Songoftheday 7/4/19 - Oh why you so sad the tears are in your eyes, come on and come to me now...
from the album Last Of The Independents (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 23
Today's song of the day comes from the punk rock band the Pretenders, who by the mid-1980's had evolved into a more toned down adult rock act which only featured lead singer/songwriter Chrissie Hynde from the original lineup. Nevertheless, the group's Get Close album in 1986 scored Hynde a second top ten pop hit in America with "Don't Get Me Wrong". They also contributed a song to the soundtrack to the James Bond movie The Living Daylights (although a-ha claimed the title track), and the result, "Where Has Every Body Gone", went to #26 on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Rock chart (it remains a personal Bond fave of mine). The following year, with the Smiths' former guitar god Johnny Marr on board, the Pretenders had another minor soundtrack hit with "1969", which went to #21 on the Modern Rock list and featured the delicious combination of Hynde and Marr being produced by post-punk god Nick Lowe.
However tensions between Hynde and Marr caused the latter to exit to join The The along with then-Pretenders bass player James Eller. In fact, by the time came to record a new Pretenders album in 1990, it was just Hynde and studio fill-ins to put together Packed!. Although lead single "Never Do That" managed to hit the top five on both the Mainstream (#5) and Alternative (#4) rock radio charts (most likely on name recognition), neither that song nor its two follow-ups made even a dent into mainstream radio or the pop charts in America (in the UK "Never Do That" stalled down at #81, though in Canada it was a moderate success at #26). Hynde also recorded a cover of 10cc's "I'm Not In Love" for the film Indecent Proposal, but it was only a minor hit in Canada at #74.
In 1994, Chrissie assembled another line of the Pretenders with guitarist Adam Seymour, drummer James Hood, and a few bassists (including another Smiths alumnus in Andy Rourke) before settling on Andy Hobson. They started to record the band's sixth studio set Last Of The Independents, but by the time they were through Hood would be replaced by original drummer Martin Chambers. The lead single from the set was the uptempo and noisy but still restrained "Night In My Veins", which spent two weeks at #2 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart, and going to #13 on the Mainstream Rock tally, but stalled down at #71 on the pop Hot 100. Meanwhile up in Canada the single became their third top ten hit at #9, while in the UK it returned them to the top-40 at #25. The second release from the set was a adult-pop power-ballad co-written with Hynde by song doctors Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly ("Like A Virgin", "True Colors") and produced by former Tears For Fears keyboardist Ian Stanley. The mushy expression of faith seemed so unlike anything the Pretenders of 1979 would be involved in, but here we are...
"I'll Stand By You" returned the Pretenders to the pop top-40 in America for their sixth and so far final time in December of 1994. The song peaked at #21 on both the Modern Rock and Adult Contemporary radio format charts, though on the latter it stuck around for 36 weeks. Internationally, the single made the top-20 in Belgium (#7), Australia (#8), Hynde's adopted home of Britain (#10), Canada (#12), and Iceland (#19). A third release from Last Of The Independents, "977", was a minor British hit at #66. After touring behind the album, the live record The Isle Of View was released, which climbed to #100 on the albums chart in the U.S. Hynde contributed another song to a movie, this time The Other Sister, with the result "Loving You Is All I Know" rising to #22 on the Adult Contemporary radio chart in the U.S.
The lineup of Hynde, Chambers, Seymour, and Hobson that toured ended up on the act's next two studio albums. In 1999, Viva El Amor arrived, with the band's cover of the Divinyls' "Human" becoming a top-40 hit in New Zealand (#17) and the UK (#33), while landing on the American Adult Top-40 chart at #30. Leaving long-time label Sire/Warner Brothers to go independent, their next record Loose Screw came out in 2002. However lead single "You Know Who Your Friends Are" seemed predictive as it sputtered out at #84 in the UK, their most recent charting single there.
The Pretenders were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, with Hynde and Chambers accepting the honors. By the time of their next album, Break Up The Concrete, Seymour and Hobson had departed and were replaced by James Walbourne and Nick Wilkinson, with Eric Heywood also taken on for pedal steel guitar and backup vocals. The album reached the top-40 in both the UK and the US, while single "Boots Of Chinese Plastic" spent three weeks at #6 on the Triple-A ("Adult Album Alternative") radio format chart. Second release "Love's A Mystery" also made the top ten on that list at #8. The most recent album credited to the Pretenders, Alone, was released in 2016, though like Packed! it was simply Hynde with studio musicians including Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys. The single "Holy Commotion" went to #5 on the Triple-A radio chart, their most recent showing. As for the future of the band touring and recording, you'll just have to ask Chrissie since it changes daily it seems.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Ten years after the Pretenders' original, British female vocal group Girls Aloud covered the song for a benefit for the charity Children In Need. The resulting single went all the way to #1, the second for the insanely popular act...
American Idol winner Carrie Underwood also recorded "I'll Stand By You" for charity, this time in 2007 for Idol Gives Back. The single shot to #6 on the American pop Hot 100 chart in its brief release time...
In 2010, the TV show Glee covered the song in their first season, and the track hit #73 on the American Hot 100 pop chart at #65 in Canada...
Here's the band performing the song live in concert...
and finally, Chrissie Hynde at the orchrestral-pop mash-up extravaganza Night At The Proms...
Up tomorrow: A joke question to Dan Rather becomes an opening for a Monster album.
Comments