2-disc expanded remaster of Please in 2001 for the UK (in an expanded form).
es for the 1985 release were produced by Ron Dean Miller of Nuance
, while those for the 1986 release were produced by noted 1980s producer Shep Pettibone
. Some of Miller's overdubs went on to be incorporated into the 1986 single version.
The B-side
of the 1985 release, "In the Night", is about the subculture
known as the Zazou
s that appeared in France during the German occupation of France in World War II
; concerned with fashion
and music, and allied with neither the Nazis and Vichy France
nor the French Resistance
, they were distrusted by both sides. Tennant, having read about the movement in a book by David Pryce-Jones
, asks, in the song, the question of whether this apathy essentially amounted to collaborationism
.
An instrumental version of "In the Night" became the opening theme music
of the BBC
fashion program The Clothes Show
when it first aired in 1986. This continued for a decade until 1995 saw a fully instrumental re-recording of the song, "In the Night '95", for the purpose of replacing the old theme.
B. "In the Night" – 4:50
B. "In the Night" – 4:50
B1. "Opportunities" (Dub for Money) – 4:54
B2. "In the Night" – 4:50
B. "Was That What It Was?" – 5:18
A2. "Opportunities" (Reprise) – 4:27
B1. "Opportunities" (Original Dance Mix) – 6:45
B2. "Was That What It Was?" – 5:18
for the first single release was directed by soon-to-be perennial Pet Shop Boys photographer Eric Watson
and 1980s staple music video director
Andy Morahan. It depicts Lowe in an underground parking garage
; a Cadillac pulls up to him and stops, whereupon Tennant materializes in front of it, dressed in a hat, glasses, and a suit by British fashion designer Stephen Linard, and standing inside a rectangular hole in the ground while singing the song while his face continually twitches suggesting missing frames and inflates in similar fashion to a frog. The video ends with Tennant disintegrating into dust and the car driving away.
Watson was partly inspired by the images of preachers in Wise Blood
, the film adaptation
of the Flannery O'Connor
novel of the same title
, in designing Tennant's appearance.
director Zbigniew Rybczyński
was recruited. In the video, Tennant is again dressed in a suit and hat, while Lowe wears the hard hat, jeans, soiled shirt, and work gloves of a construction
worker, depicting the two roles spoken of in the lyrics. The camera pans over a background of city skylines and clouds rendered in neon lines as Tennant and Lowe appear duplicated repeatedly, passing to each other symbols
of the different statuses they represent — including a top hat, a trophy, a brick, and a sledgehammer.
singer Frank Bennett
recorded a big band
style cover of the song for his 1998 album Cash Landing.
Synthpop
Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...
duo Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys are an English electronic dance music duo, consisting of Neil Tennant, who provides main vocals, keyboards and occasional guitar, and Chris Lowe on keyboards....
, released as a single in 1985 and then in 1986, gaining greater popularity in both the UK and U.S. with its second release.
Written as a satire of Thatcherism
Thatcherism
Thatcherism describes the conviction politics, economic and social policy, and political style of the British Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher, who was leader of her party from 1975 to 1990...
and its embodiment in conspicuous consumption
Conspicuous consumption
Conspicuous consumption is spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status....
and yuppie
Yuppie
Yuppie is a term that refers to a member of the upper middle class or upper class in their 20s or 30s. It first came into use in the early-1980s and largely faded from American popular culture in the late-1980s, due to the 1987 stock market crash and the early 1990s recession...
s in the United Kingdom during the 1980s, the song's indirect attack on its subject matter has come to exemplify the Pet Shop Boys as ironists
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
in their songwriting.
History
The song was written during the Pet Shop Boys' formative years, in 1983. According to Neil Tennant, the main lyrical concept came while in a recording studio in Camden TownCamden Town
-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found in...
when Chris Lowe asked him to make up a lyric based around the line "Let's make lots of money". Tennant has said that he was somewhat inspired by the relationship between the characters of Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
and Jon Voight
Jon Voight
Jonathan Vincent "Jon" Voight is an American actor. He has received an Academy Award, out of four nominations, and three Golden Globe Awards, out of nine nominations. Voight is the father of actress Angelina Jolie....
in the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 American drama film based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. It was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman and newcomer Jon Voight in the title role. Notable smaller roles are filled by Sylvia Miles, John...
