Pretenders (album)

Pretenders is the debut studio album by the British New Wave band The Pretenders, released on 19 January 1980 on Real Records (Sire Records in the United States). A combination of rock, punk, and pop music, this album made the band famous. This album, their first, compiles several previously released tracks from their 1979 singles "Stop Your Sobbing"/"The Wait," "Kid"/"Tattooed Love Boys," and "Brass in Pocket"/"Swinging London"/"Nervous but Shy," as well as seven new tracks (and a re-recorded version of "The Wait").

Nick Lowe produced the Pretenders' first single, "Stop Your Sobbing," but decided not to work with them again as he thought the band "wasn't going anywhere." Chris Thomas took over on the subsequent recording sessions.

Pretenders scored number 1 quickly on the UK Albums Chart on the week of its release and stayed there for four consecutive weeks. It also scored the top 10 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Platinum during 1982 by the RIAA. Pretenders has been named one of the best albums of all time by VH1 (#52). In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album number 155 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and, in 1989, ranked it the 20th best album of the 1980's. The track "Private Life" was covered that same year by Grace Jones, on her album Warm Leatherette.

Pretenders was remastered and re-released in 2006 and included a bonus disc of demos, B-sides and live cuts, many previously unreleased. "Cuban Slide" and "Porcelain" originally appeared as B-sides to "Talk of the Town" and "Message of Love," while "Swinging London" and "Nervous but Shy" both appeared on the flip side of "Brass in Pocket." The Regents Park Demo of "Stop Your Sobbing" was included initially as a flexi-single in the May 1981 edition of Flexipop magazine. The tracks "Message of Love," "Talk of the Town," "Porcelain" and "Cuban Slide" alongside a live version of the album's opening track, "Precious," were released on a follow-up EP entitled Extended Play soon after. "Message of Love" contains the Oscar Wilde line "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" from the play Lady Windermere's Fan.1

Pretenders was reissued in 2009 by Audio Fidelity as a gold-limited edition release using the original master tapes. The remaster suffers from limiting supposedly applied AFTER the glass master was created. The song "The Phone Call" is missing some of the sound effects because they were flown in after the master was completed for the song and, as a result, wasn't on the original master tape. There were no bonus tracks included.

A shortened version of "Tequila" would be performed nearly fifteen years later on the Last of the Independents. "Sabre Dance" features Chrissie Hynde singing portions of "Stop Your Sobbing" over lengthy solos by James Honeyman-Scott and Martin Chambers' insistent drumming, making it a truly unique version.

The song "Tattooed Love Boys" is featured as a playable track in the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 music video game Guitar Hero II. The instrumental "Space Invader" contains sound effects from the video game Space Invaders. "Private Life" is featured in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories on fictional radio station Emotion 98.3. A cover version of "Brass in Pocket" and the master version of "Precious" are available as downloadable content for Rock Band.

Track listing

All songs written by Chrissie Hynde unless otherwise indicated.

Side one

1. "Precious" – 3:36
2. "The Phone Call" – 2:29
3. "Up the Neck" – 4:27
4. "Tattooed Love Boys" – 2:59
5. "Space Invader" (Pete Farndon, James Honeyman-Scott) – 3:26
6. "The Wait" (Hynde, Farndon) – 3:35
7. "Stop Your Sobbing" (Ray Davies) – 2:38 (produced by Nick Lowe)

Side two

1. "Kid" – 3:06
2. "Private Life" – 6:25
3. "Brass in Pocket" (Honeyman-Scott, Hynde) – 3:04
4. "Lovers of Today" – 5:51
5. "Mystery Achievement" – 5:23

Bonus disc, 2006 remastered CD edition

1. "Cuban Slide" (Hynde, Honeyman-Scott) – 4:33
2. "Porcelain" – 3:54
3. "The Phone Call" – 2:22
   • Demo, late 1977
4. "The Wait" (Hynde, Farndon) – 3:08
   • Regents Park demo, 12 April 1978
5. "I Can't Control Myself" (not the Troggs song, unreleased song, perhaps a precursor to The Wait) – 4:24
   • Regents Park demo, 12 April 1978
6. "Swinging London" (Hynde, Honeyman-Scott, Farndon, Martin Chambers) – 1:55
7. "Brass in Pocket" (Honeyman-Scott, Hynde) – 3:48
   • AIR Studios demo, 6 February 1978
8. "Kid" – 4:04
   • Olympic Studios demo, 7 December 1978
9. "Stop Your Sobbing" (Ray Davies) – 2:22
   • Regents Park demo, 12 April 1978
10. "Tequila" – 5:22
    • Regents Park demo, 12 April 1978
11. "Nervous but Shy" (Hynde, Honeyman-Scott, Farndon, Chambers) – 1:45
12. "I Need Somebody" (Rudy Martinez) – 4:04
    • Live on The Kid Jensen Show, BBC Radio 1, first transmission 17 July 1979
13. "Mystery Achievement" – 4:54
    • Live on The Kid Jensen Show, BBC Radio 1, first transmission 17 July 1979
14. "Precious" – 3:26
    • Live at the Paradise Theatre, Boston, 23 March 1980
15. "Tattooed Love Boys" – 3:06
    • Live at the Paradise Theatre, Boston, 23 March 1980
16. "Sabre Dance" (Aram Khachaturian) – 3:50
    • Live at the Marquee Club, London, 2 April 1979

Personnel

The Pretenders

• Chrissie Hynde – rhythm guitar, lead vocals
• Martin Chambers – drums, backing vocals
• Pete Farndon – bass, backing vocals
• James Honeyman-Scott – lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals

Additional musicians

• Chris Thomas – keyboards, sound effects
• Gerry Mackelduff - drums (on CD1, track 7 & CD2, tracks 4,5,7,9,10)
• Fred Berk - bass (on CD2, track 3)
• Nigel Pegrum - drums (on CD2, track 3)
• Geoff Bryant – horn
• Henry Lowther – trumpet
• Jim Wilson – trumpet
• Chris Mercer – saxophone

Charts

Album

Singles

Certifications

References