I'm with Stupid (Pet Shop Boys song)

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"I'm with Stupid"
"I'm with Stupid" cover
Single by Pet Shop Boys
from the album Fundamental
B-side(s) "Girls Don't Cry", "The Resurrectionist"
Released 8 May 2006
Format 7", CD, Maxi-CD, DVD
Recorded 2003-2005
Genre Synthpop
Length 3:27 (album version)
3:58 (video edit)
Label Parlophone
Producer(s) Pet Shop Boys, Trevor Horn
Chart positions
Pet Shop Boys singles chronology
"Flamboyant"
(2004)
"I'm with Stupid"
(2006)
"Minimal"
(2006)

"I'm with Stupid" is a song by British synthpop band Pet Shop Boys and is featured on their 2006 album, Fundamental. It was released 8 May 2006 as the lead single from the album in the United Kingdom and the European Union (see 2006 in British music). It became the duo's 21st Top 10 single in the UK, peaking at #8.

Though ostensibly about a romantic relationship with a man perceived by the public as a "moron", the song has been acknowledged as being, on another level, about Tony Blair's beleaguered relationship with George W. Bush.[1] The protagonist of the song is eventually brought to wonder if the other's stupidity might not be a front:

Is stupid really stupid
or a different kind of smart?
Do we really have a relationship
so special in your heart?[2]

(See also special relationship as a term in international relations.)

It received its official first play 31 March on BBC Radio 2 and charted at number eight in the UK Singles Chart, becoming the duo's twenty-first UK top ten single. One of the single's B-sides, "The Resurrectionist", is about body-snatching in the English Regency era, carried out by people literally called "resurrectionists".[3]

"I'm with Stupid" was performed on the 23 April 2006 episode of Top of the Pops, in the latest in a long series of Pet Shop Boys performances on the UK music program.[4] The performance was planned to include six dancers, wearing masks depicting Blair's and Bush's faces. The BBC's editorial department objected, however, citing the need to be politically "impartial";[5] in the end, only one Blair mask and one Bush mask was used, with the remaining four masks replaced by ones depicting Bill Clinton, David Cameron, Menzies Campbell, and Vladimir Putin.[6] The song was later performed in Germany in the form the BBC had objected to.[7]

Remixers of the single include Melnyk, Max Tundra, Abe Duque and Pet Shop Boys themselves.

Several of the official remixes were not released on physical media at all, being exclusively available on iTunes Music Store and other online music stores. In addition, the single has yet to be released in any form in the United States.

Contents

[edit] Track listings

[edit] UK

  1. "I'm with Stupid" - 3:27
  1. "I'm with Stupid" - 3:27
  2. "Girls Don't Cry" - 2:35
  • CD CDR6690
  1. "I'm with Stupid" - 3:27
  2. "The Resurrectionist" - 3:12
  • DVD DVDR6690
  1. "I'm with Stupid" - 3:27
  2. "The Resurrectionist" (Goetz B. Extended Mix) - 5:40
  3. "Girls Don't Cry" - 2:35
  4. "I'm with Stupid" (video) - 3:58

[edit] EU

  • CD 362 8482
  1. "I'm with Stupid" - 3:27
  2. "The Resurrectionist" - 3:12
  • CD 362 8552
  1. "I'm with Stupid" - 3:27
  2. "The Resurrectionist" (Goetz B. Extended Mix) - 5:40
  3. "Girls Don't Cry" - 2:35
  • DVD 362 7889
  1. "I'm with Stupid" - 3:27
  2. "The Resurrectionist" (Goetz B. Extended Mix) - 5:40
  3. "Girls Don't Cry" - 2:35
  4. "I'm with Stupid" (video) - 3:58
  5. "I'm with Stupid" (making of)

[edit] Remixes

  1. "I'm with Stupid" (Pet Shop Boys Maxi-Mix) - 8:12
  2. "I'm with Stupid" (Abe Duque Mix) - 5:03
  3. "I'm with Stupid" (Melnyk Heavy Petting Mix) - 6:05
  4. "I'm with Stupid" (Max Tundra Mix) - 4:23
  5. "I'm with Stupid" (Abe Duque Dub) - 5:51

[edit] Music video

The video, filmed at Alexandra Palace in North London features David Walliams and Matt Lucas of Little Britain.

In the video, the duo stage a performance in which they play the roles of Tennant and Lowe and mime "I'm with Stupid" while dressed in Very-era outfits (mainly from the "Can you forgive her?" and "Go West" promotional campaigns). They are accompanied by a group of dancers, also dressed in similar costumes.

The video ends with Walliams and Lucas asking for the approval of the audience, which is revealed to be Tennant and Lowe themselves, bound to their seats.

[edit] Chart performance

Chart (2006) Peak
position
UK singles chart 8
U.S. Hot Dance Club Play 7

[edit] Cover images

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Teodorczuk, Tom (March 1, 2006). Pet Shop Boys' Labour snub. Evening Standard. Retrieved on 2006-05-23.
  2. ^ I'm with Stupid (lyrics). Pet Shop Boys official website. Retrieved on 2006-05-23.
  3. ^ New lyrics added. Pet Shop Boys official website news (May 11, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-05-11.
  4. ^ BBC - Top of the Pops - Performance Database. BBC. Retrieved on 2006-05-12.
  5. ^ Just another day on Top of the Pops. Worksop Today (April 28, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-05-11.
  6. ^ TOTP masks. Pet Shop Boys official website news (April 23, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-05-12.
  7. ^ http://tvtotal.prosieben.de/show/letzte_sendung/2006/05/30/08606.html
    NB: The embedded video player on this site no longer works, but the direct MMS URL it uses does: mms://wms.e-tv.de/tvtotal/2006/05/30/0895-00-04-wm_midband.wmv

[edit] External links

Pet Shop Boys
Neil Tennant | Chris Lowe
Discography
Albums: Please | Actually | Introspective | Behaviour | Very | Bilingual | Nightlife | Release | Fundamental
Soundtracks and scores: Closer to Heaven (Original Cast Recording) | Battleship Potemkin
Remix albums: Disco | Disco 2 | Disco 3
Compilations: Discography: The Complete Singles Collection | Alternative | PopArt: The Hits | Back to Mine: Pet Shop Boys
Live: Concrete
Singles: "West End girls" | "Love comes quickly" | "Opportunities (Let's make lots of money)" | "Suburbia" | "It's a Sin" | "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" | "Rent" | "Always On My Mind" | "Heart" | "Domino dancing" | "Left to my own devices" | "It's alright" | "So Hard" | "Being Boring" | "Where the streets have no name (I can't take my eyes off you)" | "How can you expect to be taken seriously?" | "Jealousy" | "DJ Culture" | "Was it worth it?" | "Can you forgive her?" | "Go West" | "I wouldn't normally do this kind of thing" | "Liberation" | "Yesterday, when I was mad" | "Paninaro '95" | "Before" | "Se a vida é (That’s the way life is)" | "Single-Bilingual" | "Somewhere" | "I don't know what you want but I can't give it any more" | "New York City boy" | "You only tell me you love me when you're drunk" | "Home and dry" | "I get along" | "London" | "Miracles" | "Flamboyant" | "I'm with Stupid" | "Minimal" | "Numb" | "She's Madonna"
Related Articles
Other projects: It Couldn't Happen Here | Reputation | Results | Spaghetti Records | Closer to Heaven
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