The Favorite Debut Albums Writing Challenge

Classic Album Rewind — The First Album By The Pretenders

A look back at the classic band’s amazing debut

Okay, mini-rant here. Even though the name of the band is officially “Pretenders” and not actually “The Pretenders,” it feels odd for me to leave the “The” off of it, so I’m not going to. I feel the same way about The Eagles actually being “Eagles.” It just doesn’t feel right to type or say it that way. Okay. Mini-rant over.

The Pretenders released their self-titled debut album in the United States in December of 1979 and in the UK in January of 1980. In my opinion, I think it’s one of the greatest debut albums ever by anyone.

A few of the songs on it were very big hits, but all of the non-hits on it were very good too.

I’ve included the Spotify version of the album at the end of this article, but first, here are some of my personal favorite songs from the album:

Precious

Warning, gang: This one has explicit lyrics! Okay, you’ve been warned, so let’s move on.

“Precious” is the first song on the album and I’ve always thought that it was a perfect choice to start the album with for one very important reason:

The song totally rocks. It gives the listeners a perfect example of what they’re going to be experiencing for the rest of the album: great vocals and guitar playing from Chrissie Hynde, exceptional guitar work from James Honeyman-Scott, awesome bass playing from Pete Farndon, and magnificent drumming from Martin Chambers.

Tattooed Love Boys

This one is my favorite song on the album and probably my favorite song ever by The Pretenders. To me, it shows what an incredible rock band The Pretenders were. Each member gets a chance to jam and shine on this one.

It’s very likely that you may not know “Tattooed Love Boys.” As far as I know, it was never a popular song on radio stations. However, the music video above was very popular on MTV in the early 1980s. If you don’t know the song, I highly recommend that you check it out. It’s a great rock song.

P.S. — If you enjoy listening to music while exercising, “Tattooed Love Boys” is awesome to listen to while running and/or riding a bike.

The Wait

Much like the other two songs I’ve already mentioned, “The Wait” is another great rock song. I’ll be honest with you here: I’ve always had a bit of a hard time clearly making out what the exact lyrics are while listening to this one — but I really don’t care. For me, this one is about the kick-butt music.

P.S. — This is another one that’s great to work out to. It’s also a lot of fun to listen to while driving. Just don’t let it inspire you to drive too quickly, okay? Be safe.

Kid

“Kid” is a fictional tale of a young boy discovering that his mother is a prostitute. I first heard this song while watching the above video for it on MTV.

Maybe because the band members were performing it in some sort of amusement park, I didn’t realize for a very long time what the song was really about. I just thought it was a fun video and that all of the band members looked and acted very cool in it.

On a related note — when this video was popular on MTV, I very, very much wanted a haircut like bassist Pete Farndon had.

Okay, honestly, I still want that haircut.

But back to the song. Chrissie Hynde’s vocals are moving and beautiful. And the music is exceptional — especially the great guitar solo by James Honeyman-Scott that starts at about 1:30 into the song.

Brass In Pocket

“Brass In Pocket” was the band’s first big international hit single. It’s got great music and very catchy lyrics.

The music video features Chrissie Hynde playing a waitress in a diner that the rest of the members of the band visit. It’s basic, but a lot of fun. I especially like the parts where Chrissie sings “I’m special” and Martin Chambers and James Honeyman-Scott hold up their menus and point to where it says “special” on them and then they lip-sync the word.

Like I said above, the entire album is great. Here’s a special deluxe edition of it on Spotify:

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