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, Pretenders 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.

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.

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

Category:The Pretenders albums

Category:1979 albums

Category:1980 albums

Category:Debut albums

Category:Albums produced by Chris Thomas

Category:Albums produced by Nick Lowe

Category:Sire Records albums

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