What are The Pretenders’ 5 Biggest US Hits?

The Pretenders mixed up several different classic genres into their musical stew throughout their career. They also endured numerous drastic lineup changes. But they always had Chrissie Hynde, who continuously gave them a fighting chance on the pop charts.

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Their biggest pop hits in the US were stretched over 15 years, showing their staying power. Here are the five Pretenders’ songs that charted the highest in America.

5. “Middle Of The Road” – No. 19 in 1983

The Pretenders’ third album, Learning To Crawl, arrived in 1984. In the interim between then and their previous LP (Pretenders II in 1981), half the band’s lineup had changed a few times over. They eventually settled with Robbie McIntosh on lead guitar and Malcolm Foster on bass. McIntosh’s stammering guitar break and Hynde’s furious harmonica solo highlight the music of “Middle Of The Road”. Lyrically, Hynde expresses frustration, at times quite humorously, about modern nuisances.

4. “I’ll Stand By You” – No. 16 in 1994

Hynde’s songwriting acuity has always been the one constant in the Pretenders’ attack. For the 1994 album Last Of The Independents, which featured yet another new band lineup, Hynde enlisted the help of writers-for-hire Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg, both long-proven hitmakers. And they applied their talents in helping Hynde write “I’ll Stand By You”, the band’s first Top 40 hit in America in eight years. As it turned out, it would also be their last. The song sticks to the power ballad formula. But Hynde’s impassioned vocals help elevate it.

3. “Brass In Pocket” – No. 14 in 1979

Music writers tried to categorize the earliest incarnation of The Pretenders, just like they have every new band in history. They lumped the band in with punk and New Wave, if only because those were the hot genres of the day. But one listen to their self-titled debut album in 1979 should make clear that they were already quite varied. In fact, “Brass In Pocket”, the hit single from that record, glides comfortably into R&B territory. Hynde sings the stuffing out of the track, tongue partly in cheek as she makes her various boasts.

2. “Don’t Get Me Wrong” – No. 10 in 1986

When you hear this effervescent pop tune, you’d probably never guess that Hynde wrote it for the famously dyspeptic tennis star John McEnroe. The song did quite well as the lead single from Get Close in 1986. Because of how well Hynde holds everything together, you might not realize that the album was recorded with mostly session players besides her and Robbie McIntosh. “Don’t Get Me Wrong” shows off her gifts of melody and catchy lyricism. The “Lust For Life”-style rhythmic bounce is also a nice touch.

1. “Back On The Chain Gang” – No. 5 in 1982

It’s not all that often that an artist’s best song is also their biggest hit. The Pretenders can claim that distinction with the gorgeously bittersweet “Back On The Chain Gang”. The song, which borrows from the old Sam Cooke hit “Chain Gang”, reflects Chrissie Hynde’s feelings of sorrow surrounding the death of original guitarist James Honeyman-Scott. Billy Bremner of Rockpile filled in and delivered the chirping guitar licks. But this song is Hynde’s show. All her emotions come floating to the surface via her deftly poetic lyrics and touching lead vocal.

Photo by Steve Morley/Redferns