Synopsis

The 1986 video places the Pet Shop Boys in Italy, where Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe perform "Paninaro" among local people and everyday urban surroundings. The loose, on-location footage gives the clip an informal travelogue quality, matching the song's fascination with Italian style, consumer culture, food, cars, and nightlife. Rather than relying on a constructed storyline, the video connects the duo with the youth culture that inspired the song and lets the setting provide most of its atmosphere.

Factoids & Trivia

• "Paninaro" first appeared in 1986 as the B-side of "Suburbia." It was also released as a limited Italian single, an appropriate market for a song inspired by an Italian youth subculture.

• The video was made in Italy and features the duo singing alongside local people. Its casual, self-produced character contrasts with the more elaborate promotional videos the Pet Shop Boys would make later in their career.

• The song's title refers to the paninari, fashionable Italian youths associated with designer clothing, expensive lifestyles, cafes, and conspicuous consumption during the 1980s.

• The clip was included on Television, the Pet Shop Boys' first home-video compilation, released in December 1986.

• "Paninaro" later received a substantially different treatment as "Paninaro '95," a new version released to promote the B-sides collection Alternative. The original 1986 video remains tied to the song's early Italian context.

• An HD version of the original video was officially uploaded to the Pet Shop Boys' YouTube channel in January 2021.