The Kings of the U.S. Dance Charts

The Pet Shop Boys are currently the fifth most successful artist in the history of the U.S. Billboard Dance Club Songs chart (formerly called the Dance Club Play chart). And, seeing as how the first four positions (#1-4) are held by Madonna, Janet Jackson, Rihanna, and Beyonce respectively, they're also the most successful duo or group as well as the most successful male dance artists: the "Kings of the U.S. Dance Chart," if you will. (Enrique Iglesias is the top solo male dance artist. It's worth noting that the late Donna Summer ranked higher than the Boys until the 2010s, at which time PSB superseded her phenomenal run, pushing her down to #6.) So I've decided to use this page to document in greater detail the extent of their dance club success. And I'm also providing data regarding their run on another important Billboard dance chart"Dance Single Sales" (which has gone through several name-changes during its existence, most notably "Maxi-Singles Sales")on which they haven't been as successful, but have still made a much-more-than-respectable showing.

The following table lists each of their U.S. dance hits, in chronological order, along with its peak position. All of the following data comes from Billboard magazine, much of it via Joel Whitburn's Hot Dance/Disco 1974-2003 and the rest from various pages on the Billboard website.

If applicable: + = still rising on the chart at this time.

*The Sander Van Doorn remix of "We're the Pet Shop Boys," retitled "Close My Eyes," charted separately from the earlier "standard release" of the track. Billboard treats these two releases separately; therefore I'm also listing them separately here.

**By this point Billboard had stopped reporting Dance single sales separately, so this and subsequent figures in this column come from its newer "Hot Dance/Electronic Songs" chart, which tracks airplay combined with sales and streaming.

In addition to these hitsfor which, based on Billboard/Whitburn standards, the Pet Shop Boys receive full "chart credit"we should also note a number of other U.S. dance hits to which Neil and/or Chris contributed in various ways, further solidifying their kingly status. Again, these additional entries are presented in chronological order.

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