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'It's A Sin' is much more important than you thought
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Pet Shop Boys didn’t hold anything back with It’s a Sin.
‘When I look back upon my life' ...
That’s a loaded opening line right from the off. It’s a Sin wasn’t just another hit, it was a confession, a callout and a statement all in one. It’s also a fantastically written song.
Today we’re going into how that song was born, the controversy it stirred up, and why decades later it’s still maybe more relevant than ever.
So where did it come from? Funnily enough, it wasn’t written specifically about being gay - it had a broader scope. And at the time of writing, they didn’t give it nearly as much thought as their audience did. Neil Tennant told Steve Pafford 2014:
“It was quite interesting, because people took it really seriously; the song was written in about 15 minutes, and was intended as a camp joke and it wasn’t something I consciously took very seriously.”
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe were hardly new to the scene when they came up with It’s a Sin - they’d already had a No. 1 hit with West End Girls in 1986. But this song would push them to new heights.
They’d actually been sitting on the song for years. An early demo was done in 1984 with producer Bobby Orlando, but they didn’t record a full version. They knew that this song was going to need a massive production to realise its full potential, and they just didn’t have the resources back then.
Tennant might be flippant about the song not being that serious, but it tackles some heavy issues.
He says the song was inspired by his Catholic school days. It’s true that Tennant is gay, and was back then - but he didn’t specifically write the song about his sexuality.
It was more about how in his experience, the Catholic Church repressed EVERYTHING.
He said in the same interview:
“Having been brought up as a Catholic you thought everything was a sin. You’re told that thinking about it is as bad as doing it.”
He’s spoken about how the school used Catholic guilt and fear of divine punishment as tools. And he wrote a song about it. And what a song.
By 1987, with a big record label and some success behind them, Pet Shop Boys were ready. The song became the lead single from their second album Actually. They wanted something massive, something to showcase what they could really do.
They re-joined with producers Stephen Hague and Julian Mendelsohn, and brought in engineer Andy Richards - who would be instrumental in programming all those synths.
Speaking of synths, that’s another way this song was such a landmark: It was a massive part of the second wave of Synth Pop. The genre was already massive in the 80’s, but by ‘87 the big acts were starting to change direction.
It's a Sin was part of a resurgence of Synth Pop, bringing in more layered production and combining social commentary with pop accessibility.
And they really did throw the kitchen sink at it - it had everything they could think of. For a start, that Nasa countdown at the beginning. Obviously it’s full of synths, but they also added in ambient recordings of churches, choir effects, all sorts.
Thanks to the skills of Andy Richards, everything had its place. The production is flawless. The song has a massive presence, but nowhere does it ever feel cluttered or too much.
It makes you feel like you’re inside a cathedral about to be judged. Which is really the point.
So let’s have a look at the lyrics. Tennant managed something rare and hard to do: He put his thoughts into lyrics exactly as he felt them. Normally, things need to be cut down or turned into metaphor to fit into a song. Not in this case.
When I look back upon my life
It's always with a sense of shame
I've always been the one to blame
For everything I long to do
He cuts straight to the point and describes exactly how he feels, and that resonated with fans everywhere. The second verse and chorus really build on the theme, and i think this is really where it became an anthem for anyone who’s ever been pushed down or oppressed
At school they taught me how to be
So pure in thought and word and deed
They didn't quite succeed
For everything I long to do
No matter when or where or who
Has one thing in common too
It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a sin
It's a sin
For any of my audience who’ve tried their hand at song writing, I'm sure you can appreciate how succinctly he puts his thoughts.
And that line ‘No matter when or where or who’ really sums up his experience at the hands of his teachers.
The second half of the song goes on to ask for forgiveness from God, talking about his feelings of shame and guilt at his ‘sins’ as he was taught to think of them.
It’s easy to see how this became an anthem for the queer community: There's a universal dimension, and a particularly queer reading, something listeners picked up on strongly in the 80s especially. It resonates so strongly with the discrimination they’ve faced through the decades, both religious and societal. It didn’t need to say gay explicitly; the feeling was already there. It’s sort of like a rallying cry.
The funny thing is, Tennant never envisioned it becoming a queer anthem when he wrote it years ago. He thought of it as a camp, almost jokey statement than anything else. In fact, he didn’t publicly come out as gay until 1994 - a whole 7 years after the song was released. Just goes to show that music can take on a life of its own. The song shot to number one in the UK in June 1987. In the US it cracked the top ten. It ended up being one of the best‑selling singles in Europe that year. Pet Shop Boys went global.
But more importantly than the sales, it showed that pop can be personal and political without losing mass appeal. You could have huge drums, big choruses, and lyrics about shame, judgement, sexuality. It wasn’t safe, but it stuck. Because it was an outlet people needed.
It’s a Sin was released in 1987, as the public became more aware of the AIDS crisis. This context matters: the song became a kind of soundtrack to the sense of hypocrisy and stigmata the queer community was receiving.
One of the best parts of the song is the ending: They recite a passage of Latin which translates to:
I confess to almighty God, and to my brothers
that I have sinned in thought, word, action and omission
my fault, my fault, my extreme fault
That’s part of the Confiteor prayer, commonly recited in Catholic schools as part of Mass. Tennant was an altar boy as well as a student in Catholic school. He would have had this drilled into him for years. Imagine the impact that has on an impressionable young mind. I think this is a great example of how this song injected intelligence into pop music. Who else was reciting Latin prayers in anti-authoritarian banger?
And as usual in anything that rattles the cage… Controversy wasn’t far behind. They got criticism from all angles. Not surprisingly, the clergy weren’t impressed - nobody likes having their dirty laundry aired out.
One priest in Tennant's hometown felt the need to try and put a positive spin on things:
“The local parish priest in Newcastle delivered a sermon on it, and reflected on how the Church changed from the promise of a ghastly hell to the message of love.”
I imagine that probably came off as too little too late for those that were there.
Surprisingly, possibly the biggest pushback came in the form of plagiarism accusations. Jonathan King accused them of heavily ‘borrowing’ from the song Wild World by Cat Stevens (later Yusuf Islam).
He even went as far as to create a parody of It’s a Sin using the lyrics Wild World:
One little fact about all this: Jonathan King was a producer who rejected an early demo of It’s a Sin. Take from that what you will.
Pet Shop Boys sued him for defamation. King settled and they donated the money to the Jefferiss Research Foundation, a leading charity in the support of HIV and AIDS awareness and treatment, sexual health services and support.
Cat Stevens actually wrote to Tennant and Lowe in support rather than joining King's accusation.
Something I love about this is that Pet Shop Boys used to play a medley of It's a Sin and I Will Survive just to prove that songs can sound like other songs without being plagiarised.
But how is it still relevant today?
In 2021, when Russell T Davies used It’s a Sin as the title and emotional backbone of his TV series highlighting the horrors of the AIDS pandemic, the song found fresh meaning.
For younger people it became more than nostalgia. Today’s generation of the LGBTQ+ community were inspired just like that of the 80’s. This shows two things: One, the class of this song that it’s held up after decades. And two: That we as a society still carry some of the same issues we did all the way back then.
It’s a Sin showed that pop can provoke. It brought private shame into the public space. It challenged religious structures and brought homoerotic undertones to mainstream radio in an age where it wasn’t tolerated.
The song influenced the way later artists could speak about guilt, sexuality, and religion in pop. It gave them permission to break the mould of catchy jingles and nothing lyrics. You could tackle real issues and still reach the masses.
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