"Love Comes Quickly" is a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, released as the second single from their debut studio album, Please (1986). It peaked at number 19 on the UK Singles Chart in March 1986.

Writing and production

Producer Stephen Hague receives a co-writing credit for writing the first two chords of the middle section of the song. Andy Mackay of Roxy Music plays the saxophone parts towards the end of the song.

Release

As with "Opportunities", the 12-version of the single contains remixes by 1980s producer Shep Pettibone. The remixes of "Love Comes Quickly" and "That's My Impression" reached the top ten on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in October 1986. Later, in 2003, new remixes by Blank & Jones were produced for the promotion of the singles collection PopArt. In a 2023 interview with Greatest Hits Radio, Noel Gallagher stated that “love comes quickly” is the song he “wished he’d written.”

Critical reception

In a contemporary review for Billboard's "Dance Trax" column, Brian Chin wrote that "Pet Shop Boys' "Love Comes Quickly" (Parlophone U.K.) is even more a tribute to drifting Italian disco-pop than the team's current hit. Once "West End Girls" has concluded what will undoubtedly be a hugely successful run, this will follow nicely. The flip, "That's My Impression," deserves double A-rank, with its jittery hi-NRG beat and petulant lyric."

Cover

The cover, featuring Chris Lowe in a baseball cap emblazoned with "BOY" in block letters, has become an iconic Pet Shop Boys image. Neil Tennant of the duo later recollected that he had expected the image of the cap to be the group's coming out moment, calling it "incredibly gay".

Music video

Directed by Andy Morahan and Eric Watson, the video to the song is very simple, utilising facial shots of Tennant singing, interposed with blurry montages of the faces of various other people; at points, shots of Lowe, lying on top of a construction of a square grid, are superimposed over these shots. Watson would later call it a "complete disaster".

Track listings

7": Parlophone / R 6116 (UK)

12": Parlophone / 12 R 6116 (UK)

12": EMI America / V-19218 (US)

Charts

Cover versions

As early as 1986, a Japanese-language cover version of the song was recorded by pop singer Hidemi Ishikawa.