The British post-pop band lead by Akron’s Chrissie Hynde crashed its way onto the music scene on this date in 1980. The band’s first studio album, Pretenders, debuted at number 1 on the UK Albums Chart in the week of its release and stayed there for four consecutive weeks. It also made 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 1980s.
The album features three singles: "Stop Your Sobbing" (a Kinks cover), "Kid" and "Brass in Pocket” (No. 1 UK; No. 14 US). The album’s first cut and some would say Chrissie’s signature flip-off to Akron, “Precious”, was released as a single in some countries, and was also on the EP Extended Play released a few months after Pretenders, that also included “Talk of the Town”. The Kinks cover lead to a relationship between Hynde and Ray Davies, and the birth of their daughter, Nicole Hynde.
Chrissie Hynde was born in the Rubber City on September 7, 1951. She was an invisible attendee and graduate of Firestone High School. "I was never too interested in high school. I mean, I never went to a dance, I never went out on a date, I never went steady. It became pretty awful for me. Except, of course, I could go see bands, and that was the kick. I used to go to Cleveland just to see any band. So I was in love a lot of the time, but mostly with guys in bands that I had never met. For me, knowing that Brian Jones was out there, and later that Iggy Pop was out there, made it kind of hard for me to get too interested in the guys that were around me. I had, uh, bigger things in mind." Fortunately, she did learn how to play the guitar.
Chrissie attended Kent State University School of Art for 3 years. She was caught up in the May 4, 1970 shootings in which the boyfriend of one of her friends was a victim. She was also a member of the local band Sat. Sun. Mat., along with Mark Mothersbaugh, later of Devo. Chrissie moved to London, where she worked in and around the burgeoning punk scene. At one point Johnny Rotten and then Sid Vicious agreed to marry her so she could get a work permit. Neither marriage took place, but it was a close thing. She was desperate to be in a band and break into the music business. She tried to start a band with Mick Jones, later of The Clash, and was briefly the guitarist in Masters of the Backside – she was asked to leave just before they became The Damned. Can you say “loser”? That’s what Chrissie felt like in those days.
Then, in 1978 Chrissie cut a demo of songs that would form the core of Pretenders. It was shopped around and she was encouraged to get a band together. She met bassist Pete Farndon, and they selected guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and drummer Martin Chambers. They named themselves after Sam Cooke’s hit R&B song “The Great Pretender”.
With the release of Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde’s rock and roll dream came true. Her unique conversational, bluesy, sassy vocal style, and straight up guitar slashing made her the quintessential girl rocker, a model for so many to follow. Loser no more, she released 8 more albums with The Pretenders, added a solo album Stockholm in 2014, and has collaborated with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Rod Stewart, UB-40, the Stax band: Booker T./Duck Dunn/Steve Cropper, Sheryl Crow, Devo, The Black Keys, Ray Davies, Iggy Pop, Incubus and Ringo. Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.
