"How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?" is, together with double A-side "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes off You)", the third single from Pet Shop Boys' album Behaviour. It was released in the UK as a double A-side by Parlophone Records on 11 March 1991. It was subsequently released as a single in its own right in the United States and France. The single later peaked at a low #93 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.\nAs "Being Boring" and "It's Alright" weren't released in the US, tracks from these releases were used on a number of the American releases.\nOf interest to collectors, EMI USA commissioned dance DJ David Morales to create 5 remixes that were released to clubs and DJs on a limited promotion 12". Morales would later work with the duo co-writing and co-producing the 1999 single "New York City Boy".\nNeil Tennant later said that the track 'was inspired by a female popstar from 1989', it is strongly believed that the inspiration was in fact Transvision Vamp frontwoman Wendy James.