Synopsis

Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe appear among seemingly endless lines of people waiting in bleak, open surroundings. Each queue leads to an unexpectedly ordinary or surreal destination: a telephone box, an ice cream van, a sunbed, and finally the cliffs at Beachy Head. The repetitive movement and static compositions turn the lyric "I'm always waiting" into a dry visual joke, while the contrast between communal patience and isolated destinations gives the video an understated, slightly ominous mood.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was made for the fourth single from *Bilingual*, released in the UK on March 17, 1997.

• The queues directly reflect the song's recurring idea of waiting for a loved one to say "I love you."

• The destinations include a phone box, an ice cream van, a sunbed, and Beachy Head, creating a progression from everyday consumer pleasures to a distinctly darker final image.

• Chris Lowe later called the video the Pet Shop Boys' "worst video," a judgment that has become one of the production's best-known anecdotes.

• The song itself grew from an experiment with the chord changes of Beethoven's "Song of Joy" placed over a four-four dance beat.

• The recording features the Choral Academy of Moscow. The choir was recorded in Moscow, giving the track a grand, international scale that contrasts with the video's deliberately mundane imagery.

• The single reached number 9 on the UK Singles Chart, but fell to number 42 the following week, making it an unusually brief Top 40 appearance.