.
The first version of the song, recorded with the duo's first producer, Bobby Orlando
Bobby Orlando
Robert Philip Orlando , also known as Bobby Orlando, is an American record producer, dance music artist, musician and songwriter.- Early life :...
, was not released; upon signing with record label Parlophone
Parlophone
Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...
, they re-recorded the song with J. J. Jeczalik (of Art of Noise) and Nicholas Froome.
The original single release charted lowly at number 116 in the UK, to be exceedingly outdone by the number one spectacle of the second release of "West End Girls
West End Girls
"West End Girls" is a song by British pop duo Pet Shop Boys. Written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, the song was released twice as a single. It is a synthpop song, influenced by hip hop music. The lyrics focus on class, and inner-city pressure, and were inspired by T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land...
" in multiple countries. With producer Stephen Hague
Stephen Hague
Stephen Hague is an American music producer most active with various British acts in the 1980s. He was an influential figure in the synthpop movement.-Early career:...
still on board from that release, a new single version and a version for the duo's debut album, Please, were mixed. The second release of "Opportunities", following the album's release, resulted in better chart performance. It is currently the only single from the band to chart higher in the US than the UK, becoming the duo's second Top 10 single in the US, peaking at #10, and just missing out (#11) in the UK. In Australia, the first version was the one to chart (although outside the Top 40).
Please also included a brief, cacophonic track entitled "Opportunities (Reprise)", which was the original middle section to the song proper before it was edited out.
Lyrics
The lyrics depict, in Tennant's words, "two losers". The song is written from the perspective of a man who describes himself as being intellectual and educated. The lyrics are addressed towards another character, identified as having "looks" and "brawn", and who is invited to join the song's protagonist in a scheme to "make lots of money".Tennant has made it clear, however, that the schemes are doomed to failure. The protagonist's claimed accreditations, a PhD
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
from the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
and knowledge of computer programming
Computer programming
Computer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a program that performs specific operations or exhibits a...
, are conceited fabrications. The punchline of the "joke" of the song, he says, is that "the people in it are not going to make any money". The band have attributed the cynicism of the song, in part, to the punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
attitudes of the period.
The meaning of the lyrics is taken at face value by some listeners, and this subsequent interpretation of the song as a materialistic anthem receives mixed reactions. The satirical interpretation, on the other hand, has cemented the Pet Shop Boys' reputation as ironists to many, to the chagrin of the band as the result is often their more sincere songs being ignored.
A notable change between the original and re-recorded versions of "Opportunities" is the omission of the spoken outro "All the love that we had / And the love that we hide / Who will bury us / When we die?" According to Tennant, the lyrics were removed from the second version of the song as the duo feared the passage would be construed as "too pretentious". The first two lines of the outro, however, are sung within the lyrics of "Why Don't We Live Together?" from the Please album. The original single version of "Opportunities" was unavailable on compact disc until the U.S.-only Essentials compilation album in 1998, and the 2-disc expanded remaster of Please in 2001 for the UK (in an expanded form).
Release
12-inch remixRemix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
es for the 1985 release were produced by Ron Dean Miller of Nuance
Nuance (Dance music act)
Nuance was an American dance music/freestyle group. It was formed by the producer and arranger, Ron Dean Miller, and featured Vikki Love on vocals. They charted three hits on the US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in the 1980s, including "Loveride," which hit #1 in 1985...
, while those for the 1986 release were produced by noted 1980s producer Shep Pettibone
Shep Pettibone
Robert E. Pettibone, Jr. is a record producer, remixer, songwriter and club DJ, one of the most prolific of the 1980s. His earliest work known to the public was for one of New York City's top disco/dance radio stations, WRKS 98.7 "Kiss" FM, and later as remixer/producer for the disco label Salsoul...
