Brass in Pocket

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“Brass in Pocket”

Single by The Pretenders from the album Pretenders
Released	November 1979
Format	7" vinyl
Recorded	1979
Genre	Rock
Length	3:09
Label	Sire Records
Writer(s)	Chrissie Hynde, James Honeyman-Scott
Producer	Chris Thomas

"Brass in Pocket (I'm Special)" is a single by The Pretenders. It was written by Chrissie Hynde and James Honeyman-Scott, and produced by Chris Thomas.

1 Release
2 Music video
3 Covers
4 In popular culture

[edit] Release

The band's third single, it proved to be their breakthrough hit, reaching No.1 on the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in January 1980, No.2 in Australia and peaking at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in the United States. The song takes its title from an expression Hynde heard from a member of a Yorkshire-based support band who was looking for his money.

In an interview with The Observer in 2004 Hynde revealed that she was initially reluctant to have the song released: "When we recorded the song I wasn't very happy with it and told my producer that he could release it over my dead body, but they eventually persuaded me. So I remember feeling a bit sheepish when it went to number one."

[edit] Music video

In the accompanying music video for the single, Hynde portrays a waitress working in a local cafe who encounters a sleepy customer. She suddenly sees three men (her band members) approaching her cafe by car outside her window. Hynde decides to look elegant for them. The men enter and start ordering a meal, the "special", as one of them points to the word "special" on the menu. Just then, three seductively dressed women (the men's girlfriends) enter, sit at the men's table and begin to passionately kiss their partners. Suddenly, the couples decide to leave the cafe without eating. Hynde is disappointed and watches them outside leaving in their car and looks sad at the end of the clip.

It was the seventh video played upon MTV's launch on August 1, 1981.

[edit] Covers

The song has been covered by Nazareth, Suede (for the NME's Ruby Trax charity compilation)^[1], Ashlee Simpson (during concert performances), Kelis, Ultra Nate, Ted Leo (during WFMU's 2007 fundraising drive), and Alaina Alexander (on American Idol 6 Top 20 night), amongst others.

[edit] In popular culture

"Brass in Pocket" was used in 1998 film Gia, starring Angelina Jolie. In the 2003 film Lost in Translation, Scarlett Johansson's character sings the song to Bill Murray's character in a karaoke bar.

In Australia around 2006, "Brass in Pocket" was used to inspire an advertisement on Kelloggs Special K. The song has a distinctive "call and response" bridge where Chrissie Hynde sings "I'm special (so special) I gotta have some of your attention give it to me."

The video game Rock Band features a cover of "Brass in Pocket" as downloadable content.

Despite being released at the end of 1979, the song made it onto VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 80's countdown.

Preceded by "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd	UK number one single January 13, 1980	Succeeded by "The Special AKA Live!" by The Specials