pet-shop-boys 30 years ago
synth-pop duo #Music Madness

Pet Shop Boys | Can You Forgive Her? (1993)

"Can You Forgive Her?" is a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, released as the first single from their fifth studio album, Very (1993).

The lyrics describe in the second person a young man's humiliation when his girlfriend accuses him of still being in love with a childhood friend; the woman is "not prepared to share you with a memory", and is "going to go and get herself a real man instead". The title of the song derives from the Anthony Trollope novel of the same name.


"Can You Forgive Her?" was released on 1 June 1993 as the lead single from Very, and became the duo's 13th top-10 single on the UK Singles Chart, debuting and peaking at number seven. Despite failing to enter the US Billboard Hot 100, it became a number-one single on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart.


The song reached the top 10 in Denmark, Finland, Italy and Sweden.


The second B-side, "What Keeps Mankind Alive?", appears on the 2001 re-release of Introspective, having originally been recorded for a BBC Radio programme in 1988 narrated by Sting celebrating the 60th anniversary of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's musical The Threepenny Opera.


Pet Shop Boys
1981 - present