. Some of Miller's overdubs went on to be incorporated into the 1986 single version.
The B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
of the 1985 release, "In the Night", is about the subculture
Subculture
In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.- Definition :...
known as the Zazou
Zazou
The Zazous were a subculture in France during World War II. They were young people expressing their individuality by wearing big or garish clothing and dancing wildly to swing jazz and bebop...
s that appeared in France during the German occupation of France in World War II
German occupation of France in World War II
The Military Administration in France was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II. It remained in existence from May 1940 to December 1944. As a result of the defeat of France and its Allies in the Battle of France, the French cabinet sought a cessation...
; concerned with fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
and music, and allied with neither the Nazis and Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
nor the French Resistance
French Resistance
The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
, they were distrusted by both sides. Tennant, having read about the movement in a book by David Pryce-Jones
David Pryce-Jones
David Eugene Henry Pryce-Jones FRSL is a conservative British author and commentator.- Career :He was educated at Eton and read History at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied under A.J.P...
, asks, in the song, the question of whether this apathy essentially amounted to collaborationism
Collaborationism
Collaborationism is cooperation with enemy forces against one's country. Legally, it may be considered as a form of treason. Collaborationism may be associated with criminal deeds in the service of the occupying power, which may include complicity with the occupying power in murder, persecutions,...
.
An instrumental version of "In the Night" became the opening theme music
Theme music
Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...
of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
fashion program The Clothes Show
The Clothes Show
The Clothes Show is a British television show about fashion that can currently be seen weeknights on Really. It was formerly broadcast on BBC One from 1986 to 2000.-BBC series :...
when it first aired in 1986. This continued for a decade until 1995 saw a fully instrumental re-recording of the song, "In the Night '95", for the purpose of replacing the old theme.
7" (UK) (1985 release) (Parlophone R6097)
A. "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" – 3:45B. "In the Night" – 4:50
12" #1 (UK) (1985 release) (Parlophone 12R6097)
A. "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" (Dance Mix) – 6:44B. "In the Night" – 4:50
12" #2 (UK) (1985 release) (Parlophone 12RA6097)
A. "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" (Version Latina) – 5:29B1. "Opportunities" (Dub for Money) – 4:54
B2. "In the Night" – 4:50
7" (UK) (1986 release) (Parlophone R6129)
A. "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" – 3:36B. "Was That What It Was?" – 5:18
12" (UK) (1986 release) Parlophone (12R6129)
A1. "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" (Shep Pettibone Mastermix) – 7:18A2. "Opportunities" (Reprise) – 4:27
B1. "Opportunities" (Original Dance Mix) – 6:45
B2. "Was That What It Was?" – 5:18
Chart performance
| Chart (1985 release) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK | 116 |
| Australia | 63 |
| Chart (1986 release) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK | 11 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 10 |
| Germany | 25 |
First version
The music videoMusic video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for the first single release was directed by soon-to-be perennial Pet Shop Boys photographer Eric Watson
Eric Watson (photographer)
Eric Watson is an English photographer.Watson moved to London in 1974 to study fine art at Hornsey Art College, where his contemporaries included Adam Ant and became an assistant to the photographer Red Saunders in 1980 and soon branched out as a photographer in his own right, primarily in the pop...
and 1980s staple music video director
Music video director
A music video director is driven by a given music track. These are called music videos and are then used as promotional tools for popular music singles...
Andy Morahan. It depicts Lowe in an underground parking garage
Multi-storey car park
A multi-storey car-park is a building designed specifically to be for car parking and where there are a number of floors or levels on which parking takes place...
; a Cadillac pulls up to him and stops, whereupon Tennant materializes in front of it, dressed in a hat, glasses, and a suit by British fashion designer Stephen Linard, and standing inside a rectangular hole in the ground while singing the song while his face continually twitches suggesting missing frames and inflates in similar fashion to a frog. The video ends with Tennant disintegrating into dust and the car driving away.
