The song's lyrics are concerned with class and the pressures of inner-city life in London which were inspired partly by T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land.

[7] In 1983 and 1984, the duo recorded twelve songs with Orlando at Unique Studios in New York, "West End Girls", "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)", "One More Chance", "I Want a Lover", "That's My Impression", "A Man Could Get Arrested", "I Get Excited", "Two Divided by Zero", "Rent", "It's a Sin", "Pet Shop Boys", and "Later Tonight".

[8] It included a drum part lifted from Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean", and an arrangement involving what Tennant called "Barry White chords".

[12] In March 1985, after long negotiations, Pet Shop Boys cut their contractual ties with Orlando, and hired manager Tom Watkins, who signed them with EMI.

[15] The song, according to engineer David Jacob, was musically "constructed with only four basic rhythmical patterns throughout", with no 'real' instruments production-wise except for one cymbal.

It had been played by hand to "lend more fluidity to the track", although initially there was a bit of difficulty in keeping the part in time with the drum machine.

[12] Lowe and Hague created a "snaky, obsessive rhythm punch" for the music,[16] replacing the song's previously sparse beats and minimal keyboard lines.

[29] In a review for the group's second studio album Actually, Rob Hoerburger from Rolling Stone magazine commented that "West End Girls" was "as catchy as anything on the radio in 1986", praising "its enticing bass line and foreboding synth riffs", but felt that it was almost "nullified by peevish spoken asides and the cryptic posturing of the duo's lyrics".

[30] In a review of the live album Concrete, Michael Hubbard from musicOMH said that "West End Girls" was one of the songs that "round out a collection that never feels too long or superfluous", adding that it "goes some way to installing Tennant and Lowe as national treasures".

"[32] Billboard called it a "cannily haunting song" in which "disco meets sociology, rap and the Al Stewart catalogue.

"[33] Nitsuh Abebe from Pitchfork, in a review of their compilation album PopArt: The Hits commented that in the song "we meet Tennant not as a singer, but as a speaker", adding that "he mumbles the verses to us not like a star, but like a stranger in a raincoat, slinking alongside you and pointing out the sights".

[36] In 2005, the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters gave to West End Girls the Ivor Novello Award for Song of The Decade between the years 1985 and 1994.

[41] The accompanying music video for "West End Girls" was directed by Andy Morahan and Eric Watson,[42][43] and consists of shots of the duo around London.

At the beginning of the video, noises from the city can be heard, a camera passes Lowe on the street, and focuses on mannequins in a shop window.

While Tennant delivers the lyrics and chorus directly at the viewer, Lowe appears at times uninterested in the proceedings or preoccupied with other goings-on around them.

The duo poses on the South Bank of the River Thames in a pastiche of a postcard image, with the Houses of Parliament as a background.

The song was a club hit in the United States,[47] and in some European countries, such as Belgium, where it debuted at number 24 on the VRT Top 30 chart on 28 July 1984,[48] peaking at 17 four weeks later.

[49] In Canada, "West End Girls" first entered the RPM singles chart in April 1985, reaching a peak position of 81 in June 1985.

[50] Having signed with EMI, the group released their first major label single "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" in mid-1985, but it failed to attract attention.

[54][55][56][57][58] In Canada, where the original recording of "West End Girls" had already been a minor hit in 1985, the re-recorded version was issued as a single in early 1986.

[62] "West End Girls" re-entered the charts in February 2021 as Pet Shop Boys received some exposure in early 2021 thanks to the premiere of the Channel 4 series It's a Sin, named after the song of the same name, and a popular Allstate Super Bowl ad featuring the song "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)".