"So Hard" is a song by the British pop group 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....

 and was the first single lifted from the 1990 album Behaviour. It peaked at #4 in the UK. The song is about "two people living together; they are totally unfaithful to each other but they both pretend they are faithful and then catch each other out".

The video was directed by 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 filmed in Newcastle

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...

 and North Tyneside

North Tyneside

The Metropolitan Borough of North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England and is part of the Tyneside conurbation. Its seat is Wallsend Town Hall....

. Filming locations included the Bigg Market, Newcastle Quayside

Quayside

The Quayside is an area along the banks of the River Tyne in Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead in the North East of England, United Kingdom....

, Railway Terrace in Wallsend

Wallsend

Wallsend is an area in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. Wallsend derives its name as the location of the end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 42,842.-Romans:...

, Byker

Byker

Byker is an inner city electoral ward in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in Tyne and Wear, England. It is in the east of the city, south of the Heaton area and north of St Peter's. Byker Metro station serves the area.The area also contains the Byker Wall estate. The population of the ward is...

, Whitley Bay

Whitley Bay

Whitley Bay is a town in North Tyneside, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the North Sea coast and has a fine stretch of golden sandy beach forming a bay stretching from St. Mary's Island in the north to Cullercoats in the south...

 and the Tyne and Wear Metro

Tyne and Wear Metro

The Tyne and Wear Metro, also known as the Metro, is a light rail system in North East England, serving Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, South Tyneside, North Tyneside and Sunderland. It opened in 1980 and in 2007–2008 provided 40 million public journeys on its network of nearly...

. The black and white video co-stars Paul Gascoigne

Paul Gascoigne

Paul John Gascoigne , commonly referred to as Gazza, is a retired English professional footballer.Playing in the position of midfield, Gascoigne's career included spells at Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Lazio, Rangers, Middlesbrough, Everton and Gansu Tianma, where he scored at least a goal...

's sister Anna Gascoigne.

The single's B-side was "It must be obvious", with the USA release also featuring the remix of "Paninaro

Paninaro

Paninaro was a youth scene that took its name from a group of youngsters who used to meet at the Al Panino bar in Milan's Via Agnello during the early 1980s...

", which was originally released on Disco

Disco (album)

Disco is the second album by the UK electronic music group Pet Shop Boys. It was released by Parlophone on .Disco was not an original studio album, but rather a collection of remixes of tracks from their first album, Please, and its respective B-sides...

. Remixes were done by Julian Mendelsohn

Julian Mendelsohn

Julian Mendelsohn is a British record producer, audio engineer and mixer. Records bearing his work have been featured on English top ten charts...

, The KLF

The KLF

The KLF were one of the seminal bands of the British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s....

 and David Morales

David Morales

David Morales is an internationally acclaimed Grammy-winning house music DJ and producer. In addition to his production and DJ work, Morales is one of the most prolific remixers of all time, transforming many pop music songs into club-friendly dance tracks...

. The KLF remixed "So hard" and "It must be obvious", available on The KLF versus Pet Shop Boys single.

7": Parlophone / R 6269 (UK)

1. "So Hard" – 3:56

• Produced by Pet Shop Boys, Harold Faltermeyer
• Mixed by Julian Mendelsohn
• Engineered by Brian Reeves
• Additional programming by Dominic Clarke

2. "It must be obvious" – 4:21

• Produced by Pet Shop Boys
• Mixed and engineered by Pete Schwier
• Additional programming by Dominic Clarke

12": Parlophone / 12R 6269 (UK)

1. "So Hard" (Extended Dance Mix) – 6:30
2. "It must be obvious" – 4:21
3. "So Hard" (Dub Mix) – 7:30
   • Mix by Julian Mendelsohn

12": Parlophone / 12RX 6269 (UK)

1. "So Hard" (KLF vs. Pet Shop Boys) – 5:27
2. "It must be obvious" (UFO mix) – 9:22

• Labelled The KLF versus Pet Shop Boys single
• Tracks 1 and 2 remixed by The KLF

12": EMI / V-56194

1. "So Hard" (Extended Dance Mix) – 6:30
2. "So Hard" (single) – 3:56
3. "So Hard" (dub) – 7:30
4. "It must be obvious" – 4:21

CD: Parlophone / CDR 6269 (UK)

1. "So Hard" – 3:56
2. "It must be obvious" – 4:21
3. "So Hard" (Extended Dance Mix) – 6:30
   • Produced by Pet Shop Boys, Harold Faltermeyer
   • Edited by Danton Supple
   • Engineered by Brian Reeves
   • Mixed by Julian Mendelsohn

CD: EMI / 560 204177-2 (Germany)

1. "So Hard" (12" remix) – 6:20
2. "So Hard" (Radio mix) – 3:25
3. "So Hard" (Red Zone Mix) – 7:42
4. "So Hard" (Eclipse mix) – 4:00
   • Remixed by David Morales
     David Morales
     David Morales is an internationally acclaimed Grammy-winning house music DJ and producer. In addition to his production and DJ work, Morales is one of the most prolific remixers of all time, transforming many pop music songs into club-friendly dance tracks...
     
     

CD: EMI / E2-56195 (US)

1. "So Hard" (Extended Dance Mix) – 6:30
2. "So Hard" (single) – 3:56
3. "So Hard" (dub) – 7:30
4. "It must be obvious" – 4:21
5. "Paninaro" (Italian Remix) ["12-inch remix"] – 8:40
   • Remix – David Jacob, Pet Shop Boys

Mixes

Mixes by Julian Mendelsohn

Julian Mendelsohn

Julian Mendelsohn is a British record producer, audio engineer and mixer. Records bearing his work have been featured on English top ten charts...

• Album/single version (3:56)
• Extended dance mix (6:30)
• Available on the Further Listening bonus disc with the Behaviour reissue
• Dub Mix (7:30)
• 9" edit (4:59)

Mixes by David Morales

David Morales

David Morales is an internationally acclaimed Grammy-winning house music DJ and producer. In addition to his production and DJ work, Morales is one of the most prolific remixers of all time, transforming many pop music songs into club-friendly dance tracks...

• Red Zone Mix (7:45)
• An abbreviated (2:48) version of this mix appears on Disco 2
  Disco 2
  Disco 2 is the eighth album by UK electronic music duo Pet Shop Boys. Released in September 1994 by Parlophone Records, it consists of remixes of songs from their 1993 Very and recent B-sides....
  
  
• 12" mix (6:26)
• Radio mix (3:37)
• Dub (7:37)
• Eclipse Mix (4:02)

Mix by The KLF

The KLF

The KLF were one of the seminal bands of the British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s....

• The KLF Versus Pet Shop Boys (5:27)

Chart performance

Chart (1990)	Peak position
United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...	4
US Hot Dance Music/Club Play	4
US Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales Hot Dance Singles Sales Hot Dance Singles Sales is a chart released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States, established in 1985. It measures the sale of commercially released singles that deal with dance music and remixes...	2
US Modern Rock Tracks	17
US Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...	62
Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...	2
Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....	2
Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...	3
Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....	3
Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...	9
Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...	15
Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...	27

Cover versions

A cover version by Scottish

Scottish people

The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...

 music artist/songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

 Momus

Momus (artist)

Nick Currie , more popularly known under the artist name Momus , is a songwriter, blogger and former journalist for Wired...

was included on the 2001 compilation Very Introspective, Actually: A Tribute to the Pet Shop Boys.

Resources

• Track listing data
• Single info
• Mixers info