In 1973, Chrissie Hynde felt the rush of rock, consumed by bands like The Velvet Underground, Buffalo Springfield, and Jefferson Airplane. Determined to follow some of her other British musical heroes like the Rolling Stones, Hynde moved across the pond from Akron, Ohio, to live in London. Within five years, she formed the Pretenders.
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Hynde started working at the music magazine, NME, before becoming immersed in the emerging punk scene. She frequently hung out with members of The Sex Pistols, after she landed a job at Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s SEX clothing and accessories boutique on King’s Road. She also briefly dated the Pistols’ Steve Jones, and at one point talked John Lydon and Sid Vicious into marrying her so she could get a work permit.
Desperate to play in a band, Hynde joined several and even played with The Clash‘s Mick Jones and what would later become The Damned. She also joined another band with Visage singer Steve Strange before forming her own band in the late 1970s.
She returned to London after a brief visit back to the U.S. and connected with bassist Pete Farndon and rounded out a band with guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, and drummer Martin Chambers in 1978.
She named the group the Pretenders after Sam Cooke’s cover of The Platters” 1955 hit “The Great Pretender.”
The Pretenders
As the Pretenders, the band released their self-titled debut in 1979 with early hits “Kid” and “Brass in Pocket,” followed by Pretenders II in 1981 and “Talk of the Town” and “Message of Love.”
By the early ’80s, the band lineup had also undergone significant changes, following the dismissal of Farndon in 1982, and the death of Honeyman-Scott two days later. Farndon also died in 1983.
In 1984, Hynde was a new mother to daughter Natalie, when the band released their third album, Learning to Crawl. The project featured “Middle of the Road” and the Pretenders’ biggest U.S. hit, “Back on the Chain Gang.”
The Real Deal
Throughout their four-plus decade run, the Pretenders’ catalog steadily expanded, spanning 12 albums, including 2020 release Hate for Sale and Relentless (2023), and other hits throughout the 1980s and ’90s, including “Don’t Get Me Wrong,” “My Baby,” and 1994 power ballad “I’ll Stand by You.”
The Pretenders were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.
(Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Images)
