What Have I Done to Deserve This?

Neil Tennant, Chris Lowe and Allee Willis wrote it, and Pet Shop Boys had it demoed around Christmas 1984. They struggled to find the other half of the duet until their manager's assistant suggested Springfield, whose Dusty in Memphis Tennant often named as his favorite album. EMI wanted Barbra Streisand or Tina Turner instead. Her first answer to the demo was no, but months later her manager said she wanted to do it. She travelled from California to London and recorded in December 1986 at Advision Studios, with Stephen Hague producing. Tennant wrote that when she sang her solo part, everybody in the control room smiled, because she sounded just like she used to. Julian Mendelsohn, who mixed it, said she was long-winded about getting her vocals right to her own satisfaction.

Released on 10 August 1987 as the second single from Actually, it reached number two in Britain and in the United States, where it was the biggest hit of her career, and number one in Ireland. Eric Watson directed the video at Brixton Academy, with Springfield appearing in it. She and Pet Shop Boys performed it at the 1988 Brit Awards. After her death the duo played it with guest singers, among them Cerys Matthews at Glastonbury in 2000, Lady Gaga at the 2009 Brit Awards and Beverley Knight at Radio 2 Live in 2019. Nick Levine wrote in NME in 2017 that it was possibly the greatest pop song in history.