Watson was partly inspired by the images of preachers in Wise Blood
Wise Blood (film)
Wise Blood is an American-German 1979 drama film directed by John Huston and based on the 1952 novel Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor. It was filmed mostly in and around Macon, Georgia, near O'Connor's home "Andalusia" in Baldwin County, using many local residents as extras...
, the film adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of the Flannery O'Connor
Flannery O'Connor
Mary Flannery O'Connor was an American novelist, short-story writer and essayist. An important voice in American literature, O'Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries...
novel of the same title
Wise Blood
Wise Blood is the first novel by American author Flannery O'Connor, published in 1952. The novel was assembled from several disparate stories first published in Mademoiselle, Sewanee Review, and Partisan Review...
, in designing Tennant's appearance.
Second version
For the re-release, the prestigious PolishPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
director Zbigniew Rybczyński
Zbigniew Rybczynski
Zbigniew Rybczyński is a Polish filmmaker who has won numerous prestigious industry awards both in the United States and internationally. He was also a teacher of cinematography, and digital cinematography. Currently he is a researcher of blue and greenscreen compositing technology at Ultimatte...
was recruited. In the video, Tennant is again dressed in a suit and hat, while Lowe wears the hard hat, jeans, soiled shirt, and work gloves of a construction
Construction
In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...
worker, depicting the two roles spoken of in the lyrics. The camera pans over a background of city skylines and clouds rendered in neon lines as Tennant and Lowe appear duplicated repeatedly, passing to each other symbols
Status symbol
A status symbol is a perceived visible, external denotation of one's social position and perceived indicator of economic or social status. Many luxury goods are often considered status symbols...
of the different statuses they represent — including a top hat, a trophy, a brick, and a sledgehammer.
Cover versions
Australian jazzJazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
singer Frank Bennett
Frank Bennett
Frank Bennett is an Australian jazz singer whose stage name is formed from Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett...
recorded a big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
style cover of the song for his 1998 album Cash Landing.
Appearances/References in other media
- "Opportunities" was the opening theme to the WB Television Network reality showReality televisionReality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
Beauty and the GeekBeauty and the GeekBeauty and the Geek is a reality television series on The CW. It has been advertised as "The Ultimate Social Experiment" and is produced by Ashton Kutcher, Jason Goldberg and Nick Santora....
, which first aired in 2005; the show literally pairs up people with "brains" (intellectual men) alongside those with "looks" (attractive women) in a competition to "make lots of money". - The song was also used in commercials for ABC's 2004 short-lived reality series The BenefactorThe BenefactorThe Benefactor is an American reality television show broadcast on ABC starting on September 13, 2004. The premise involved 16 contestants vying to win US$1 million from billionaire entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban....
, which was cancelled before completing its six-episode run. Contestants competed for a chance to win US$United States dollarThe United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
1 million from entrepreneur and Dallas MavericksDallas MavericksThe Dallas Mavericks are a professional basketball team based in Dallas, Texas. They are members of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association , and the reigning NBA champions, having defeated the Miami Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals.According to a 2011...
owner Mark CubanMark CubanMark Cuban is an American business magnate and investor. He is the owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theatres, and Magnolia Pictures, and the chairman of the HDTV cable network HDNet....
. - Billionaire Boys Club starring Judd Nelson features this song.
- In the SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode "Husbands and KnivesHusbands and Knives"Husbands and Knives" is the seventh episode of The Simpsons nineteenth season, and was first broadcast on November 18, 2007. It features guest appearances from Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman and Dan Clowes as themselves as well as Jack Black as Milo. It was written by Matt Selman and directed by Nancy...
", after Marge starts a women's fitness club (a parody of Curves) a snippet of the song is used to demonstrate her increasing profits. - In PsychPsychPsych is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks and broadcast on USA Network. It stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened observational skills" and impressive detective instincts...
season 2, episode 15, "Black & Tan," the song is played briefly in a slow-motion montage with Gus and Shawn walking down the street as fashion models.