is the second studio album by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, released on 7 September 1987 by Parlophone in the United Kingdom and by EMI Manhattan in North America.

[4] For their second album, Pet Shop Boys still had material from their early songwriting days, including "It's a Sin" (1982), "Rent" (1984), and "One More Chance" which they had recorded with Bobby Orlando and released as an unsuccessful single outside the UK in 1984.

was a collaboration with songwriter Allee Willis, suggested by their manager Tom Watkins; they had hoped to include it on Please (1986) but had to wait for a response from Dusty Springfield.

"Hit Music" was inspired by the Henry Mancini theme song "Peter Gunn" covered by Art of Noise.

Pet Shop Boys used the music from the chorus of Morricone's song and wrote a new verse,[10] with Lowe adding chord changes.

[11] The title "It Couldn't Happen Here" refers to an early belief, discussed by Tennant and his friend Christopher Dowell, that AIDS would not greatly impact the UK.

In the United States, Actually peaked at number 25 and spent 45 weeks on the Billboard 200,[23] selling over 750,000 copies with a gold certification.

The former seems unimpressed by a radio DJ-style Alan 'Fluff' Freeman voiceover listing their previous hits and new singles from Actually, while the latter eventually "gets bored" and yawns, with the image then freezing to create, roughly, the album's cover shot.

[citation needed] During this period Pet Shop Boys also completed a full-length motion picture called It Couldn't Happen Here.

[27] Featuring songs by the duo, it was most famous for containing the video for "Always on My Mind" (starring Joss Ackland as a blind priest), which—while not on Actually—was released as a single during this period.

The new version was digitally remastered and came with a second disc of B-sides and previously unreleased material from around the time of the album's original release.

"[40] In his retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said that Actually is the album where "the Pet Shop Boys perfected their melodic, detached dance-pop.

"[31] Actually is featured in the 2005 musical reference book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die,[42] and has been recognised in various other "must-listen" lists.

[48] "King's Cross" served in the Japanese media as a commercial song for the Aurex's (owned by Toshiba) cassette tape recorder model XDR.

[citation needed] The album is featured in the preview of Naughty Dog's game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

[49] All tracks are written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, except where notedCredits adapted from the liner notes of Actually: Further Listening 1987–1988.