SOUNDTRACK4LIFE: THE B-SIDES: the pretenders

Showing posts with label the pretenders. Show all posts

Thursday, 19 January 2017

Rewind: Pretenders - Pretenders (1980)

Pretenders - Pretenders

Real Records (UK) / Sire (US)

Produced by Chris Thomas (except for Stob Your Sobbing which was produced by Nick Lowe)

Released 7th January 1980 (UK) - Some places have listed December 1979!

Released 19th January 1980 (US)

UK Chart #1*

US Chart #9

*Debuted at #1 in the UK and stayed on top for Four Weeks

Side One

Side Two

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

Singles on Pretenders

A-Side: Stop Your Sobbing

B-Side: The Wait

Released February 1979

UK Chart #34

Stop Your Sobbing was written by Ray Davies and was originally recorded for the debut album in 1964 by The Kinks.

A-Side: Kid

B-Side: Tattooed Love Boys

Released July 1979

UK Chart #33

A-Side: Brass In Pocket

B-Side: Swinging London / Nervous But Shy

Released November 1979

UK Chart #1*

US Chart #14

*The first new #1 single of the 1980's. They knocked Pink Floyd off the #1 spot who had spent 5 weeks there with Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)

********************

The Debut Album from the Pretenders was released in America on this day in 1980. It had already been released in the UK hitting the #1 spot on the week of release where it stayed for four weeks. It peaked at #9 in the States.

Three singles were released prior to it, their debut, a cover of a song by The Kinks - Stop Your Sobbing, which just missed out on the Top 30. Nick Lowe produced the debut single but decided not to work with them again as he thought the band was "not going anywhere"! The follow up in July 1979 was Kid which went a place higher than the debut but still missed out on a big breakthrough. That would come with the third and final single that is featured on the Debut album.

On this very day Brass in Pocket, originally released in November 1979, made a steady climb up the charts and eventually knocked Pink Floyd off the top spot. Not bad for a song that Chrissie Hynde was not overly keen to release as a single but was eventually persuaded to do so. The single hit the top just as the album was also enjoying a four week run at #1. Brass In Pocket was #1 for two weeks.

Tuesday, 19 January 2016

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 19 - American Girl

"Well she was an American girl
Raised on promises
She couldn't help thinkin' that there
Was a little more to life
Somewhere else
After all it was a great big world
With lots of places to run to"

- American Girl - Tom Petty

When I sat down to think about what to write about today I noticed that it was the 36th Anniversary of the release of The Pretenders debut album...and then my mind drifted to the opening words from Tom Petty's song American girl and I thought, "well that could perfectly sum up Chrissie Hynde". Of course, Tom Petty was probably not thinking about Chrissie Hynde when he wrote it but nevertheless it kind of fits with her story (which I won't go into too much depth on as she's written a perfectly successful biography Reckless: My Life as a Pretender, where she tells it herself).

The long and short of it is that Chrisse Hynde turned up in London (firstly in 1973 and then again in 1976). The girl had some dreams and in her second visit to the Capital her dream was being in a band. She hung out with the Pistols and answered ads in the Melody Maker but it wasn't until a session at Anchor Records as a three piece with Mal Hart on Bass and Phil Taylor of Motörhead on Drums that things began coming together for her. Although the session was a bit rough, Dave Hill saw some star potential in her and encouraged her to form a more permanent band with whom he could work. With the band summoned they made a demo that included a cover of The Kinks tune 'Stop Your Sobbing', a three track demo was passed onto Nick Lowe and thus came the debut single, that cover of The Kinks! Oddly for Nick Lowe he abandoned the group as he felt they "were not going anywhere"! I wonder if he regrets that now? The single made it into the Top 40 (and they even got onto Top of the Pops!). 'Kid' followed it into the Charts but it was their third single, 'Brass in Pocket' that really set their world on fire. In the second week of January 1980 it hit the #1 spot (spending two weeks there) and the debut album would follow it all the way to the top. It went straight in at #1 and stayed top of the pile for four weeks.

All of that kick started a career that would eventually see the release 9 studio albums, 3 Live Albums, 4 major Compilations, 1 EP and 33 singles (many of which would be hits in the UK and in other countries around the world).

Going nowhere Nick?